How to Set Yourself Up For a Successful Test

It’s no secret that testing is an important practice to create a better product, message or process, but many small businesses opt to skip this lucrative step. There are some legitimate reasons as to why this occurs as it could be due to the extra time and possible resources it requires to strategize, implement and analyze or could be that the possible returns are just too marginal to be worth the extra energy.

Another common reason for not testing a product, message or process is a simple one to overcome, which is not understanding how or where to start. Take these small steps to ensure your business knows where to start with your next test:

1. State Your Measurable Goals – Completely understanding what the intent of the test would be is definitely step number one. Do you want to increase conversion rate on a website, increase product review scores, or decrease delivery time to the consumer? The key to all of these example goals are that they are measurable. Many testers fail with that detail, which is understandable, but can be fatal to any test where a real result is wanted.

2. Understand What You Can Test – Not everything can be tested, due to a smorgasbord of constraints such as technology, design or available resources. Knowing what can be tested, how, and what the results could be, whether good or bad, is key to any future testing plan.

3. Keep it Apples to Apples – Aside from point 1, this is incredibly important. The results need to be completely comparable to be able to determine which variable is best. If two things are not alike, then the result may not be specifically correlated to the test. A good example of this would be to test two different headlines on a landing page. As long as the imagery, form, and everything else remains the same, a true apples to apples test has been performed. If there are too many variables that are unalike, and not a large enough sample size, you may never truly understand which is your winner.

These quick steps will help ensure that your next test is as successful as possible. Good luck!

By Modern Postcard

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