As you should know, marketing is the essential lifeblood of any business. Sometimes, knowing about something, is never enough to get us into taking the necessary steps to make things happen. In some cases what you need to do is try out an experiment.
There are several forms of marketing, but I am a big fan of Internet Marketing. Internet marketing is not only cost effective, but also ideally suited for setting up the tests you need for an experiment.
Experiments set up the kind of controlled environment, in which you can test out your hypotheses.
What are hypotheses? Hypotheses are those assumptions you make, regarding a situation, that are based, in part, on your intuition and experience. These are just hunches, for which would have to prove either right or wrong.
For example, if you have heard that Facebook Ads are an effective way to market your product or service, and you have a feeling that this could be true, you can set up a hypothesis along the lines of: “Facebook Ads are an effective way to market our product”.
You can also set up several hypotheses, some of them counter to each other. Another counter hypothesis to the one above, may be to say that: “Google Ads is a more effective way to market our product or service than Facebook”.
What is important to note here, is that these are just statements you have made, around what you think is effective approach to marketing your product or service. They are not facts, or rather they have no basis in fact.
This is why you would need experiments in your Internet Marketing approach, so that you can obtain tangible data on which to base your final approach to the issue at hand. Experiments follow the scientific method of evaluating the variables involved in a controlled environment, and analysing the results, to produce statements of fact.
If you are to be practical about it, you may not take the results of an Internet Marketing experiment from one business, and transplant them to apply to the situation of another business. Every business is unique in its own right.
Taking the hypothesis of Facebook Ads and Google Ads mentioned earlier, one may be effective for a certain company, whilst the other may be effective for another. It is even possible that none may be effective at all, or even both may be effective. That is why it is important to carry out experiments designed to test the statements for each particular business, and for the particular hypotheses.
Some of the factors that may determine different results for different businesses, are the type of business, when considered together with the characteristics and demographics of its customers. If the business has a strong offline dependence, and its customers are predominantly offline, neither of the platforms in the example above may work.
Internet Marketing experiments can be set up with the objective of proving or disproving a hypothesis. In order to ensure that strict guidelines are followed, a control needs to be set up. The purpose of the control is to allow you to be able to make a determination about the experiment, with the control as the baseline.
The control can be data collected under certain circumstances, or situation which are then compared to data collected with the objective of testing out a hypothesis. The control may also be a fixed data point, which is used to compare and contrast data sets.
Continuing with the example of Facebook Ads vs Google Ads, results may be compared to ads ran on both platforms, whilst keeping the budget fixed at a certain amount for each, to determine whether Google Ads is more effective than Facebook Ads, or not.
Another experimental approach that is mainly used for comparing closely similar situations, such as two variations of a web page, that customers visit or two types of slightly varied Ads running on the same platform, is called A-B testing.
In the A-B testing approach, two versions of a web page or an ad are set up with one variation on the original and the original serves as the control for the experiment. The two data sets are then compared. The variation may be a certain element such as an image on a web page, or using a different image for an Ad.
It is important to remember that, the purpose of the Internet Marketing Experiments you carry out, is to aid you in making decisions for your business. Do not make the mistake of carrying out experiments for the sake of experimenting.
It is also critical to always stay objective. Sometimes you might fall prey to your own biases, and compromise the analysis of the experiment. Even if you initially favour a certain hypothesis, do not get tempted into letting your emotional attachment to that hypothesis cloud your judgement.
Internet Marketing experiments are a great way to venture out and test the waters. They allow you to try out your ideas under controlled circumstances.
For example, if you think your business can benefit from Internet Marketing, particularly with a certain platform, you can try it out without committing yourself too much. Initially try it out with a small budget as an experiment, without going all in, and see how it works out.
Testing with a small budget greatly reduces the risk of you losing out, by overcommitting funds to a marketing campaign for which the outcome is totally unknown. By taking the experimental approach, you minimise this risk, and can decide to fully commit funds, if the experiment demonstrated positive results.
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