Geoff Wolf, EVP Client Strategy
An examination of classic A/B testing, a regular diet for all of us direct marketers, made it to NPR’s Morning Edition last week under the guise of a “real world field experiment” conducted by two economists. I guess direct marketing must then be considered unreal and out in left field?
The story explored these economists’ “research into the behavior of voters” in a recent election campaign. In this A/B/C test, they learned that testing different messaging and content on a postcard can in fact make a significant difference in response rates. Gee, what a scoop! Direct marketers figured this out decades ago!
In this study, they tested the impact of messaging geared to three distinct emotional responses:
A) Guilt
B) Cooperation
C) Competition
What I liked most about this test is that they chose emotions that represent very clear behavior patterns that can be identified from both survey data and database resources. What was entertaining was how they placed those emotional responses within a political context.
For example, “guilt” was framed as not doing enough to support your party. “Cooperation” was matching certain donation values. For “competition” they added a new behavioral variable – rage – to the messaging. That last piece really “Trumps” our marketing definitions! And their results? Competitive rage significantly outperformed cooperation.
What can we take away from this political study and apply to our direct marketing world? (Other than the fact that NPR could use a history lesson in classic direct marketing!)
- Have at least one test in play at all times, and more if you have the resources to do it.
- Make sure you can act on the result of tests, AND have the top level management commitment to do so before allocating time to making it all happen.
- Brush up on your high school statistics lessons and make sure there is a satisfactory confidence factor present within the data.
But my greatest takeaway from hearing this broadcast over a morning cup of Joe – we all have to revisit how much testing we have in place within our marketing programs. It is so easy to allow this important marketing practice to get left behind as we all scramble to meet the daily demands of our job responsibilities.
So I guess we should thank NPR for this breaking news flash about testing. The bottom line is that testing is as old as direct marketing itself, and we simply have to keep it on our radar every day.
Tags: A/B testing, direct marketing