One of the hardest and most humbling aspects of inbound marketing is the fact that testing always wins over experience. You may think you know your market and your audience, but you most likely don’t know how they’ll react when they visit your site. That’s why split testing – both A/B and mulitvariate – is vitally essential.
Yes, there are certain agreed upon rules that all landing pages must follow such as limiting navigation, isolating on just a single offer and keeping your primary content above the fold. However, beyond a few simple truths, everything is just a guess.
To prove that point, check out the very interesting site Anne Holland’s Which Test Won – A/B Test & Multivariate Testing Education for Marketing Professionals. The site shows you two different versions of a single landing page with subtle differences in the copy, images or layout. You decide which page will have the better conversion percentage.
I’m proud to say that I usually guess the version that is selected by most of the visitors. Unfortunately, most of us are usually wrong. Anne’s site is definitely a great reminder that unless you’re tesing, you’re probably not optimized.
