Marketing smarter means developing the best content that will galvanize your audience. But, before this can happen, you must test your marketing campaigns.

As a young whippersnapper, I recall looking forward to waking up every Saturday and turning on the television to watch cartoons. One of my favorites was G.I. Joe. I thought he was the ultimate superhero. No special powers or secret weapons. Just brute strength and sage advice via public service announcements.

Every episode closed with a the quote “Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.” To this day, this quote resonates with me.

I find myself reciting it in jest while discussing marketing strategy with clients.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc

Knowing is half the battle. Especially when it comes to testing your marketing campaigns.

3 Awesome Ways to Test Your Marketing Campaigns

1. Use Twitter to Test Email Subject Lines

Email subject lines are like the wrapping of an awesome gift. Let’s face it. We get more excited to open a gift that’s wrapped well over one that—let’s say—comes in a wrinkled brown paper bag.

Twitter is a great tool to test your subject lines before emailing your audience.

Here’s how to do it:

• Assign a unique shortened URL to each Tweet to independently manage click-through (try Bit.ly, Goo.gl, or Ow.ly).
• Create compelling subject lines that will appeal to your audience.

See that was simple. Right?

Note: Your test is only conclusive if your audience strongly resembles your subscriber base. If your subject line resonates with a social media audience based on clicks, then it’s probably a great indication of how successful your campaign may be.

Here’s a chart that describes the characteristics of a great subject line:

We can’t forget about using Facebook to test your marketing campaigns…

2. Use Facebook to Test Your Marketing Campaigns

Using Facebook to test your ad creative is beneficial. Facebook allows you to upload 6 images for every ad you create. It also automatically optimizes your campaign to display the best performing ad.

Here’s the caveat: Test your ad and NOT your audience. As business owners, we should already know our audience. Remember, what’s needed is testing ad images and copy based on your target audience only.

Here’s how to do it: A brand can post two versions of an image and ask its audience which image resonates with them. Since, Facebook normally has a high amount of active users, it offers instantaneous engagement. As a result, you can post this image an hour before a marketing meeting and come to that meeting equipped with valuable insight.

Boom!

Check out this Arby’s example:

Next up, using YouTube to test your marketing campaigns…

3. Use YouTube to Test Video Creative

I’ll never forget the “Ship My Pants” Kmart commercial. The use of scatological wordplay draws viewers into the commercial. Great move! Kudos to the FCB Agency for thinking outside of the box and getting Kmart to green light this.

Normally, commercials like these would get caught in the focus group purgatory. This one didn’t. And it paid off.

Try taking a page from Kmart’s playbook. When testing your marketing campaign, start by testing your commercial on YouTube before broadcasting it on television.

Conclusion

These days, using social media is a great way to test your marketing campaign topics, themes, format, messaging, length, and anything else that should have been traditionally serviced by a focus group. The key is to test just one element at a time so you can isolate your variables for conclusive results.

So, now you know. And like G.I. Joe’s PSA states: knowing is half the battle!

Is testing your marketing campaign more important than your strategy?