Question: Did you guys personalize things when you first started or did
you use the ready made templates at first and if so were they effective.
We have been trying to personlize, but right now it is very time
consuming.
ANSWER: Hi Rob, I think the best way is to see what template “works” for
you first. Then if it works in its “standard” form try personalizing.
For instance we did this with The Coffee House Letter landing page. We
tested it in combo with an ad and a bunch of keywords and found it
worked
quite well, as opposed to other pages and combinations we tested.
So we went for the Coffee House Letter. We became Coffee House Letter
“specialists”, if you like.
Then we personalized the landing page. And the personalized landing page
worked better.
Then we personalized our email series, and our leads-apps ratio
increased.
Then we created a hub web site (cameronandtanya.com) and everything
worked a little better (because there was a place for people to go to
get to
know and trust us).
Then we started doing videos and everything worked a little better again
(probably because this provided people with vital “social proof” that
we knew
what we were talking about [positioning, posture]).
It’s a game of inches. It’s important to start on the right track.
Throw a heap
of mud at the wall early, and cheaply.
And you see what sticks.
Then you grab hold of that little sucker (the bit that “stuck”) and
you nurture
the hell out of it! The rest you ignore (you could try and agonize
over the mud
you “thought” would stick really well, but that’s a waste of time.
Only the
market can tell you what works).
Start with this in mind. 95% of the stuff you test will be a waste of
time. So
you want to trial broad and then hone in. Rather than try and build-
out every
single campaign completely and then test them in the market. When you
think
about it like that, if you do it the wrong way you’ll end up wasting
95% of your
time.
I have wasted a lot of time on building out and designing pages and
campaigns
that ended up flopping like a dead fish. I should have tested them,
broad and
fast, first to see if any had potential. Then I could have drilled
down and got
“interested” in the ones that showed potential.
The thing is, if you know “just enough to be dangerous” you should
leave the
landing pages well enough alone. They work really well in their
standard form.
Ultimately it IS best to do your own, but only if you know what you’re
doing.
And then you should always test your new effort against a control.
best wishes, Cameron.
