[MUSIC] In route four, we discussed testing in terms of your blog. The goal was to identify the best approach and then use it to attract high value prospects to your professional blog. This video is going to discuss testing in a different context. Here we will focus on integrating testing into your social marketing program. Your high value markets are trying to tell you what works and what doesn't in your social marketing program. They are trying to tell you whether every step in your performance funnel is working or not. And because we can track and measure every aspect of the relationship, we can learn from their behaviors or lack of behaviors and test alternative elements to find what works best in your social marketing plan. So the questions we want to ask are, what should we test? And when should we test them? To answer these questions, we need to return to the performance funnel. Take a look at the performance funnel. It is designed to track the different required behaviors from the total market to the first sale. We start with the total market, this is quantified by using secondary research to determine the total market size. Next we look at the social market. Remember, I put this into the funnel, if you are in markets which have significant numbers who are not on social. For most projects, this step is unnecessary but I keep it there just to remind myself to consider this important factor. We proceed to follow the process to the landing page, completed registrations, inquiring about our product and making a product purchase. Each step has fewer numbers of people exhibiting each behavior. For this video, the focus is not on the quantities or performance measures within the funnel. Instead, we want to focus on the activities which must occur for an individual to move from one step in the process, to the next one. The number of people which move from the social market to the landing page, is solely based on the effectiveness of our marketing plan. The more effectively you engage your target market the greater the market share you will impact. The key to success is how effectively you move your high value markets from one step to another. These are the areas you need to test to maximize performance. There are two major areas that you need to continually test. One is media? That means testing to maximize market share by reaching your high value markets wherever they are. The second is message. The key is to find the right message to engage your target market and move them to action. How do we know if the performance is acceptable? We can't fall below the KPIs we establish to justify our social marketing program. In terms of testing media, there are three areas where you want to focus your efforts. The first is community. When you launch a program you often focus on the most relevant Communities. So over time, we will want to test new Communities to see if we can make them work. Next, we need to continually find and engage new Influencers. You will want to test and emerging Influencers to see if they can draw new members two year community offering. Often, new influencers have a nuanced view which can bring you new prospects. Finally, you need to test new media. As new social sites or new types of media emerge, you'll want to test them if you know they are attracting your high value market. Remember, always retain a portion of your marketing budget for testing. Testing new communities, influencers and media, keeps you ahead of your high-value markets and in tune with them as their social uses evolve. Let's look at the areas in your social program. Where you can increase result using message testing. If you use Facebook or other social advertising like blogs or do traditional advertising like paper click or banner ads. What you say, the graphics you use and how you say it are all critical to the performance of each ad. You also should test your social messages, your landing pages and other engagement elements. Your social interactions make a huge impact on your target market and their willingness to join your social community. Be sure your messages match your social audience. The key is to monitor everything and don't be afraid to test components which are not meeting your performance expectations. Performance is likely more related to the messages you are communicating rather than the community's lack of interest. When I learned direct marketing over 30 years ago, our mantra was test, test, test. Test everything, test always, and test to learn. The market truly is telling you what works and what doesn't work in your social marketing program. Listen to them. [MUSIC]
