Posted by BusinessTown on January 19, 1999 at 16:43:50:
In database marketing, changing even a small variable can wildly change your
results. So once a mailing works for you in test quantities, do the exact same
mailing to the exact same mailing list in larger quantities.
When you do tests, isolate one variable at a time. For example, in a direct-mail
test last summer for our Adams Streetwise Small Business Start-Up software,
I had three people write totally different letters, each of which we sent to two
different magazine subscriber lists. We even included a snappy four-color flyer
and a generous $10 rebate on a $40 software package. We carefully marked
each response card so we could track sales. The results were easy to
analyze. All six variants of the test produced almost identical results:
Nothing-a response of less than 1/10 of 1 percent for a net loss of over 90
percent of our costs. That's why you always do test quantities first!