The best way to consistently improve your marketing is to test, learn, and then scale — but this is often easier said than done. Running effective experiments, however, can be a full-time job, especially if you don’t know what you should be testing.
To help you get started, I’ve compiled a list of marketing experiments you might want to try. These tests are designed to help you find out what works and what doesn’t, so you can make more strategic decisions about your marketing moving forward.
Not every test is right for every business, so be sure to adapt these to your unique situation. If you’re already running some of these experiments, I’ve also included some benchmarks to help you track your progress.
1. Test new ad networks
Facebook and Google are the two most popular ad networks. But, there are thousands of other ad networks out there that offer a variety of targeting options and ad formats.
For example, if you’re looking to reach a younger audience, you might want to consider advertising on Snapchat. Or, if you’re looking to reach a professional audience, you might want to consider advertising on LinkedIn.
Testing new ad networks is a great way to reach new audiences and find new customers. It’s also a great way to diversify your advertising strategy.
If you’re not sure which ad networks to test, you can start by looking at your competitors’ ad placements. This can give you a good idea of where your target audience is spending their time online.
2. Test new landing page designs
When it comes to your website, it’s important to keep it fresh. Not only does this help keep your brand relevant, but it can also help boost your SEO.
One of the easiest ways to keep your brand fresh is to use an AI website builder to instantly update your landing page designs.. This could be as simple as changing the colors or fonts you use, or you could go all out and completely redesign the page.
When testing new landing page designs, it’s important to only test one thing at a time. For example, if you want to test a new headline and a new color scheme, you should create two separate versions of the landing page. This will help you determine which change had the biggest impact on your conversion rates.
3. Test new email marketing strategies
Email marketing is a staple of any good marketing strategy. However, it’s important to test new email marketing strategies to ensure you’re getting the most out of your campaigns.
For instance, you might want to experiment with different types of emails, such as welcome emails or abandoned cart emails. You could also test different email designs, subject lines, or calls-to-action.
By testing new email marketing strategies, you can improve your open and click-through rates and drive more traffic to your website.
4. Test new blog post topics
Your content offers a lot of value to your audience, but how do you know what to write about? One way to experiment with your content is to test new blog post topics.
You can do this in a few ways. First, you can test new topics with your existing audience. You can do this by sending a survey to your email list or posting a poll on your social media profiles.
Another way to test new blog post topics is to look at your competitors. What are they writing about? What are some of the top-performing blog posts on their websites? Use this information to inspire new content for your blog.
Finally, you can use a tool like HubSpot’s Website Grader to see how your website is performing. This free tool will give you a grade for your website and offer suggestions for how you can improve it. You can use this information to come up with new blog post topics that will help you improve your website’s performance.
5. Test new social media strategies
Social media is a rapidly evolving channel. What worked on social media last year, last quarter, or even last week, might not work today.
In the same way you should be testing new ad creatives, you should also be testing new social media strategies and content types.
For example, you could test whether your audience prefers short-form video content or long-form video content. Or, you could test whether your audience prefers carousel posts or single-image posts – and if needed, you can elevate the quality of your visuals using AI image harmonization.
You can also test new social media platforms. With new social media platforms popping up all the time, it’s worth experimenting with new platforms to see if your audience is active there. This is especially useful for marketplace marketing, where social proof and community effects can strongly influence growth.
6. Test new lead magnets
The lead magnet is a powerful tool in the marketer’s arsenal. It’s a valuable piece of content that you give away for free in exchange for someone’s contact information that you can then validate using an email list verifier. It’s the foundation of growing your email list, and it’s one of the first things you should test when trying to improve your website’s conversion rate.
The most common lead magnet is the ebook, but there are so many other types of content you can experiment with. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Webinars
- Whitepapers
- Checklists
- Templates
- Toolkits
- Resource lists
- Swipe files
- Mini-courses
- Challenges
- Quizzes
- Free trials
- Coupons
- Giveaways
- Surveys
- Calculators
- Assessments
- Infographics
- Video series
- Audio downloads
- Recipes
- Case studies
- Interviews
- Reports
- Research studies
- eBooks
7. Test new sales page designs and copy
Your sales page is one of the most important pages on your website. It’s the page where you have the most time to convince your visitors to convert.
If your sales page is underperforming, it might be time to generate a high converting page with a completely new design and copy..
Start by testing the headline. If your headline doesn’t grab a visitor’s attention, it’s unlikely they’ll continue reading the rest of your sales page.
Next, test the copy. Make sure your sales page copy is clear, concise, and convincing. You should clearly explain what your product is, who it’s for, and why your visitors should buy it.
Finally, test the design. Make sure your sales page is easy to read and navigate. You should also make sure it looks good on all devices, including mobile.
8. Test new sales follow-up strategies
Your sales team can also conduct experiments to improve their process. One of the most effective strategies is to test different ways to follow up with leads and prospects after a sales call or meeting.
For example, you might test the effectiveness of personalized follow-up emails versus templated ones. Or, try following up with a phone call instead of an email. You could also experiment with different times of day to follow up with your leads.
The main idea here is to test different sales follow-up strategies to see which one works best for your team and your prospects. Then, you can scale the most effective sales follow-up strategies across your team.
9. Test new customer success strategies
Customer success is a team sport. It’s not just the job of the customer success team to ensure customers are happy and getting value from your product or service. It’s the job of your entire company. from frontline teams to AI agents for customer agents that help scale support and personalize customer experiences.
In fact, it’s been shown that companies with strong customer success strategies have higher customer retention rates and more upsell opportunities. Plus, happy customers are more likely to refer your business to others.
So, how can you test new customer success strategies? One way is to implement an NPS (Net Promoter Score) survey to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. You can also create a customer loyalty program to reward your most loyal customers.
10. Test new upsell and cross-sell strategies
When a customer makes a purchase, the most important sale is the next one. That’s why upselling and cross-selling are so effective. These strategies help you increase the average cart value and lifetime value of your customers.
Every quarter, test new upsell and cross-sell strategies to see which ones work best. You might try offering a discount on a related product, bundling products together, or recommending a higher-priced version of the product they’re looking at.
You can also experiment with where and when you present upsell and cross-sell offers. For example, you might show them on the product page, in the shopping cart, or after the customer has made a purchase.
11. Test new referral strategies
Referral traffic is when people click on a link to your website from another website. This is a great way to get in front of new audiences.
There are many ways to get referral traffic. You can do guest blogging, social media, influencer marketing, and more.
To test new referral strategies, you can do a few different things.
First, you can test out new platforms. For example, if you’ve been doing a lot of guest blogging, you could test out doing more social media marketing.
You could also test out new types of content. For example, if you’ve been doing a lot of written content, you could test out doing more videos.
If you want a cleaner quarterly experiment loop, ReferralCandy lets you test referral, affiliate, and influencer variations (different incentives, onboarding flows, and partner segments) while tracking shares, clicks, conversions, and revenue in one place.
Finally, you could test out new partners. For example, if you’ve been doing a lot of work with one influencer, you could test out working with a new one. In addition to influencers, many brands are now testing collaborations with event marketing partners to drive referral traffic and word-of-mouth through live brand experiences.
Conclusion
There are many other marketing experiments you can run to improve your digital advertising and lead generation. For example, you could improve your email clickthrough rate, lower your cost per click, or increase your landing page conversion rate.
For more information, read this list of marketing experiments to help you optimize your strategy.
