Moving Toward the Future, Part 5: How Traditional Small Creative Agencies Can Re-tool for the Digital Era – Get Comfortable With Split Testing

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In traditional print-first marketing, A/B or Split Testing was rarely done by any but the largest clients with deep pockets and lots of time. The process was either too cumbersome, too expensive, or just plain not possible. This resulted in campaign approaches often being chosen on a very subjective basis. But in a digital-first marketplace, A/B Testing is not only possible, but so accessible as to be considered nearly imperative.

Digital marketing tools such as eNewsletter platforms and banner advertising have built-in Split Testing features. Large mail lists make it possible to perform test campaigns to small sample audiences, sometimes allowing controls for certain characteristics, depending on the richness of data collected from recipients. Tracking and reporting features, also standard, can provide hard data that makes decisions about creative approach much more objective and fact-based.

Of everything digital brings to the table for marketing agencies, this ability to measure, analyze and report makes it so much easier to justify budget spends, high quality creative, and to prove value for your clients. It also holds us more accountable for our decisions, but on a level playing field, that ultimately only makes us better at what we do. In that scenario, everybody wins.