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9/30/2005 12:50
While scanning yesterday's American Marketing Association newsletter, I noticed an article titled "Neglecting A/B Split Testing Costly for Marketers." Now, I am a big proponent of testing (as you may have noticed from my earlier posts on wire services, e-mail campaigns, etc.) so I had to give the article a read.
Turns out there is a company that actually specializes in marketing-oriented lab experiments: MarketingExperiments.Com. While poking around the site, I came across the following description:
MarketingExperiments.Com is a member of the MEC Labs Group and a division of Digital Trust Inc. MEC is an online laboratory with a simple (but not easy) five-word mission statement: To discover what really works. The Lab tests every conceivable marketing method on the Internet. Our experiments range from three to eighteen months, and they involve budgets ranging from $4500 to $100,000+. We are often surprised, and sometimes embarrassed to discover just how much we DON'T know about marketing.
This DEFINITELY caught my attention since I love any company that at least occasionally strays from standard corporate speak and admits they don't know everything.
Further investigation of the site yielded research on everything from "the effectiveness of ezine advertising" to "how press releases impact website traffic and inbound links." They even seem to be using real numbers (budget, clicks, interviews, etc.).
The best part? The information is available for free. They make you provide some basic contact info, but that seems like a small price to pay.
Posted by at September 30, 2005 12:50 PM
Comments
Erin Caldwell email - erin.prblogs.org
Hi Tara,
Well, I had to initially educate myself on A/B split testing (being a lowly college student, I wasn't yet familiar with the idea :-), but once I got a little more up to speed on the lingo I got a lot out of looking around the Marketing Experiments website. I read through that report and then went on to view their findings in the "Press Releases Tested" article -- all very interesting information.
I also noticed a feature in which they allow people to submit topics. They ask, "What would YOU like us to test?" Enter an email address, a topic, and click submit -- pretty simple. A very good idea: it allows the Marketing Experiments folks to become better aquainted with what people want to know about and can help to better target their research efforts.
I agree and am impressed by their admittance that they don't know everything. It tells me they have a realistic grasp on the idea of research. I think research is much more productive when those conducting it approach it with open-minded curiosity and then present ALL the findings ... not just the ones that fit into the mold of what they were expecting to find.
-Erin
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