Reaching a larger audience

Anyone who serves the world by sharing information knows that the more people you can reach, the greater the impact you can have on the world.  In many respects, this is achieved using the same processes that normal businesses use to increase their profitability.

I've just implemented a new testing system on the PowerKeys Publishing website to help me determine how best to communicate my message to the folks who visit the site.  Some online marketers may understand split testing and how it can help you determine the best headline to use for a sales page, or the best price to sell a product for.  The system I've added is similar to split testing, but can test multiple things at the same time.

"Multi-variant split testing" is a sophisticated methodology that comes from manufacturing design and "Design of Experiments" in science.  There's a lot of statistical analysis that I understand on only a surface level.  However, like most things, I don't have to fully understand it to use it.  I have a piece of software that understands it for me.

For this particular test, I'm comparing 6 different headlines, 3 different "subheads", 3 different opening paragraphs, 3 different sets of "benefit bullets", 3 different introductory messages, and 3 different descriptions of the free membership as well as a few other things.

With normal split testing, I'd have to wait until over 200,000 people came to the site and saw each of the 4000+ possible variations before I could determine the most effective combination of things.  With the special multi-variant methodology, however, I only have to wait for around 4000 folks to visit the site.  Actually, depending on the situation, reliable measurements could be possible with only 2000 visitors.

Before setting up the test, approximately 18% of those visiting the site signed up for the free Bronze Membership.  Considering the quality of materials available in that membership, I fully expect to get over 50% of visitors to sign up, and this test will help me do it.

Of course, this is only 1 stage in a more complete process.  At some point, I'll want to determine the best way to communicate the value of the paid memberships, which have much more powerful material, and can help people much more effectively.