Marketing Sherpa just published a great case study.
This one looks at a challenge many large companies face and most do nothing about. But the company in the case study, Business Objects, did.
I’m happy about this for 2 reasons: 1) Business Objects is based in Vancouver, where I live (although they were recently acquired by SAP, and 2) the company clearly proved that direct response marketing deserves a seat (if not the Vice-President’s chair) at the main table.
Here’s why …
The case focused on a software download page for one of the company’s products. Clearly the website had been developed by a ‘professional design’ firm. They had strict design guidelines in place. For those of you not familiar with this … these guidelines are like a set of rules showing what colors, fonts, images, positioning of elements, etc you can and can not use in your materials.While the guidelines are created to keep a consistent image in place … they also allowed for little flexibility.
No change means no improvement.
Us direct response marketers know, flexibility is key as it is part of testing mentality. Lucky for Business Objects one of their employees was smart enough to push for the budget and knock the design and branding team out so they could make the needed changes to test the page for improvements.
And improvements they did see. In fact, the two new test pages brought in a 32% and 17% improvement.
Think about this for a minute. Most companies are led to believe that ‘the prettiest’ and ‘most professional’ looking website or materials are mandatory. My thoughts on that? Bull***t!
Without continual testing and a flexible approach you’ll never see the true potential of your business. That’s why this case study is such a breath of fresh air … it proves that big business can and should implement direct response techniques throughout the biz.
It doesn’t have to be done company-wide off the bat. But gradually over time. Imagine what a continual 32% improvement would do for your business …
Access to the full Marketing Sherpa article is open until September 17th
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30820&pop=no
To your success,
Michael Zipursky
