Most clients we engage with are really enthusiastic about test and learn. Most will have undertaken some form of testing in their CRM Marketing campaigns but few are really learning from their testing or are failing to put the learning into practice. So how do you avoid the pitfalls of undertaking test and learn initiatives?

1. Put the time, effort and resources into learning

Whatever CRM Marketing testing you embark on the consequence of doing so is that more time, effort and resources are going to expended. In my experience this is often readily done to get the test set up and executed but rarely is the same time, effort and resources deployed for looking at the results of the test and working out what to do next. If you work in a high intensity, campaign led environment then often the learning phase happens in the middle of the next activity. While time might be put in the diary for a results presentation, the time to interrogate the learnings never really happens.

So, the first pitfall to avoid is not giving enough time, effort and resources to the learning phase. One way to overcome this is to build a dedicated test and learn team. The team doesn’t have to be large and can take the shape of anything from one centralized team to one distributed across departments or anything in between. What matters is that you have the time, effort and resources dedicated to both test and learning.

2. Create a long-term CRM Marketing Test and Learn Plan

Try to create a long-term plan that covers the next 12 months. This clearly see what you are testing each campaign, week or month. One of the hardest part of testing is formulating sound hypotheses and designing tests that will be meaningful whichever way the answer falls and create a 12 month test plan allows you to scrutinise these hypotheses and to see how all your test fit together.

It is also really important to share your CRM Marketing test and learn plan to drive greater acceptance and understanding of the value of testing and to get everyone to adhere to it.

3. Test the things that will have the biggest impact

Make sure that what you are testing will deliver real benefits. It is often to get carried away with the idea of testing everything rather than the things that matter. As I said earlier in this post, testing takes time, effort and resources so you need to test wisely. If your company is new to testing then make sure you test the big things first.

4. Make sure the tests are scalable

If your idea for CRM Marketing testing seems to have merit, you’ll need to work out if the test can be rolled out. Is the test going to end up being a one-and-done, or can it be repeated? I have often found this to be a problem with testing data or a target audience, the selection was too niche and so there was little scope to roll out the test to a wider audience. The same can be true with tests around content or creative ideas, if the test is too granular or specific then often the learning can’t be acted upon.

5. Try not to test more than one thing at a time

There is also a temptation or even pressure to test multiple things in one test. This is invariably a bad decision and often results in the test being a waste of time as you may not know what has worked, Try to deploy strict A/B or split testing methodology where only one variable is changed between the control and test variant, this especially true if you are new to testing.

There are times when it makes more sense to test multiple variables rather than a single variable. This is a process called multivariate testing. However, you will need more sophisticated measurement capabilities and interpretation of results can often be less definite. So for me when it comes to CRM Marketing testing I always encourage sticking to the KISS principle.