My company just launched a promotion. My buddy Andy said my title was unclear. This made me think about how Timothy Ferris tested what he should title his book. He ended up with “The Four Hour Work Week” because it got the most clicks.
I decided to do some testing to see which title I should go with.
Step 1: Brainstorm Different Titles
I kept coming up with that same titles so I reach out to my friends for some help.
Here are the 4 competitors:
A. Sell Green Award (original)
B. Win Green Giveaway (Andy’s Suggestion)
C. Sell Eco Friendly Products? Win $1600 ($1600 is the total value, but only $100 cash) (my suggestion)
D.90% chance of winning – Flying Cart Green Lights Eco-Friendly Stores. Enter and win a $1600 package. (Darin‘s suggestion)
Step 2: Get Traffic to your test with PickFu.com
(I actually first started my test with Google Adwords but it was taking a long time and getting costly. If you have the time and resources I would suggest Google Adwords since it is a true A|B test. With PickFu both options get read so it isn’t a true test but it is better than nothing.)
1. Go to PickFu.com and enter in your question.
2. Start with Option A and Option B from Step 1, take the winner and move down your list
Step 3: Let the Results Pick the Winner
http://pickfu.com/HL8GNY
Step 4: Change your Title
Here is the result: http://flyingcart.com/blog/flying-cart-green-lights-eco-friendly-stores/
I really think people should do this for all titles. YouTube titles, twitter/facebook status messages (to maximize shares), product titles on your store (and ebay/etsy), and even your kids name (jk).
Thanks again to Andy Angelos, Darin Eich, and Tim Ferris for inspiring this post. You should follow them if you want really insightful stuff.
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PS You can apply to our awesome Eco Friendly Promotion here
PSS If you retweet this article I will send you a personal ecard from someecards
Something to think about, if you have a design centered product and are a member of a community that allows you to ‘promote your post’ like Forrst.com does, you can buy a few credits and test your title like that.
The title will give you an indication of what is socially-tested, based on the CTR from the number of views.
That is a great idea.
I only suggest testing the title on niche sites like Forrst if you know majority of your customers are going to be coming from that site.
I’m a huge fan of Forrst (and a member: http://forrst.com/people/risk/ ) but that is a pretty elite and niche group of designers. Your results might be skewed if you go just based on them.