“I know that half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half” said a successful business owner. It’s a common problem. How do you tell which messages will resonate with your market before you make a significant financial commitment?. Now with the availability of marketing software connecting with customers no longer needs to be a guessing game.

Nobody knows whether your target market will respond to your new campaign, that’s the problem. Large companies hire researchers, consult with psychologists and run focus groups before settling on an advertising message. But they regularly get it wrong anyway. For the small business owner who can’t afford consulting and test groups the situation is even worse. You’re really stabbing in the dark.

But there is hope. By using testing in combination with marketing software you can assess the market prior to launching a campaign and over time build up a library of proven advertising messages that give you excellent returns time after time.

Start running your own small test runs before launching a full campaign. Try different messages, formatting or advertising mediums to find out what really gets the attention of your target market. You might find your original instincts were correct or discover that your market is more concerned with one product point over the others. Testing is the only way to know for sure.

The trick with testing is recording and tracking the results. In the past results had to be compiled manually and due to the man hours and money involved it was beyond the reach of all but the largest corporations. Using marketing software you can quickly and easily track the results of your test campaigns. And many of these marketing software packages are inexpensive.

Both online and offline activities can be tested using your marketing software. And you should record more than just the mini (test) campaigns. Track all your advertising. Ads can work well for years and then suddenly the market will tire of the message, unless you’re recording the results you won’t know (and keep wasting money on an ad that isn’t bringing in business). By tracking all your marketing activities you will know which campaigns aren’t performing and drop them. You’ll also be able to spot profitable campaigns to replicate in new areas or in other advertising mediums. For example you might have a web page that generates a lot of new business, you could convert that web page into a long copy sales letter and try mailing it direct to households .

Often it isn’t as simple as failure or success. Some campaigns may work better in particular areas or appeal to different demographic groups. A brochure might be a complete failure in one neighborhood but achieve success in another town or suburb. By testing and recoding the source of all your customers you can determine which campaigns work best in defined areas, to specific groups and according to season. This will give you the ability to plan your marketing strategically and generate greater returns for each dollar spent.

Do you know which half of your advertising works and which half is an utter waste of money? Testing is much less expensive than repeating an ineffective campaigns over and over again, so why not give it a go?