In school I learned that 50% of marketing is effective, but marketers have no real way of knowing which 50%. Thankfully, this rule does not apply on the web. Not only can you track 100% of your online marketing and website activity, but you can also test multiple variations simultaneously and make changes on the fly.

The most successful websites aren't the ones with the best designs, although that would make our job much easier. The best websites have people behind-the-scenes that are obsessed with testing and analytics, constantly finding incremental ways to improve. So while educated guesses and "gut feelings" may be acceptable elsewhere, this approach is sheer laziness on the web.

A while back I was talking with a client about the importance of multi-variate testing when considering some major changes to their site, when I got the "gut" line. They said something like, "I've got a gut feeling this is the best way to go", thus dismissing my pitch for doing some testing.

This is a really great person and client, but I think they made the wrong decision. In this case, meeting an internal deadline, checking it off the to-do list and moving on to something else potentially cost the company thousands in lost revenues. When lots of dollars are involved, it's simply not worth leaving decisions up to one person's opinion. When you take the time to test properly, thousands of customers can definitively make a decision for you.

I believe that's the most unfortunate thing about being a web design/development agency. The project-oriented nature of our business inherently lacks the post-launch follow-up and ongoing relationship to make sure the client achieves their goals. Up to the launch we're making educated guesses, but after that is where serious ground can be gained.

The "set it and forget it" mentality may result in a pretty site, but it won't help you build a business online. Still so many people do it that way because testing takes time, money (not a lot) and the desire to learn new things. Regretfully, many people feel they are too busy to see the incredible long-term benefits of such effort.

For those that are interested, we are teachers and doers at Project83. We enjoy teaching others how to implement multi-variate testing on their own, analyze results and re-test. We also don't mind doing it for you! All it takes is an open mind and a strong will to get better results from your current website.

Seth Godin recently touched on this topic (of course more eloquently) in an article called, "Everyone Gets Paid on Commission." It is definitely worth a read. The web changes things, people!

Here are some tools that we use on a regular basis for testing: