Go to 24ZDM HOUR 8 in your 24ZDM Workbook for your next assignment. CONGRATULATIONS! You have just finished 24 Hours to Zero Down Marketing Hour 8! Phew! You did it! Read it through. Do you like it? Do you want to run screaming? If so, do that and when you get back to me we will go to the next step. If you like it and don't have the impulse to scream, great, let's go to the next phase which involves testing your new messages.

Testing

My good friend Kristen Lamb, author, designer, talk radio host, mother of 5 and former Mrs. Utah, loves to say, "How do we know what we don't know!" and she is right. We operate in our own reality. Another good friend Brent Sims, attorney, guitar player, comedian and Dad, says, "We like what we think and we think what we like!" What does that all mean? It may seem great to us and that would be enough if we only needed ourselves to buy our own product(s)/service(s). Most of us need a few more customers than that!

So, we need to step out of our own circles and find what else is going on, what other people are thinking, what other people know! When it comes to your messaging you need to test them on other people! A fancy marketing term for this is doing a "test marketing" study or survey.

A test market is used to gauge the viability of a product or service with a consumer market prior to a wide scale roll-out.

Test it out?! I know it sounds expensive. I know, you have been writing for hours. I know you are thinking it will never stop! Yet it will stop and soon, but not until we are done. This next step will get you away from your desk and get you testing your messages within a matter of hours! No expense other than a few thank you gifts for your own personal friends who are willing to be your guinea pigs.

The term being a "Guinea pig" is also used as a metaphor for a subject of experimentation.

Don't dwell too far into that metaphor, it's kind of upsetting. All you need now is to get out there and test your messages in 24ZDM HOURS 9 & 10. Test your messages! For the next two hours you are going to share a copy of each of your 50 word messages with four people. Go on, get outside and test away. After all your hard work you probably need some air anyway!

 

Go back to Get All 3 Steps