Testing Works In Business

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Before publishing his first best-seller, Tim Ferriss tested options.

He came up with six potential titles. Then he purchased Google Adwords ads — one version for each title — targeting search terms related to the book’s topics.

Each ad used the potential book title as the headline and used the book’s tagline for the ad’s body (same in each ad).

He spent less than $200 to discover that the ad with the headline “The 4-Hour Workweek” was generating the most clicks, by far.

So that’s what he called his book.

Published in 2007, “The 4-Hour Workweek — Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich” spent more than four years on the New York Times Bestseller List and has sold more than 2.1 million copies.

That’s pretty good for a book that cost less than $200 to name.

I love this story because it reveals several important lessons that apply to all of us in business…

Testing works.

Guessing doesn’t (unless you’re lucky, and luck runs out).

It’s often easier and less expensive to test a business idea than you might imagine.

By the way, an interviewer once asked Ferriss about the book’s title.

He replied, “I wanted to name it ‘The 3-Hour Workweek,’ but my publisher didn’t think that was realistic. So we settled on ‘The 4-Hour Workweek.’”

Ha! Ha! As if….

Don't go away yet..

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Tom Ruwitch

Tom Ruwitch is the founder and CEO of Story Power Marketing. For more than 30 years, he has helped businesses grow by delivering powerful stories using a variety of different media.

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