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Testing And Tracking Your Marketing Strategies

by Shelley Lowery

Developing and implementing a strategic marketing plan is an essential part of your success. However, unless you're testing and tracking your strategies, you may be losing a great deal of time and money.

You can dramatically increase your sales simply by taking the time to test and track your results. Not only will it help you to determine what's working and what's not, but it will also enable you to focus your efforts on the strategies that produce results.

When testing your marketing strategies, keep in mind, a strategy that produces results for one person may not produce results for you. There is no 'set in stone' strategy that works for everyone. You must develop your own style and technique and test your results to determine what works for you. Below are some ad tracking resources to assist you in your testing and tracking endeavors.

Ad Tracking CGI Scripts

1) LnkinLite: If you're looking for a simple way to track clickthroughs, then LnkinLite may be your answer. This free script will enable you to easily keep track of the number of clicks a specific link receives. Instead of using your standard link within your advertising, you can use a link created by this script. It will track the number of clickthroughs and instantly redirect your visitors to your URL.

2) Willmaster's ProLinkz (value: $45): This powerful script is a link creator, tracker, disguiser and manager all in one. It will enable you to create uniquely coded links that redirect to any URL you specify and count all hits and referrers.

3) AdTrackZ (value: $47): This script will enable you to set up an entire ad tracking campaign including statistical reports for referring URLs, what browsers your visitors have installed, what operating systems your visitors are using and much more.

Ad Tracking Services

1) LinkCounter: A free service that tracks the clickthrough rates of your links. In addition to tracking your links, LinkCounter hides the URL of the link destination. This will prevent users from removing or changing your affiliate ID when visiting an affiliate site through your link.

2) HyperTracker (value: $10.95/mth): The PRO version of HyperTracker contains a number of advanced features including: unlimited advertising campaigns, tracking of sales and actions, special scripts that let you promote your own website address in your campaigns and much more. They also offer a free version.

3) Adminder (value: $19.95/mth): An online tracking system that will enable you to track an entire advertising campaign. It will enable you to see how many visitors were generated by each of your ads, keep track of sales that were generated by each ad and calculates the cost-per-click, cost-per-sale, and click-to-sale ratios for each ad.

4) StatCruncher (value: $49): Statcruncher tracks and reports exactly which ads, banners and links are producing results. They provide you with access to their powerful web-tracking system that will enable you to track your ad campaigns 24 hours a day in real time.

If you'd rather not use any of the products and services listed above, you can use some alternative methods. Below are some example tracking methods you can use to track your response rates:

1) URL: You can track your ads simply by adding some special coding to your URL. To code your URL, add a question mark followed by a special tracking code to the end of your web address. Your coded link will still open your web page. Your code should look something like this: http://www.yourdomain.com/?ad1

The text after the question mark should identify a specific ad. You can code it however you'd like.

To view your results, you'll need to look at your log files. Your code will be displayed within your log files beside your URL.

2) E-mail: You can track your e-mail responses to specific ads by using the email subject. Select a specific word to be placed within the email subject for each ad. Although you can request that a certain word be placed within the e-mail subject, many times it won't be supplied. To avoid this problem, you can create a special e-mail link that will automatically fill in the subject when clicked on. Your link should look something like this: mailto:you@yourdomain.com?subject=ad1

Testing and tracking your strategies is an essential part of doing business. By concentrating your efforts on strategies that produce results, you can not only increase your sales, but you'll also save yourself a great deal of time and money.

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery and Ebook Starter—Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book. Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a copy of the acclaimed e-book, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

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