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by jacques_chester 2554 days ago
> Unfortunately SEO ruins great, witty and brief marketing texts.

SEO content marketing is basically a descendent of direct marketing -- the stuff you used to get in the mail, in two-page spreads in Reader's Digest and so forth.

Direct marketers have known for a very long time that long-form copy sells better. They had the numbers to prove it long before "analytics" was a common idea -- the very term A/B testing refers to the "A" and "B" sides of a newspaper print roller being able to print two versions of an advertisement.

Source: Tested Advertising Methods by Caples. A fascinating, if depressing, read.
1 comments
ghgr 2554 days ago
> the very term A/B testing refers to the "A" and "B" sides of a newspaper print roller being able to print two versions of an advertisement.

Really? That's interesting. But how could they tell which version converted better? Maybe distributing each version in a different area?

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jacques_chester 2554 days ago
That was the beauty of it. As the newsprint passes through, one paper will get A, the next will get B, the next A and so on. The plates are otherwise identical for each page being printed.

This perfect 50/50 split pretty much controls for all the plausible variables. Location, time of day, you name it, the odds of a reader seeing either A or B was exactly 50%.

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