Pro­to­typ­ing in online marketing

The term 'pro­to­typ­ing' is familiar to many that work in the areas of web design and software de­vel­op­ment. In order to test the feas­ib­il­ity of a project and the usability of in­di­vidu­al features and trans­itions, different types of pro­to­types are used. Mock-ups and wire­frames test strengths and weak­nesses of a concept. The results provide de­velopers with valuable insights that help to identify errors early on and can therefore save time as well as costs. Pro­to­typ­ing is also a useful technique in online marketing. It is used when designing online marketing campaigns so that a realistic analysis of the market potential can be carried out. Pro­to­typ­ing provides marketers with data and figures, which they need in order to design their marketing measures in the most effective way.

Just like in web design, there are also complex pro­to­types in online marketing. On the one hand, there are very elaborate and re­l­at­ively costly im­ple­ment­a­tions, such as func­tion­al websites. However, a prototype doesn’t need to be complex in order to deliver results. The im­ple­ment­a­tion can also be very simple – what’s important is that the prototype fulfills the given purpose. In pro­to­typ­ing, you often work with offer pages such as simple stan­dalone landing pages.

If you plan to sell a product as part of a new project, you first need to create an offer page that contains all important in­form­a­tion and the ap­pro­pri­ate CTAs (Call To Action). However, the 'buy now' button merely leads to a page informing you that the product is not yet available. This landing page is just a 'dummy' where a product can’t actually be ordered. In order to reach the target group, for example, search on Google AdWords for relevant keywords. You will start to get the first results after a few days, but the data will, of course, be more con­clus­ive if you run the ads for several weeks.

By analysing the test campaign, the marketer gains insight into the market potential of the planned project. The number of clicks indicates whether there is any need for the product. Many clicks on the CTAs suggest that the target group does have a concrete purchase intention and therefore shows that the future looks positive for this business idea. The test campaign enables you to calculate search volumes and click-though prices more ac­cur­ately, and to carry out a more precise prof­it­ab­il­ity analysis. If the pro­to­typ­ing campaign doesn’t achieve the desired results, then this also provides you with a valuable insight. This could mean that the planned product does not interest the target group, or that the dummy website isn’t designed well enough. It can be in­ter­est­ing to analyse com­pet­it­ors’ reactions. If the com­pet­i­tion is already reacting strongly to the prototype e.g. by ad­vert­ising ag­gress­ively, then this shows that the market is highly com­pet­it­ive. You have to decide whether con­tinu­ing with the project is worth it now you know there is strong com­pet­i­tion. In addition to the afore­men­tioned analysis of paid ad­vert­ise­ments (SEA), this marketing technique is also used in other fields. In content marketing, pro­to­typ­ing is fre­quently used for pre­seed­ing. In a social media context, pro­to­typ­ing serves as a kind of resonance value to test a project’s viral potential.

In online marketing, pro­to­typ­ing is almost always a worth­while ini­ti­at­ive. Except, of course, if you are already in pos­ses­sion of valuable figures and precise in­form­a­tion about the target group, what’s on offer, the various possible channels, and also well informed about the com­pet­i­tion. However, this is rarely the case with new products and concepts, which is precisely why it makes sense to create a prototype. You should start a test run as early as possible in the de­vel­op­ment phase, even before large in­vest­ments have taken place.

What you should never un­der­es­tim­ate, however, is that if you put your product out there quite early on, there’s always the risk of your com­pet­i­tion gaining ad­di­tion­al time to react. But generally, pro­to­typ­ing is useful in all phases of the online marketing concept.

Creating pro­to­types obviously costs money, but investing a small amount in the testing phase could save your company from losses later on in the de­vel­op­ment process.

Analysing using pro­to­types provides evaluable data. If product ideas and concepts do not deliver the out­stand­ing results you were expecting, you can scrap the idea before the actual marketing campaigns start, avoiding costly mistakes.