I get a kick out of articles like this one. The BBC author appeared surprised that A/B testing for marketing was invented–I’d say perfected–in direct mail. I guess us old dogs are responsible for some “new” tricks after all!
Takeaway: Sometimes it is easier to learn by looking to the past than by trying to guess the future.
PilipBlog 
Wow, who knew A/B testing was a phenomena?! Direct mail still is a cost effective acquisition tool, but of course continual testing is necessary to make sure it stays that way. I’d say the biggest change I’ve noticed is that direct mail is now informed by online testing, since results can be seen much faster online. Giving up on direct mail is a mistake, especially in light of the fact that so many have, and that’s resulted in less cluttered mailboxes (the opposite of what we see in email in-boxes). Food for thought…
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I always thought of testing as being sort of like breathing. It’s just what you did as a marketer.
I have also seen the same thing, moving online test results to offline. Online testing can definitely speed the test/learn cycle offline. I would caution readers that each channel has its own peculiarities that can only be tested in the channel and extrapolating results across channels should be done cautiously.
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