"Sacrilege!" I hear you cry. "'Scientific Advertising' is bible of modern advertising! Claude C. Hopkins is founding father of modern marketing!"

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

The main point of book "Scientific Advertising" is that in advertising, Testing Is Good, which raises an important question:

Is testing good?

Interestingly, no.

More accurately, no.

Well, okay, yes.

But not really.

Out in real world, and here in cyberspace as well, testing is a dream that quickly plummets into night terrors. By conservative estimates, 80% of (costly) advertising tests yield no usable or useful information whatsoever.

Typically, frustrated bosses first stumble on Claude's book and wave it around like a talisman to ward off artsy and unquantifiable marketing voodoo. That's how it starts. Next comes a meeting where unwashed staff is introduced to blindingly luminous (though currently idle) mind of Claude C. Hopkins.

This is when marketers groan. They know what's coming and they know it's gonna be ugly. The boss has had an epiphany. The clouds have parted and Claude has shined down upon him: Testing is Golden Key! Testing will Set Us Free! Testing will Unlock Vaults of Heaven!

Testing RULES!

For marketers, this is a no-win situation at every level. First, testing is a drag. Second, it's stupid. Third, it's dumb. Fourth, it doesn't work. Fifth, when it works, it doesn't matter.

Before you left-brainers and accountants out there get all flippy-dinkled, let me point out that there are exceptions where it does work and where it does make sense.

Say, for instance, you're running a direct mail campaign, sending out a million pieces a week to an AARP list to yank on heartstrings of old people and get them to send in donations they can't afford, two cents on every dollar of which actually makes it through to buy beepers for grotesquely impoverished but achingly photogenic children somewhere arid.

Doesn't this type of marketing remind you of a IPO.com frenzied "drunken sailor school of budgeting" – meaning, spend like a drunken sailor hitting his/her first port of call in years, with no thought other than "brand awareness" coming to mind? Got picture yet? Want cliff notes to rest of my article? Three words repeated from my header – "target customers online."

Some do and don'ts, with do's first:

1)Think digital marketing – use keywords your customers may punch in to a search engine to find your site throughout your overall online and offline marketing processes. This forces you to stay focused on your customer niche and ensures context relevancy for your web site. The latter is becoming critical to garner high rankings on Alta Vista, Google and Inktomi.

2)Advertise cost-effectively online where your customers go - this doesn't have to be top tier web sites (more expensive typically); but can be second or third tier community sites. Use online media buying to save money; look at One Media Place, formerly Ad Auction for some unsold inventory and bid with best of them for a deal! http://www.onemediaplace.com

3)Feature opt-in e-mail as a centerpiece of your marketing campaign – now is time to negotiate a 90-120 day media plan with some of market leaders. Yes Mail (one of our favorites) is offering a discount of 10-30%. And, use HTML rich media, your ad copy will look much better, in turn driving a better clickthrough results; but only if you are a B2C if B2B then don't use HTML, just plain text.

4)Immerse your business with online community – post to Newsgroups announcing a special online contest, promotion or giveaway that builds over a finite period of time. Get those geeks talking in virtual world – remember truism of good PR, any PR is better than no PR.