I was reminded of an important marketing truth this week: you are NOT your client.

It came up when a friend asked me to look at some headlines on opt-in forms on some big websites.

To be honest, I found them quite transparent and manipulative. They were the sort of straw man alternatives you sometimes see. A “Yes, I want more sales” button vs a one saying “No, I don't want to find out how to get more sales” if you didn't want to sign up.

I really don't like them and they cause me to deliberately click the “no” option just to be contrary.

However, the data showed that they work.

And that's the point with marketing. We're not marketing to ourselves. We're marketing to our clients. And they sometimes behave differently to the way we'd behave.

Now many of us built our businesses based on being like our clients. A lot of what I teach about marketing and sales is based on what I (painfully) learnt myself.

I was far from a natural at marketing and sales, but managed to get good at it. So I generally have a good instinct for what most of my clients want and need.

But over the years I've grown to quite enjoy marketing. And I'm pretty good with the technical side. That's not true for many of my clients. So my instincts won't always be spot on.

That's why with marketing it's vital to test everything. You might think you know what will work with your clients, but you never really know until you test.

I was wrong about those buttons. I've been wrong about which landing page will have the better opt-in rate and which email subject line will have the better open rate.

But I've tested and learned. You should too.