The Conversion Sciences Lab requires long hours of focused attention. Needless to say, we have to keep ourselves in shape to do good work. I keep my svelte shape in part by performing some physiological experiments on myself at Lifetime Fitness. The things I do would make me laugh if I was watching.
As part of Lifetime my membership, I am graced with the monthly magazine Experience L!fe. The March issue featured the article “A Plan for Happiness.”
Finally! A plan.
The plan for happiness begins with some convincing proof, citing a study by a PhD on some three-thousand people. Based on this research, the good doctor found that, “If you can prevent stress from happening by planning, you’re going to be much better off.” He offered three steps:
- Make a List before you go to bed each night
- Prioritize and tackle the first two or three things immediately
- Break down big tasks into 15-minute chunks.
Now, if you are like me and some three-fourths of the population, you will find this list laughable. This kind of disciplined and controlled regimen works for one kind of person, but not for most of us.
Now imagine that your online business was paid based on the happiness achieved by its visitors. This one recipe would not be a very profitable, because it only appeals to one personality “mode.” Based on Myers-Briggs research, there are at least four major personality modes, or temperaments, and I discuss them in my most recent Search Engine Land column.
How would we write our happiness recipe to appeal to each of the four personality types and why do you care? First of all, you care because the job of your website is to make your visitors happy. That is when they buy from you.
The list provided by our eager PhD is ideal for the Competitive types, who are often found to be on a mission to improve their life. They are goal-oriented and disciplined.
However, our Spontaneous visitors live for impulse and action. Their plan for happiness might be:
- Make a list — if you go to bed. Make your list with an Etch-a-sketch or Lite-Brite to make it fun.
- Prioritize. Then ignore the prioritization and tackle the first two or three things that grab your interest in the morning.
- Break down big tasks into… “Squirrel!”
Humanists, on the other hand make decisions based relationships and how something makes them feel. Their stress relief formula might be:
- Make a list before you go to bed of the people you wish were snuggling with you. Text them goodnight.
- Prioritize the first two or three things on someone else’s list. Tackle these for them.
- Break down big tasks and have a task party with each of your friends.
Finally, our Methodicals are going to be suspicious that three steps is sufficient to solve a problem like happiness. They need information, data and detail.
- Make a list before you go to bed each night.
- Do a gap analysis of this list against the previous night’s list. On weekends, include a trend analysis.
- Prioritize the list, but do not tackle yet.
- QA the prioritized list using the list prioritization guidelines.
- Complete a task requirements document (TRD) for each.
- Identify resources required and procure missing materials.
- Execute.
- Have 15-minute progress reviews to ensure there has been no task scope creep.
Do you identify with any of these? Tell us in the comments. Read more about them in Advanced Landing Page Techniques: Searcher Personas. They are the modes of persuasion that the Eisenberg brothers define in their book Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? which I highly recommend.
How is your site making its case to the four kinds of visitors you have coming to your site?
5 Ways Conversion Makes Winning Look Easy
CRO Tests | Multivariate | AB TestingYour unique online equation is a powerful tool, a tool that gives you leverage over your marketplace. It is what makes making money, generating leads and growing your business look easy.
How can this be?
There are five big reasons that companies that understand their online equation win:
There are two ways to learn more about these five advantages in my new Search Engine Land column 5 Ways Conversion Takes Market Share Like Candy From A Baby.
My book, Your Customer Creation Equation.
Making the Connection between Online and Offline Analytics
Conversion Marketing StrategyThis is a guest post by Katleen Richardson of Marketing AdvantEdge
If you’ve been in business for a while and have only recently started to develop your online presence, the idea of having to measure your online marketing performance can be daunting. Even for those who have more experience in the world of conducting business online, trying to compare your online and offline measurements can seem tricky. It’s important to remember, though, that these two aspects of your marketing strategy are fundamentally the same. For both, ROI is the most important factor, and in both cases you’re going to be most interested in these core metrics:
There is one aspect exclusive to online measurement that gets a little complicated, however – social media performance. Calculating your social media influence, one of the core social media metrics, can be done in a number of ways. Here’s one that works well:
volume of content x number of comments x number of shares x net reach = influence
When assessing your net reach, take the deduped audience you have across all social media channels. In other words, a person who follows you on both Facebook and Twitter is only counted as one person.
In order to get meaningful measurements across online and offline channels while, at the same time, managing your work load, start by choosing a core of five metrics that you’re going to track from month to month consistently. This creates a solid base from which to make comparisons, and will help to keep you from getting overwhelmed. Keep in mind that whatever you decide to track needs to tie back to both your marketing objectives and your overall business objectives.
Here are a couple of principles to help you tie it all together:
If you really want to get strong analytics in place that will cover all your bases, your best bet is most likely going to be a marketing automation system. These days, there’s no reason not to – there’s a variety of choices out there that cover a full spectrum of requirements, even if you’re on a tight budget. All you need to do is find the system that gives you the most appropriate options for your situation, and you’ll be well on your way.
Katleen Richardson (marketing-advantedge.com) is an experienced leader who builds integrated strategies combining research, data analysis and creative thinking. She has delivered successful solutions for the publishing, financial and telecommunications industries, as well as for conference and training companies, and professional associations. Her approach is to design customer focused, cost-effective solutions based on cross functional collaboration and results-based metrics.
Happiness Means Different Things to Your Website Visitors
Conversion-Centered DesignThe Conversion Sciences Lab requires long hours of focused attention. Needless to say, we have to keep ourselves in shape to do good work. I keep my svelte shape in part by performing some physiological experiments on myself at Lifetime Fitness. The things I do would make me laugh if I was watching.
Finally! A plan.
The plan for happiness begins with some convincing proof, citing a study by a PhD on some three-thousand people. Based on this research, the good doctor found that, “If you can prevent stress from happening by planning, you’re going to be much better off.” He offered three steps:
Now, if you are like me and some three-fourths of the population, you will find this list laughable. This kind of disciplined and controlled regimen works for one kind of person, but not for most of us.
Now imagine that your online business was paid based on the happiness achieved by its visitors. This one recipe would not be a very profitable, because it only appeals to one personality “mode.” Based on Myers-Briggs research, there are at least four major personality modes, or temperaments, and I discuss them in my most recent Search Engine Land column.
How would we write our happiness recipe to appeal to each of the four personality types and why do you care? First of all, you care because the job of your website is to make your visitors happy. That is when they buy from you.
The list provided by our eager PhD is ideal for the Competitive types, who are often found to be on a mission to improve their life. They are goal-oriented and disciplined.
However, our Spontaneous visitors live for impulse and action. Their plan for happiness might be:
Humanists, on the other hand make decisions based relationships and how something makes them feel. Their stress relief formula might be:
Finally, our Methodicals are going to be suspicious that three steps is sufficient to solve a problem like happiness. They need information, data and detail.
Do you identify with any of these? Tell us in the comments. Read more about them in Advanced Landing Page Techniques: Searcher Personas. They are the modes of persuasion that the Eisenberg brothers define in their book Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? which I highly recommend.
How is your site making its case to the four kinds of visitors you have coming to your site?
Want Attention? Appeal to the Egos of Experts with Quotes
Persuasion ScienceI was directed by a Facebook notification to a quotation so important that it deserved its own graphic panel. Clearly, this was a quote that needed to be read. As I read I thought, “This guy and I think a lot alike. Who is this Plato of the conversion world?”
At the end was my name, and the quote had been taken from one of my recent blog posts on conversion and design. You could hear the air squealing into my already inflated head.
So infatuated was I with myself, that I immediately shared the – quotegraph? – with my entire network, and I’m writing a blog post about it. Who would have created such a honeypot for my ego? What entity would benefit from such bold action?
It was the very smart marketers at Unbounce. Their service provides easy ways to develop landing pages and to test different versions of those landing pages. Who spends their time recommending – nay demanding – that businesses use targeted landing pages to increase leads and sales? I do, as well as many other marketing experts, some of whom have already been targeted by Unbounce flattery.
If you’re reading this and this is your first introduction to the people at Unbounce, then tell us in the comments. That will be a testimonial to how effective this technique can be.
And it’s cheap.
I (and other experts) provide the content. All Unbounce had to do was lay the quote out all big and bold, and post it on Facebook. Very smart.
Will this also end up on my Pinterest page? Oh, yes.
Steal this idea for your industry.
[bookpromo]
The Secret Behind the Success of the DollarShave Video
Conversion Marketing StrategyThe Dollar Shave video went mega viral because it is “funny”, right?
But to understand why and how it is funny you need to break it down and analyze what motional strings it is playing. Only then will you truly understand its success.
Michael is fed up. Who isn’t?
The major emotional theme of the video is “Fed up-ness”. At the heart of this Fed up-ness lies of course Dollarshave’s value proposition to customers who are fed up with paying for overpriced razor blades. But there’s more.
The whole body language of CEO Michael Dubin says “I’m fed up”. He just can’t sit or stand still, he needs to move, he’s on a mission. He’s fed up with political correctness as he proclaims that the blades are F***ing great. He’s fed up with over-paid tennis players. I think he’s even fed up with being fed up.
This goes right into the core of the American peoples’ feelings. Not only are they fed up with the Razor blade monopoly, they’re fed up with Washington, they’re fed up with no jobs. They’re also fed up with being fed up.
Michael takes matters into his own hands
By doing so he becomes an agent for the aspirations of Gillette-enslaved Americans. When they buy blades from Dollarshave, they’re not customers, they’re proactive change agents who can create change and fortune by their own actions. Together with Michael they enact their shared American dream.
Remember the payoff in the video?
“Isn’t it about time?”
It’s not a product or service statement. Actually not even a statement. It’s just about how you feel when you’re fed up and want to take matters into your own hands. Like Michael.
Michael is one of us, not one of them
Look at Michael’s office. It’s a mess. You’ll find similar offices all over the country. Except of course at Madison Avenue. It’s as far from that as you can possibly get. In any case Michael seems to spend most of his time in the warehouse.
Michael would not pay an agency tons of cash to make this video. If you know a little bit about video production you can see it’s professionally made. Still it’s created to preserve an amateurish look and feel. That’s not by coincidence.
And Michael obviously can’t play tennis.
Michael is American
Ok, the flag at the end is obvious, but when you think of it the American theme runs right through the video.
There’s an homage to the ancestors (Grandpa with Polio). The evil villain is a foreigner (a Swiss tennis player). There’s a reference to the Vanderbilts.
It might not be as obvious to you as it is to me (I’m Swedish), but it’s there for sure.
Michael talks to….. Yeah, Michaels
Michael is a former marketing exec. Does he need to save dollars on his shaving in order to be able to keep the kids in school? I don’t think so. He just thinks it’s about time.
So when crafting the video for the launch campaign Michael needed to decide what people he should appeal to. – “What is the persona of my early adopter?”, is the question he must have been asking himself.
And I think the answer is – “People like myself!”. People who think the Swiss Army knife approach of Gillette is starting to look ridiculous. People who don’t need to save on their shaving. People who just have this feeling that something should change. Not for rational money-saving reasons, but for emotional reasons.
Others will come later. Who really need to save on their shaving. Who wants more proof of the quality of the blades. Then we’ll see other campaigns designed for them. But for now Michaels want to wake up thousand of Michaels around the country.
Michael creates an Experience
I listened to Jared Spool at Conversion Conference SF a couple of months ago. He said that every innovation goes through three phases; Technology, Features and Experience, being the final one.
Gillette is clearly about Features, with their vibrating handle, flashlight, 10 blades and backscratcher (according to Michael). They’re trying to sell us a Shaving Experience which is an Experience around the use of the product.
Michael, on the other hand, spends exactly 5 seconds to talk about the features of the products in the 94 seconds video. Dollarshave creates an Experience around how we see ourselves as individuals and how we want to live our lives. This is infinitely stronger.
We react much stronger to messages about our identity than our actions. I guess Michael knows this.
So if and when you decide to buy those blades you’re not just shaving – You’re participating in a collective experience designed to enforce your self-image as a strong and active American who thinks “It’s about time”.
John Ekman is the Chief Conversionista of Conversionista! He is regarded as a Swedish authority on Conversion Rate Optimization. According to John, a Conversionista is someone deeply and crazily passionate about improving Conversion Rates. You can find more inspiring posts on John’s blog.
"My favorite part of the design is the money."
Conversion OptimizationWebsite design is only great if it’s making you money. It’s not about the colors, the shapes, the sliders and flashy bits, though that’s the fun part many businesses sadly get hung up on. People don’t come to your site for entertainment or art—unless you sell art.
They come to you for a solution.
The purpose of your website is to help them find you, connect with you and pay you money to solve their problems. That’s conversion. That’s why you built the site in the first place. Your site’s main job is to make this very easy for them to do. So the best design isn’t the one that makes your company look cool and edgy and sophisticated. It’s the design that supports conversion, has room for good copy and powerful calls to action that make people click the big orange button. Want to know more?
Read more in my column on Search Engine Lan
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Product Page Testing and Shocking Web Graphics: For Further Study
CRO Tests | Multivariate | AB TestingThe Product Page 2012: 7 Must-Test Elements
Feb 27, 2012 08:22 am
@TheGrok says “Test your product headline to be benefit oriented as opposed to just product name.” I hadn’t considered that. Good lists always tell you something you hadn’t thought of and Bryan has such a list for Online Stores and Publication sites who feature their offerings on Product Pages. Product pages are the money pages on your site, and are one of the first places to look for optimization opportunities.
read more
The Shocking Truth About How Web Graphics Affect Conversions
Feb 27, 2012 01:14 am
@KISSMetrics – David Ogilvy is experiencing something of a renaissance these days as his experience and research in offline marketing are proving true in online marketing. And we need him. Images are an abused medium on the Web, and this article points out mistakes that you are probably making.
There are some real nuggets here, such as “Captions under images are read on average 300% more than the body copy itself” Ask your designer what research he has for his decisions.
This is an important article, and you should read it before you blindly follow the advice of lazy designers.
read more
Designing from Inside the User's Head-Conversion Conference [INFOGRAPH]
Conversion-Centered DesignSandra Niehaus and Sara Sturtevant of Closed Loop Marketing offer three methods for getting inside your visitor’s heads to design an online experience that persuades and converts.
I captured this instagraph at Conversion Conference West 2012.
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Understanding Behaviors at Conversion Conference with BJ Fogg
Conversion Marketing StrategyBJ Fogg is a Psychologist, Innovator and Director, Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. He gave an inspirational and interactive keynote presentation at Conversion Conference West 2012 using props instead of slides. His props included a magician’s robe, and a kayak paddle as a wand.
Clearly, he knows something about how to communicate. Part of his presentation involved the audience teaching his B=MAT behavioral model to not one, but two others. You’ll find that model in this instagraph that I captured in real time.
FULL SIZE VERSION
Writing Killer Conversion Copy with Joanna Wiebe of CopyHackers.com [Audio]
Persuasion ScienceI’ve been putting the finishing touches on my Conversion Conference presentation entitled Creating Killer Conversion Copy: Emails, Landing Pages, PPC Ads and More.
Writing Killer Conversion Copy with Joanna Wiebe of CopyHackers.com [Audio]
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We cover a lot of ground in the podcast.
For more on social media strategy, sign up to get a copy of my up-coming book: The Customer Creation Equation: Unexpected Formulas of the Conversion Scientist.