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Conversion Optimization
Conversion Optimization
Conversion Optimization
Conversion Optimization
Nick Kolenda
Conclusion ................................................................79
Welcome to a huge resource on conversion optimization.
Over the years, marketers have written countless articles about online
persuasion. So why do we need another one?
If you’re the only person running your business, oftentimes you won’t
have the resources to capture that information. You won’t have (a) the
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time to collect and analyze that data or (b) the capital to hire somebody
else. So what do you do?
You’ll notice that I’ve broken out the tactics by different CTAs.
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Once you break out the steps in your funnel, you can calculate the
conversion rate for each step:
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Once you calculate those values, you can pinpoint the conversion areas
that need the most improvement. Figure out which step — if improved
— would provide the greatest value. And start with those tactics. By
adopting that growth hacking mindset, you can scale your growth more
effectively.
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PART 1:
CLICK A BUTTON
Some marketers obsess over their buttons. Even though some
of that obsession is unwarranted, there is some merit to it.
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TACTIC 1:
CHOOSE A CONTRASTING BUTTON COLOR
Principle:
• Signal Detection Theory (Verghese, 2001)
• Visual Salience and Attention (Parkhurst, Law, & Niebur, 2002)
• Processing Fluency (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009)
Example:
Explanation:
Back in the day, our ancestors acquired an important trait: the ability to
detect contrast in the surrounding environment (Endler, 1992). They
needed that trait to detect predators or life-threatening stimuli. People
without that trait died off.
Thanks to natural selection, you still possess that ability. Your attention
is naturally drawn toward stimuli that are visually salient (Parkhurst,
Law, & Niebur, 2002).
So use that insight. Increase the visual saliency of your CTA button.
Choose button colors that contrast with the rest of your page so that
you guide attention toward it.
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But that’s pretty obvious, right? Obviously contrasting colors will
attract more attention. Well…there’s more at play too.
So, then, what’s going on? If people noticed both buttons, why did red
perform better? The answer involves processing 1luency.
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Contrasting button colors increase processing 1luency. Due to the
contrast, the act of clicking your button will enter visitors’ minds
more easily. That ease will then generate a pleasant sensation in their
brain. As a result, the act of clicking your button will seem more
appealing, so they’ll be more likely to do it. Pretty interesting.
Extra Resources:
• Harness the Emotional Power of Color to Increase Conversion — Talia
Wolf
• Color vs. Contrast: Which One Brings More Conversions? — Piotr
Koczorowski
• Call-to-Action Buttons: Color vs. Contrast — ThinkSEM
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TACTIC 2:
INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF WHITESPACE
Principle:
• Signal Detection Theory (Verghese, 2001)
• Visual Salience and Attention (Parkhurst, Law, & Niebur, 2002)
• Processing Fluency (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009)
Example:
Explanation:
See Tactic 1.
Extra Resources:
• “Call to Action” Buttons: Guidelines, Best Practices and Examples —
Cameron Chapman
• 6 Variables to Test on Your Call-to-Action Buttons — Sherice Jacob
• Click Here: 11 Ways to Improve Your Calls to Action — Neil Patel
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TACTIC 3:
ADD A BORDER, BEVEL, OR SHADOW
Principle:
• Representativeness Heuristic (Kahneman & Tversky, 1972)
Example:
Explanation:
If it’s similar, then we’re more likely to categorize that stimulus with
the parent population.
Don’t do that.
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Your CTA button needs to contain features that are representative of
other buttons. Without those common characteristics, your button
won’t look like a button. So people won’t click it.
How can you make your button look clickable? For one, keep it a
normal size. Don’t use a monstrous buttons that overwhelms your page.
Also, consider giving your button some depth through a border, bevel,
or shadow.
Those cues represent depth. So your button will look more clickable.
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Extra Resources:
• 6 Characteristics of High Converting CTA Buttons — Jeremy Smith
• 20 Critical Do’s and Don’ts for Clickable Calls-to-Action — Jessica
Meher
• Testing Quick Wins — Call to Action Buttons — Steve Myers
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TACTIC 4:
CONVEY MOVEMENT WITH AN ARROW
Principle:
• Representativeness Heuristic (Kahneman & Tversky, 1972)
Example:
Explanation:
See Tactic 3.
Extra Resources:
• Call to Action Buttons: Examples and Best Practices — Jacob Gube
• CTA Button Designs that Will Convince Your Mom to Convert — Net-
Results
• 50 Split Testing Ideas (You Can Run Today) — Neil Patel
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TACTIC 5:
ALTER YOUR BUTTON ON HOVER
Principle:
Representativeness Heuristic (Kahneman & Tversky, 1972)
Example:
Explanation:
See Tactic 3.
Extra Resources:
• Best Practices for Call to Action Buttons — UX Movement
• The Anatomy of a Compelling Call to Action Button — Aaron Bradley
• 12 Tests to Increase Your Landing Page Conversion Rate, Starting
Today — Johnathan Dane
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TACTIC 6:
ORIENT GAZES TOWARD YOUR CTA
Principle:
• Signal Detection Theory (Verghese, 2001)
• Gaze Following (Emory, 2000)
• Processing Fluency (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009)
Example:
Explanation:
Extra Resources:
• How a Dutch Major Achieved 7.8% Increase in Conversion by
Removing a ‘Lifeline’ — Sharan Suresh
• How to Direct a Viewer’s Eye Through Your Design — Steven Bradley
• 10 A/B Tests to Skyrocket Your Leads — Sara Hartanov
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TACTIC 7:
REPEAT YOUR PRIMARY CTA
Principle:
• Mere Exposure Effect (Zajonc, 1968)
Example:
Explanation:
On your website, consider repeating your primary CTA. There are a few
reasons why.
Third, Robert Zajonc proposed the mere exposure effect. People develop
a stronger afiinity toward a stimulus if they’re repeatedly exposed to it
(Zajonc, 1968).
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Part of that effect might involve processing 1luency. With repeated
exposures, people can digest your CTA more easily, which enhances
their afiinity toward it.
Either way, the takeaway is clear: repeating your CTA should help
increase conversions.
Extra Resources:
• Good UI #5: Try Repeating Your Primary Action Instead of Showing It
Just Once — Jakub Linowski
• 101 Landing Page Optimization Tips — Unbounce
• 5 Ways to Put Your Email Call to Action to Work — Chris Hexton
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TACTIC 8:
USE 1ST PERSON WORDING
Principle:
• Conceptual Fluency (Lee & Labroo, 2004)
• Mental Simulation (Elder & Krishna, 2012)
Example:
Explanation:
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So what’s causing the consistent lift? I’m guessing two factors:
First, your visitors mentally evaluate the CTA in terms of their personal
use. With 3rd person wording, they consider your CTA from a 3rd person
perspective — which isn’t as strong.
Extra Resources:
• How Failed A/B Tests Can Increase Conversion Rates — Michael
Aagard
• 6 Proven Ways to Boost the Conversion Rates of Your Call-to-Action
Buttons — Joanna Wiebe
• Another Win for Speciiic Copywriting – Button Text Boosts Conversion
by 8.39% — Visual Website Optimizer
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TACTIC 9:
CHANGE YOUR BUTTON DURING A VISIT
Principle:
• Incidental Change Detection (Shapiro & Nielson, 2013)
Example:
Explanation:
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For one, you could adjust the appearance of your CTA button,
depending on a condition. For example, you could use JavaScript to
change your button color every 30 seconds.
Or, like Bounce Exchange, you could change your button color as
visitors scroll down the page.
Sure, those visual changes might attract more attention. But, even if
they don’t, visitors should develop a more favorable impression of your
CTA — thanks to the beneiits of incidental change detection.
Extra Resources:
• The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us — Christopher
Chabris
• Memory for centrally attended changing objects in an incidental real-
world change detection paradigm — Levins et al., 2002
• Incidental change detection and working memory load in a dual-task
paradigm — Angelone, Beck & Levin, 2005
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TACTIC 10:
FORCE VISITORS TO ACCEPT / REJECT YOUR
CTA
Principle:
• Choice Rejection (Levin et al., 2002)
• Impression Management (Larry & Kowalski, 1990)
Example:
Explanation:
You’re walking down the street. Further ahead, you notice somebody
handing out free snacks for a promo. Hmm, interesting.
But you’re not overly enticed. You plan to ignore the vendor.
Unfortunately, he puts a kink in your plan. As you walk by, the vendor
shouts directly at you, “Hey there, do you want a free granola bar?”
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(b) contradict social norms. What kind of weirdo doesn’t want free
stuff?
So you cave. You happily accept the granola bar and move on.
Don’t let that happen. Be the annoying vendor. Force visitors to choose
an option: accept or reject (with an explicit consequence for rejecting).
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If visitors need to give you an answer —yes or no— many will
experience the same change of heart. They’ll be more likely to accept
your offer because it feels more natural than rejecting it.
Why does that happen? If you force people to reject an option, they
focus on the beneiits that they’re giving up — triggering loss aversion
(Levin et al., 2002). They accept the offer because they don’t want to
lose those bene_its.
Extra Resources:
• Choices, Consequences and the Reason Every Pop-Up Box Needs 2
Buttons: Opt In, and Opt Out — Joanna Wiebe
• Make the Ask — Chris Brogan
• Ask for the Order and Close the Sale — Todd Cohen
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PART 2:
CREATE AN ACCOUNT
Once visitors click your button — whether they’re
subscribing to your blog, creating an account, or starting a
free trial — it’s inevitable. Some won’t complete that process.
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TACTIC 11:
USE A TWO-STEP OPT-IN
Principle:
• Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957)
• Commitment and Consistency (Cialdini, 2006)
Example:
Explanation:
Want to get more conversions? Then you should make it harder for
people to convert.
…I’ll explain.
When you ask people to create an account, you generally have two
options:
• One Step Opt-In: You present input iields directly on the page.
• Two Step Opt-In: You display a link or button. When visitors click that
button, then your input iields are shown.
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When visitors click the initial button in your two-step process, they’re
usually trying to accomplish a goal (e.g., create an account, receive
some content, etc.).
Oftentimes, visitors will click that initial step without realizing that
another step lies ahead. But, in clicking your button, they reinforce an
attitude that they are interested in achieving that goal. And that initial
attitude is the key.
Once visitors reach the second step, they experience a dilemma. They
clicked your button because they were interested in your CTA. If they
don’t complete your CTA, then their behavior will be inconsistent with
their attitude. And that inconsistency activates the dorsal anterior
cingulate cortex and anterior insula (Veen, Krug, Schooler, & Carter,
2009).
Extra Resources:
• The Two-Step Opt-In Process — Clay Collins
• Should You Use a Two-Step Opt-In? — Charlie Page
• Grow Your Email Marketing List With Two Step Opt In Forms —
Daniel McClure
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TACTIC 12:
LET VISITORS CREATE TANGIBLE PROGRESS
Principle:
• Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957)
• Commitment and Consistency (Cialdini, 2006)
• Goal Gradient Effect (Kirvetz, Urminsky, & Zheng, 2006)
• Loss Aversion (Tversky & Kahneman, 1991)
Example:
Explanation:
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they’ll experience a stronger desire to complete the sign up process
when they encounter it.
Suppose that you created an app that organizes top content around the
web into a personal dashboard. With the original dichotomy, your
funnel might look like this:
Often referred to as gradual engagement, that setup gives you three key
beneiits:
• Smaller Step: Choosing topics is less invasive than iilling out personal
details. People will be more likely to do it.
• Triggers Momentum: Their progress will reinforce an interest in
your app. If they don’t create an account, they’ll feel cognitive
dissonance.
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• Triggers Loss Aversion. If users don’t create an account, they’ll lose
the progress they’ve made — which feels painful (Tversky &
Kahneman, 1991).
Extra Resources:
• Good UI #22: Try Gradual Engagement Instead of a Hasty Signup —
Jakub Linowski
• A Lesson in Gradual Engagement — Nathan Barry
• Great User Experience With Gradual Engagement Sign Ups — Lee
Munroe
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TACTIC 13:
DON’T REQUIRE CREDIT CARDS FOR FREE
TRIALS
Principle:
• Commitment and Consistency (Cialdini, 2006)
Example:
Explanation:
Should users enter their credit card to start your free trial? There are
two schools of thought:
So which is best? Totango analyzed data for 100 SaaS companies. They
found that companies performed better when they didn’t require a
credit card for their free trial.
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conversion rate.
The takeaway? Always make the initial steps in your funnel as easy as
possible. If you can trigger momentum — any amount of momentum —
people will be more likely to follow that path (Cialdini, 2006).
Extra Resources:
• 2012 SaaS Conversion Benchmark — Totango
• SaaS Free Trial: Require a Credit Card to Begin? — Lincoln Murphy
• Credit Card Trials vs. No Credit Card Trials: Which Way to Go? — John
Solomon
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TACTIC 14:
EMPHASIZE THEIR PROGRESS WITHIN YOUR
FUNNEL
Principle:
• Goal Gradient Effect (Kirvetz, Urminsky, & Zheng, 2006)
Example:
Explanation:
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So use that insight in your conversion funnel. At each step, emphasize
the progress that people make:
Extra Resources:
• Progress Bar Vs. No Progress Bar: Which Version Boosted Conversions
28.29%? — LeadPages
• How to Boost Conversions By Increasing Motivation — Blair Keen
• Loyalty Programs: Of Rats and Men — Roger Dooley
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PART 3:
ADD TO CART
Do you run an eCommerce store? Then you’ll need visitors to
add your product(s) to their shopping cart.
These tactics can help with both goals. And if you want more
conversion tactics related to the pricing of your product, you
can refer to my pricing article.
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TACTIC 15:
ADD VISUAL CONTRAST TO YOUR TARGET
PLAN
Principle:
• Visual Fixations and Choice (Krajbich, Armel, & Rangel, 2010)
Example:
Explanation:
Those beneiits apply here too. Consider adding visual contrast to your
target subscription or product.
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Visual iixations — by themselves — can iniluence choice behavior.
Research shows that people are more likely to choose an option if they
spend more time viewing that option (Armel, Beaumel, & Rangel,
2008).
Extra Resources:
• 36 Creative Landing Page Design Examples – A Showcase and
Conversion Critique — Oli Gardener
• Landing Pages: The Science Behind Designing for Conversion —
Wishpond
• Design + Copy: The Sum Is Greater Than the Parts —Kathryn Aragon
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TACTIC 16:
POSITION YOUR TARGET PLAN IN THE CENTER
Principle:
• Visual Fixations and Choice (Krajbich, Armel, & Rangel, 2010)
• Center-Stage Effect (Atalay, Bodur, & Rasolofoarison, 2012)
Example:
Explana'on:
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You can guide attention toward your target plan — and iniluence more
people to choose it — by positioning it in the middle of your other
plans.
Extra Resources:
• 7 Design Strategies for a Successful Pricing Table — UX Movement
• Why More Customers Will Choose Your Middle Offer — Jeremy Said
• 10 Examples of Great Pricing Pages — Uplift
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TACTIC 17:
IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET PLAN AS “MOST
POPULAR”
Principle:
• Conformity (Asch, 1956)
Example:
Explanation:
Extra Resources:
• 20 Best Designed Pricing Comparison Tables — Nicholas Tart
• Testing Ideas for Lead Generation and B2B Sites — Optimizely
• 5 Psychological Hacks That Will Make Your Pricing Page Irresistible —
Neil Patel
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TACTIC 18:
CREATE A DEFAULT OPTION OR ADD-ON
Principle:
• Default Effect (Johnson & Goldstein, 2003)
Example:
Explanation:
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• Triggers Loss Aversion: We imagine ourselves with the default
option, and we then feel entitled to those beneiits. If we lose them, we
feel pain.
You can use default options in various ways. For one, you could make
your target plan the default (see the visual example above).
But that setup is pretty awkward. Very few people structure their
pricing pages that way.
You could also use defaults when people sign up for a free trial.
That decision can be a toss up for some customers. But if you add a
default, you reduce the need to think about it. Instead of exerting
mental resources to contemplate that decision, some customers will
simply keep the default.
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Extra Resources:
• Testing Theory: The Importance of Default Selections — Jeff Zych
• A Marketer’s Guide to Behavioral Economics — McKinsey & Company
• Paradox of Choice: Do Too Many Options Kill Conversion Rate? — Skift
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TACTIC 19:
ASK CUSTOMERS TO SUBTRACT FEATURES
Principle:
• Default Effect (Johnson & Goldstein, 2003)
• Anchoring (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974)
Example:
Explanation:
This tactic won’t work for every business. But it’s a great way to
maximize revenue if your product is customizable.
Like the previous tactic, the defaults were powerful. When participants
started with all features, they experienced loss aversion. They didn’t
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want to lose those features, so they were more likely to keep them.
Those participants eventually paid a higher price for the car.
Not only will you trigger loss aversion, but you’ll also take advantage of
anchoring (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). If people start with a full-
featured product, their iinal product will remain closer to that starting
point.
Extra Resources:
• Default Effect (Psychology) — Wikipedia
• Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization — Pancham Prasar
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TACTIC 20:
PRIME A WHICH-TO-CHOOSE MINDSET
Principle:
• Priming (e.g., Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996)
• Comparative Mindsets (Xu & Wyer, 2008)
Example:
Explanation:
Xu and Wyer (2008) asked participants that same question. Turns out,
it made people more likely to buy a computer.
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Weird, right? Why did that happen? Well, it involves the three main
stages of a purchase decision:
So how can you apply that insight? Before presenting your products,
ask visitors to make a choice or comparison.
Suppose that you sell clothing. Most online stores bring visitors directly
to the product catalog:
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Or you could keep offering them additional choices, such as the clothing
category:
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But eventually — after visitors make their selections — you can
present your adjusted catalog. If visitors want to readjust the iiltering
options, they can use a menu on the left.
Those were just a few beneiits. But don’t forget about the main beneiit:
you also prime a which-to-choose mindset. Instead of deciding whether
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to buy your clothes, they’ll be more likely to decide which clothes to
buy.
Extra Resources:
• The Oxford Handbook of Social Cognition
• Content and Process Priming: A Review — Janiszewski & Wyer, 2014
• The Effects of Past Behavior on Future Goal-Directed Activity — Wyer,
Xu, & Shen, 2012
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TACTIC 21:
DEPICT PRODUCTS TO ENCOURAGE MENTAL
INTERACTION
Principle:
• Mental Interaction (Elder & Krishna, 2012)
Example:
Explanation:
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• Place instruments or utensils on the right
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All of those images increase mental simulation. People imagine
themselves interacting with the product, and so they become more
likely to purchase it.
Extra Resources:
• Handbook of Imagination and Mental Simulation
• Fluency of Consumption Imagery and the Backiire Effects of Imagery
Appeals — Petrova & Cialdini, 2005
• Does Visual Perception of Object Afford Action? Evidence From a
Neuroimaging Study — Grezes & Decety, 2001
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TACTIC 22:
SPECIFY A LIMITED TIME OR QUANTITY
Principle:
• Scarcity (Cialdini, 2006)
• Loss Aversion (Tversky & Kahneman, 1991)
Example:
Explanation:
Extra Resources:
• Methods of Persuasion — Me
• How Creating a Sense of Urgency Helped Me Increase Sales By 332%
— Marcus Taylor
• How to Use Urgency and Scarcity Principles to Increase eCommerce
Sales — Visual Website Optimizer
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TACTIC 23:
EMPHASIZE MORE ATTRIBUTES FOR HEDONIC
PRODUCTS
Principle:
• Heuristics (e.g., Tvserky & Kahneman, 1974)
Example:
Explanation:
Sela and Berger (2012) found support for that claim. And they credit
their iinding to an increase in perceived usefulness:
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benefits hedonic more than utilitarian options by
increasing the extent to which the former appear
useful.” (pp. 1)
Extra Resources:
• Copywriting Tips: 21 Tactics From Psychology and Linguistics — Me
• How to Optimize Your Product Pages for Conversions — LemonStand
• 11 Simple Conversion Strategies Many Product Pages Fail To
Incorporate — Stoney deGeyter
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PART 4:
COMPLETE THE
PURCHASE
So…a visitor clicked your Add to Cart button? Congrats! But
don’t celebrate yet.
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TACTIC 24:
PROVIDE REASSURANCE THROUGH TRUST
SYMBOLS
Principle:
• Pain of Paying (Prelec & Loewenstein, 1998)
• Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957)
Example:
Explanation:
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• Option 1: We justify purchasing (e.g., we remind ourselves of the
beneiits that we’re receiving)
• Option 2: We justify not purchasing (e.g., we remind ourselves of the
money that we’re saving)
You don’t need trust symbols early in the funnel because we don’t feel
pain in that section. We feel it during the checkout — when we’re about
to hand over our money. So that’s where you should place trust
symbols.
Extra Resources:
• 9 Trust Symbols You Can Use to Increase Conversions and Customer
Coniidence — Elisa Gabbert
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• 16 Quick Ideas to Increase Your Ecommerce Conversion Rate — Craig
Kistler
• How To Use Trust Symbols to Increase Conversions on a Brand New
Website — Kevin Kaiser
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TACTIC 25:
DEEMPHASIZE YOUR COUPON FIELD
Principle:
• Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954)
• Price Fairness (Xia, Monroe, & Cox, 2004)
Example:
Explanation:
And that effect occurs with prices. How do we determine the fairness of
a price? We usually consider the amount that other customers have
paid:
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If customers need to pay a higher price than other customers — even if
the absolute price is fair — they’ll be less likely to buy. They want to
pay a price that’s equal, if not lower, than the price that other people
are paying.
So what do you do? Well, you don’t need to remove that iield entirely.
Just reduce the saliency of it. Instead of displaying a form iield, provide
a text link: “Have a discount code?”
Extra Resources:
• The Sad Tale of Abandoned Shopping Carts — eMarketer
• Stopping Shopping Cart Abandonment — UX Booth
• How to Design an eCommerce Checkout Flow That Converts — Peep
Laja
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TACTIC 26:
REMOVE LINKS AND NAVIGATION FROM
CHECKOUT
Principle:
• Intention and Self-Regulation (Shapiro & Schwartz, 2000)
Example:
Explanation:
Are you familiar with landing page optimization? Then you’ve probably
encountered a common problem.
If your landing page contains the site navigation (or various links
within the page), oftentimes you’ll reduce conversions.
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Every link represents another opportunity to lose the purchase. To
solidify your funnel, remove your site navigation and all
unnecessary links.
When you remove stimuli that divert attention away from the purchase,
you increase intention — a key component of self-regulatory behavior
(Shapiro & Schwartz, 2000). Visitors narrow their focus toward
completing their purchase, and they become more likely to accomplish
that goal.
Extra Resources:
• Why You Should Enclose the Checkout Process — Econsultancy
• Should You Remove Navigation From Your Landing Pages? — Diana
Urban
• What is An Enclosed Checkout And How Does It Help You Sell More?
— We Make Websites
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TACTIC 27:
RETARGET PEOPLE WHO ABANDONED THE
CHECKOUT
Principle:
• Prospective Memory (Marsh, Hicks, & Cook, 2005)
Example:
Explanation:
If you follow the previous tactics, you’ll reduce the number of people
who leave your checkout funnel. But it’s still inevitable. People will
leave.
And for many reasons too. Maybe they changed their mind about
purchasing. Or maybe they plan to come back. They just need to…
• Think it over
• Check with their spouse
• Check your competitors
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Unfortunately, though, our memory is crappy. If people leave your
checkout, they’ll often need a stimulus to trigger their memory to
purchase (Marsh, Hicks, & Cook, 2005). If your product is unique or
non-essential, they probably won’t encounter a relevant cue. That
means you’ll slip into the deep abyss of their memory, never to return.
Not a fun place.
But that’s where retargeting can help. With resources like Google
AdWords or Facebook Ads, you can show ads to people who abandoned
your checkout
Or, better yet, you can email the people who abandoned your checkout.
According to a study by SaleCycle, 44% of cart abandonment emails are
opened (and each email generates an average of $8.21 in revenue).
Extra Resources:
• Retargeting Shopping Cart Abandoners: How to Make Abandonment
Part of the Purchase Funnel — ReTargeter
• Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment With Retargeting — AdRoll
• How Peak Design Recovers 12% of Abandoned Carts With Email
Remarketing — Mike Arsenault
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PART 5:
SHARE ON SOCIAL
MEDIA
Most people don’t consider conversion optimization for social
sharing. But that’s a mistake. With the rise in growth hacking
over the past few years, social sharing has become even more
important. So the tactics in this section can help you boost
those conversions.
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TACTIC 28:
PROVIDE AN INCENTIVE TO SHARE
Principle:
• Extrinsic Motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000)
Example:
Explanation:
What was their secret? Among a few key factors, they incentivized
social sharing. By offering free storage for each new referral, they
increased signups by 60 percent.
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Though you could explore research on incentives and extrinsic
motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000), this tactic is mainly grounded in
common sense. To boost social sharing, offer an incentive.
And here are some platforms to help you integrate those types of
incentives on your website:
• Ambassador
• Refersion
• SocialTwist
• Friendbuy
• Talkable
• Referral Candy
Extra Resources:
• 5 Ways to Encourage Customers to Share Your Content — Sanjay
Dholakia
• How to Use Incentives to Get More Fans and Followers — Wishpond
• Unleash the Customer: High ROI Marketing with Incentive-based
Social Sharing — Mani Iyer
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TACTIC 29:
POST SCREENSHOTS OF PREVIOUSLY SHARED
MESSAGES
Principle:
• Conformity (Asch, 1956)
Example:
Explanation:
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you remove the social risk — sharing is the social norm. So people will
be more likely to do it (Asch, 1956).
This tactic might be awkward for blog articles. But it works great for
coniirmation and thank you pages.
Extra Resources:
• Norm (social) — Wikipedia
• The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social
Norms — Schultz, Nolan, Ciladini, Goldstein, & Griskevicius, 2007
• A Room with a Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate
Environmental Conservation in Hotels — Goldstein, Cialdini, &
Griskevicius, 2008
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TACTIC 30:
ADD SOCIAL CURRENCY TO YOUR MESSAGE
Principle:
• Impression Management (Larry & Kowalski, 1990)
• Social Currency (Berger, 2013)
Example:
Explanation:
Suppose that you started a SaaS company. To grow your business, you
plan to incentivize new users to share a message so that you can
capture referrals.
If you were executing that strategy, what message would you ask
people to share?
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Most people wouldn’t give it much thought. They would probably use a
standard beneiit-driven message:
Here’s an example:
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Although you would need to coniirm the results through split testing,
that message would probably generate a higher percentage of social
sharing from new users.
The main takeaway: add social currency to your message so that people
will naturally want to share it.
Extra Resources:
• 9 Ways to Improve Social Media Shares of Your Content — Meltwater
• How You Can Leverage Social Currency by Finding Your Product’s
Inner Remarkability — Richard Jeng
• How to Make Your Content Go Viral — Jonah Berger
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CONCLUSION
If I could only recommend one takeaway, it would be this: always have
concrete hypotheses for your A/B tests.
If you’re not sure where to start, then use this guide. The tactics in this
article are grounded in psychology, so you already have the concrete
hypotheses.
And if you want to learn more persuasion tactics, you could refer to my
book, Methods of Persuasion.
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