Several weeks ago a (possibly former) rebill advertiser got his assets frozen. Here’s an excerpt from the CBC article:
…cheated customers out of $450 million in an internet scam where products or services advertised as free trial offers or risk-free — such as health and beauty products — were actually being billed to customers’ credit cards monthly.
Now, obviously, there’s a lot of lessons to be learned here and some very serious allegations. However, I’m not an attorney so I’m not going comment on these legal issues.
There were quite a few rebill advertisers, but he outperformed them. I just read this article about the advertiser, “What’s he selling now?”
Willms employed rigorous testing to determine what combination of graphics and ad copy resulted in the most sales. Consumers who clicked on an ad would see one of two different order pages, and the company tracked which page was more successful. Willms told the graphics department to make changes based on the results, and a new site was built nearly every day. “That was the number one thing that made Jesse successful versus any other competitor,” says a former employee. “Even now, nobody really puts in the time and energy to continually optimize.”
If I simply told you that the secret to successful landing pages is hard work, you would not have been too impressed by this advice.
But… it really is. You need to constantly test new landing pages. In the last year, I’ve tested over 200 different landing pages on just one single campaign. And, that does not even include the near-infinite combinations of multivariate tests that I’ve done as well.
In summary, split test every day.
One more thing…
I’m going to publish a few case studies on this blog that have a proven track record of increasing conversions by other marketers. Because I rarely blog, I recommend that you subscribe via RSS or email to get my latest post as soon as it comes out.
That “code” is a precise shade of blue, and it works when a link is the call-to-action.
When Microsoft was designing what would eventually become Bing, it tested a vast number of colors and it turned out that the one that users engaged with the most was indeed blue. More specifically, it was a shade of blue quite similar to the one used by Google.
Paul Ray, a user experience manager for Bing said on Tuesday that choosing that specific blue (#0044CC for you color enthusiasts) over some other hues amounted to an additional $80 million in annual revenue, when one factors in the additional clicks on advertisements and increased user engagement.
Now, many times you’ll use a link as a call to action. This one shade of blue is the color for links. Keep it underlined. Don’t be fancy. Don’t mix it up with other colors either.
What’s the perfect color for buttons?
Orange, or a shade of it. Typically this color contrasts the best with websites. The color of your button is ’set apart’ from your website. There are tests that have proven this countless times. Here’s a few posts:
If you go to Bing’s homepage, you’ll notice they use an orange search button. It is likely that they also found that orange is best for buttons.
This is the power of testing. Use the above shade of blue for links. And, for buttons, it needs to contrast with the rest of the site — this color is typically orange.
Everyone has different screen resolutions, but there is a way to find out exactly where that crucial fold is at — by using this one, free tool: FoldTester.
To show you how this works, I decided to examine three EDU landing pages:
LowerMyBills / ClassesUSA
(Click image for full size)
As you can see the page is color coded with approximately what percentage of internet users will see this page without scrolling. Over 90% will see the call to action, “GO” — which means this page focuses on getting the user started immediately on the form instead of trying to sell to them too much.
Phoenix
These guys are one of the heaviest marketers for online degrees so it’s likely they’ll be optimized. This landing page is used in their search marketing campaign. This page has one similarity to ClassesUSA; they both keep their form above the fold for virtually all users. This page has a lot of room for improvement, but the most important change would be to make a single, clear headline. There’s too much competing for attention above the fold.
GoGetEducation
Here’s a random landing page that obviously has not been tested much. Now, you might ask why I know it has not been tested much — because to many marketers, it looks good for these reasons:
People look at what others are looking at. Have a model looking where you want your user to look.
We want the user to look at the form — not at their back button or other distractions to the left of the page. This page with a few changes and a good presell page could do well though.
Is having your content “Above the Fold” important?
Yes and no. Here’s what I mean: Having your call to action above the fold is essential if your presell is very short. However, in long landing pages many marketers have found out that call to actions lower in the page’s content — instead of it in the first paragraph — have a higher conversion rate. Tracking each call to action and click is important to determine where your call to action should be. So, having your call to action lower in the pages, may actually force people to read your sales pitch before clicking.
Rule of Thumb: Have your most engaging content above the fold. And, at minimum answer these three questions above the fold by use of adcopy and/or design:
This was my third Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas. And, I still learned a lot. This time it was at the Wynn.
One of the highlights was the Ca$hvertising keynote. For this post, I’ll share a few tips from the keynote and one of the sessions that stood out.
17 Proven Studies to Make You Money
Here are the best publicly-stated ways to increase your conversion rate that I heard at the conference:
Readability
1) Fancy fonts are used to make something sound that more effort went into making it (Source: Derek Halpern). Restaurants often use fancy fonts to make the food look like it took a lot of effort to make.
2) Figure. Optimal width for reading online is around 550-600 pixels wide (Source: Halpern). This got the best reading comprehension on average. Halpern also recommended having a thinner opening paragraph. Then, the body content expands as it’s read. See example of DerekHalpern.com, above.
3) Reverse type on print reduces readership by 70% (Source: Whitman). People aren’t used to white letters on a black background; it’s annoying to read.
4) Figure. Captions have high readership — often by 2-3 times more than the body of an article (Source: Whitman). Ogilvy often used his captions as headlines because of the increased readership from this.
5) CAPS slows down reading by 11.8% (Source: Whitman). Exception is when only putting ONE or two words in caps for emphasis.
6) Don’t use Times New Roman font online (Source: Whitman).
Pictures and Photographs
7) Figure. People look at what others are looking at (Source: Halpern). Have a model looking where you want your user to look. See example with Chemistry.com.
8 ) Arrows also guide eye flow in a similar manner (Source: Whitman).
9) Engage users by having a smiling person staring from the monitor to the user (Source: Halpern). Grabs attention.
10) Do not use motionless photos (Source: Whitman). For example, a person riding a bicycle would likely be more effective than just showing a picture of bicycle.
11) Cartoons can be powerful in ads (Source: Whitman). 39% of newspaper subscribers read the comics; this is a higher percentage than many categories.
12) Use top down (to the left) product images online (Source: Halpern). Shows the three dimensional aspect of a product that most would expect to see in real life.
Miscellaneous
13) Figure. Use less than 6 offers on a page (Source: Halpern). 3 is most likely optimal. Above 6 offers dramatically decreases conversion rates.
14) Show “lock” near credit card form to improve conversions (Source: Halpern).
15) Remove all navigation from billing information page (Source: Halpern). No one wants to spend money. People will use any excuse to not buy. Having unnecessary links/navigation is often a trigger for users to not buy.
16) Put core benefit in headline (Source: Whitman).
17) Paying for larger ad space rarely results in an equal or greater ROI (Source: Whitman). This was from an offline study — although it’s probably very similar to online as well.
More About the Show
Dr. Drew Eric Whitman was the first keynote speaker this year. He’s the author of Ca$hvertising, one of the most recommended advertising books today. I wrote many of his tips above. Even though I lost my voice at the conference, I was still able to talk to him briefly at the end of his keynote. For at least the last three conferences, Affiliate Summit has done a superb job on locking in very knowledgeable and helpful speakers. Last time they had Frank Lunz, a pollster and political analyst that knew a lot about which type of words persuade people — very helpful for copywriters and affiliates. The time before, there was Dr. Robert Cialdini. Dr. Cialdini went over the very fundamental reasons people are persuaded.
I went to a few sessions to give my voice a break. Amanda Orson and Ad Hustler had a good session on Local Affiliate Marketing. Ad Hustler gave some more details on the post he made before: How I Generated $1,700,000 in Auto Sales Despite a Weak Economy. His landing page examples of the different lead generation campaigns he ran were really creative, I thought.
In summary, I enjoyed this ASW and learned a lot that will help my business grow. If I missed any parts of the keynote that you think I should add, post a comment below and I’ll add it.
Update: Affiliate Summit added the Ca$hervertising keynote to Youtube:
Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link to a book costing a whopping ten bucks. Also, in case I misquoted a case study, make sure you actually split test if you use one of these techniques, and track the results. I cannot guarantee these statements will actually make you money.
This is the story of how I met one of the best salesmen.
Copywriter, Hopkins wrote continuously, “Advertising is salesmanship in print.” Some of the best ways to become a fantastic advertiser is to study expert salesmanship.
My girlfriend told me about a group of people at her mall that she dreads walking by. They’ve persuaded her to buy, one of her relatives, and one of our friends. The grand total these salesmen made off of just these three people had been over $300.00. If these people make eye contact with you, they’ve essentially already closed the sale. These salesmen run Dead Sea Premier kiosks. These kiosks carry skincare and grooming supplies.
Because I wanted to learn how these guys closed sales so well, I asked my girlfriend to take me to one of their booths. She was reluctant. She warned me how good they were, but I was so curious that I decided I’ll take on the risk. I truly doubted any salesman was that good.
There were at least two of these Dead Sea Premier kiosks at the mall. We walked by and around the first of these kiosks, but the salesman didn’t even try to sell to us! He primarily focused on getting two older women instead. He was familiar with his target demographic. Apparently, it wasn’t me.
However, I was really, really determined to get sold to. We then approached another one of their kiosks. A salesman then came up to us. To protect the innocent, let’s name this salesman, Mr. Accent (he had a strong accent). He was from Israel – which gave him credibility of knowing about the Dead Sea skincare benefits.
First thing he asks, is for us to put out our hands. My hands were in my pockets so I pretended to be hesitant. He reassured me, and then I took my hands out. He implies that my hands are nice, and then he immediately transitions me near a bucket where he places my hands. I was nervous because I was completely determined to not buy. He jokes about how I’m standing so far away from the kiosk and their lotion/cleanser. That forced me to be polite and to step closer.
This cleanser makes my office hands smoother than I thought were even possible. Then, all the dirt from my hands make the white bucket look nearly brown. So Mr. Accent jokingly asks me if I took a shower. My girlfriend and I laughed. Already, by this time, the color of the bucket had completely surprised me. He gives a reasonable explanation as to why this is. I’m now interested. My defenses are starting to come down. I even stupidly agreed how the product is amazing to him.
From my knowledge of persuasion, here’s what Mr. Accent did:
Reciprocity. Tried the product for free. I’m using up his valuable time. I start to feel like I owe him something in return.
Scarcity. Near the end of his demonstration and pitch, he tells me that they’re doing a 1-day sale. Not very believable, but he gave an actual reason for this. If I recall correctly, it was because it was their 10-year anniversary today. Using scarcity with an actual reason is much, much more effective than scarcity alone.
Authority. He’s essentially from the Dead Sea. So I trust he knows his facts well.
Consistency. He made me admit that the product worked amazingly well and that I was completely surprised by the results. If I think the product is good, why wouldn’t I buy it?
Likability. This guy is incredibly friendly and even humorous. The guy seems cool to me. He got me to believe that he’s on my side and this is the best price his manager will ever let him give. (Side note: He also showed me respect before he said much to my girlfriend. Also, he was courteous to her but never flirtatious.)
There are a total of six principles of influence according to Dr. Cialdini. I listed five that were used by Mr. Accent.
At the end of this demonstration, we nearly bought. My pride (of not being willing to be persuaded) stopped me from buying. However, my girlfriend plans on going back to buy. We got him to drop the price so low that I think it’s a good deal when my girlfriend buys it later.
I told Mr. Accent that I did online advertising. We also complemented him on salesmanship skills. He admitted that he closes about 80-90% of people that he has test the products.
In summary, even though I didn’t buy today, I was still persuaded that his product is good and that we should buy from him later.
