150 Experiments on the Call-to-Action: Six psychological conditions that hinder our results (Part 2)

welcome back to part 2 150 experiments on the call to action can you imagine what you could learn if you ran 150 scientific experiments carefully monitored for multiple types of validity threats if you did meta-analysis and studied patterns we went through over I think it was 750 pages of data we went through all of these experiments and pulled out something vital I'm teaching the second part if you missed part one you can you can look here on the channel and find the first part and go through it but if you are watching part two for the second time it teaches independently you can learn right now let's go to an experiment this experiment is interesting to me first of all because the page is ugly we've been testing all over the world many languages in Asia and we find in Asia there's a much busier page that often works this page is ugly and it does something most of us do it has a classic upsell in the cart so that's the control in the treatment we no longer upsell we don't try to get you to buy anything else we do something counterintuitive we actually use the space to address to address specific concerns that might trouble the prospective customer remember as you've heard me say many times this is the page it's a signal set we're chewing something in the mind in the control we have got you to say yes to a group of items so now we're trying to get you to say yes to additional items but what do we really want we want more revenue per customer so if you look at the control on the treatment side by side and you would probably expect that the treatment barring the fact that you're learning from an experiment right now and you're probably wondering so what's the catch well the catch is pretty straightforward we stopped talking about buying more we didn't do any upsell and we do have revenue up by a significant percentage you say well what presented is that well I'm going to show that to you as this unfold so stay tuned and we talk about what was going on here in the cognitive dissonance that allowed us to take out all the up-sales address anxiety and drive more revenue I mean a 5% improvement can you imagine if you just got every customers been 5% more are you 5% would be important let's see what happens let's watch it unfold but let me take you first of all to the fourth dangerous psychological condition we call it elemental paralysis like a doctor we're going to define it and we're going to tell you how to treat it but let's start with the definitions a state of confusion that halts the momentum the prospect doesn't move forward because they're they're trying to sort out competing CTAs now this connects very closely to the example we begin with but let's keep going what's the root cause it's Colin it's commonly caused by the marketers inability to see themselves and be able to explain the difference between more more asks in fact what happens so often is the case that that our web pages become real estate fiefdoms and we are warring factions trying to get our little piece someone said a camel is a horse put together by committee most of our web pages feel like camels and so how do you keep someone from being confused by the confusion we have inside of our own organization well here's some of the symptoms here are some of the signs you may be experiencing this in your CTA and as I share these with you I just want to point out that of all the things we teach nothing is more actionable than what you're learning last week and this week I mean within a moment you can go back change something on a page and see a dramatic increase so tune in I'm going to show you actual examples and you'll be able to take those examples I'm think about what you're doing and say to yourself so how can i how can i shape my CTA differently and produce better results here's one signs when there's two more similar CTS in the same page be where that could be so dangerous when there are two more primary customer profiles coming to the page and you're trying to talk to both of them at the same time I once worked with a site that wanted to recruit dentist to pay for leads and also want to recruit people to participate in the program and have a recommended dentists ask yourself question if you go to a page that's purporting to help you make the best decision and find the best dentist in your area and on the same page you're appealing to Dennis to buy leads from you what message do you think you're sending to the actual prospective dental patient that this isn't about a recommendation it's about advertising selling leads that the dentist's they recommend is just the one that pays the most that's the kind of danger that we often miss because we're too busy brokering the wars between different divisions of our organization and we don't realize that the victim turns out to be the actual customer so how distinct is the CTA between these let's take a look at this page students a bit of this we've worked with Humana and testing take a look and you see go and find a plan I wonder what go means do you know what go means are you prepared to go before you know what it means what's gonna happen when you put this information in why do you have to have my zip code are you gonna target me in ways that understand I'm now experiencing anxiety and also friction and you're doing nothing to relieve it and then find the right Medicare plan for your needs how does that call-to-action compare with this one is that step one because I can tell a bit step one so let's look at some examples of how to solve for this nonsense aligning each path two distinctly separate customer interests some pages shouldn't even have the same like the one with the dentist shouldn't have the dentist and the patient coming the same page period under any circumstances forget it but in some cases we can help people sort themselves out if we give them clarity in this case this is was a this is a medical facility that handles spinal injuries and we're not showing the page these are just and we've turned the images black and white to keep this dead simple and we've grayed out the name and we've done all that and some of the a couple of the images because we're protecting the brand but I want you to see the fundamental difference to the customer these three calls to action are difficult to understand are you a candidate and then news and then research we changed that to take our chronic and it's a it's about back pain questionnaire compare treatment options and learn about our long-term you know patient care so there's just something like that the difference in the bottom is that it becomes very easy for me to zero in on what matters to me at the moment and instead of hitting me with you know three boxes and a thinking like news and of generic vague piece like research this is lazy thinking and it produces mitigated results but how big a difference does it does it make if you get people clarity see listen you may not hear anything else I ever say again so why don't you give me three minutes of your energy and focus on this of all the problems I see when I study the the failed psychology of our offer pages the most common is also the easiest to correct think about what I just said because if it's the most common then why is it I mean it just doesn't make sense if it's so easy to correct why is it so common I don't have the answer I think we I think our blind spot our self-interest our deadlines our rush keeps us from seeing the pages the way other people see in this approach we did not do a deep data analysis listen to me forget all I'm all about the data data is just behavioral traces but I'm also a suspicious of marketers who are constantly stalling until they get more data I didn't need any data to fix this just the test data afterwards we don't need the data we didn't need to hire a brilliant designer we didn't need a brilliant copywriter we didn't need development to come in and create a whole new process we ourselves the marketer could make a simple change and have a bigger impact than had we done all of that because without clarity never be believed and if they don't believe you nothing else you say matters if they don't understand they can't believe if they understand but they don't believe you're still at zero but if they don't understand they'll never believe and you'll never get a customer I'm stressing this because a simple change produced a 331 percent increasing conversion that is not an exaggerated number nor is that a number which I often see in tests where I ran a test it looked good we shut it off that had to be certified by a team of scientists who are experts in this we rent 20,000 these experiments that's a real number and the takeaway should get is not the MEK lab scientists are smart not that that that uh you know wow if I can just get the words perfect the magical words I'll be able to drive more revenue no the takeaway from this is that clarity is possible for every marketer whether you consider yourself a copywriter or not and this simple improvement that comes from clarity often has a remarkably higher impact than you expect I don't omit conversion this is a problem you can fix and one of the problems right now with our buttons that are calls to action is they create confusion see people are absorbing your page like a story and as they absorb it like a story they are when they're trying to make certain they're understanding where things are going they skip ahead and read the last chapter what's the last chapter in your story from a practical standpoint for most of us it's the CTA this is why you'll see some people when they don't understand the pages scrolling down to find the CTA so they can understand the first of three questions or the second of three questions what can I do here what is it you want me to do until I see the CTA sometimes I can't even sort out what you're doing on the page when I arrive on your page I have three questions where am I like am I in the right place and if I'm not sure of that I just terminate your existence with a single click the second question is what can I do here and the third is why should I do it you've heard me teach this but many of you are new and you're not seeing this so where that is am I in the right place what that is what can I do here and that is why missus everything else this is what the rest of the page is about why should I do it that's your value proposition that is the argument of your value proposition articulately presented as an ultimate reason so let's move on one way to treat the problem is align each path two distinctly separate customer interest that's their interest another is to do the same thing with very specific prospect focused products remember there's four kinds of value propositions and there is product and prospect level value propositions and by doing this you help create clarity from this three columns see three calls to action to this what's going on here well a lot more than you can tell from looking at the design because we know that the actual revenue increase was 63% now that's an increase in revenue per visit do you think about that Wow what retailer right now in the brick and mortar world wouldn't love to see 63 percent more money come from each person that walked through the door that's what we're talking about right here and that happened because we brought clarity treatment three aligning each path two distinctly separate steps in a process making it really clear that there are three step like giant a webinar try a real-time demo open a live account I don't like the horizontal presentation I don't like it without the numbers but the three easy ways to get started I like that and the difference is more people get through this bottleneck thirty five percent more get through it because they have greater clarity about where they're going marketers in your role because you are the customer philosopher of your organization you must keep management from gaining internal clarity at the expense of external clarity I often see management organize the page in a way that's pleasing to the company but it means nothing to the customer it's dangerous to succumb to the illusion that the prospect sees our company the way we see it they do not they do not know what we know about the company and it is incumbent on us to over communicate with clarity so then I've talked two points and I have another diagnostic for you compositional noun paralysis an elemental paralysis two forms of paralysis that slow people down in there buying momentum this is a checklist to help you think it through again we'll try to make it available on the page and a download for you I'm moving on I have two more conditions terminal anxiety what is that a state of impending decision reversal or hesitation because you haven't actually addressed some of the more fundamental most important questions they have root cause of that where do you see that it's commonly caused by under estimating the concern or last-minute fears of the customer and and and so here's some here's some signs you may be having this ailment on your page when the CT acquires information through a form be careful when the CT is closer to the macro yes of the offer when the CT lacks nearby credibility indicators strategically placed right there on the page right at the moment of concern let's look at examples order your free book today what concerns are left on address for the CTA order free book somebody tell me in fact I'm not live but you can still think what's missing what am I worried what it's gonna happen when I fill out that form and click that red button are you gonna spam me are you gonna protect my privacy is this salesperson gonna bother me selling the other things is this just the baton so I could just go on and on but the top five concerns need to be addressed on this page or you are leaving money on the table so how do you fix such things well overcorrecting for any last-minute specific concerns here's an example test protocol one zero seven zero national computer hardware multimedia retailer with significant online presence the goals increased total cart conversions and revenue per conversion oh wait a second you mean this ugly page belonged to a big retailer yes a national retailer you'd know their name instantly and yes this was the upsell in the cart and as you know we took the upsell out and reassured the customer now what's worth more that reassurance are that opportunity to buy more well exactly what's worth more and by how much eleven point six percent increase in revenue per cart or conversion when we took the upsell out it doesn't even make sense they can't buy as much and yet they're buying more we didn't even give them the offer and they're buying more why because more people are buying and the people are buying have more confidence because we address them you say well what's that worth about 53 million dollars in annual revenue for this organization 53 let me say that again 53 million dollars I've seen that number over a billion I really haven't experiments mind-blowing experiments but 53 million dollars wait a second like we made 53 million dollars by taking the upsell out of the cart at this point yes because there's something that comes way something way more important than your right to shove offers in front of people and it's that it's their right to understand with clarity what they're really getting keep it in mind and let's go to another way to treat this addressing customer questions or concerns in close proximity to the call batching right when we ask is right when they be the the moment when their concern densifies and when that happens we need to address it their add to cart summarises their action with essential product information this Papa Hoover reinf Assizes a money-back guarantee presented earlier in the process anybody that's been in my 10 tips and classes if you haven't we have a small research base we're a full research institute but we do a lot of teaching and research and we actually come and help you solve a business problem and use this to expand our learning and our research and our understanding etcetera we actually spend 138 million dollars on the research program and I share that with you to say that whenever I'm teaching I often ask see that seal right there do you know what it takes to get that seal that beautiful gold seal with a red ribbon and all the remarkable design it takes Photoshop now if you're wondering what I just said or if you're laughing already you get it it doesn't take any special award you don't have to win something qualify for something you don't have to go through an application process you just have to use Photoshop to say what you were trying to say and say it better with visual emphasis that's all it's doing it's completely honest if that's a real guarantee and if you really give it back and if it's really one year and if nothing on it's wrong then we'll done good for you in this case that guarantee produces 37 percent increase in conversion you'd be hard-put to spend your design dollars more effectively okay let's keep going so we're we're moving into that final point here in just a moment but look from this to this and then you can see that there is a evidential place at the bottom and the go and a 35% increase in conversion and and I'll finish this point by another quote anxiety is the emotional cost of risk did you hear that it's the emotional cost of risk and often this cost outweighs the rational expectation of the marketer far far outweighs the rational thinking anxiety cannot be corrected with a rational measure you have to assault the source of society with a full-on barrage of credible counters it takes more if you're not clear on that just ask yourself do you have a friend have you ever had a friend who had problems with anxiety did giving him a rational explanation solve the problem I bet it didn't but it didn't I spent this weekend trying to help a friend with enormous anxiety and the one thing that was clear we weren't gonna get to where we needed to go by me sitting down in the spelling out logically why they shouldn't be afraid so we've got to think about that and finally in our sixth dangerous condition transitional vertigo what is it well it's a fancy word it's a state of mismatched expectations that's where the vertigo they're off-balance it's a disconnect in the messaging of the CTA from what came before it and in fact it's commonly caused by focusing too much on one step and ignoring the overall path and we we lose sight of where we're at in the mind here's some signs some symptoms you may be experiencing this in your own pages when the CTA does not logically connect with a headline of the subsequent page or the same page at the top did you hear that very important when the CTA fails to set proper expectation of what's going to happen after they click that's really important when the customer cannot gain clarity with seven seconds even I mean if they click on there and they don't know where they're at and the next seven seconds aren't crystal clear you're in danger of losing the gain that you thought you had so is this expectation produced by the CTA is it isn't met on the subsequent page no because you thought you were checking out and now you're logging in or registering to create an account this is suicide this is devastating if you have this in your e-commerce tier so anywhere get it out it can come afterwards but it shouldn't come before it's costing you far too much if it is uh however if your razor sharp and you heard me last week you may be thinking yeah is that true always no nothing I'm saying is true always human nature is consistent but appliqu needs to be tested nevertheless I can say in hundreds of tests when I move the log into after the purchase we saw conversion increases right treatment one changing the destination URL to a page that aligns more closely to the substance of the previous ask when I say treatment this is like a medical treatment so change the destination URL to a page that aligns most closely to the substance of the previous ask like do you see all this from this to this we didn't need those pieces in between but do you know what we didn't need and if you stayed with me this long and and if you kids subscribe or you hit like or your sharing with a friend I will give you the bonus coz here's what we did want we wanted a 533 percent increasing a version who wouldn't we got it not by doing anything but removing really important let's do philosophy let's do physics for one minute ready one minute physic class there are three things you can do to make a page better are you ready here they are all you could ever do is add something remove something or change something what do we do here we remove that's the easy thing of all of you what do we get ridiculous result as we got out of our own way not this wait a second what we just took out one step but we also gained 30 percent almost number two changing the subsequent page copy to better align with a substance of the previous ask that's really important and I could show you an example I had one here at k-state is 97 percent increase but we're out of time and all that we did was make sure that we aligned the copy and the CTA you can either change the CTA or you can change the copy but get them saying the same thing make the CTA the climax of an inevitable conclusion remember what's going on here you're controlling people's conclusions you're not making claims they don't believe your claims you're fostering the conclusion in their mind their conclusion they own it they'll defend it they'll fight for it cuz it's theirs it's not yours it's theirs by the way that's where bran derives its power the bran derives its power from expectation not from promises and the expectation comes from a conclusion about the brand based on the a great experience of the value proposition I leave you with this quote confusion impedes progress and on the web people resolve confusion not with effort but with regress we just we we solve our confusion the way we really can in life we just click a little button and the problem disappears and we go back to where we started ah what's happened in the last hundred years is staggering and along with all the progress is this new power that we've given to people we did it first happened in television it was mind boggling people hated the remote when it first came out cuz when you no longer had to get up I am old enough to remember when you had to get up the change the dials and it was a dial it wasn't digital yeah des turn it then we came along with this magnificent invention and it's like it's like evolution in Reverse I mean for the average marketer it was just death and destruction because with a single click I can Turman every opportunity you will ever have to engage in my life now I mentioned one session ago if you didn't see the previous session look at the one I taught last week or the last time I taught I taught the first three points and I told how I met my wife and when we you know we dated for one year one week in one day and then we got married and I've been married 33 years but you know she was a beautiful girl and I'm sure she had lots of guys talk to her and I'm not trying to be my you know I'm so everybody's hypersensitive I political correctness I'm I mean this respectfully ladies but my point is this what if man or woman what if I had one of these remotes and when I went out on a Friday night if somebody said something I didn't like if they walked up to me and bothered me I just pushed a button and I disappeared boom gone like something from men in black just boom what a wonderful device we could all benefit from that but our lives would be quite different and the reality is in the day of television and now the Internet you're able to terminate someone's entire scope their opportunity to ever interact with you again so the stupid is saying you can possibly do is confuse them because here's how we sort out confusion we resolve confusion not with effort on the internet but with regrets indeed with just one clip they can terminate the conversation and for all practical purposes your existence so let's work harder to be clear let's build calls to action that serve people instead of glorified ads let's transform the way we message communicate talk with those people who are so important to our lives the lives of our families our potential customers [Music]