MarketingExperiments Blog: Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

When it comes to designing a homepage, sometimes people forget that its purpose is to give multiple types of users what they want, and to do so as quickly as possible. After all, you only have their attention for a brief moment, and they can easily make your page disappear by simply clicking on that little “x” on the corner of their screen.

This is especially true, in the case of e-commerce Web sites — where visitors have differing motivations for visiting the page, and are probably looking for specific types of products. But, how do you effectively meet all those needs?

Well, that’s exactly what we wanted to find out during an Optimization Training Session class (which I infiltrated, by the way) taught at our labs by our Senior Optimization Manager, Adam Lapp.

This is a class where some of our newest research team members hone their optimization skills – they even have homework! But, Mr. Lapp, isn’t one of those boring, monotone-lecturing teachers who puts their students to sleep (which reminds me, I really don’t miss school). He’s that cool teacher who lets you call him by his first name. And one of his latest, fun teaching tactics included launching an e-commerce homepage optimization contest. So, I brushed up on my journalism skills and took notes to give you a report on the contest results. Read more…

We say in our online courses that every element of a Web page must state or support the value proposition. But, what communicates the value of an offer better – a beautiful image or well-crafted copy? Do people tend to respond better to images or do they prefer copy?

All marketers have to face these questions at one time or another in the creative process, and recently, our research analysts had the opportunity to test this particular issue. You might be, as I was, surprised by the results. Read more…

“Art & Copy” is a recent film about advertising and the title pretty much sums up your marketing communication tools right there. In Wednesday’s free Web clinic – Images vs. Copy: How getting the right balance increased conversion by 29% – Flint McGlaughlin, the Managing Director (CEO) of MECLABS, will a strategic process for integrating images and copy to increase response.

But first, we wanted to hear how you balance art and copy. And while no one responded, “Steel cage grudge match between the copywriter and the art director,” here are a few of our favorite answers… Read more…

“Loooovin’ you, is easy because you’re marketable….la la la la la la la laaaa.”

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and love is in the air all throughout the MarketingExperiments lab. In honor of this well-marketed holiday, we sent a few virtual Valentines to our favorite advertising and marketing industry news sources.

Cuddle up with your favorite blog and watch the love flow… Read more…

On December 3rd in Haarlem, The Netherlands, Dr. Flint McGlaughlin spoke at the Dutch Email Marketing Association Summit, also known as the “Sexy” Email Event. The Director of MECLABS (the parent company of MarketingExperiments) discussed how to improve email and related landing page conversions and conducted live optimization of audience submissions. Below is one of those submissions, along with a conversion diagnosis that will hopefully give you some ideas to improve the performance of your own marketing efforts. Please note, it has been translated from its original language of Dutch.

This submission is a B2B website seeking to drive downloads of a whitepaper.

[click to enlarge image]

For this particular page we have to assume that visitors are well qualified. They either have searched for “electric pallet trucks” or have navigated through the site to arrive here. Knowing this, the headline is pretty standard. It’s effective in several ways:
• Continuity between steps
• Communicates “where” visitors are

However, it does not answer two key questions:
• What can I do here? I don’t know if I can order, request more info, get a quote, or just view photos.
• Why should I order a pallet truck from Toyota instead of another competitor?

Several variations of the headline that add value and provide the visitor with guidance should be tested.

Value: You must add appeal, exclusivity, and credibility to give force to the value proposition of this product. Consider testing a quantitative variation such as: “Electric Pallet Trucks: 95% Customer Approval Rating” or “Electric Pallet Trucks: Crafted by Toyota for More Than 50 Years.”

Guidance: You must greet the visitor and “hold their hand” as they experience the page. In the primary headline, communicate value. But then in the sub-headline, you want to make it what exactly they can do on this page clear. For instance, “Download Product Details and Get Price Quotes.”

Once a visitor reads the headline, they are then forced to digest a bulky paragraph of six lines…a hard swallow. Most likely, your typical visitor may read the first or second line then have their eye-path drawn away from the paragraph by the large images. If you have important information in the last few lines, it will be missed. We recommend using a maximum of two-to-three lines of copy so that it’s easy to get to the point and move on to the next paragraph.

Also, there are no bolded words in the copy. This creates a disruption on the page that halts the eye-path and visitors just see one large chunk. Instead of moving seamlessly down the page, visitors may get lost in the copy. Important words such as “ergonomic” don’t stand out from trivial words such as “things.” It all just runs together.

You should also bold keywords so that your page adapts to different visitor segments. People who don’t like to read and just want to get to the point can just scan four words and move on. While people who need every single detail can still take their time reading the copy.

Where the heck do I click? Okay, so it looks like clicking on the triangles results in a whitepaper download. But they don’t appear clickable and they blend in with the images. This page should definitely make links that are directly below the images into buttons and ensure they have properties that make them appear clickable – such as bevel and drop shadow. Also, test button copy that is clear and provides a tangible benefit such as “Download Your Free Whitepaper.”

There is another place to click for visitors who already know all the information about the pallet trucks and are ready to buy. Do you see it? It takes a second, but it is at the bottom of the right column: “Yes, I want a quote for a pallet truck.” This is an important link for the actual bottom line of the company. People who click here are interested in buying. But it’s small, de-emphasized by location, and does not attract the visitor’s eye-path with color and so forth.

Someone ready for a quote does not need to download a white paper. So consider a test where this link is placed above the images, right after the paragraph. Also, a blue font will make it stand out from the other font. Blue is the Internet standard for a link and this color change will help make it more obvious that the link is clickable.

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin will next be speaking live about optimizing email response at MarketingSherpa’s Em@il Summit ’10 in Miami, Florida from January 20-22, 2010. He will also be teaching a live pre-summit Email Optimization Workshop on January 20.

In our October 28 web clinic, we discussed how to use color, shape, location, size, and motion to help guide our website visitors to where they should click. We all know designing web pages is somewhat of an art, especially for companies like ACS Creative. But designing the most effective webpages is also a science. You have to assess every element on the page to determine whether or not it:

• Helps guide the visitor to the primary objective
• Distracts the visitor from the primary objective
• Neither hurts nor helps conversion

I would like to thank ACS Creative for attending the webinar and also for submitting their page for expert review; it definitely takes a certain degree of bravery. Of course, our goal is not to tear you down, but to help you implement the most effective page possible.

Below is the page ACS Creative submitted for live optimization.

[click to enlarge]

First, we see that ACS Creative has designed a very clean and professional website. But I have to ask, where do you want your visitors to click?

This task, surprisingly, is not that easy to determine to the untrained eye. Here’s why:

1. The main “Web Services” image is moving visitors towards incorrect “implied” direction. If you notice, only one of the eight arrows is pointing towards the main objective. The others are pointing towards the supplementary blue image, the top navigation, the footer, and also towards that big red “X” that contributes negatively to your bounce rate.
2. The screen shot of the Stratford University website is bright blue and the footer is bright red, and both are drawing the eyepath away from the “gray” buttons.
3. Multiple objectives! Let’s say I do ignore the elements with more emphasis than the primary objective or I quickly scan them then revert back to the gray buttons, I still have to make a decision. And yes, the decision is not that difficult, but it is a decision nonetheless. It takes extra time. It is an extra step between deciding to act and acting. What should I click on? Web Services or Contact Us? I may want web services but I may also want to contact you for more information. It can become confusing.

If I were designing a version of this page to test, I would reconsider the percentage of width of the page dedicated to the primary web services objective. It should definitely be more than 50%, thus de-emphasizing the “size” of the bright blue secondary objective that is the Stratford University screenshot.

I would also create some space between the buttons and the footer. Show the visitors that the bright red footer is not that important by using a lower “position” on the page.

And finally, the buttons need to be a “color” that stands out from the page as a whole, the footer, and the secondary images. You may consider making the footer gray and the buttons red. Also regarding the buttons, the one which has the most importance to conversion should be a red button and the other one should be a simple text link… easy to see, but not overshadowing where you want most visitors to click.

Good luck!  Let us know if you decide to test this strategy and what your results are.