CXL Blog

The problem with a brand is that you don't know if it's the most effective use of the resources that go into it. Coca Cola has nearly infinite resources, compared to the jobs I've worked (<$75mm annual revenue). Even then, can they prove the value of their brand is an effective use of their marketing dollars? What I've read has a lot of correlations that could be explained by other causes. For a good read on this, check out the Intel Inside section on this article: https://conversionxl.com/cro-vs-branding/

Best article I've read on this that's free. http://conversionxl.com/13Ways-ConversionXL.pdf

Another great guide on Pricing: http://conversionxl.com/pricing-experiments-you-might-not-know-but-can…

You might want to do some kind of emotional connection before "donating" paying (1), and review the studies on "pay what you wish". I can't find the best one I saw (which I believe said to set a default price), but I found these others: http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/07/20/how-to-maximize-pay-what-you-wi… this one is long, but has a section on "pay what you wish" midway through. http://conversionxl.com/pricing-experiments-you-might-not-know-but-can… (1) I mean something like saying: "you accomplished X goal this month !!!". Probably someone else has more specific advice :) , I've never tried pay-as-you wish myself, but seen lots of previous advice here!

Fantastic stuff all year from Peep Laja. My thanks. Short on time? My Top 3 (no particular order): (1) http://conversionxl.com/value-proposition-examples-how-to-create/ (1A) http://conversionxl.com/10-principles-of-effective-pricing-pages/ (1B) http://conversionxl.com/how-to-design-user-flow/

Something recent- http://conversionxl.com/10-principles-of-effective-pricing-pages/ and something from 2008-http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/10/13/pricing-tables-showcase-exa…

Without wading into this drama, the below article on pricing experiments is a fantastic resource as it provides a lot of different perspectives on pricing (I'm not affiliated with the site). http://conversionxl.com/pricing-experiments-you-might-not-know-but-can… With all things "startup" (pricing, design, customer on-boarding, etc), there are no absolutes. So articles which offer frameworks that help you ask the right questions or think through the process are generally more valuable and this one does that IMO.

> "70% of businesses don't do user research... and this is basically constant over revenue buckets from $0 to $50M+." > I think there are a surprising number of things you could replace for "user research" here, in that meat-and-potatoes things that are well-written-about seem like they're technologies which should exist everywhere... but they're not. > Also worth noting that there are many businesses which have several genres of meat-and-potatoes things missing but they do one or several things well enough to cause success in spite of that. If this is accurate shouldn’t it be possible to go from nothing to charging $10,000 per consulting engagement in under a year? Do one of the shorter coding boot camps that will actually teach you a useful amount, like App Academy, then do a course on conversionxl, like their conversion optimisation “mini-degree”[1] and then do a lot of sales calls? [1]https://conversionxl.com/institute/

I have no question that people who have built brands believe that it was successful. We can even look at "big brands" like Coke -- they sell sugar water + a brand -- surely that must be real. My nuanced take is that a brand "exists" in the sense that we are able to understand it, what it represents, etc. What we do not know is if that's the best way to spend resources. All the money that went into Intel Inside -- what if they spent it on something else? No marketer can know that; the question as a marketer: "is this the best thing I can do with my resources?" Nothing about "building a brand" provides objective feedback or testable predictions about the usage of that dollar. Suggesting that TV advertising can't be a scam because so many people have put so much effort into it is another fallacy. Old school TV advertising was done by people whose jobs dependent on the revenue stream -- even if branding were completely ineffective; if they got paid, I wouldn't consider that irrational. Brands happen. They can have value, but we can only try to prove that value after the fact. Direct response, on the other hand, tends to be less full of b.s. https://conversionxl.com/blog/cro-vs-branding/

I'm commenting on the marketing aspect as a marketing analyst: I would: 1) Change the navigation of the site making About 2nd. In About, I honestly find it daunting that there is seemingly only one person behind it. The number of people behind a product doesn't matter so much, but it does matter how this is displayed. So for instance there is no info about Gary on who he is or to his twitter or linkedin. This kind of information is like a validation mechanism like testimonials and doesn't hurt to add. If anything, it makes the team member seem more real and accountable even if most of the users will never contact them through it. The founder - Dominic St-Pierre is mentioned but there is no info about him at all. 2) Change your about page by: a) Adding all team member profiles to the page b) Providing more info about each team member c) Adding twitter & linkedin links to the team member profile Example: https://hootsuite.com/about/leadership Even larger companies like twitter and twilio do something like this - http://www.twilio.com/company/management https://about.twitter.com/company/leadership d) Put the team members at the bottom and the text from the founder at the top. If possible, add a story about why this company was made to solve what pain points for which audience. 3) Add a call to action button to 'Try Osmosis' in the navigation bar next to Login. Your call to action on the homepage is very prominent which is great, but on other pages you need to scroll…

Be sure to check out http://conversionxl.com/blog/ for marketing how to's/tricks/growth hacks - it's one of the best sources. I like the idea. I'd suggest some effort be put into the grammar on the website and blog because small things like that create a negative impression for some people. Example, from: Poucher lets you generate discount vouchers, for the restaurant or bar you like. The more Poucher users in a restaurant or bar means more discounts. So pick the nearest venue with highest population and enjoy your live discount. To: Poucher lets you create a discount coupon for the restaurant or bar you visit. The more Poucher users in a restaurant or bar, the higher discount you'll receive. Get Poucher now and start enjoying your live discounts! *Disclaimer: Discount coupons are only available for participating venues and valid for the visit - (see our list for participating venues near you.)[link]

The "false bottom" thing is pretty well covered in UX/Conversion optimization circles. See, e.g. https://conversionxl.com/blog/false-bottom/

You are 100% correct and there is plenty of "science" that goes into it. It is similar to how a person reads a website[0][1], in an F pattern; The most important information should be top right, with lower importance being down below. Also, all hier tier items (think steak/shrimp) are always near the middle of the menu, to "sandwich" them between items that are more cost conscious in order to downplay the price difference. [0]: https://conversionxl.com/blog/10-useful-findings-about-how-people-view… [1]: https://econsultancy.com/blog/66920-why-visitors-only-read-20-of-your-…

Yes. A lot of money, but its really hard to get there. Think of brands like Luis-Vuitton, Bentley, Burj-Al-Arab. https://conversionxl.com/blog/product-pricing-strategies-and-technique…

Here are some usability and conversion studies: https://conversionxl.com/dont-use-automatic-image-sliders-or-carousels… https://unbounce.com/conversion-rate-optimization/conversion-killing-t… https://www.nngroup.com/articles/designing-effective-carousels/ Unfortunately clients or designers have these because they look nice, add some drama to a page, or because a competitor has one. So it really comes down to the goal of page (conversions, branding, SEO dwell time, etc.)

Yes it's annoying but they work: "sticking a big ole pop-up in their face can be one of the most effective ways to jolt their attention & grab their email for a return visit." Peep Laja. https://conversionxl.com/popup-defense/?hvid=2EcGFw

> up to the time when statistical significance is achieved. You generally then stop the test Just a note, don't literally do this: http://conversionxl.com/statistical-significance-does-not-equal-validi…

Since this is trending on HN here's my CRO public service announcement: Hamburger menus have been conclusively proven to be shit UX elements. They lose on every metric against similarly sized, but clearly labeled "menu" buttons along with other permutations. So if you care about users actually using your menus, study-up on the alternative formats and, as usual, test it yourself: (1) http://moovweb.com/blog/hamburger-menu-handy-tool-or-useless-icon/ (2) http://exisweb.net/menu-eats-hamburger (3) http://conversionxl.com/testing-hamburger-icon-revenue/

They really don't. Here's a bunch of A/B test results: http://exisweb.net/menu-eats-hamburger and followup http://exisweb.net/mobile-menu-abtest http://conversionxl.com/testing-hamburger-icon-revenue/ http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/04/08/ux-designers-side-drawer-navigatio… http://www.adammcfarland.com/2013/10/24/responsive-mobile-ui-split-tes… Anecdotally, I don't use a ton of mobile social apps, and the first time I encountered this icon I thought it was some weird play on an equals sign. Never occurred to me it was a menu. Now my own dev team is using it and for some bizarre reason I cannot convince them to stop.

Add'l data on how carousels don't convert. "Don’t Use Automatic Image Sliders or Carousels, Ignore the Fad" http://conversionxl.com/dont-use-automatic-image-sliders-or-carousels-…

Not only that, but there's plenty of data showing that sliders are horrible for conversion. I guess could I pull better sources, but here is one with a bunch of links I found with a bit of light searching: http://conversionxl.com/dont-use-automatic-image-sliders-or-carousels-…

Here's an article on how to do conversion optimization with little to no traffic http://conversionxl.com/how-to-do-conversion-optimization-with-very-li…

From my personal library, here are two articles you may find helpful: 10 Principles of Effective Pricing Pages http://conversionxl.com/10-principles-of-effective-pricing-pages/ Doubling SaaS Revenue By Changing The Pricing Model http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/08/13/doubling-saas-revenue/

"According to Bob, short copy performs better when there is low perceived risk, low cost, and low commitment. Also, when the customer has an emotional, impulsive, and “want-oriented” motivation. In other words, if you’re looking to write high-impact copy for concert tickets, designer shoes, or mp3 players…keep it short. Bob states that long copy is the better performer when there is a rational, analytical, need-oriented motivation. Think consumer insurance products or many complex B2B offerings." http://conversionxl.com/4-cases-where-short-home-pages-outperformed-lo…

Someone shared a couple links on this topic before but I didn't see them here http://www.erica.biz/2012/pricing-strategies/ http://conversionxl.com/pricing-experiments-you-might-not-know-but-can…

While it may be possible take the frequentist approach to AB testing, Bayesian inference is becoming the way to go with this.[1] Instead of directly setting up a yes-no hypothesis test with the nearly impossible to use correctly p-values[2], Bayesian approaches aim to directly estimate whatever quantity you want. With the Bayesian approach, you get estimates for A, B, and A-B (or whatever combination you want, e.g. (A-B)/A). Each of those estimates are properly called posterior probability distributions and describe the range of possible values. The end result is that instead of saying "A is better than B (p < 0.05)" you get a probability distribution of A-B. From that probability distribution you can answer any question you want: the most likely difference between A and B (the average), the probability that A is better than B (just integrate the area above 0), or whatever is needed to make a decision. [1] https://conversionxl.com/blog/bayesian-frequentist-ab-testing/ [2] https://www.amstat.org/asa/files/pdfs/p-valuestatement.pdf

They don't release their exact statistics, but Conversion Rate Experts are pretty authoritative on the subject of scrolling vs. fold. http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/scrolling-tips/ In split tests, long pages often beat shorter pages. As a rule of thumb, your page should contain at least as many words as you’d use when selling your product or service face to face. The winning page we designed for SEOmoz was six times longer than the control, which it outperformed by 52%. Whenever someone tells you that they’d never buy from a long page, remind them how long Amazon’s pages are. Long pages are effective, but only if your users know that they can scroll and are given compelling reasons to do so. http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/crazy-egg-case-study/ The redesigned page is about 20 times as long as the control... new page outperformed the control by 30%. http://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/long-… In our initial micro-test, long copy outperformed short copy by 40.54%. Click-through traffic sent to the short copy page was unprofitable (-14% ROI), while traffic sent to the long copy page produced an ROI of 21%. http://conversionxl.com/4-cases-where-short-home-pages-outperformed-lo… Short copy performs better when there is low perceived risk, low cost, and low commitment... when the customer has an emotional, impulsive, and “want-oriented” motivation.…

Start here: http://do.thelandingpagecourse.com/ That will make understanding this easier: http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/10/17/the-anatomy-of-a-high-converting… Then read this: http://conversionxl.com/landing-page-optimization/ Then read: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/c-o-n-v-e-r-t-s/ and http://blog.kissmetrics.com/want-conversions/ Inspiration: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/landing-page-examples-list and http://land-book.com/ Once you actually create the landing page: http://unbounce.com/landing-pages/checklist/