Reading this post made us smarter, richer, more fascinating, and an average of 3 inches taller.

Let’s say you place a photo of a client on your landing page.

Just the photo. No client name. No title, or business name. No clue as to what industry that client is in, or where they come from.

Now, photos are a great addition to landing pages. Photos of happy clients help to build trust with your readers, showing the type of people who do business with you.

But would anyone even know that person was a client?

The moment you add in a few important details — the client name, the industry, and the words “one of our customers” — a fog is lifted from your page.

Suddenly there’s no confusion, no weird guessing or conjecture on the part of your readers about who this person in the picture is.

Just a couple of words. Can they really be that important? Actually, yes.

Simply adding a caption will radically increase the effectiveness of images on your landing pages. Here are four critical reasons why.

#1: Without captions, readers draw their own conclusion

So you’ve got a photo on your landing page.

It makes perfect sense to you why that photo exists. You might think it’s completely obvious.

Because you know all about your business. But your readers probably don’t.

Your readers may very well get the wrong idea. You’re forcing them to guess, to come to their own conclusion. And that might be miles from what you intended.

The job of the caption is to yank the reader from whatever they’re thinking about, and get them to read what you want them to read.

Without the caption, there’s no telling where your reader’s thoughts will end up. They may go in a direction that’s completely counterproductive to what you want them to think about and do.

The only way you can control the situation is to slide in the caption.

That way, there’s zero misinterpretation. Your reader sees the picture, reads the caption, and her thoughts are directed where you want them to go.

#2: Captions give you three ways to educate and create curiosity

When you’re getting a point across in a caption, you can use three strategies.

You can use a problem. You can use a solution. Or you can use a combination of a problem and solution.

Each one of these immediately creates curiosity and/or education in your reader’s mind.

Let’s look at three examples. You might see captions like these on a screen shot for copywriting software:

1: The solution-only caption

Our product gives you clear guidelines that let you see for yourself what’s missing and what’s working in your sales copy.

2: The problem-only caption

How do you know if your website message is working as well as it should? How can you know in advance that your presentation will wake up your audience?

3: The combination of a problem/solution-based caption

How do you know if your website message is working as well as it should? How can you know in advance that your presentation will wake up your audience? Our product gives you clear guidelines that let you see for yourself what’s missing and what’s working in your sales copy.

Do you see how all three types of captions work to educate and create curiosity?

Let’s look at curiosity a little more with Reason 3 …

#3: Captions are an effective handbrake

We’re used to seeing pictures and quickly scrolling by them.

But the moment there’s a caption, we’re practically compelled to read the content under the caption.

That’s because we want to be sure we’ve interpreted the image correctly.

It’s also why having photos and illustrations on a web page or sales page is very important. It keeps the reader from skipping quickly from the start of the page to the end.

The photo gets the reader’s attention, and the caption makes sure you keep that attention.

While creating this handbrake momentum of stop-go-stop, captions are doing one of the most valuable tasks of all:

Each caption is acting as a mini sales message.

#4: How captions create mini-sales messages

When you run a problem-solution scenario in your caption, you’re effectively doing what a strong headline does.

Every outstanding headline is designed to get your attention. A caption is simply a headline underneath a photo.

If crafted properly, a caption makes the reader more curious and compels them to investigate further into your product or service.

A solution-only caption may not create the same level of curiosity, but it will still give the reader a much better understanding of your product or service, especially if you describe a benefit rather than a feature.

Does every photo or illustration need to have a caption?

Ideally, yes. No matter which newspaper or magazine you pick up, you’ll find captions abound everywhere.

But there are exceptions.

For instance, in blog posts, the photo tends to function more to catch the reader’s attention than to drive home the point. And you don’t necessarily need to slow the reader down before diving into the content. In this case, not having a caption is fine.

And even on landing pages, there are times when you’re using a photo purely to get the attention of the audience. These photos tend to be the ones you see first on the page, and are meant to draw you in.

Other than that, almost every photo wants the power of a caption to drive a specific point home. And yet website owners miss out on the awesome potential of the caption to slow down, educate, create curiosity, and drive home a mini-sales message.

Photo. Caption.

Photo. Caption.

Yet another photo. Yet another caption. That’s the way your landing pages should be.

About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Be sure to check out his blog, too.

Welcome to The Lede.

Every week I’ll be digging up and linking to stories, news, and opinion relevant to online marketing and copywriting.

Email, social media, innovation, SEO, productivity, mobile, conversion, publishing, and everything in between.

No commentary, just a fast, single page of headlines that you can grab, scan, and squeeze for all they may (or may not) be worth.

All right then, on with it …

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse. Get him on Twitter.

Every writer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas.

Where are they, how do I get them, and how do I keep them coming?

If you’ve been writing long enough, you know that — like Solomon — there is nothing new under the sun.

Try as you might to sweat them out of your head or pull them gently from the stars above, there are no new ideas.

So, relax.

But the page is not going to write itself, is it? Where then do we turn for ideas that work, ideas that move, ideas that persuade?

In short, we steal them.

The moment you free yourself from The Cult of Originality, you realize that “original” ideas do not come from within.

They are given to us, from without.

A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions.

If you’re offended that I’d suggest you “steal” ideas, please get over it. You’re already a thief, you just don’t know it yet.

Here are two of the most significant idea repositories on earth …

1. The modern media is a torrent of ideas

In this information age, you have absolutely no reason to “draw a blank”.

Ever.

What took our writing ancestors days and weeks to research and learn, takes us mere moments.

In fact, the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted curators. We need to develop self-discipline and discernment in seeking out correct information from reliable sources.

There is no drought of ideas.

Brian Clark recently wrote:

You have more computing power in your pocket than it took to send men to the moon. What are you doing with it?

Indeed.

Are you wasting it or harnessing it? You don’t need to go to the moon, the crossroads will do just fine for our purposes.

Research. Read. Steal.

Product manuals, literature, interviews, talk radio, magazines, newspapers, television, Twitter, Google Trends, movies, Wikipedia, and on and on and on …

It’s all there, right in your pocket.

And it’s actually more than you’ll ever need.

So use it. Don’t let it use you.

2. People will give you exactly what you’re looking for

Ideas are walking around everywhere out there.

Eugene Schwartz once told a story about a copywriting job he had.

He met with the client and asked him to start talking about the product. They ended up sitting together for four hours — the client talking, and Schwartz simply listening and taking notes.

Later that night, while he was waiting for his wife to get ready for a night out on Manhattan, Schwartz wrote the ad.

The entire ad.

He said about 70% of the finished copy was composed of his client’s own words.

The headline itself was a phrase the client had hit on, word for word.

He waited two weeks, mailed the ad to the client, and they both made a lot of money.

You might think this was some kind of dirty trick on Schwartz’ part, but you’d be wrong.

Schwartz knew how to write a powerful direct response ad. The client didn’t.

Schwartz was smart enough to know that the client knew (in this case) his own product better than he ever could, and simply translated that knowledge and passion onto paper.

The ideas were sitting in the client’s head and Schwartz knew exactly what to do with them.

It goes further …

For better or worse, a writer is working all the time.

Phone calls with friends, the plumber, your spouse, your child, your boss, your client, your neighbor — they are all constantly giving you ideas.

They are all constantly telling you what they — and the entire world — truly want.

It is all grist for the mill.

All you need to do is … listen.

Steal this post

Eugene Schwartz summed this up for me perfectly:

You don’t have to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.

I stole this post from him, and he stole it from many others.

Listen more. Talk less.

Read less. Read better.

Steal.

The Art of Finding Ideas is then … to go out and find ideas.

Originality? That’ll come from using your own voice, and your voice develops from only one thing — writing more. And more. And more.

Where have you been getting your ideas?

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse. Get him on Twitter.

Imagine you’re having a discussion with a talkative, hyperactive teenager.

The conversation goes something like this …

We went to the mall, and like, there was this fire in the mall. And we went from there to the movies, but we didn’t have any money and anyway the popcorn machine was broken, and so we didn’t really want to go to the movies without popcorn. But right after that we went to have some pizza and there was this creepy guy outside the store. But listen to this — because that’s not the best part. The best part is that Sylvie dumped Josh, and like, they ran into each other in the street …

Annoying right? Then why do we so often write our web copy just like that teenager talks?

Is there a better way to write a landing page?

When we write copy for our website, we sound a lot like that teenager

We tend to move all over the place with our copy.

First, we’ll try to stuff five different concepts into the headline.

Then we’ll try and fill in too many sub-heads that we want to drive home.

And then our first paragraph attempts to cover all the possible points.

And — like that teenager above — we have the entire story in our heads, but nothing quite gets across to the client.

We’re trying to cover way too many points, way too quickly.

And, as you’ve worked out for yourself, this bouncing and jumping around is exhausting for your reader.

How this mistake unfolds in an actual piece of copy

Let’s take a look at our “teenage talk” problem using a real-life example:

Headline:

Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors?

Body text:

• Contractors that don’t call you back or even show up?
• Are you done with contractors that lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner?
• How about contractors that run away from problems that crop up during and after a project?
• Are you completely over dealing with the hacks of the world?
• Have you had enough of sitting at home, babysitting the people you’re paying?

So what’s wrong with that sequence?

It gets off to a good start. The headline gets my attention without too much of a fuss, particularly if I’m having this problem right now.

But then I start reading and I get between three and five main plots and no sub-plots at all.

How do we know they’re main plots? Because we can list them out and see for ourselves. They all want to take center stage.

• Main plot 1: Contractors don’t call you back or even show up
• Main plot 2: They lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner
• Main plot 3: They run away from problems that crop up during and after a project
• Main plot 4: The so-called professional is nothing but a hack
• Main plot 5: You are tired of having to babysit these people

Just like that teenager’s story, it’s possible for us to jump from one to the other, without so much as pausing for a single breath.

So now that we know we’re creating bounce, how do we get rid of it? And how do we still use all the persuasive points we want to cover on our landing page?

How to say exactly what you’re trying to say

Just like an exciting movie or a bestselling novel, your article needs a single main plot. One primary storyline that the reader or viewer is most interested in.

You can also have sub-plots — additional points that make the story more complex and interesting, and continue to hook that reader.

So how do you know which point is your main plot? It’s the client’s most pressing problem.

That’s obvious, isn’t it? You want to get the client’s attention by driving home the biggest, scariest, buggiest problem.

Here’s how we go about it:

Headline:

Write your headline. It should only cover one big, buggy, nasty problem

Body text:

• Body text 1: Drive home the problems involved with that one point
• Body text 2: Drive home the consequences of that one point
• Body text 3: Drive home the solution to that one problem

Move to the next point.

So how does the teenager’s story look in this format?

Headline:

We went to the mall and there was a fire.

• Body text 1: What happened next at the mall?
• Body text 2: Then what were the consequences?
• Body text 3: How did we escape the fire?

With the teenager, she’d complete one story, and move to the next.

And the next …

But you may have made your point with a single story.

So what do you do with the rest of the stuff that you so badly want to get across? You bring it up later.

Let’s see how. But first let’s get back to squaring this in our original example.

Headline:

Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors …

• Body text: … That don’t call you back or even show up?
• Body text 1: Talk in detail about the problems created when the contractor doesn’t call back or show up.
• Body text 2: What are the consequences? Describe the emotions that the client feels — again, in detail.
• Body text 3: What’s the best way to avoid this wretched scenario?

And then you present your service:

• Body text 4: Presenting XYZ contracting company.
• Body text 5: Drive home the point of how you handle calling your customers back. Describe in detail how you do it — when you show up and how you follow up.

Notice we haven’t gone to Point 2 yet. And yes, I know, you’re itching to drive home that point.

But first, do you notice something?

The customer doesn’t care about your itch. They’re locked in to what you’re saying.

You’re the first person they’ve met who isn’t like that teenager, jumping from story to story.

The customer’s biggest problem is ‘unprofessional contractors that don’t call back or show up’ and you’re talking about exactly that. The customer wants to know more about that story in detail, before they’re ready to move to the next story.

So after you present your company and how it brings that one solution to their problem, you can move on to the next “subplot,” the secondary stories in your copywriting plot.

Roll out the remaining subplots in slightly less detail, in a feature/benefit format that looks like this:

Feature 1: Benefit 1. Describe the benefits of Feature 1 in strong, vivid terms.

Feature 2: Benefit 1. Now write more copy vividly describing the benefits of Feature 2.

And so on with Features 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 — adding benefits, of course, to every one of those features.

You can have as many as 8-10 paragraphs rich with details of the problem and the solutions you bring to the customer.

Having locked into the main problem and seeing how you bring that solution, the customer will happily trundle through the rest of the points, and become more convinced by the word about your ability to solve their problem.

In short, you must have a main plot, then drive it home

Later, pull in the sub-plots, but without the same level of intensity as the main.

Just remember to pick the point your customer cares most about as your main plot. ‘Sylvie dumping Josh’ has more drama than ‘no popcorn at the cinema.’

From there, you’re simply re-telling your story on the landing page.

One plot at a time

About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Be sure to check out his blog, too.

Sure, you want comments.

And subscribers, and shares, and likes.

But you don’t really care about any of these things. You want what they will eventually lead to …

Money.

Yes, traffic is good, and so is reader engagement. But if you’re reading this, chances are you’re running a blog with the intention of marketing a business and making some money.

Now, that could be a bit distressing, because most bloggers are broke.

Some bloggers don’t have traffic or reader engagement, and some bloggers have lots of both. But most bloggers aren’t making any money.

Here’s why …

The chain of conversion is everything

We tend to think of conversion as a single event, but it’s really more like a chain of events.

If you market a business online, several conversions need to take place:

• A stranger has to convert into a lead by being exposed to your message for the first time (in the online world, we call this traffic)
• A lead has to convert into a prospect by liking what you have to say (this is often done by opting in to your email subscriber list)
• A prospect has to convert into a customer by buying something from you
• A customer has to convert into a repeat customer by turning a single purchase into an ongoing buying relationship

This entire process is called the chain of conversion.

Does that sound like a tall order?

It should, because it is — for your blog to make money, you need not one, but many people to smoothly move through this entire process.

And if your blog is like most, then that probably isn’t happening.

Let’s explore all the reasons why that might be, and what you can do to fix it.

Problem #1: You’re a billboard in the desert

The most common problem that bloggers face is that strangers aren’t converting into leads.

In other words, there’s no traffic.

And if there’s no traffic, then it doesn’t matter how well-optimized the rest of your funnel is, because nobody is feeding through it.

So the first order of business is to get traffic flowing to your site. Here are some of the reasons why that might not be happening, and how you can fix it:

1. Build it and they will come. Yes, content is king, but without an army of marketers, the king can get pretty lonely! The truth is that while epic content is critical, it won’t go viral all by itself without an existing audience to start the ball rolling by seeing and sharing. If you don’t have traffic, you have to go and get the word out about your content.
2. You just tweet to your followers. If you’re Guy Kawasaki, then your marketing can consist of tweeting to your followers, and calling it a day. But for the rest of us (who don’t have 400,000 followers), you’ve got to get out there and promote. Build relationships with other bloggers, write guest posts, put viral campaigns together, and apply any other strategy for blog growth that you can think of — just get out there and do something!
3. Marketing in the wrong place. We love to fall for the promises of magic strategies that will get us tons of traffic — the kind that showcase the success that somebody else had. The problem is that you aren’t going after their audience, and your audience may not hang out where theirs does. If you’re marketing in the wrong place, then your audience will never find you! Of course, to market in the right place, you have to know who your audience is …
4. No clearly defined audience. Obviously, you can’t market to your audience if you don’t know who your audience is. It isn’t enough for you to have a general idea that you’re marketing to “bloggers” or “writers” or “stay at home moms” — you’ve got to get way more specific, to the point that you’ve created a profile of the ONE person that you’re targeting.
5. Asking for the wrong action. If they haven’t heard of you, then don’t start by asking them to buy — it isn’t likely to happen. Remember that your goal with each piece of messaging is to get the audience to take the single next action. When you’re talking to strangers, the goal is for them to become leads (visit your site) and then prospects (opt in to your list). So don’t even mention whatever it is that you’ve got for sale.
6. You don’t hook their interest. Yes, I’m talking about headlines. For your blog posts, for your ads, and for the teaser links to your content. They all need to hook your audience’s interest. And you happen to be reading the world’s best blog about copywriting. So go read all about headlines!

Problem #2: Selling ice to Inuits

The second problem is that you get traffic, but they all bounce — no subscribers, no customers, and you’re on a constant treadmill to generate more traffic.

In other words, leads aren’t converting into prospects.

Here’s why that might be happening, and what you can do about it:

7. It’s all about you. Yes, that’s right — all of your posts are about your news, your products, your company. And you wonder why nobody signs up for more? Forget about your subject area, and think about your customers. What are their problems? What matters to them? That’s what you need to be writing about.
8. Your content is “me too” content. If you’re just writing generic, bland content of the “6 tips everyone already knows about productivity” variety, or (gasp!) going so far as to actually spin articles, then the truth is that there’s no reason for people to come back to your site, because you haven’t impressed them yet. So pull out the stops and write some truly compelling content!
9. You don’t draw them in. You get them to start reading your stuff, but their attention wanders, and pretty soon they’re gone forever. You need to draw them in and keep them going, section to section, until they reach the action that you want them to: subscribing!
10. You don’t make it explicit. Yes, that’s right. If you want your visitors to opt in to your mailing list, then you have to say so, in so many words: “Sign up for my list to get all sorts of goodies. Do it now. Click here.” Put those words, or words like them, near your opt-in box, and make sure to include a call to action in your posts, too.
11. You don’t optimize. No matter how good you are, and how well you’ve done everything else, there’s always room for improvement — and improvement is had by split-testing, split-testing, and then split-testing some more.

Problem #3: “Just the free sample, thanks”

Sometimes you’ve got traffic, and you’ve got subscribers — but you still aren’t making any money.

In chain of conversion terminology, prospects aren’t converting into customers.

This might not sound so bad (“at least they have the traffic and subscribers”), but without the money, you’re just sinking more and more work into what might be a dead-end project.

The good news is that when you’ve got an audience, you can usually find a way to make some money — let’s explore why they might not be buying, and what we can do to fix it:

12. You’re selling what they need instead of what they want. As an expert in your field, you know exactly what the customer’s problem is. I don’t mean the symptoms, or the issue that they want to fix right now — I mean the real problem that lies deep down at the root of it all. The trouble is that they don’t know that, and so they aren’t looking for that solution. Start by selling what they want, and then you can deliver what they need along with it.
13. It’s in the wrong format. Maybe they love what you’re offering, but they just don’t like the format. I mean, really, how many more e-books can someone buy? Try a different format — like audio, video, a virtual conference, live workshops, infographics — or something else entirely.
14. The price isn’t right. Maybe your product is great, but the price doesn’t fit. You could be asking for way too much money, or you could be asking for way too little. Remember that not only does the price have to fit with the buyer’s budget, but it also has to communicate the right thing about how valuable your offering really is. So test different prices, and find the price that works best.
15. You don’t ask for the sale. Yes, this comes back to being explicit. Don’t just have an “Add to Cart” link on your site — you’ve also got to tell people that you want them to buy your stuff. Tell them why they should do it, and what they’re going to get. And tell them when they should do it (right now!), which leads us to the matter of urgency …
16. There’s no urgency. Why buy today when I can buy tomorrow, right? You need to give your audience a reason to take action now. Make sure the constraint is real — maybe you’re raising the price after a certain date. Maybe the first 50 people to sign up get a special bonus. Or maybe you’re closing your program on September 1 (hypothetically speaking, of course …).
17. No social proof. Nobody wants to be the first one to arrive at a party — you want to know that other people are there, and having a good time. So who’s already bought your product or service? What was their experience like? Were they happy? Were they a lot like the person who is thinking about buying today?
18. No guarantee. There’s something comforting about a money-back guarantee. It provides a safety net, and shows how much confidence the seller has in whatever is being offered. Most companies offer guarantees, to the point that it looks sketchy if you don’t. So you have to offer a guarantee. But don’t just offer a simple “if you’re not satisfied we’ll give you your money back” guarantee — go over the top. Give them 110% of their money back. Donate $100 to charity. Set it up so that it’s not just about satisfaction, but about results (we guarantee that you’ll add $1,000 to your bottom line in six months, or your money back).
19. You don’t optimize (again). Yes, it applies here, too. If you want to make more sales, then there are a lot of things for you to split-test: your headlines, the placement, text and colors of your opt-in boxes, the style of your introduction, your product imagery, your trust seals and their placement on the site … and the list goes on.

Problem #4: Once is (apparently) enough

Okay, if you’ve made it to this point in the chain, then you’re probably doing all right — you’ve got traffic, you’ve got subscribers, and you’re even making sales.

But customers aren’t converting into repeat customers.

Which means that you’re always scrambling to find new customers, and to keep that wheel in motion. Wouldn’t you rather have the wheel sustain itself?

Here’s why your customers may not be buying from you again, and what you can do to change that:

20. You don’t deliver. This is a HUGE problem; if you promise something, your customers sign up, and then you don’t deliver, then you are doing irreparable damage to your reputation and business. In the words of my marketing professor, “marketing is a promise that the organization has to keep” — and you should never, ever break a promise. This probably doesn’t apply to you, but if it does, stop reading this article, and fix it immediately!
21. There’s nothing else to sell. This is a more common problem: you’ve worked so hard to build and sell your product, that by the time they’ve bought it, there’s nothing left to sell. This is worth taking the time to fix; think about what else they might benefit from — an easy add-on is some consulting to help them get the most out of what they’ve already bought. Remember that a customer who’s already spent money with you is 8 times more likely to buy from you again, and you’ve already spent the time and money to convert them the first time!
22. You don’t communicate. This is sad to see, but easy to fix; you’ve got happy customers and more great stuff to sell to them, but you don’t communicate with them after that first purchase. This is terrible — you should be communicating with your customers on a regular basis, both to collect feedback about their experience, and to keep the lines of communication open so that you can sell to them again. An easy way to do this is to build follow-up directly into your product, for example with automated follow-up emails and surveys.
23. You don’t ask for the sale (again). Yes, you’ve got to ask for the repeat sale, too — periodically reach out to your existing customers to see if there’s more that you can do for them, and have a specific offer ready if they do have a need.

Fixing your blog, one link at a time

Every blog has holes in its chain of conversion — and most have lots of them!

So where should you start making repairs?

The answer depends on whether you’ve already got a functioning funnel:

If you’ve already got traffic, opt-ins, and customers: Start at the end, and work your way backwards. First get more customers to buy again, then get more subscribers to buy from you, then get more website visitors to subscribe, and only then get more people to visit your website.

If you don’t have any of that stuff: Then start at the beginning — start by getting traffic to your site, and once you have traffic, work on getting them to opt-in, and then buy from you, and then buy from you again.

Now, a question: how long are you willing to wait before your blog starts delivering dollars to your bank account?

Having realistic expectations is important. If you try to run a marathon as though it were a sprint, you’ll end up exhausted on the side of the road. And if you try to run a sprint as though it were a marathon, you’ll finish dead last.

So what kind of race do you want your blog to be running?

If you’re willing for it to take 2-3 years to get your blog to where you want it to be, then a good strategy is to read business books for bloggers, along with the best blogs in the industry.

But if you want to see results sooner, then get some help. For example, you could click the link in my bio and read about our marketing training program, that just happens to be closing to the public on September 1.

About the Author: Danny Iny is an author, strategist, serial entrepreneur, and proud co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the program that teaches non-marketers to fix their chain of conversion like expert marketers. Get his free video course on how to get more money out of your business, website or blog, or follow him on Twitter @DannyIny.

Well, why not?

They are the problem, right?

Here you are with a blog or a product or a charity you believe will change the world, and yet no matter how excited you are about the possibilities, no matter how much faith you have in yourself, you can’t help being worried:

• If you ask a popular blogger for a link, will you get a reply?
• If you ask a partner to email a product offer to their list, will they agree?
• If you ask a friend for a donation, will they write you a check?

You don’t know. You can’t know. And it bothers you.

Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just close your eyes, pop over into their mind, and seize control?

Yeah. Too bad it’s not possible …

Or is it?

A Brief Introduction to Mind Control

As it happens, mind control is possible. Sort of.

No, you can’t turn your customers, partners, and in-laws into mindless zombies, but you can influence them.

In fact, there’s a science to it.

Back in the 1980s, a researcher by the name of Dr. Robert Cialdini wrote a book called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. He outlined different principles scientifically proven to influence people, as well as suggestions for how to do it.

Since then, it’s become maybe the most important book in the field of marketing. If you haven’t read it, you should, as well as the sequel.

Here’s the bad news:

Mind control isn’t about magic powers, arcane arts, or even shaving your head and gallivanting around in a wheelchair (although, I’ve been tempted). The truth is it’s about something that makes a lot of people squeamish: marketing.

The Truth about Marketing

The core of marketing isn’t customer profiling or market segmentation or any of the other complicated nonsense taught in most business schools.

It’s infinitely simpler than that, and it can be encapsulated in one word:

Yes.

You ask a blogger for a link, and they say, “Yes.” You ask a partner to promote your product, and they say, “Yes.” You ask a customer for a testimonial, and they say, “Yes.”

If you get enough yeses, your blog/business/charity succeeds. If you don’t, it fails. It’s so simple, and yet so few of us really understand how to do it.

The good news?

You can learn.

What follows is a marketer’s guide to mind control. Use these seven strategies wisely.

1. Do all the thinking for them

The worst mistake you can make when asking anyone for anything is telling them to “Think it over.”

Here’s why: people already have too much to think about.

Between their jobs, their family, and their own hobbies and friends, their mind is already stuffed, like a suitcase bulging at the sides. Add one more sock, and the whole thing will explode.

To avoid it, they “forget” about things that aren’t very important to them, or if they do think about you, they don’t think very hard. It’s not because they are lazy or stupid. They’re just busy, and you’re probably not very high up the priority list.

And so the best strategy is to not ask them to think.

Do it for them.

• Instead of expecting them to see how your blog post will benefit their audience, explain it, and offer examples of similar posts that have done well in the past
• Instead of asking them to host a webinar for you, setup the webinar, landing pages, and emails yourself, and send them as part of your pitch
• Instead of begging a customer to write a testimonial from scratch, send them a dozen different examples to use as a guide

Be specific. Explain your reasoning. Offer proof. Tell them what to do next and why.

If you do it right, it won’t feel like asking at all. It’ll be more like advising.

And they’ll say yes. Not because of magical powers of persuasion, but because you’ve thought through everything, and it’s a no-brainer.

2. Start an avalanche

Creating a successful marketing campaign is a lot like starting an avalanche.

First, you climb up the mountain, and then you find the biggest boulder at the top, and then you sweat and grunt and strain to push the boulder over, and then you sit down and watch happily as the boulder goes crashing into other boulders, eventually bringing the whole side of the mountain down.

The lesson?

The first big yes is a pain in the butt to get, but if you get it from the right person, then getting all of the subsequent yeses is easy.

For example:

• Getting a popular blogger to tweet your post is hard, but once they do, dozens or maybe even hundreds of people will retweet them
• Convincing a leader in your niche to promote your product is tough, but once they do, everyone else will want to promote it too
• Persuading a celebrity customer to give you a testimonial can be tough, but once you do, sales skyrocket, and getting further testimonials is easy

Of course, a lot of marketers recommend taking the opposite approach.

They tell you to start from the bottom and work your way up because it’s easier.

But really, it’s just an illusion. Yes, pushing over a small rock is easier than pushing over a boulder, but the boulder is a lot more likely to cause an avalanche. So while it’s more work in the beginning to get top people to help you, it’s actually less work in the long run, and the results are far, far greater.

3. Ask for an inch, take a mile

You’ve probably heard the expression, “Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile,” right?

It’s supposed to be derogatory. It’s supposed to be a warning against appeasement. It’s supposed to protect you against getting taken advantage of.

But it’s also great marketing.

Whenever you’re asking for anything, never start by asking for everything upfront. Instead, start small. Make it easy to get started. Reduce the risk if it flops. Let them see the results for themselves.

And when it goes well, ask for more. And more. And more.

You might think that’s unethical, but if everything is going well, why not push for more? It’s not manipulation. It’s common sense.

For instance:

It’s not psychological trickery or anything like that. It’s smart business. No one likes to risk everything upfront, and by offering progressive levels of commitment, your chances of getting them to say yes go through the roof.

4. Always have a real deadline

The keyword is “real.”

All of us have had salesmen tell us, “Well, you’d better get back to me fast, because I have three more prospects coming this afternoon, and I don’t know how long it’ll last.” It’s BS, of course.

There are no clients, and there is no urgency. The salesman is just so desperate he’s willing to lie, not only costing him your trust, but probably the sale too.

And it’s not just salesmen.

How many times have other people handed you completely artificial deadlines, thinking it will motivate you to act? Our teachers do it, our bosses do it, our family does it, and without thinking about it, you’ve probably done it too.

Stop.

Not only is it ineffective, but it’s totally unnecessary. Real urgency is easy to create. With a little thought, you can build it into your marketing. For example:

• Instead of leaving a free report on your blog forever, tell everyone it will only be available for seven days, and then you’re going to start charging $7 for it. Not only will you get a lot more downloads, but other bloggers will be a lot more likely to promote it during the window
• Instead of letting JV partners dictate when they will promote your product, schedule a launch, announce it to your list, and then forward partners the announcement, inviting them to participate
• Instead of asking customers for testimonials whenever they get around to it, show them the timeline for an upcoming launch, including a specific date to send out testimonials. You need it by then, or you won’t be able to include it

Will some of them bow out, saying they are too busy right now, and they’ll catch you next time?

Sure, but it’s better than never getting started it all. And if you let other people dictate timelines, that’s exactly what will happen.

5. Give ten times more than you take

You know you’re supposed to give before you get, right? But what you might not know is how much to give.

A lot of marketers mistakenly assume it’s a 1:1 ratio.

Before you ask for a link, you should give a link. Before you ask for promotion, you should give a promotion. Before you ask for a testimonial, you should do one thing that deserves a testimonial.

But that’s wrong. Smart marketers use a 10:1 ratio, and not just in action, but in value:

• If you want 100 visitors, send them 1,000
• If you want $1000 in product sales, sell $10,000 of their products first
• If you want one testimonial, do ten different heroic acts of customer service worthy of a testimonial

This isn’t about “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” It’s about generosity so overwhelming they can’t say no.

Yes, it’s a lot of work, but that’s the price of influence.

6. Stand for something greater than yourself

Imagine there are two homeless guys standing on a street corner.

The first guy has a normal, run-of-the-mill sign saying, “Spare a few dollars? God bless you.” The second guy, on the other hand, has a much more unusual sign: “Can’t afford to feed my family, and it’s tearing me apart. Please help, so I can stop feeling like such an awful Dad.”

Which one would you be more likely to help? The second one, right?

Forget giving him a few bucks. With a sign like that, you’d take him to the grocery store and buy him $200 worth of groceries. I know I would.

That’s the power of standing for something bigger than yourself. It makes people care.

And it applies to everything:

• Instead of writing yet another how-to post, take a stand on an important issue, arguing with both passion and unassailable logic
• Instead of starting yet another me-too consulting business, create a movement, working tirelessly to change the lives of your customers
• Instead of selling yet another step-by-step manual, sell a philosophy, filled with heroic examples to inspire your customers

Those are the types of things people want to talk about. They feel grateful just for having the chance to help you spread the word.

7. Be completely and utterly shameless

You want to know what separates a great marketer from a mediocre one?

Shamelessness.

I’m not referring to a lack of conscience, having a gregarious, extroverted personality, or any of the other ways we traditionally look at marketers. For the most part, those stereotypes are myths.

No, by shamelessness, I mean this:

An unshakable belief that what you are doing is good for the world and the willingness to do anything to bring it into being.

When you believe in your content, you don’t publish it and forget it. You promote it day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, working tirelessly to spread the message to everyone who needs to hear it, and refusing to rest until they do.

When you believe in your product, you don’t balk at sales. You revel in it. Not because you’re greedy or desperate or egotistical, but because you know your product will help them, and so it’s your duty to get them to buy. Whatever it takes.

When you believe in your charity, you don’t beg for donations. You demand them. You grab people by the shoulders and look them in the eyes and tell them what you’re doing is changing the world, and it’s time for them to step up and do their part.

It’s not about money. It’s not about glory. It’s not even about legacy.

It’s about falling in love. It’s about being enchanted. It’s about seeing a vision so beautiful you can’t help but fight to make it real.

Do you have a vision like that? Something worth getting up every day and fighting for?

If you do, you can accomplish damn near anything.

And if you don’t, well …

What’s the point?

About the Author: Jon Morrow is Associate Editor of Copyblogger. If you’d like to learn what it really takes to become a popular blogger, check out his free videos on guest blogging.

When you’re buying a premium theme for your hosted WordPress site, you have to ask yourself (or someone who knows what they’re doing) real questions about security, stability, SEO, ease of use, ease of updates, and much more.

That’s why we created the Genesis framework to be the rock-solid foundation of a smart WordPress site. Then it’s just a matter of dressing it up with a cool paint job.

Our StudioPress division already offers 39 turn-key child theme designs for Genesis, with more coming. But we’re about to open up the doors to a whole lot more of them.

We’ve created a single place for you to buy StudioPress-approved child themes from third-party designers. It’s called the StudioPress Marketplace.

Whether you’re already one of our existing 54,000 StudioPress customers, or you’re thinking about taking up the Genesis Framework for WordPress for the first time, the Marketplace is a simple solution to the ongoing problem of finding a variety of well-built designs powered by Genesis.

So, no more searching endless posts, reviews, or forums, trying to decipher the right information. No more accepting badly-written code for the sake of design.

• We’re going to stay on top of state-of-the-art for you.
• We’re going to check and double-check every line of code for you.
• And most importantly, we’re going to find amazing designers and new themes for you.

You’ll be able to get in, get what you need in one place, and get back to doing what you do best.

Here are the four designs that are kicking off the Marketplace, with many more coming all the time:

You don’t need the bling

For the micro-blogger, speed is everything.

You want to keep screen alive with new color, text, and image. Near-constant movement.

The Blingless theme gets out of your way, so you can get on to what’s next.

Click here to get moving with the Blingless theme.

Blingless was designed by Dre Armeda of CubicTwo.

We don’t care what they say, function is fashion

You’re in the city. You’re in the country.

You’ve got stories and pictures and ideas that can’t be contained by mere … stereotypes.

Let the Elle theme frame your life or business the way you want it framed.

Click here to check out the Elle theme.

Elle was designed by Lauren Mancke of Northbound Design.

Much more than you asked for

Utmost impact. Lavish readability.

Maximum … awesome.

The Maximum theme delivers — in a big way — whether you’re building your company, or creating your personal brand.

Click here to get more from the Maximum theme.

Maximum was designed by Brad Potter of Theme Craft.

Get back to where you once belonged

Somehow, it’s old and new.

The best vintage pieces point back in history, and look forward, defining the future.

Wrap your photos, your words, your audio in the feel of another time.

Click here to get back to the Vintage theme.

Vintage was designed by Lauren Gaige of Restored 316 Designs.

These four amazing designers are just the beginning. Will you join them?

If you build stunning, rock-solid WordPress themes …

… we’ll get them out into the world for you. And get you paid, hassle free.

The most frustrating part of a theme developer’s work is usually on the business end.

You need marketing, accounting, distribution, awareness, bullet-proof hosting, and a hundred other things to make it all run smoothly — to profit from your hard work.

Brian Gardner knows this stuff well, he’s been developing and selling WordPress themes for years. And Brian Clark knows how to sell a WordPress theme or two himself.

The StudioPress team has put a lot of thought into this aspect of the Marketplace, so you can focus on code and design, instead of billing and marketing.

When you join the StudioPress Marketplace, you’re tapping into, and becoming aligned with, years of trust that StudioPress and Copyblogger have earned with customers around the world.

If you’re a developer, come grow with us. It’s gonna be fun.

We’ll tell you how to submit your themes soon. Right now, we’re booked with our initial hand-picked designers, so start building your best Genesis-powered WordPress design ever.

We’re just getting started …

Hopefully it’s obvious to you that we’re committed to making the StudioPress Marketplace a home run for both WordPress theme buyers and WordPress theme developers.

For buyers, a single, trusted place to find and buy superior WordPress themes.

For developers, a world stage to sell your work from, and get paid well.

Check out the StudioPress Marketplace today.

If you’re a diligent researcher, you might think you know everything there is to possibly know about your prospect.

Deepest fears, pain points, income, business, marital status, family status. You might even know their hair and eye color.

If you’re writing to that person (and you really have those details correct), your copy will likely convert well.

What you might not know about is a secret weapon you can add into the mix that, if used correctly, can skyrocket your conversions through the roof.

Do you know your prospect’s productivity personality? No? That’s all right, not many do. And that’s precisely why this knowledge can give you an unfair advantage as a marketer.

There are four basic personality types that profoundly affect human preferences regarding organization, time management, and productivity strategies.

If you know the personality type of your ideal customer, you can make your copy speak to them on every possible level, from the problems you’ll solve to how you’ll go about solving them.

Let’s take a look at all four, and how to write for each of them …

1. The Fantastical type

The Fantastical personality type is energized by wrestling with problems and coming up with creative solutions.

They learn best by doing, and they have a tendency to lose track of time when they’re caught up in an interesting project.

The most distinctive mark of a Fantastical, though, is that they need to have all the pieces of a project in front of them, otherwise they’ll forget it exists.

My Fantastical business partner goes so far as to refuse to use the produce drawers in her refrigerator because otherwise she’ll forget she bought the fruits and vegetables!

Fantasticals want more than just a plug and play product.

When writing to Fantasticals, make sure you assure them that they’ll get full explanations of all the actions suggested in your product, and then tell them how they’ll solve their problems and learn by doing.

Once you’ve closed the sale, keep up the Fantastical copy by making sure your product dishes out the background theory and information, because your Fantastical customers will want to know all the details.

2. The Structural type

Structural types are natural organizers (and, not coincidentally, are the authors of 99% of the productivity books on the market).

A Structural thrives in a calm, structured environment and doesn’t do well with uncertainty or surprise.

The Structural is the one everyone turns to when there’s an event to be planned, a schedule to be created or a pile of files to be organized.

They can typically pull off feats of organization that amaze lesser mortals, but take away their planner and to-do list and they’re lost.

Therefore, your copy needs to tell a Structural prospect exactly what to expect and what format you’ll be presenting it in.

You also need to explain why your product is better to solve their problem than any other product out there.

And don’t forget to provide testimonials, because a Structural will be reluctant to try it without some evidence that it actually works.

Including clear steps and checklists in your product (and your pre-launch content) will help Structurals to implement your ideas, and trust your word.

3. The Environmental type

Environmentals are all about connections and people.

They care that everyone around them is happy, healthy, comfortable and has what they need.

The Environmental type thrives on human interaction, and has been known to miss meetings and appointments because they were deep in conversation with a friend or coworker who needed a hand.

A strong Environmental type will even go so far as to save anything that might be of use to someone someday — like my grandmother, who ran the string that bound the Thanksgiving turkey through the dishwasher each year and tucked it safely away into a drawer (we did actually find a use for them one year, thus vindicating Oma for everything she’d ever saved).

So, in your copy, make sure you emphasize the personal attention Environmentals will receive as they go through your product.

If you’ve included forums, tell them all about the great interaction you’re expecting and the support networks of peers that they’ll have a chance to contribute to.

The icing on the cake would be to mention all the people the Environmental customer would be able to help after they finish your product — thereby selling the outcome rather than the tool.

4. The Analytical type

Analyticals are success-driven, goal-oriented individuals.

They work well with summaries and numbers, and they don’t have patience for anything that appears unnecessarily elaborate or potentially ineffective.

An Analytical is gifted with the ability to see the big picture and plan accordingly, but their ability to track the smaller details isn’t particularly strong.

It’s not that they aren’t capable of doing so. They just don’t view the financial paperwork or files to be essential to the big picture in their head.

Copy for Analyticals needs to be precise.

Don’t beat around the bush; condense your benefits into concise points and tell your prospect exactly what you’re solving and how you’ll go about doing it.

Extra bonus points if you can fit it into a chart or graph that can be understood in seconds — Analyticals are all about understanding valuable information quickly and effectively.

Many Analyticals have assistants or informal helpers, so structure your product with the understanding that your Analytical customer may not be the one handling the minor aspects.

If you can communicate all this succinctly in your sales copy, you’ll have a great shot at winning the business of your Analytical customer.

Why write for personality types?

By writing to your prospect’s personality, you can connect with them on a level that everyone in the marketplace ignores.

You can also structure your product offering to suit the style of the primary type in your audience, thus increasing the chances that they’ll be able to implement it effectively.

Writing to your audience’s personality allows you to accurately cater to them from pitch to result, giving you more money in your pocket and a cadre of fans raving about how awesome your product is.

There’s no marketing strategy that’s more effective than that!

About the Author: Kirsten Simmons is an author, a coach, and the creator of the Personalized Productivity program that uses your personality to create your ideal productivity system. She’s a Fantastical (in case you were wondering), and she’s also a full time grad student studying mathematical models of epidemics. Come take the personality quiz to discover your type, or connect on twitter @kirstenasimmons.

When was the last time you wrote something with the intent to specifically motivate your readers to take action?

Admit it or not, we’re all in the same game.

Whether you want someone to buy your product, join your email list, retweet or +1 your post, you’re doing one thing — leading your audience down a path at the end of which lies the action they’ll take.

You want them to do something.

In other words, you’re selling.

Unfortunately, many content creators don’t know the first thing about selling.

A few years ago, neither did I. Well, not online, anyway. Not until I developed one skill that changed everything.

I’d had plenty of experience selling at the flower shop I owned. But selling through the written word was an entirely new skill.

To learn this ancient skill, I turned to the experts — those who make millions every year because of their ability to write great sales letters.

Sales letters are roads paved with words which lead buyers to solutions, sellers to profit, and writers closer to their happily ever afters.

Yet, most freelance writers and professional bloggers never consider learning to write sales letters.

Writers often feel as though that particular skill is above their pay grade, while many bloggers prefer to hire a professional when it comes time to creating their sales copy.

That’s probably because neither these writers or bloggers have any idea how life-changing learning to write a sales letter can actually be.

Let’s take a look at five reasons you should learn to write a great sales letter …

1. Never create crap content again

Some clients want nothing more than keyword-stuffed filler content for their sites, and they’re willing to pay you very little for the privilege. They don’t want to hear anything about how Google’s Panda update has made this approach silly, they just want mountains of low-quality content, stat.

Writing crappy content in bulk sucks. Do it for too long, and you’ll wonder why you thought writing online was a good idea in the first place.

Worse than being paid by the pound is the feeling of indentured servitude that comes with being a breath or two beyond running in circles, but nowhere near where you need to be to break away.

Knowing how to write a sales letter elevates your skill set, meaning you can make more money for every word you write, virtually overnight, whether or not you’re a wordsmith for hire.

2. You’ll only need a few clients a month

Managing low-paying copy usually means juggling a long list of clients because you’re stitching one job into the next, quilting your ends until they hopefully meet.

With the much higher earning average of longer form sales copy, just one or two jobs per month can fund the rest of your writing business.

Every sales letter you write makes you a better writer than you were before.

Constantly write, continuously improve, and quickly build a long list of people willing to pay you top dollar for your time.

When you deliver a sales letter that converts, you’re never hired only once.

3. You can develop streams of passive income

Once you know how to write an effective sales letter, you can become your own best client.

Write an eBook, put together a training course, offer a special suite of services, then write a letter to sell it.

You’re doing it for others. Why not do it for yourself?

If you’re a writer, you have the unique ability to synthesize and simplify information.

It’s the next logical step to package what you know and put it online.

4. More time for what you truly want to do

You can always make more money, but you’ll never make another minute.

By being able to charge more money for the hours you work, you will have more time to write the things you love.

You didn’t become a writer to write crap content, or to get lost in the daily blizzard of disposable blog posts, did you?

Earning more per billable hour will give you the time required to build the bank of assets that will elevate your legacy, along with your bottom line.

5. You’ll be better a much better writer

Even if you only write one sales letter in your life, knowing how you did it will make you a better writer.

Sales letters are paint-by-number persuasion, connecting dots we all have in common. You can’t sell if you don’t understand your reader.

Yet, once you know how to slip inside their mind, you can channel their desire.

On a sales page, that means clicking the BUY button.

Offline, it can mean creating word-of-mouth about your latest book, inspiring the reader to tell friends, and maybe even review your product on Amazon.com.

Selling vs. selling out

When I first started online, I wanted nothing more than to write blogs posts and fiction.

Selling seemed like an anti-art, lacking in purity, or just plain “selling out.”

But when you think about what writing is — getting people to feel something, spreading ideas, or connecting with people across great divides — it’s not all that different from selling.

Whether you’re selling a product or selling yourself, learning how to write a good sales letter is one of the best investments you’ll ever make in your writing.

About the Author: Sean Platt is the author of Writing Online and How to Write a Sales Letter that Works (Without Wasting Your Time!). Get his free report, The 9 Mistakes Most Writers Make That Are Keeping Them Poor. Follow him on Twitter.

Everybody’s talking about it.

Most of it is rumor, hearsay, and innuendo …

We idolize the exploits of the people we look up to, and try to skirt the mention of our own experiences (and shortcomings).

No, I’m not talking about sex — I’m talking about split-testing.

What does split-testing have to do with sex?

Actually, quite a lot…

Let me explain.

Everybody says they’re doing it …

Just like sex in high-school, split-testing is all the rage.

Everyone likes to pretend they’re an expert. Buzzwords and rumors abound … stories about increasing conversion rates by an order of magnitude by changing the color of a checkout button (but nobody shares the magic color!).

Most importantly, nobody wants to admit that they don’t really know what they’re doing, or (gasp!) have never done it themselves. Many join the conversation without wanting to let on that they don’t even know what split testing is!

Let’s start with a simple definition.

Split-testing, also known as “A/B testing”, is an invaluable strategy that compares two versions of a web page, with one difference between them — say, for example, a different headline.

Then you measure how many people take the desired action (like buying a product) on each page, to see which variation works better.

Now that we’ve explained it, let’s be honest.

You don’t split-test, do you? Maybe you did something once — a small, unsatisfying and inconclusive experiment, but you’re not testing on a regular basis … right?

Most people don’t want to admit this, because they feel like they’re the only ones not doing it. Everybody knows that split-testing is absolutely critical to effective marketing online — so who wants to admit that they’re the only ones who aren’t doing it?

Well, relax.

It turns out that “most people” can’t be the “only one” — funny thing, right?

Hardly anyone is really doing it…

Everybody’s talking about it, but that doesn’t mean everybody’s actually doing it.

The truth is that many of the exploits that you hear about are fueled by a vivid imagination, rather than experience; only a very small proportion of the talkers are actually doing the things that they describe.

And that’s okay … maybe you aren’t ready.

To do split testing right, you don’t just need to test different variations of a page, you need to measure results, and the differences between the results generated by each variation.

This is challenging, and often impossible for websites that are just starting out and don’t have much traffic.

Let’s explain why with a short example:

Variation 1: One page page received 974 visits, and 5 people converted
Variation 2: The modified version of the page received 961 visits, and 7 people converted

You’d think that Variation 2 is the clear winner, right?

Wrong.

Crunching the numbers, we find that there is only a 45.27% chance that over time, Variation 2 will continue to outperform Variation 1.

In other words, there’s a 54.73% chance that the difference between their success rates was the result of random chance.

Okay … where did I get these numbers?

Split testing is all about finding results that you can be confident in based on statistical significance. This isn’t a touchy-feely kind of confidence — it’s calculated mathematically, and you want it to be at least 90%, and ideally 95% or more to choose a winner.

You don’t have to worry about calculating the numbers yourself; there are free tools out there that can calculate the statistical significance of your results for you (you just plug in the number of impressions and actions for each variation, and the rest is done for you), and split-testing tools like Google Website Optimizer will do the calculation for you as well (and plugs right into Premise).

If you don’t want to calculate the actual significance of your test, here’s a rule of thumb that you can use (borrowed from Tim Ash’s book Landing Page Optimization):

• If there are 100 impressions in your sample, you need to see a 20% difference between variations to be sure that they actually mean something.
• If there are 1,000 impressions, you need a 6.3% difference.
• If there are 10,000 impressions, you need a 2% difference.
• If there are 100,000 impressions, you need a 0.063% difference.

Do you notice the trend here?

To detect small differences in improvements (which are what most split-tests are likely to reveal), you need a pretty large sample size.

The moral of the story is that if you don’t have much traffic, then maybe you need a solid growth strategy instead of better split-testing.

But what if you do have the traffic?

After all, most sites and blogs have at least a bit of traffic, which is enough to test the more important things, like headlines and opt-in placement.

Most aren’t doing it very well …

Like sex in high school, split-testing is something at which even those who are doing it don’t have much experience, and their actions are often controlled by impulses and urges, rather than skilled intent.

Let’s take a quiz, and see if you’re making any of the mistakes of most would-be split-testers:

Do you test one thing at a time? Most wannabe split-testers don’t; they change half-a-dozen things at a time, based on the latest and greatest ideas to have entered their minds. The trouble with this is that when things work (or don’t work), you don’t know which changes are responsible. To effectively split test, you need to isolate variables, which means testing one thing at a time!

(Okay, yes, it is technically possible to test multiple things at once — it’s called multivariate testing. In practice, though, doing it requires huge traffic numbers, and a much more complex setup — if you’re not already doing it, then it’s probably not for you.)

Are you measuring results? I mean actually measuring, with numbers? This is also a rarity — more often, it’s an anecdotal “I feel like we’re getting more sign-ups” kind of ‘measurement’. Be careful with this, because as humans beings we all suffer from a confirmation bias, which means that we’re much more likely to favor evidence that supports what we want to believe. Measuring with actual numbers is critical to effective split testing!

Do you let your experiments run until you’ve reached a 95% confidence level? This is where the greatest number of mistakes are made; an experiment is setup and allowed to run, until the experimenter feels that “this one is working better”. This occurs before reaching the point at which the numbers actually prove what you’re trying to prove, which means that the results are really inconclusive, and can’t be trusted. And what’s the point of doing experiment after experiment if none of the results can be trusted? You absolutely have to let experiments run until you reach a statistical confidence in the results!

Are you tracking your experiments? Rather than flittering from experiment to experiment, keep a journal that documents each experiment, and the lessons that you learned from them. This will prevent you from running repeated experiments that test more or less the same thing, without ever learning your lessons. Setup your experiments as hypothesis tests — each experiment is meant to test a guess about something that you think will influence your audience!

Do you focus your experiments on your conversion goals? There’s no point in experimenting just for the sake of experimenting, and yet it’s more common than you might believe. There’s no point testing something unless you think it will contribute to the conversion goals that you have for your site. So rather than setting up test after test, consider first what your objectives are, and what you might be able to test that will contribute to reaching that objective!

You’ve probably answered “no” to at least some of these questions, but that’s fine — the important thing is to learn and adjust your practices, so that the experiments that you run tomorrow will be more effective and fruitful than the experiments that you ran yesterday.

Now that you’ve got the processes worked out, let’s talk about some of the things that you might want to experiment with.

Do you feel like experimenting?

Experimentation can be great, but if you’re a professional blogger or business owner, you’re not just in it for the fun — you need to focus on the experimentation that will be most gratifying to your bottom line.

Here are some of the most important things that you should be sure to split-test:

The headline. This is the single most important thing that you can split-test, because the headline is the first “gateway” that your readers have to pass through. You will lose more people at the headline than anywhere else on the page, so test the headline first.

Opt-in placement, text, and colors. Try different placements of the opt-in box on your site, different calls to action, and different box and button colors. Since you probably get more sign-ups than sales, this is a much better place to start your testing.

The order button text and colors. Experiment with changing the text of the order button (options include “Get It Now”, “I Want Access”, “Buy Now”, “Add to Cart”, “Proceed to Checkout”, and more), and with the color of the buttons (yellow, red, blue and green are good places to start). This applies to your email opt-in box as well.

The format of the offer. This is a little more work to test, but if you have the option to do it, you might find that a lot more customers are willing to buy one format than another. Experiment with your offer as an ebook, report, video series, podcast training program, infographic and so forth.

The price. This isn’t always possible to test, but if it is, you might find that you’re leaving a lot of money on the table; it’s possible that increasing the price will not affect sales, and it’s even possible that increasing the price will increase sales as well!

The style of the introduction. After the headline, the first thing that your audience will read is the opening paragraph. Experiment with different styles — try making bold statements, vs. telling a story about their problem, vs. describing the ideal outcome. See what works best for your audience.

The product imagery. Try different versions of your product picture — you’d be surprised how much of an effect this sort of thing can have.

Trust seal choice and placement. Different audiences will respond to different trust seals, and will want to see them in different places. Good places to test are near the description of your guarantee, and of course near your order button.

Email subject line. This is just as important as the headline of your sales page, particularly if you’re using confirmed opt-in, in which abandon rates of 20-30% are common. Split-test the email subject line of your email confirmation messages to make sure that as many subscribers as possible actually get on your list.

There are lots of other things that you could test — for more ideas than you’ll ever be able to test, check out the Landing Page tutorials here on Copyblogger.

Getting started with split testing…

If this is the first time you’re hearing about split-testing, then your head is probably spinning right now.

That’s okay — it’s a lot of information to take in.

Even if you’ve been thinking about split testing for a while (and have even tried a few experiments), you might be wondering about one thing: how to actually get the experiments going.

That’s where Premise comes in — it’s a drop-dead simple and complete landing page package that plugs right into WordPress, and you can use to:

1. Generate all kind of landing pages, including templates for Sales Pages, Content (SEO) Pages, Pricing Table Pages, Email Opt-In Forms, Video Pages, Tab Scroller Pages, and Thank You Pages.
2. Add all kinds of standard elements into your landing pages with the click of a mouse.
3. Run split tests to make sure that you’re incrementally advancing towards your conversion goals!

So enough fence-sitting … if you want to get serious about split-testing, go get Premise and get started!

Okay, over to you …

Have you experimented with split-testing? What has your experience been? Where did you get stuck?

Do you have a Premise success story to share?

About the Author: Danny Iny is an author, strategist, serial entrepreneur, and proud co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the definitive marketing training program for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and non-marketers. Visit his site today to download a free split test checker, or follow him on Twitter @DannyIny.