Here you go.. found in the Czech Republic underneath Charles Bridge.  Have a drink and fulfil your iMarionette lust.

… they just want to know you’re there…

We sent a mail today to our customer base doing no more than announcing a new email address for support.  There was no clever wording, no enormous amount of thought gone into it, not even a call to action.

The result? [...]]]>

… they just want to know you’re there…

We sent a mail today to our customer base doing no more than announcing a new email address for support.  There was no clever wording, no enormous amount of thought gone into it, not even a call to action.

The result?  A slew of thank-yous and new orders.

Curious!

In an earlier post about pricing insurance I’d wondered why the vast majority of consumers shop for insurance based on price alone when there are clearly a lot of differentiators, and serious consequences for claims, between different cover options.

After an email exchange with an economics whiz at Ohio [...]]]>

In an earlier post about pricing insurance I’d wondered why the vast majority of consumers shop for insurance based on price alone when there are clearly a lot of differentiators, and serious consequences for claims, between different cover options.

After an email exchange with an economics whiz at Ohio State (thanks Eric!) here are a few more thunkers:

Risk Aversion:  If you’re scared of risk and you have the cash, you’re just going to buy the best looking cover if you can identify it.  Perceived risk plays a role here, that’s why mobile phone co’s (et al) can sell you electronics policies that cost almost as much as insuring your whole house.

Self Assessed Risk:  Can’t happen to you?  Can’t happen to young people, they believe.. Indestructibility!  If you don’t believe there’s a risk, you aren’t going to pay to avert that risk.  Problem is, it seems, we’re not so great at evaluating risks as consumers, leading us to pay through the nose for things that aren’t risky and vice versa.

Rational Ignorance:  Here’s where I think the biggest issue lies.  Because insurance is so bloody hard to understand for most people, they don’t bother understanding.  If you look at the example of an early middle age taxi driver for example – young family, livelihood depends on being able to operate, would be catastrophic if taxi / driver off the road for a period of time – he shouldn’t be price sensitive (within reason).  But in our surveys, he almost always uses price as the deciding factor.  Rational ignorance suggests that when faced with three similar policies, but each with certain key differences that could make or break the effectiveness of the cover – he’ll just revert to the thing he understands the most to decide – price.

No surprises, but an ongoing problem for the insurance industry.

We surveyed a ton of people across loads of different products about whether price, or cover, was the most important thing to consider when buying insurance.

Predictably – 89.8% said price, 10.2% said cover.

This is a [...]]]>

No surprises, but an ongoing problem for the insurance industry.

We surveyed a ton of people across loads of different products about whether price, or cover, was the most important thing to consider when buying insurance.

Predictably – 89.8% said price, 10.2% said cover.

This is a direct result of competing on price for so long. Customers no longer understand (or care) that there’s a difference between cover A and B, insurer C and D.

Look to technology for a comparison though and you realise it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re buying a flatscreen, a new DSLR, a camcorder or whatever these days, chances are you’ll spend a long time studying specification sheets. You’ll wonder between 12 and 13 megapixels. You’ll have sleepless nights over the number of HDMI inputs on the device you lust after.. only three, when second choice has 4.. You’ll know every pointless little detail there is to know and why it should matter.

But when you buy insurance – you’ll say A is cheaper than B so you’ll get A.

My 3 espresso hypothesis is you do this because you don’t “use” insurance. It’s an intangible thing that you have to pay for because someone says you do. You don’t think you’ll ever need it, so you don’t bother looking at what it contains. The benefits of a policy will never be realised in the consumer’s eyes because they’ll never have to make a claim.

There is every opportunity though for a clever insurer to present their product in a wholly differentiated way. Toasted tobacco? Got nuthin on what you can find buried in policy wordings made purposefully unintelligible through years of obfuscation.

A consumer might not want to bother to understand all the ins and outs of a policy, but imagine the impact of seeing a list of features with big green ticks for product A, and big red crosses for product B. It’s going to make you think about that extra £20.. Why can’t my comparison site give me tick boxes to compare A with B like when I buy most other similar products?

Those who know me know I’m first to jump on any business model that includes a crusade in it, and I’m not suggesting we should try and make prospects understand why price isn’t the only driver… But I reckon all those who actually provide the cover are missing tricks left right and centre by listing the same old same old tired free legal, free breakdown, free blaaaaahhhhhh blahhhhhhhh who cares blaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.

More to come, initial thoughts from a First Great Western carriage to London Paddington.

To all lying bastard B2B SEO cold callers who tell my assistant “we were speaking last week”:  No we weren’t, but thanks for letting me know your company is dishonest right from Day One.

Check out this ad (found via Duke University‘s excellent resource) and see how many influencers you can spot.. it’s way over the top and perfectly brilliant:

Subtle way of saying cheap: “Oh I’m not in the running when you talk about these high prices, I use [...]]]>

Check out this ad (found via Duke University‘s excellent resource) and see how many influencers you can spot.. it’s way over the top and perfectly brilliant:

Subtle way of saying cheap: “Oh I’m not in the running when you talk about these high prices, I use Ivory!”

Social proof: “You’re behind the times, it’s in most of the hotel bathrooms I’ve been in in the last six months!”

Authority: “Let this well know physician…”, “Dr Verity told me I couldn’t get a better complexion soap” (great mixup of words there too – “couldn’t get a better complexion [soap]“)

Differentiators: “99 44/100% pure”, “It floats”

People Like You: “When our Julia walks abroad in one of her mistress’s last year’s blouses..” (includes subtle hint of a better life with ‘abroad’)

There are a bunch more in there too beautifully crammed to bursting. It’s like someone gave the copyeditor a list of must-have-conversion triggers and bet him he couldn’t squeeze them all in.

These old ads have much to teach us – after all, this is a frikkin’ bar of utterly generic soap with a single differentiator of “It floats!”, half the copy even suggests soap’s unnecessary at all…

Worked so well they still use the same diff today.. stick that in your pipe and smoke it Interwebs…

Noticed at http://www.unbounce.com, a perfect and impossible to ignore way of getting someone to click on your featured info graphic… stick a big arrow next to it with “This Is Very Awesome”…

Beauty!

Big conversion rate changes come in strange places…

On one of my properties I’d experimented with a 20x20px union flag in the top right corner of the page next to the top level home, search, contact navigation.

The thought was that since all traffic was UK (and could only [...]]]>

Big conversion rate changes come in strange places…

On one of my properties I’d experimented with a 20x20px union flag in the top right corner of the page next to the top level home, search, contact navigation.

The thought was that since all traffic was UK (and could only be served in the UK) we should quickly tick off the “Am I in the right place?” question.

When we tested removing the flag however, we got a significant conversion lift.  At first we wondered if the flag was somehow annoying clients or other weirdness.  But then it became obvious – the flag was indeed catching the eye, but it was leading it to a way out of the landing page and into the rest of the site.

The traffic is really closely targeted so we’re pretty sure for 90% of visitors they’re on the right page.  Most will work through the long form and make it fit their needs (there’s a bazillion parameters where one or two questions will always be tricky to complete), BUT given half a chance (a link to search for example) and visitors almost seem to assume they’re in the wrong place and try to find their way through another path.  That invariably leads to drop out and lost conversion.

Just another vote for keeping landing pages with a single goal..

How many times have I read that same old BS regurgitated by the same old BSers : the shorter the form the higher the conversion rate.

It’s not true.  In fact it’s bollocks.  Different situations will convert with different form lengths.

My Form Rule:

The prospect will [...]]]>

How many times have I read that same old BS regurgitated by the same old BSers : the shorter the form the higher the conversion rate.

It’s not true.  In fact it’s bollocks.  Different situations will convert with different form lengths.

My Form Rule:

The prospect will answer as many questions as you want as long as they believe the information will help you serve their purpose in the most frictionless way possible.

One of my sites is in financial services – we collect 60-80 data points on many of our products with 75% completion rates.  Yep, 75%.  The reason is that our questions are carefully chosen to a) give us what we need and b) show the prospect the form is relevant and c) show the prospect we know what we’re talking about.  Note: a, b & c do not necessarily give us the same question set.  Some questions are added purely for prospect happiness – the data is nice to know, but not essential by any means.

If you apply the Form Rule life becomes easy in deciding which questions to ask and which to drop.

Sign up for our newsletter?  Why are you asking me if I’m a house owner… Insure my caravan?  Sure I’ll answer these 5 questions about security, they might get me a discount!

And…

Make sure your questions / tooltips / error messages tell people why the data will help them, not you, fulfil their need.  Consider these two options, who is more likely to convert:

[  ] Please enter your mobile phone number

[  ] Please enter a mobile phone number (just in case we need to quickly clarify something to prepare your quote)

Not surprisingly, the second one wins every time.

So.. add as many questions as you want, forget the short-form-sheep and languish in the glory of unbelievable conversion rates, happy databases, happy customers.

Ack, this makes me bonkers.  Live chat transcript with fashionable tech co:

More [...]]]>

Ack, this makes me bonkers.  Live chat transcript with fashionable tech co:

me: Has something changed in the stats api – code that once worked and is unchanged no longer does so..

Just a moment…

Andrei: Hello

Hi, my name is Andrei, how can I be of assistance ?

More commonly you receive an automated receipt with full invoice, shipping details etc and reply or forward, only to be asked the same questions again.

Worse, online seller types.. the biggest cardinal sin of all…

Email > Dear customer.. upgrade offer! > Click > Login to Site > Place Order > Form to fill in all previous name, address etc details again !!  I’m looking at you Nik Software, producer of fine photography apps.

Give someone a reason, any reason, to not go ahead with an impulse purchase triggered by an email, and they’ll jump at it!