Read Michel Fortin’s latest blog post titled “Put Your Copy To The Test”.


Michel Fortin’s latest blog post is reprinted here.

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Put Your Copy To The Test

Split-testing is the simple process of splitting your audience into reading two or more versions of your copy (whether it’s your website, salesletter, email, etc), to determine which version pulls the best.

I’m a big fan of testing. And I teach it as much as I can, as I believe 99% of marketers out there do not test at all. It’s a shame, because they’re leaving so much money on the table.

I applaud those people who do test. But in some forums of late, a few people reveal their own test results while making claims they are universally applicable.

First off, I always recommend you test everything first. Never take any test result as gospel. Even mine. Because only a handful of test results, if any, are statistically significant enough to be truly portable to other offers or markets.

So, you’re probably scratching your head, wondering:

“What good are test results, then?”

Now, I agree that some results, tested thoroughly under various conditions, can be widely accepted. They have slim margins of error, and they’re statistically valid enough that the likelihood of achieving the same kinds of results in another area is higher.

(Then again, those “surefire” test results are equally limited in their application, as they were generated at specific points in time. They may change over time as markets change. So even the best test results are never constant.)

It’s true, however, that having access to test results – like the ones I reveal in my Copy Doctor private membership website – puts you several steps ahead of trying to blindly test anything without any help or direction, let alone of testing nothing at all.

Knowing what to test is an awesome benefit.

Never discount other people’s test results. Look at them as pointers, which are great ideas for testing. They are not, and should never be taken as, absolutes.

Each “pointer” any marketer gives has been achieved under very specific and sometimes very unique conditions. Duplicating those results is highly contingent on duplicating the same conditions under which those tests were conducted.

For example, if you’re testing colors, then the target market, the type of product, the price point and the offer have all played immense roles in the weight of those test results. And even if there’s a small chance that they are the same as yours, the time during which the tests were conducted is definitely different.

Nevertheless, with that in mind, I’d like to add some of my comments to some of the test results other marketers have posted in some forums:

1. Your headline should always be in tahoma, dark red, size 20. It must also have quotation marks before and after. Also, headlines that start with “Who Else” always gets a higher response.

Yes, that’s what I’ve tested, too. But the results do vary. On average, the increase is less than 100%. Even less than 50%. (Meaning, they don’t double or more, as some marketers suggest.) And in some cases, the response went down rather than up.

The bottom line is, in the majority of tests, we found that sans-serif fonts for headlines and headers (i.e., subheads within the copy) have resulted in greater conversions over serif fonts.

Sans-serif are proportional width fonts with no curlicues, such as tahoma, trebuchet, verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, etc. (And dark red, then black with red emphasized words, and then dark blue, seem to outpull other colors.)

Serif fonts are fonts with curlicues, such as times, roman, georgia, schoolbook, garamond, etc, and they’re best with the body copy BUT mostly with a primarily technophobic audience. (Technophobes are people who are not technically inclined, such as newbies or people who are averse to technology.)

With technophiles, on the other hand (i.e., people who love and use technology a lot), I’ve had better results with sans-serif fonts as the body copy and sans-serif fonts in the headers.

My guess?

For technophobes, serif fonts mimic direct mail and offline communications, which non-techies are used to. (This goes back to what Caples said about delivering copy in the format your audience is used to as much as possible.)

The middle ground for both seems to be courier or courier new. If your audience is comprised of both ends of the spectrum of what Jupiter Research calls “technographics” – which is similar to demographics and psychographics – courier font is your safest bet.

My theory as to the reason why is, the courier font mimics plain text email for technophiles and typewriter type for technophobes, thus appealing to both. And if you’re not sure of your target market’s technographics, use courier as your main font to play it safe (although you can’t go wrong with serif, since it’s the most traditional font).

So the bottom line, it depends on the audience.

(I’ll come back to the whole “who else” argument a little later.)

2. Your headline should be simple and focus only on the SINGLE biggest benefit of your product (don’t try to get fancy and do heaps of benefits at once). Make it clear and compelling.

True. But again, that’s a suggestion. In fact, I’ve found that using less and less benefits in your headline increases response, likely because benefit-driven headlines alerts the reader that what follows is a salesletter. (And people hate being sold.)

I’ve had good results with headlines that didn’t have ANY benefits at all. Such as…

newsy, editorial-like headlines, headlines that introduce a story, headlines that ask a question, headlines that give an incomplete idea, headlines that start a conversation, And so on.

These headlines pull the reader in, especially because they start an idea, imply a benefit (rather than state one), pique the reader’s curiosity or continue the conversation in the mind of the reader. (The latter is a Robert Collier strategy, and great for bringing a problem or challenge to the top of the reader’s mind.)

Here are some examples of classic headlines that are not benefit-driven:

“Do You Make These Mistakes In English?” “The Tale Of Two Young Men” “The Insult That Made A Man Out Of Mac” “When Doctors Feel Rotten, This Is What They Do” “Often A Bridesmaid, Never A Bride” “Using A Lawyer May Be Dangerous To Your Wealth” “Have You Ever Seen a Grown Man Cry?” Again, there are no real benefits in these headlines. But there’s either an implied benefit, or a statement that tickles people’s curiosity and forces them to start reading, which is the whole purpose of a headline.

Now, some people have ranted and raved about the “who else” headline. I tested this headline like crazy. And personally, I HATE it. But it seems to pull more than any other headline I’ve tried.

In fact, let me share with you my 5 best headline types I’ve tested, which have produced the highest response:

1. “Who Else”

The “who else” headline is based on the original classic, “Who Else Wants A Screen Star Figure?” This type of headline is the winner is most of my tests, and now used by countless marketers.

Mind you, the 2nd winner in line is not too far down. So “Who else” may be the winner but the margin is slim. Plus, recent tests show that the response for a “who else” headline is slowly decreasing over time, too.

Perhaps because, like the benefit-driven headline, it’s overused. And since too many marketers use it nowadays, people are becoming more aware of it. It screams “salesletter!” and thus scares readers off when they see it being used.

2. “If/Then”

This headline is very close to “who else” in terms of concept.

It was used in one of the most successfulad campaigns for self-made multi-millionaire Charles Givens, written by copywriterGary Bencivenga. It also worked the same for Richard Simmons. It basically said, “If you give me 20 minutes a month, I guarantee you will lose weight.”

Simply, it promises a benefit but only if the reader can meet a very simple, very obvious condition. In other words, “If you meet this condition, then I will make this promise.” The key is that the condition must be easy to meet. If the condition is too hard, it defeats the purpose of using such a headline.

It’s also the technique I’ve used with John Reese’s Traffic Secrets. “If you can copy and paste, then you have what it takes to (…)”

3. “Give Me/And I’ll”

This is close to the if/then headline as well. Essentially, rather than asking if the reader meets a condition, it makes a promise or offers a benefit when (rather than if) the reader meets a condition.

In other words, it doesn’t put any condition but rather asks a small favor from the reader, which is simple, obviously easy to do and disproportionate to the value of the benefit they receive.

It goes something like this: “Give me something (or meet this condition), and in return I’ll make you this promise (or you will enjoy this benefit).”

This highlights a classic Cialdini principle, author of “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” Dr. Robert Cialdini’s principle of reciprocity states that when you do someone a favor, people will feel obligated to return it. In this case, you’re asking for a favor and promise to return it.

Take a look at Alex Mandossian’s TrafficConversionSecrets.com, which was a teleseminar series delivered over 8 months. The headline goes: “Give Me 8 Months, And I’ll Spoonfeed You My Tested Methods For Converting More Visitors Into Cash.”

Or take a look at my own DVD at CopyOnFire.com. My headline says, “Give me $9.95, and I’ll send you my DVD,” etc. (This is where I ask people to simply pay a small fee to cover the shipping cost of the DVD, and I will only charge them after 30 days if they like it and don’t return it.)

4. “How To”

The “how-to” headline is self-explanatory. Any headline that says, “how to [achieve a result]” has been a surefire winner in many cases. I use it all the time.

Of course, the headline makes the salesletter look more like an article or editorial. And your salesletter should provide content. But the goal is to deliver the “what” and to sell them on the “how,” which is only achieved after buying your product.

For example, “How To Transform Your Unproductive Website Into a Raging Cash Machine Overnight,” “How To Grow Bigger, Plumper, Juicier Tomatoes In Only Two-Thirds Of The Time,” and “How To Get An Almost-New Car For Up To 60% Off Or More At Government Seized Car Auctions.”

5. Third-Person Verbs

Headlines that start with a verb have always produced really good results. Verbs that direct the audience to do something, often to receive a benefit or achieve a certain result, have always given great test results. Verbs like “Discover,” “Master,” “Access,” “Get,” “Learn,” “Conquer,” “Build,” etc work well.

But here’s the kicker.

In recent tests, I’ve learned that, in some instances, putting your verbs in the third person increases response.

The idea came from copywriter Bob Bly. He tells the story of an ad that had a typo. The ad was for a course on how to play the piano. The intended headline was, “Put Music Back Into Your Life.” The typo was an extra “S” accidentally placed after the verb “put,” as in “Puts Music Back Into Your Life.”

At first, the error was disconcerting to the ad owner. But to their surprise, they realized that error multiplied the ad’s response.

My theory? The third person makes the headline appear as if the product or service DOES the work for you rather than you doing it yourself. It’s effortless. Rather than asking the reader to “put music back into her life,” the ad implied that the course does it for them.

Again, it goes to the natural human propensity of getting things done. It’s all about convenience and laziness. And after I heard about it, I’ve tested it with great results.

My friend Armand Morin tested this, too, with his directory generator software at DirectoryGenerator.com. The headline says, “(Directory Generator) Instantly Creates A New Breed of Website (…)” rather than “Instantly Create A New Breed of Website (with Directory Generator)…”

3. Add audio directly underneath your headline. But not just any audio. You want audio that excites your reader and keeps them reading. Don’t waffle on. Keep it short and sweet.

I agree. This is a test I made based on a suggestion from my friend John Reese. John used it with his AuctionSecrets.com website, and told me his sales increased significantly. So I tried it. And after testing it got a 44% increase in response.

It is particularly effective when combined with a “who else” headline. The question in the headline, using “who else” (or any other question), immediately engages the reader. The audio then answers the question.

Similar to the “If/Then” and “Give Me/And I’ll” headlines, the audio finishes the statement, answers the question or offers a benefit when they meet the condition.

After it asks you, “do you meet this condition?” the headline directs the reader to listen to the audio for a very special message if they do meet it. In other words, the audio says, “I can make this promise (or you can enjoy this benefit),” or “you should read this copy which is meant specifically for you (because you meet this condition),” etc.

4. Pepper your order links throughout your copy (not just at the end like most people). Repeat them again and again before the end.

Now, this is a bit contentious.

I found that it depends on the product. What I discovered was that removing all links and leaving only the one single order link increased response dramatically, especially for long copy, one-time purchases – especially with information products.

Why? Because more often than not, adding too many links gives people an opportunity to procrastinate and bail out. If you have long copy, and since people NEVER read long copy at first, they will then scan your copy to justify the need to read it in the first place.

Often, they will want to know the price – not to discover if there’s any value in the offer (besides, how can they know when they haven’t read it yet?) but to discover if the price makes reading the copy worth it.

Therefore, if the copy looks too long, the price is then used as a metric to justify reading the copy in the first place.

Increasing the number of links is “eye gravity” and gives people a chance to skip the long copy, click on the link before they start reading, check out the price, and then… leave.

On the other hand, if you sell an inexpensive product, a commodity product or a digital product, and the copy is highly targeted to an audience that’s pre-sold (i.e., it’s either generated through affiliate promotions that endorse the product, or one that has joined a mailing list before they hit the salesletter), then many links DOincrease sales.

Because most of the time, people are already sold.

They just want to buy.

My friend Armand has tested this extensively with AudioGenerator.com (there are over 100 links on that page!). At first, when I heard that Armand saw a jump in sales with AudioGenerator.com because of adding more order links, my assumption was that this was true for all products.

It’s not.

Remember, Armand uses affiliate marketing, a “namesqueeze” process (an opt-in page before hitting the salespage) and a carefully crafted autoresponder series that pre-sells the recipient very well.

So when they’ve decided to order, they’re simply led to the sales copy – which is a webpage with many order links. And in this case, doing so boosted sales.

Otherwise, if you sell an expensive product and you really want people to read your copy first, then DON’T put too many links. You want to give the least amount of distractions as possible as well as the least amount of opportunities to bail out as possible.

John Reese said it this way:

“Use only 1 link, mainly in your call-to-action section. And if you want to add more, simply add some after that section, which are not order links but simply jump people back to the call-to-action section.”

(The latter is presumably because, when people scan, they usually pay attention to the top and the bottom. Which is why headlines and P.S.’s at the end are crucial. But in this case, adding “live” order links after the order section is just another opportunity for people to bail out. That’s my theory, anyway.)

5. Pepper testimonials throughout your copy. Don’t limit your testimonials to blocks somewhere in the middle. Use the first one early on and pepper the others throughout your copy.

My answer to this one is both “yes” and “no.” Yes, you should pepper testimonials throughout. But adding a few together, particularly if they’re similar, also clusters them for greater impact.

However, the real key here is to make them congruent with the thoughts and flow of the copy. Because too many people nowadays plunk their testimonials in huge clusters in the middle of the copy with no purpose or relevance to that particular point in the pitch.

I’ve seen better test results when testimonials are meaningful, not only in themselves but also in terms of how they relate to the rest of the copy at that point. So pick and use testimonials that are relevant to specific sections of your pitch.

For example, say a section in your copy is meant to handle objections pre-emptively. This is a good place to add testimonials from people who were also skeptics, had the same objections and became convinced after buying the product.

In this case, the testimonial is answering the objection (more specifically, a seemingly objective third party is answering the objection), and not you.

Here’s a scenario: you sell a software that promises to increase your search engine rankings. So your copy at some point starts to talk to the skeptic who’s been burnt by other search engine software, and discusses how the software really is different than the others.

You tell your reader how different it is from other types of software on the market – likely software people were burnt with – and that the software really does deliver on its promises.

But instead of stating it outright, use testimonials to drive that same point home. The copy might say, after the objection was stated in the copy:

“Mr. Prospect, as you can see, my software truly is unique and better than most alternatives on the market that only offer [lesser result or benefit]. Take the case of John Smith, who nearly didn’t buy my software because he’s not only a diehard skeptic, but also bought other alternatives that produced less than favorable results. He was extremely doubtful and almost didn’t buy the software. Here’s what he had to say [followed by his testimonial].”

In my tests, I’ve found that adding testimonials too early in the letter decreases response. Perhaps for the same reasons mentioned earlier: they scream “salesletter!”

Unless you’re selling to an already established client or to traffic created by affiliates who pre-sell your product (which, in this case, testimonials early in the copy DO work well), try to put your testimonials a little later – especially around the introduction of the product, the objections (so you can handle them), the offer, the benefits (near or around bullets, for example), and of course, the price.

A final note.

Keep in mind that anything I say here may or may not work in your copy. Just like I said about other people’s test results, mine should be used as guidance, not gospel. I know the chances that they will work are high since I’ve tested them thoroughly. But never take my word for it.

Test it. And if you have several websites or salesletters, don’t stop there. Test it some more. You’ll be glad you did. Or like some of my students, you’ll be mad – mad because you’ll soon realize how much money you left sitting on the table all this time by NOT testing.

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About the Author
Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.

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*IMNewswatch would like to thank Michel Fortin for granting exclusive permission to reprint this latest blog post.

 

 

 

 

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