How One Stupid A/B Test That I Never Thought Would Work Created a 50% Increase In Conversions

Stupid A/B Test Creates 50% Increase

As you probably have gathered over the past few months of reading my emails
I love testing things.

There’s landing page that I have created that hasn’t undergone some form of a/b test.

It’s amazing the difference you can create with a simple a/b test.

For clarity – that’s when you divide the traffic you are getting to a page ( let’s say for example a landing page) over 2 or 3 different versions of that page to see if you can find a particular combination of words, colors, design and calls to action that perform better than others.

That is measured by a single goal: a mailing list subscription, a purchase, a facebook page like… whatever you are trying to achieve.

So on one of my sites I have done nothing but split test like crazy just for the fun of it and the other day something interesting happened…

Usually on a landing page I would be trying to achieve a signup…
So for that reason I would not normally have anything on that page that didn’t lead directly to achieving that purpose.

I like clean simple design and minimal graphics except for those that are working to convert people to my list.

So on this new page I created I had already tested the headline (which is usually the first place I start)

Then, using the best headline , I tested the call to action above the button…
Then with the best headline and the best call to action I tested the words on the button: Get instant access | watch now | load my free video etc…

All of these changes made small but noticeable differences…

Then a friend suggested something I would never have normally associated with a landing page… putting a popup with a form on the page…

Why would I not normally do this?

Well redundancy mostly… they are already looking at the page which is asking them to sign up… why would you then have a pop up which asks them to sign up?
…also I would have thought that it was an annoyance or a distraction…

As I always tell clients though – you just never know until you test it… so I tested it…

Now let me be clear: all the other changes on the page… the headline, the call to action, the button text made around 4-8% difference to conversions which was small but valuable difference…

The popup?

I can understand adding one to a blog where people are coming to read the content on that page but on a landing page???

Seems to me that it is doubling up on what’s already there… and it’s a distraction and there are all kinds of other reasons why it shouldn’t work…

But here’s what it did…

Increased registrations by 50%

I nearly fell over.

WE ARE NOT TESTING THIS POPUP – OVER A LANDING PAGE THAT SAYS ALMOST THE EXACT SAME THING TO SEE IF IT INCREASES THE WEBSITE CONVERSIONS. YOU CAN GET THE SCRIPT WE USED – HERE

Now the thing to test is whether using the same bullet points on the popup as on the page will work best or whether it’s better to use different bullets on the popup compared to the page will further increase those results.

Anyway if your business is being built on collecting prospects for your list so you can send them great information then you owe it to yourself to make sure that you have got an effective pop up working on your website.

And once you get one up and running start testing it to see if you can improve those results.

You can check out the popup script we used to do this HERE – it’s very easy to use and works brilliantly.

How 6th Grade Maths = Predictable Profit Online

How 6th Grade Maths = Predictable Profit Online

There is a generally accepted rule of thumb in the internet marketing game.

You can generally make around $1 - Per subscriber on your list - Per month…

So around $12 per year per person.

This in itself should inform most people of the importance growing your list.

But what else can we get from this?

Firstly, assuming that you are creating good, interesting & engaging content…

that you could probably afford to spend at least a few dollars getting each subscriber.

If it costs you $4 to land a subscriber - you know you are still ahead.

If it costs you $8 to get each subscriber - you are not making as much in the first year but… still ahead!

Even at $12 - at least you know that in your second year you are going to be in profit.

Now that might seem like a long time to wait to make money but think about this:

Most high st businesses take at least 3 years before they make any profit at all.

Ok… Ok, I know I’m not painting the most glamorous picture here.

This is not the “start your online business and be making a fortune by the end of the week” hype that you normally hear, but I’m telling you this for a reason.

When you hear all that hype - when they paint a picture of there being some “secret” which if you could only discover would allow you to ...blah blah blah…

The problem with that is that it doesn’t provide you with a plan you can use. If it all comes down to one “secret” then you either have it or you don’t…

And in most cases even if you have it - it’s only part of the picture.

The great thing about understanding the average customer value is that, with some simple maths you can work out what you can afford to pay for a customer.

You can, in a way, buy customers…

It’s a simple measurable way to see how you can grow your business.

It’s a plan you can implement, count on and grow a business with…

and look… no secrets!

The question is this.

If you know you can make $12 per subscriber…

and let’s say you could “buy” customers for say $5…

Q: How many do you want?

A: As many as you can afford, right?

In fact at that price wouldn’t you be throwing every spare cent you have at getting subscribers?

Now here’s the great thing about this whole plan…

You can generally get subscribers for way less than $5 each (depending on where you look)

and, if you write good content, make good offers and build a good relationship with your subscribers you can often make much more than $1 per person, per month.

Let me give you a good example…

We recently created a landing page (a lead capture page) that converted around 30% - That’s 30 subscribers for every 100 odd people that went there…

and we used a major ezine directory to find people who would send out a “solo ad” to their list.

A solo ad is a single email that goes on to a persons list advertising or telling them about your special (often free) offer.

They charged us $0.30 a click…

That’s $30 for 100 clicks to our page…

That’s 30 new subscribers @ $1 each…

Simple maths right?

All other things being equal, you can then calculate that $30 = 30 subscribers

and 30 subscribers = $360 a year

Now subtract your costs ($30) and you are $330 in profit for the year…

That’s an ROI of 9X

Show me a business, any business that can produce a 9x ROI in the first year

When you know your “figures” you can build your business predictably.

Imaging what you would be doing if you ran an ad like that every single day…

Adding 30 people a day to your list…

What about 100 people?

You see where I’m going with this?...

Using the ezine directory is just one source of traffic and there are many more things that you can do to get people to your page...but it’s a great place to start because you can order targeted buyers who you know are interested in what you are offering.

Finally 6th grade maths is paying off (*Grin*)

Mike G

http://InternetPhenomenon.com