Sunday, May 31, 2015
ASCO: Mixed Results for Two Modes of RT in Brain Mets
Last Laugh for Laughing Gas?
In Rural Alabama, Limited Access To Obstetrics Care
Only 17 of 54 of Alabama's rural counties have hospitals that offer obstetrics services. It's one of the state's greatest healthcare challenges. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates speaks with journalist Anna Claire Vollers of AL.com and Dale Quinney of the Alabama Rural Health Association.
ASCO: Triple Agent Tx Thwarts CLL Progress
ASCO: The Beginning of the End for CLND in Melanoma?
Calming Dementia Patients Without Powerful Drugs
Four ICD-10 Fears, Decoded
Does Your Neighborhood Doom You To An Early Death?
People living just a few miles from each other in American cities can have radically different chances of living a long healthy life.
Yoga, Meditation Get Positive Reviews in MS
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Smokers Feel More Pain (CME/CE)
Short Week in D.C. Produces Medicaid Changes, 'Cures' Bill Progress, and FDA Action
Psychoanalytic Gut? That's Improbable!
Is Your Designer Killing Your Conversions?
Have you ever worked with a designer who was more interested in fancy animations and cutting-edge technology than in creating a page that actually resonates with you and your audience?
While I’ve been lucky enough to work with many talented, pragmatic designers, I’d be lying if I said I’d never been frustrated with a designer who I felt was working more against me than with me.
Luckily, Jen Gordon isn’t such a designer. As the founder of Convert Themes, a design service explicitly for landing pages, Jen understands the importance of designing pages that are both beautiful and highly-optimized for conversion.
Hoping to help marketers work better with their designers, she recently hosted an unwebinar with us entitled 3 Tools to Keep Your Designer From Killing Your Conversions — which, of course, came packaged with three tools to keep your designer from killing your conversions.
And while those tools are pretty great, the advice Jen gave on easing the tension between design and conversion was just as valuable. Read on for the distilled insights, or click here to watch the full webinar.
Lost in translation
Jen described a situation in which she received a brief for a landing page project. While it gave her basic direction, detailing the offer and the copy, it was left up to her to decide things like:
- The page’s visual hierarchy — the structure and order of its visual and textual elements
- The type of imagery that would resonate with the page’s intended audience
- The problem or pain point the page’s visitor is looking to solve
These are not small decisions to make. Yet they are exactly the kinds of critical decisions that are hoisted upon designers, either implicitly or explicitly. And in a situation like this, designers can be reluctant to ask questions or open a dialogue with the project manager.
But why? What is the root of this tension between marketers and designers?
To answer this, Jen made a word cloud based on the most shared posts on ConversionXL, Hubspot and Unbounce over the past year:
… and then did the same for some of the world’s top design blogs:
Notice that there is very little overlap between these two word clouds. They suggest that marketers are largely interested in results and the techniques that will produce them, while designers are more interested in technology, aesthetics and user experience.
What we can glean from this is that designers and marketers are speaking fundamentally different languages or are, at the very least, interested in completely different things.
And before we can open the doors of communication, we have to better understand where designers are coming from.
Can’t get on the same page as your designer? You just need to speak their language.
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The evolution of web design
In the webinar, Jen gave an overview of different eras of web design (1990 – present) to show how new technologies can shape forthcoming design trends.
For example, the timeline above shows that what we consider the most crucial elements of modern web design didn’t start to emerge until around 1998. That’s the year that usability research came into prominence and people were given more insight than ever into the behavior of their users.
Additionally, the launch of the iPhone in 2007 — and the release of Android soon after — brought with it the mobile design revolution and a renewed focus on user experience.
Each design revolution was triggered by designers searching for more efficient and more enjoyable ways for users to interact with content.
But whereas this kind of user-centered design focuses solely on a user accomplishing their own goals, conversion-centered design is focused towards having the user complete a single business goal.
This can seem like a huge shift, but the goal is essentially the same: getting the user what they need with the least friction possible.
The difference is that conversion-centered design relies more heavily on the use of persuasion and reassurance; it’s not just about enabling the user to take action, but convincing them to.
User-centered design is about experience. Conversion-centered design is about business goals.
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What your designer needs to know about CRO
While you and your designer might speak different languages, you’re both (ideally) interested in the same thing: producing a great design that works for both your business goals and the goals of your visitors.
But if you’re designer is relatively new to conversion rate optimization, there are a few things that you should make sure they understand.
#1: A homepage is NOT a landing page
Website indexes/homepages used to be referred to as landing pages — since they were the page one would “land on” when going to the site — but this definition is outdated, particularly since users don’t tend to land on those pages as often as they used to.
Nowadays, a landing page means a page dedicated to fulfilling a single campaign goal. This stands in stark contrast to index pages, which are meant to be generalist and to appeal to a wide range of visitors. Additionally, index pages tend to have an infinite amount of referral sources, whereas you probably have a strong idea of what’s driving traffic to your landing pages.
It’s important that your designer understands this so that they can make sure their design is focused on that single campaign goal, and doesn’t feature any content that could be irrelevant to the page’s audience.
#2: Design isn’t a cure-all
The fact is that design isn’t the primary factor of a page’s success; landing pages can be immensely successful even if they’re pretty ugly. Jen brought up the example of the Super Funnel page, the #2 top-selling page on affiliate-marketing site JVZoo.com.
This is both a blessing and a burden. The core of any landing page is its unique value proposition and it’s entirely possible for a landing page to succeed based on the strength of that alone.
But that doesn’t mean that good design isn’t valuable. It just means that a landing page is made up of various elements that all contribute to its success. A page that’s performing well could still perform better with a smarter design. As Jen puts it:
Your designer needs to understand that the success of the page doesn’t fall completely on their shoulders — that it is a combination of design, copy, traffic sources, the offer, etc. that play into the success or failure of the page.
#3: The story matters most
It’s critical for every designer (and marketer and copywriter) to understand the story of their brand and how customers interact with it, looking beyond the user’s “persona” or how they arrived at the page.
Which is exactly why the Eisenberg brothers — who, in Jen’s words, “have been doing CRO before the acronym existed” — pioneered their Buyer Legends philosophy.
Contrary to personas, which are primarily interested in defining who your customers are, buyer legends are more concerned with their journeys and how they feel. From the Buyer Legends website:
Buyer Legends are not the stories you tell your customers; that’s just promotion. Buyer Legends are stories told from the point of view of your customers; because your brand isn’t what you say it is but what your customers say it is.
You can get an introduction to the concept from Bryan Eisenberg’s CRO Day webinar, and then create your own Buyer Legends with the template than Jen has generously made available for anyone to use.
Opening the door to dialogue
When a designer gets a brief for a conversion-focused project like a landing page, they may be reluctant to raise their own objections or propose their own ideas, because they worry it’s not their place. As Jen put it:
“These people, they are the marketers, they think they know best, they see me as a designer, I should just do as they say.” That’s what some of your designers are thinking.
But designers have brought the web this far. While CRO may be a relatively new discipline, its ideas are borrowed heavily from the experience-focused trends of yore; they’ve just been shaken up with digital marketing trends and a dash of Big Data.
Designers have their own expertise to bring to your conversion-focused projects. But the door to collaboration needs to be opened wide, and explicitly so. You should actively solicit the feedback of your designers and encourage them to share their ideas. After all, everything can (and should) be tested!
And in addition to talking, you can also use Jen’s free tools in order to more effectively communicate with your designer. In addition to the Buyer Legends template discussed earlier, you’ll get:
- An extremely detailed and annotated copywriting template that will make it way easier for designers, copywriters and marketers to work together and understand each other
- A landing page wireframe template for use with Balsamiq Mockups, which will help your designer understand the structure of a strong landing page while giving them the freedom to actually design it
- And as a bonus, two free Unbounce landing page templates that you can upload to your account
Get access to both the full webinar and Jen’s free tools here. Together, they will put you on the path to a more productive and communicative relationship with your designers.
Friday, May 29, 2015
Is a Yeast Infection Contagious?
Category: Diseases and Conditions
Created: 5/29/2015 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/29/2015 12:00:00 AM
ASCO: Immunotherapy Ups Survival in Non-Small Cell Lung CA
Happier Patients, Ban Bad Reviews: Healthcare Career Insights
When Are Employee Wellness Incentives No Longer Voluntary?
Many workers like the programs, and employers say they help hold down health insurance costs. But there are legal questions about how far companies can go to encourage participation.
Normal Serum IgG4 Seen Often in IgG4-Related Disease (CME/CE)
Asthma Sending More Kids to California ERs
Cooking Up Leads: 3 Ingredients Of An Award-Winning Recipe
The Oracle Marketing Cloud content team took home top honors at the Digiday Content Marketing Awards celebrated last night in New York City. We’re excited about the win as we worked incredibly hard to produce a compelling asset that would excite our audience and drive results. A tasty demand dish shouldn’t be kept secret, so we’d like to share 3 core ingredients in our modern marketing recipe for success:
- Establish a compelling core offering – We produced an eBook called “The Demand Gen Pro’s Cookbook” to put a fun spin on the traditional case study format. This offer compiles modern marketing “recipes for success” around display ad retargeting, customer lifecycle management, database hygiene, marketing and sales alignment, campaign metrics, lead nurturing and social media. We targeted this asset specifically at matters central to the demand gen role.
- Maximize your multichannel efforts – In the spirit of “go big or go home” our content, social, and demand teams collaboratively developed and executed this campaign across multiple channels. The eBook theme was carried out across email, social media, blog, and other advertising channels. Various teams met weekly to share channel metrics and develop new engagement goals to enhance the value of the program. Promoting the asset in various ways proved to be valuable for branding, engagement, and driving marketing qualified leads MQLs.
Email Design:
Landing page:
- Make your customers program advocates – Because the eBook content centered on our customer’s stories, it was important we thanked them for their participation and allowing us to share their successes. We worked with our design partner Beutler Ink to develop caricatures of our “Demand Gen Master Chefs” that could be used in the eBook and shared with each person for use as their social media avatars. This helped create additional buzz and provided fodder for social media advertising. We also sent framed hard copies of the caricatures signed by our own VP of Marketing as a special thank you touch.
Results Were Served
“Cook Up Leads” produced 752 form submits with 360 from the email send. We had 163 social submits from blog (121 form submits) and organic social posts (41 form submits). Since this program launched in May of 2014, we have tracked 153 Marketing Qualified leads from the email send and 166 marketing qualified leads from social media. The icing on the cake was our team’s Digiday Content Marketing Awards win!
Thank you to Digiday for recognizing our team’s work as the most outstanding branded email campaign to promote a brand, product or service to consumers or an audience.
Check out the Demand Gen Pro’s Cookbook here!
What kind of stuff does your team want to strut? Share your modern marketing takeaways from a recent campaign!
Lupus Nephritis: Multiple Factors for Tx Success (CME/CE)
#SocialSkim: Mary Meeker's State of the Internet, Plus 11 More Stories in This Week's Roundup
Morning Break: Tattoo Trauma, Beer at Bedside, Ugly Food
How to Come Up with Winning A/B Tests Using Data
One way to increase your sales is to improve your conversion rate, right? Although it’s true, conversion rate optimization isn’t easy.
If you just base your tests on your gut feelings, you may find a few winning variations, but chances are, most of them will lose.
So, how you do improve your conversions? You have to analyze data before you run A/B tests. Here’s how you can use data to improve your conversion rates.
Click on the image below to see a larger view:
Click here to view an enlarged version of this infographic.
Conclusion
I run hundreds of A/B tests, and the variations that typically have the most impact are those with drastic changes. To come up with those drastic changes, you need to analyze your data first to see what you need to change.
You can get the data by looking at your Google Analytics reports as well as a heatmap of your site through Crazy Egg. In addition, consider running surveys by using tools such as Qualaroo.
Have you run any A/B tests yet?
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Texas Loses Billions To Treat The Poor By Not Expanding Medicaid, Advocates Say
When the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not compel states to expand Medicaid programs, many Southern and Midwestern states opted out. One quarter of the uninsured live in Texas.
Online Marketing News: Search Shake-up, Mobile Reps Revenue, SERP Food
Why Do We Follow Brands on Social Media? [Infographic] – Did you know that social networking is the top online activity in the US, with the average American spending 37 minutes per day on social media sites? It’s also a fact that around 46% of web users look towards social media when making a purchase. Find out more about Why we follow brands on social. GO-Gulf
Google Confirms Changing How Quality Is Assessed, Resulting In Rankings Shake-Up – Earlier this month, many webmasters noticed significant Google ranking changes. Google has finally confirmed those ranking changes with us. Search Engine Land
STUDY: The Impact of Age Range on Facebook Ad Auction Price Tags – What effect does the age range selected during ad targeting on Facebook have on pricing in the social network’s ads auction market? SocialCode, a Facebook Marketing Partner, sought an answer to that question. SocialTimes
Bitly Introduces New Tool To Understand How People Share – Today, we’re thrilled to introduce Audience Intel, the new way for marketers to understand how customers interact with their content – whether created by you or by the Bitly Network. Bitly
Google Partners With Delivery Companies, Now You Can Order Food Right From the SERPs – Google has announced a partnership with six delivery providers across the United States, which will help facilitate a new service Google is offering within its search results. Search Engine Journal
STUDY: Global Social Media Ad Spend to Reach Nearly $36B in 2017 – Global ad spending on social media will total $23.68 billion this year and reach $35.98 billion by 2017, accounting for 16 percent of all digital ad spending worldwide, according to the latest projections from digital consultancy eMarketer. SocialTimes
Senior Digital Marketers’ Top Priorities and Challenges – Storytelling is both a top priority and a top challenge for senior marketers, finds Experian Marketing Services in its latest annual Digital Marketer Report [download page]. The survey results also suggest that profiling customers remains a challenge, although overcoming organizational silos is surprisingly not viewed as much of a priority. MarketingCharts
Digital Ad Spend Hits New $49.5 Billion High In 2014; Mobile & Social See Greatest Growth – Search remains the biggest spend overall, with desktop search as the biggest single channel at 38% of spend. Marketing Land
STUDY: Facebook Is the Dominant Social Network for Marketing by SMBs – Small and midsized businesses: Ignore Facebook at your own peril, according to new research from Gannett digital marketing company G/O Digital. SocialTimes
IAB: Search Was 50% Of US Digital Ad Spend In 2014, Desktop Still Bigger Than Mobile – Search was $24.6 billion of digital ad spend last year. Desktop outpaced mobile search spend nearly 4-to-1. Search Engine Land
Mobile to Represent More Than 11% of U.S. Local Media Revenue by 2019 – A new study from BIA/Kelsey shows that local media spend is steadily shifting toward digital, with mobile representing 11.5 percent of overall ad revenue by 2019. ClickZ
STUDY: How the NSA’s Prism Initiative Affected Americans’ Social Media Use – How have U.S. Internet users changed the way they view and manage privacy on their social media accounts since the National Security Agency’s Prism initiative came to light nearly two years ago? The latest study from Pew Research Center examines the changes in Americans’ perceptions and behavior since the news of Prism broke. SocialTimes
What were the top online and digital marketing news stories for you this week?
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
Infographic: GO-Gulf
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Thursday, May 28, 2015
Tattoos May Pose Health Risks, Researchers Report
Category: Health News
Created: 5/28/2015 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/28/2015 12:00:00 AM
Elevated Blood Glucose May Raise AD Risk in T2D (CME/CE)
Less Is More: Evaluating Screenings
Through Making House Calls, Doctor Sees 'Underbelly Of Medicine'
NPR's Robert Siegel joins Dr. Ernest Brown, a primary care physician who only practices by house call, as he makes his rounds in Washington, D.C. He says it's a mistake to put a price tag on medicine.
Stroke Rounds: Endovascular Tx Likely Cost-Effective
The Basics of Persuasive Sales Content Marketing Copy
As some of you may know I am the world's biggest proponent of the N.A.S. Doctrine. You can read all about it here but essentially states that brands should Not Always Sell(ing) via their content marketing and/or advertising endeavors.
However, the bottom line being the bottom line there is an inherent need to sell of course.
The goal of any sales message is the following: to persuade your prospects to take a desired action. Usually, this action will be to purchase a product or service. However, the same principles necessary for persuasive sales copy can be applied to any type of promotional content - whether that's a blog or social media post, video, podcast or sales page.
How do you write in such a way that you alleviate the fears of your prospects, sufficiently explain what you have to offer, and then move them toward a purchase?
Here are some tips on how to craft an effective sales message that respectfully convinces, allays fears and ultimately, converts.
1. Evaluate the situation from your prospects' point of view.
The foundation of any good sales message is a solid understanding of the interests, desires and needs of your prospects. Before you can even begin writing your sales message, it's a good idea to visualize the thoughts and emotions they'll be experiencing as they approach your content. You'll also want to consider exactly who will be reading it.
Some questions to ask include:
- Who is my target market for this product or service? Take some time to construct a buyer persona.
- How did they find me?
- What's the key problem or situation that led them to seek a solution? (i.e. What's motivating them to find a solution?)
- What objections or concerns might they have about my product?
- What other products may they also be considering?
You'll notice that all of these questions are related to your prospects. At this stage, your goals and needs are irrelevant; it's all about the customer. Be sure to approach your writing with these needs and pain points in mind to craft the most engaging and effective copy possible.
2. Emotion is the key to drawing them in
Once you've gotten yourself into the mindset of your target market, you'll likely notice a dominant emotion rising to the surface. While not all problems trigger intense emotions, all will have an emotional component (even if only a small one).
Here's an example: When writing sales copy for a fire alarm, the temptation may be to focus on the unique features of the product. Perhaps it holds its battery power for longer than its competitors, or maybe it has received awards for its unique design. But let's face it: Fire alarms aren't sexy, and no amount of copy is going to change that.
What a smart sales message can do, however, is address the underlying emotions surrounding the sale. Rather than focusing on the features of the product - or even the benefits - we can discuss how our product addresses the emotional situation connected to it. In the example of the fire alarm, we could talk about how a more reliable alarm means greater safety and security for your family. The potential for a house fire is terrifying; and while we don't necessarily want to use an outright fear appeal (i.e. arousing fear), our copy should help allay fears customers may already be experiencing.
3. Reason should follow
It's only after an emotional appeal has been made that it's time to address reason. Reason refers to the rational thoughts and ideas related to your product; in other words, the relevant facts and features, as well as any objections your readers may have.
Some elements you might want to include are:
- The size, capacity, color, etc. of your product. Basically, the features of your product.
- Your unique value proposition: How your product is different/better than the competition?
- Delivery details: How will the product be shipped or delivered, how much will this cost, etc.
- Objections: What thoughts may be preventing prospects from buying your product? Address these concerns head-on.
- Benefits: What are the practical and tangible benefits to using your product? What problems does it help solve?
Reason basically consists of all the informational and logistical aspects of your product and of the impending sale. It will also help to alleviate any practical concerns your readers may have by addressing common objections.
4. Credibility and social proof drive home the sale
Credibility is a subset of reason, however it can also help make an emotional connection with the reader by reducing the sense of risk. The goal is to allay the fears of your readers by showing that your product actually works and that others have benefited from it in the past. Here are some elements you can use according to Due founder John Rampton:
- Customer or client testimonials or endorsements: e.g. "This product helped me reduce my expenses by 40%'
- Relevant statistics or research from credible sources: e.g. "The American Medical Association recommends using this type of product." Link to the source whenever possible.
- Reference the popularity of a product: e.g. "1,000 business owners have already signed up for this program."
- Past results (self-proclaimed): e.g. "We have already had over 50 clients achieve million dollar results with our service." Show proof of these results whenever possible.
- Customer reviews or ratings: A plugin like WP Review Bank can help with this.
4 bonus tips for effective sales copy
The 4 elements above will give you a good start at crafting an effective sales message. Here are a few bonus tips that will help you take your copy a step further.
- Avoid relying on hype: Overstating benefits or making wild, unsubstantiated claims about your product can work in the short term; however they can also be a serious turn off to your more perceptive customers. Truth-telling and copywriting aren't mutually exclusive. Marcia Yudkin's book No-Hype Copywriting: The Keys to Lively, Appealing and Truthful Sales Writing is a great primer on truthful yet persuasive writing techniques.
- Use conversational language: Your sales copy is not the place to try to impress your readers. Use language that's familiar and comfortable to your prospects (i.e. Avoid "industry speak"), and use a casual, personal tone/voice. In other words, write like you talk - even if that breaks some basic rules of grammar. It's better to come across as approachable and trustworthy than to write the "perfect" copy.
- Test out long copy and short copy: There's quite a debate over which is more effective. The truth is, they can each work well, depending on the niche, business and audience. In their Definitive Guide to Copywriting, Neil Patel and Joseph Putnam do an excellent job of outlining the pros and cons of each.
- Utilize storytelling: It's a good idea to open your sales copy by sharing a personal story or anecdote to signal to your readers that you understand where they're coming from. A story functions as a great hook, drawing the reader in to the rest of the copy.
Conclusion
I think we often get hung up on following someone else's "proven" copywriting template or framework. While the elements above work effectively for me and many others, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for writing persuasive copy.
Keep in mind that what works in one niche may not work in another, so it's important to test out a variety of copywriting strategies. The strategies above are a great starting point, but use them flexibly to create copy that's right for your audience.
What strategies or elements do you use for creating persuasive sales content marketing copy? Any examples you can share?
OncoBreak: Squeeze on Research $$$, Still So Many Die, Immunity Unleashed
Video: The Contender Takes the Marketing Title
Morning Break: Magic Mushrooms and LSD; Nipple Where?!
How Much Does A Colonoscopy Cost In California? Help Find Out
Prices for common medical procedures vary widely, and it can be really hard find out the true cost up front. This crowdsourcing project aims to help draw back the curtain on colonoscopy costs.
This Cognitive Bias Will Help You Create More Persuasive Landing Pages
While we’d all like to think that we act based on reason and logic, the truth is that we have many cognitive biases that affect our decisions.
Back in 1974, psychologists Tversky and Kahneman were the first to theorize and research the anchoring effect: our tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information presented to us (the “anchor”) to make subsequent decisions.
Take the release of the original iPad for example. After Steve Jobs showed off the high-resolution screen and impressive features, he asked the audience how much they thought this “revolutionary” new device should cost.
“What should we price it at?” asked Jobs. “If you listen to the pundits, we’re going to price it at under $1000, which is code for $999.”
He put a giant “$999” up on the screen and left it there for several minutes.
“I am thrilled to announce to you that the iPad pricing starts not at $999, but at just $499.” On-screen, the $999 price was crushed by a falling “$499.”
Bingo. Because of the anchoring effect, $499 is now considered “cheap.”
Understanding biases like anchoring helps us make sense of our personal decision making process, but it also helps us persuade our prospects and create more powerful landing pages.
Let’s dig into how brands and marketers are currently using anchoring – and how you can too.
Present the most expensive option first
As we saw in the Jobs example, when a higher price is presented first, it becomes the benchmark against which other prices are evaluated.
Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers saw this first-hand when she ran an A/B test for her client’s pricing plans. The original page ordered the pricing from least expensive to most:
Whereas the variation presented it in reverse, starting with the most expensive on the left:
The verdict? The variation took the cake with a whopping 500% uplift in click throughs!
Because people read English from left to right, placing the highest price on the left ensured that people would see it first – making it the anchor against which to judge the price of the other plans. And that made the lower plan seem like that much more of a great deal.
The same effect can be achieved by comparing your pricing schemes to that of competitors. Consider this example by analytics tool Hotjar:
By showing potential customers how much they spend on a monthly basis for using a combination of tools ($265/month) versus how much they could be spending by using their all-in-one solution ($29/month), Hotjar positions itself as the product that offers the best value.
Use anchors to put things into perspective
So much of our decision making is governed by how information is presented. A $40 pricing plan might sound like a lot on its own, but using an anchor can help you put things into perspective for prospects.
Consider this campaign that agency Saatchi & Saatchi put together to collect donations and raise awareness for a worthy cause:
In this example, the image grabs your attention, stands out and makes the immediate connection between the amount we spend on luxury items versus the small amount it costs to donate.
By showing people the amount of money they spend on their luxury items (the higher price) right above the low cost of the donation, they created a campaign that begged the question: “How can you spend so much on fashion but not be bothered to donate?”
Since 50% of our brain’s capacity is geared towards vision, the images we perceive on a landing page affect our emotional state. Images can communicate an idea, thought or feeling much quicker than text and can be used brilliantly with price anchoring.
Beware of negative anchoring
Anchoring isn’t a magic bullet. Sometimes, displaying multiple elements on your page can create an unwanted anchoring effect.
Have a look at the way Buffer displays their pricing plans:
As we’ve already covered, they may want to consider leading with the most expensive plan, but beyond that lies a greater issue. Once you choose a monthly plan, a popup comes up summarizing the amount you’re going to pay.
Suddenly, it isn’t the (reasonable) monthly plan you chose but a yearly payment of $2250.
The initial piece of information I received was $50 per month, but I didn’t get any indication that I was going to be charged annually. The large amount that suddenly appears on my screen comes as a complete shock.
To avoid negative anchoring, Buffer should consider testing the annual price on the pricing page. Why not inform people of the monthly price as well as the summarized annual price? It’d also be a great opportunity to present a discount to those paying for a year upfront.
At the very least, Buffer could test including a note about the annual billing under the call to action button, as on this landing page:
Wrapping it up
There are many different cognitive biases that have an impact on our decision making and purchasing patterns, but few are as impactful as anchoring. When used properly, anchoring can bring you dramatic improvements in your conversion rate.
To use anchoring on your landing page, pay attention to the initial information a customer is presented with when they land on the page.
- First, set a goal. Which option do you want people to choose?
- Then set up an anchor. What will make your goal look like the best possible choice?
- Don’t forget to test, test, test. You want to be sure you’re not inadvertently creating a negative anchoring effect.
Over to you – do you use anchors on your landing pages? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.
From the Bureau of Land Management: This year marks an...
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah by Bob Wick
Sonoran Desert National Monument in Arizona by Bob Wick
Carrizo Plain National Monument in California by Bob Wick
Handies Peak Wilderness in Colorado by Bob Wick
California Coastal National Monument in California by Bob Wick
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado by Bob Wick
Slinkard Wilderness by Bob Wick
Vermillion Cliffs-Paria Canyon Wilderness (the Wave) in Arizona by Bob Wick
Umpqua Wild and Scenic River in Oregon by Bob Wick
From the Bureau of Land Management:
This year marks an important milestone for the BLM’s National Conservation Lands – America’s newest conservation system turns 15! These lands include 30 million acres of National Monuments, National Conservation Areas, Wilderness Areas, Wilderness Study Areas, Wild and Scenic Rivers, National Scenic and Historic Trails, and Conservation Lands of the California Desert.
We invite you to celebrate with us, and VISIT, SHARE, and SUPPORT your National Conservation Lands throughout the year.
VISIT any of the anniversary events or some of the 874 sites in the system of the BLM’s National Conservation Lands. Find an event.
SHARE your experiences on National Conservation Lands with hashtag #conservationlands15 on social media. View the Twitter conversation.
SUPPORT National Conservation Lands through service opportunities and volunteer events. Learn about how you can get involved.