2007’s Most Significant Research We recently polled our employees involved in science and research activities at MarketingExperiments, asking a variety of questions. They told us that the importance of Continuity and Congruence was the most significant research finding of MarketingExperiments testing in 2007, more precisely: The significant impact of confusing page elements, and The importance of context to ads. When we asked our subscribers what they thought the most important finding was of 2007, here’s what they had to say: “The most important thing we’ve learned is the importance of testing. “Intuition is good, but you can’t rely on it. Everything on the Web can be tested, so why not take advantage of the ‘compound interest’ factor that can improve every step of your sales funnel? “I have started converting my boss (with success) and the rest of the team (with more or less success) to the notion of the elements of performance of a Web page and that of AB Test.” —Shycon Design “2008 is a big year for me as a Web intelligence specialist and you already have helped me in a great way. “Keep experimenting (on) what really works. I will surely listen, learn, and engage!” —Frederick Gilbert, RONA.ca When we asked our staff what the single most important Webinar and Brief produced by MarketingExperiments journal was in 2007, they chose these: A Clinical Assessment of Your Landing Pages (10.10.07) And a 3-way tie between: “Improving Conversion by Applying Continuity and Congruence” (10.24.07) “Is Your Sign-up Process Costing You Leads or Maximizing Them?” (9.26.07) “Getting Significant Improvements Even When You Can’t Complete Your Tests” (8.15.07) What made these findings salient? Let’s look first at what was considered the most significant research finding: How applying Continuity and Congruence improves conversion. Continuity: ensuring that each step in the conversion process either states or supports the Value Proposition. Site Flow Disruption caused by discontinuity increases Friction and Anxiety and hurts Conversion. Congruence: ensuring that every element of your page—design, copy, images, colors, logo, price—either states or supports the Value Proposition. Here are the examples we used in our October 2007 Web Clinic and journal Brief to illustrate our research Follow

Definitions of intuition vary, but generally it means felt knowledge, direct perception, immediate knowledge, or gut instinct Arriving at a conclusion without apparent deductive reasoning. In Jungian psychology, “intuition” is on one end of a personality axis, and “thinking” is on the opposite end. But using intuition doesn’t mean thinking has not taken place. In the Recognition Primed Decision-Making (RPD) model, psychologist Gary Klein found that intuition means “using previous experience to rapidly interpret perceptions and subconsciously choose feasible solutions.” Therefore, marketing intuition may be a refined ability to immediately filter variables and opportunity through a mental library of data, results, and analyses based on what has worked and what hasn’t in one’s previous marketing testing experience. Case Study 1: Incentive Test Design We conducted a one-month test for a major newspaper. Would a subscription path convert better with pop-up incentives? Incentive is a key element in overcoming Friction. (We cover this extensively in our Landing Page Optimization Course.) We tested two different designs without pop-ups and one with. All offers included a 50% discount incentive. We looked specifically at the test results for a pop-up incentive for a major international coffee chain offering a $10 gift card with a new subscription. Control (without gift card) Treatment 1 (without gift card) Treatment 2 (with gift card) Voting We asked our clinic audience: Which offer performed best in our tests? A plurality thought Treatment 2 would perform best. Offer Path votes Test Results Offer Path Conv. Rate(%) Treatment 2 (with gift card) 1.71% Relative Difference btwn T1 and T2 17% What you need to understand: Both the Control and Treatment 1 performed better without the gift card incentive. Why?—especially since previous test results have shown us that Incentives can be a powerful factor in the Conversion Index formula. Was this a rare case where an incentive worked against the Conversion rate? Did the pop-up turn people off? Was the $10 gift card perceived as valueless? Another difference between the two best performing offer pages: one is two steps, the other just one. Did that somehow make the difference? Analysis Testing experience may lead us to the intuitive conclusion that offering an incentive may increase conversion. But an Follow