A marketing expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the grand fallacy. The grand fallacy in this case, is that A/B testing offers you only two choices in market experimentation and sales optimization. Disclaimer: I myself am no marketing expert, but I am better organized in collecting the latest advances in marketing techniques using AI …. and I have slides and articles to prove it. And since AI is a better student than I am, my AI student is my tutor.
Marketing is getting tougher and tougher. There are more branches of the potential customer tree than you can shake a stick at. Reaching those niches is arduous and tiresome task and any tools to be had are a boon to the agile and open-minded.
That’s where AI comes into the picture. My web scrapers and NLP tools recently picked up a case study on the advances of AI in A/B testing. I can’t give the URL because parts of it are commercially sensitive, but I can summarize the methodology, and some of the algorithms. The net result was upping the conversion rate by an additional 86,000 monthly sales. Nothing to sneeze at.
So the traditional A/B testing uses a control group, usually existing sales layouts, and then tries a different variant to up the conversion rates. The existing control group is “A” and the variant is “B”. As you can see, group “B” is often a stab in the dark, like trying to find a flashlight in the dark, only for your toes to find every protruding corner of furniture in the room.
The first action is to determine behavior determinants. This evidence-based method can be accomplished by Principal Component Analysis and other statistical tools such as heat maps, word clouds, surveys, search terms, keywords analysis and industry data. Then a capacity analysis is effected to determine how much resources, including bandwidth are available. The A/B testing algorithm was to create a new generation of determinants to test the control group. Each generation was split into four groups using generative AI for the wording and randomization for the non-text elements. The best group became the mother of the next generation. Again it was split into four groups. This went on for four generations. Each group’s best performer became the genesis of the next generation. Here’s the major surprise. Sure there was improvement in each generation but there wasn’t statistically significant uplift until the third generation. This proves beyond a doubt, that simple A/B testing isn’t the best algorithm. Like everything in Life, iteration improves loss function. (Translation: Practice makes perfect.)
So what did they find? When you go questing, you never know in advance of how it will turn out. Here are some tips from the most dramatic results for your marketing efforts from the results. They are in no particular order.
1. Progress Bar at the top of the page
When you are selling stuff that has options, you have to guide the user down the sales funnel to the point where they give you cash. A progress bar removes ambiguity and reassures the user. It reduces the complexity of the selection and checkout process. An online sales process map gives conversion confidence. It reduces confusion and lost sales.
2. Price Perception Adjustment
The major result that came out of price perception adjustment is that the most efficient conversions happen when you don’t give a final price, but give a base price and then outline the extra costs, either to upgrading the product selection or for various options available. Giving a final price makes the user thin-slice either to a yes or a no, without making them stop to think about the options. Giving them option choices has the appearance of putting them in control of what they buy and pay. Car salesmen know this intimately. Instead of asking if they liked the car, they ask “What did you like most about the car?”.
3. Social Sentence Under Call-To-Action
The biggest part of any sale or sales funnel is Call-To-Action, or CTA. You must motivate the buyer with a Call-To-Action. Whether this is signing up for more information, asking them survey questions, asking them to rate the product information and most importantly, asking them to buy, you must motive the visitor to action to either get involved. A plain old CTA is not as effective as a social sentence under it. A Social Sentence brings the context back to the social circle of the buyer. These include such sentiments as:
Let your loved one know that you care about them (by buying this)
A perfect gift for your office co-workers
Three out of four doctors recommend this brand of cigarettes (throwback to the Mad Men advertising executives of the 1950’s).
Show your significant other that you appreciate them.
This product is 75% more efficient than the products that your neighbors buy.
People who bought this also bought …
A product for the discerning user …
You get the gist. Make the buyer identify with a person or group or sentiment in their social structure.
4. Product Warning Labels Far Away From Call-To-Action
This is a no-brainer. If your product has special conditions, putting them near the Call-To-Action makes them think twice, even though the product warnings are relatively innocuous or similar to other products in the space. They could also be common sense warnings like “The coffee is hot and could cause burns if spilled” or “Please do not use the toaster near the bath tub”. Any negative buying sentiment near the CTA discourages some sales.
5. You Must Have A Prominent USP Bar
This is really key to ramping up conversions. A USP is a Unique Selling Proposition. It is an elevator pitch as to why you should buy this product and not any one of the other competing products. And you should put the bar on the page in a prominent position with a different colored background. It must be new, creative and fresh, and not the old hackneyed ones that buyers have seen before.
6. Position of the Product Photo and CTA
Since most people read from left to right, the best uplift came from placing the product photo on the left, and the product information and CTA on the right. This makes a whole lot of sense. People prefer pictures to text first when they freshly scan a page.
7. The Wording of the Header
It was found that the header wording creates significant uplift in sales. Getting the header right is a major start to the sales conversions.
So there you have it. You have to evolve your A/B testing into several generations to get maximal lift.
… and finally, a shameless plug
Every endeavor, start-up and business that I have ever been involved in, either failed or suffered from inferior marketing. Knowing marketing is just as important as technology, especially with the intense stratification and diversity of social groups.
So, in my consulting work, I found common elements in platforms that try to sell goods or services to online buyers. Almost every major serious website worth its salt has a video explaining their product, services and market segment. And then it struck me. Several months ago, I realized that the one missing element of each website video is a Call-To-Action either at the end or during the video. This was a serious deficiency. After watching a video that motivates the user, you want that fresh sentiment to drive them using a CTA. All of the CTAs were tacked on under the video in a separate HTML element. It was just common sense to have the CTA either after or during the video — right in the video frame where all of the action is happening. The video would gracefully pause, ask a question, save the response to a database and carry on merrily. It was a powerful data collection tool. So earlier this year (I mentioned it in one of my LinkedIn posts), I programmed a video player to do just that. Here is my USP (Unique Selling Proposition):
A call to action (CTA) that can be saved to a database is crucial for passive marketing videos because it allows you to capture valuable leads and data from your viewers. With a saved CTA, viewers can easily respond to your message without the need for additional forms or steps, making it a seamless and convenient experience for them. By collecting this data, you can gain insights into your audience's behavior, preferences, and needs, allowing you to refine your marketing strategy and deliver more personalized content. Additionally, having a database of leads allows you to nurture those relationships and move them further down the sales funnel, ultimately driving conversions and revenue for your business. Overall, a saved CTA in a passive marketing video is a powerful tool that can help you optimize your video content and turn viewers into loyal customers.
In today's digital age, passive marketing videos are not enough to drive engagement and conversions. That's where a call to action (CTA) that can be saved to a database comes in. By including a CTA in your video, you are not only providing your audience with a clear and actionable next step, but you are also creating a measurable way to track their response. When a CTA is saved to a database, you can easily access and analyze the data to gain insights into your audience's behavior, preferences, and needs. This allows you to fine-tune your marketing strategy and tailor your content to better meet the needs of your target audience. With a database of CTAs, you can also create personalized follow-up communication, further increasing the chances of conversion. Overall, incorporating a CTA that can be saved to a database is essential in making your passive marketing videos more effective, data-driven, and engaging.
A bit wordy, but it explains the value proposition nicely. Here’s a screen shot:
The URL to get yours and get an immediate Call-To-Action is :
https://payhip.com/b/qQ87v
Thanks for reading and happy marketing.