200-Proof Marketing

While my current Multivariate test is still on going, I’m seeing some very interesting results so far. Some of which are already statistically valid.

Over the course of many tests, I’ve notice one constant. The more obvious you make it you are trying to sell something the worse your conversion rate will be.

In the past I wrote about Gary Halbert and Claude Hopkins who say the same basic thing:

The more apparent you make it that you are selling the more resistance you run into.

One of the great ideas Gary Halbert came up with was the A Pile - B Pile theory. Which basically said that when people go to their mail box, they immediately sort their mail into two Piles.

The A Pile contains personal letters, bills, bank statements, etc. While, the B Pile is for “junk mail” which will not even be opened.

Anything that looks like an advertisement, usually gets a quick glance and then goes to the B Pile (which ends up in the trash).

He used this theory to make his mailings look like personal letters, even going so far as using normal (more expensive) stamps and “fake” handwriting on the outside of the envelope.

What’s cool is that by looking normal and nonthreatening, his letters got more Attention than others that tried to get Attention by putting red writing all over their envelopes.

This is leading me to make big changes in the way I write copy. I’m quickly turning into a “Sneaky Salesman.”

Here are some interesting things I’ve found:

• Black Headlines consistently beat Red Headlines
• Formating a sales letter to look like a helpful article increases sales
• Simple words sell better than fancy sales type words (Ex: Learn seems better than Discover)
• Trust is huge and people seem to trust “normal” people more than salesmen.

Those are just a few of my findings so far.

One thing’s for sure, the next sales letter I write will be as “sneaky” as possible. I will probably make it look like an article throughout and include helpful information that the customer is looking for (to help build trust).

Then at the end, or possibly even on “page 2″ I will hit them with the Call to Action, and Guarantee.

Tags: Gary Halbert, Claude Hopkins, test results, copywriting, article, sneaky, salesman, internet, marketing, conversion rate

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 12:16 am and is filed under Internet Marketing, Testing & Tracking, Test Results, Copywriting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.