Case Studies
Buyer Psychology Marketing Case Study
- Goal:
- Improve bestseller category sales by 15%
- Outcome:
- 26.14% increase in conversion rates. This is what Mike said 👇🏼
The Problem
Selling a golf set online is really hard. Most consumers are used to buying a set at a store where they get to have a chat with a PRO who guides them.
Add to this mix the challenge of buying a golf brand the shopper likely hasn’t heard of before and suddenly the problem becomes even more challenging.
Like with all our case studies the bulk of our conversion focus is one group: Healthy Skeptics.
We like Healthy Skeptics because they are close to making a purchase. This means with just a little nudge we’ll be able to send them past the finish line.
Healthy Skeptics have 4 qualities:
We think you’ll like this short marketing case study.
Test Concept
When marketers study a page we typically conclude many aspects are important. The trouble with this is that it diffuses the marketer’s attention. And it’s hard to focus when we’re looking at a whole bunch of things.
As we studied this product page (image), we wondered, “if we could pick just 4 elements, which would we pick?”
We concluded that the 4 things that mattered to us were:
1: Price Justification
While these clubs cost way less than big brand clubs, spending $799 on a set is still a big deal, and Healthy Skeptics want to be sure they are getting good value for money. We know from eye-tracking studies that shoppers focus on price, and price activates anxiety. So our simple idea was to add a call-to-action right next to the price so that shoppers who felt anxious would get the answer they were seeking right there and then.
Here’s the call-to-action we added (Quality Matters link below):
And this is what is shown when the Quality Matters link is clicked:
2: Clubs Included With the Purchased Set
The details about the individual clubs in the set are shown lower on the page. For mobile users, this was 5 mobile pages down. We wondered: what would happen if we made this content more visible by bringing that content near the top of the page?
So we added a call-to-action here (pointed out by the red arrow below):
And on click– instead of scrolling the shopper down to page 5 where that content is shown– we showed it as a lightbox popup at their current location:
3: Video Content
The shopper on Stix didn’t just have one hurdle (choosing the right set) they also had a second one (knowing if they trusted a brand they had never bought from). Luckily, the client had an excellent video that showed the brand story and their focus on design. You can see it here:
The trouble was this video lived on page 4 of the mobile page and wedged between two important sections. It was likely that many buyers missed it. So our simple idea was to 3x the video visibility by adding it to the top of the long-form sales pitch.
4: Long-Form Sales Pitch
Most people who come to this page want a quick explanation and are then ready to buy. But others want more. We call these people Diggers. And Diggers are Healthy Skeptics, which means that while they value expertise and are willing to pay for it, they need convincing. For these people, we constructed a long-form sales pitch.
Using a long-form sales pitch to draw out Healthy Skeptics is our go-to move. But we typically do it by adding subtle conditional elements. However, in this test we blocked the product page description and added a frosted glass overlay:
This had a profound impact on the discovery rate of our long-form sales pitch. Where the subtle nudges generate a discovery rate of around 10% this frosted glass increased the discovery rate to over 40%. That 4x’es the speed of the text.
We can now very quickly determine if Healthy Skeptics love, hate, or are indifferent to our pitch.
When No was clicked (see the frosted glass screenshot above) we immediately removed the frosted glass and got out of the way (the shopper was clearly signaling their preference by clicking No).
But those who clicked Yes were shown a lightbox popup. Click on the annotations (green and blue numbers) to read the explanations for the copy choices we made in the lightbox the visitor sees.
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In the section above we showed the amazing video the client had. We felt this video wasn’t being seen enough so we stuck it to the top of our long-form sales pitch.
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The goal is to have a short headline that communicates an idea to the buyer and pulls them into wanting to read more.
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One of the Selling Angles we wanted to focus on was this idea that there are two types of buyers: those who really are hyper-focussed on mastering golf and casual golfers who don’t plan on going pro but want to look and feel good while playing. Stix is for this group. One of the big benefits for testing is that we can have a strong point of view and use that to see what people are responding to. We don’t have to appeal to everyone.
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Here we’re showing a photo of a golfer. We’re doing it for a few reasons:A: To communicate the brand aesthetic.
B: To break up the copy so it doesn’t feel like a wall of text. This is a copy design technique. + Analogies are powerful because they communicate an unknown using a known. This example came to us while we were questioning the client about the product. + One of the advantages of buying from a retail store is that you can get a custom fitting. We assumed shoppers might be considering this route (Making Guesses About Your Buyer) so we presented our argument why custom fittings weren't needed. + We are again using an analogy to make a point. This time we’re using Warby Parker to make a point. + Consumers want to buy from experts. We want them to know we think a lot about golf fitting because it positions us as an expert. + Again, the purpose of this headline is to surprise the reader and incentivize them to want to read more. They’re wondering, “what is this risk these guys are talking about?” + Our enemies are the big brands that are visible everywhere. Their ubiquitous visibility is a threat. So we acknowledge it. In the next annotation we’ll start attacking that perception. + The reason why big brands are so visible is because they invest in marketing. We’re just reflecting back to the reader a question they probably haven’t thought about, “who pays for this advertising?” + This technique is called Softening. Here is the idea– consumers don’t like when we just lay blame on the competition. That isn’t authentic so we need to present a fair and balanced argument that doesn’t feel one-sided. + We don’t want to present ourselves as flawless– that’s a turn off. The reader must be able to connect with us, relate with the choices we make. + Now we inject a super valuable detail to build credibility– a reddot design award. This lends credibility to our pitch. + Big brands are good at marketing. Like with the advertising augment in annotation 11 we pose a question here too. The idea is to get the reader to think for themselves. + Here we propose a new idea. We’re doing this because we are trying to reconcile two ideas: low prices and high quality. We can’t just say we have low prices and high quality so we need to help the buyer understand how that’s even possible.
Now, the moment the shopper here’s this they are like, “yeah right, so you mean to tell me you figured out something and none of your competitors, who are 20x your size, couldn’t figure out?”
It just seems implausible. We use our 3rd analogy. This time we use the Blockbuster versus Netflix argument. + Stix has a narrow product line. This keeps prices low. The giant brands have a super wide product line. That massively increases complexity and price. The shopper may not have considered that so we’re reminding them. + This is the 4th analogy we use in our sales pitch. It’s a really good one and it didn’t come from us– we got it from the client by repeatedly asking questions. The amount of gold that is buried in the client’s mind is amazing. You just need to figure out a way to pull it out. + Joseph Sugarman, my copywriting hero, talks about using an involvement device. The idea is to make the user feel part of the experience– to get them to interact with it. So we add a statement where the detail is hidden behind a {Reveal} button:
Clicking it reveals this:
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Another example of a headline that the shopper didn’t expect. This last headline is also designed to get the reader to continue reading.One of the things we added were 3 javascript markers long the length of the long-form sales pitch. The first marker was at the top of the pitch, the second marker was at middle point, and last marker was at the bottom of the pitch. Each marker gets triggered when user scrolls to that point. Why does this matter? Because it shows how far down the reader went.
If you want to understand the full philosophy behind long-form sales pitch techniques read this post: Write Your Long-Form Sales Pitch.
Were the copy choices in our sales pitch clear? /
Fyi, the pitch shown above was constructed using the nine truths about online shoppers.
Outcome
Why Our Concept Won
It’s easy to get lulled into believing that everything on a page is important. It’s not. Triple down on the few things that truly matter.
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