How I Achieved a 7.14% Conversion Rate

This year I made a commitment to myself that I would start split-testing my web sites as well as client web sites. So I did.

And that's how I've taken one of my sales pages to a 7.14% conversion rate.

Terry Dean actually inspired one of the tests I conducted. He wrote a blog post about a specific test and the results from that test. One particular paragraph in that post literally put money in my pocket. He writes...

What I found most interesting in my test was the biggest variation occurred with the picture I used. It produced the biggest improvement…even more than the headline or the page length. A key principle to the picture testing was the “caption” that runs under the photo (you should almost always have a caption on any photo you use on a sales page). The winning picture gives the feeling of “freedom” in my opinion, and this may be why it was the winner.

Instead of passing over this post, I flagged it in my mind and made sure I acted on it as soon as possible. So I immediately used every little secret buried in this paragraph to set up my own split-test.

The results? An increase in my conversion rate of 45.8%. (Click here to see the photo that boosted my conversion rate.)

The sales page I'm referring to is now on its fourth iteration. I'm back to a simple headline test again after discovering a few words I think will bump the conversion rate even higher. (I used Glyphius to create the new headline.)

Will I hit 8% conversion rate? I don't know. But I'm certainly going to try.

Challenge: When you read anything that contains actionable advice that pertains directly to your business, don't overlook it. Flag it for immediate follow-up. Then... act. After all, information without action is dead.

Comments

[Kyle Tully]

Hey Ryan

I was at Mal Emery's Silent Killer seminar here is Aus on Friday.

One of the speakers talked about his most successful client's... they would hear a good idea in a seminar and literally leave the room to go to their hotel room and implement the change right then.

Removing the "Dear Friend" intro from my site has tripled reader time on my site, as well as producing over 500% more repeat visitors.

Testing rocks :)

[Terry Dean]

Congrats on the 7.14% conversion rate. That's impressive by any standard.

"It's not just about getting clients. It's about the lifestyle"

It's a pleasure to know I'm on your swipe file Ryan. :)

Now to go find your 7.14% page and swipe it for my files.

Terry

[Suzanne Ryan]

Thanks for sharing this. I consider it part of my copywriting education to pay attention to test results and learn what people did to tweak a sales page.

So I am curious...how does one actually test a web page?

Do you create identical pages (differentiated by tweaks)--and send them out to your list?

Or do you make changes to one page and test it for a few days?

[Suzanne Ryan]

argghhh...I posted the above before editing.

I meant: I consider it part of my ongoing education to inquire about others' test results.

It is fascinating to me what sort of little changes can affect a particular audience.

[Ken Grindall]

Hi, Ryan!

John Holzmann has been sending me some of your recent posts. Guess you could say I'm "the new you" here at InquisiCorp.

I'm an avid split-tester, like John and you.

He and I have been putting more and more effort into testing, especially in email pieces. The web team is doing more, too, though I'm not always part of that work.

Anyway, mostly wanted to say hi. I will be following your blog with interest. Great work!

Ken Grindall

P.S. Hope you won't mind a quick little pick at a rather tiny nit: In your email confirmation web page, at the end of your sentence, "The information you requested is on it's way!"... that "its" ought to be sans apostrophe, am I right? Sorry, JH is starting to rub off. :)

[Ryan Healy]

@ Kyle - Testing is awesome. Interesting about your "Dear Friend" discovery...

@ Terry - I swiped the letter for you and sent it by email.

@ Suzanne - I'll include your question when I respond to questions later this week. (See my "Open Question Time" post if you're confused.)

@ Ken - Nice to meet you. Thanks for dropping by and leaving a note. I'll look forward to interacting with you more often.

Yes, you're right regarding "its" and "it's." I'll take care of it. :-)

[Andrew Cavanagh]

Very sharp Ryan.

We're finding a split testing goldmine in images and captions too.

I'd also add that although the caption on your photo is good you could probably increase your response even MORE by rewriting it to put some kind of call to action in it.

Keep in mind that scanners look at photos and then read the caption under the photos.

If there's something under that photo like...

"the vacation I could take after using the secret revealed below"

You'll get far more people to move from scanning to actually reading the copy.

[Andrew Cavanagh]

I should also add that I've been saying for over 2 years "Dear Friend" on an online sales letter is a ridiculous waste of space.

The two biggest areas we're getting the biggest results on with split testing is changing (or adding) captions and opening lines.

If you're using "Dear Friend" to open your online sales letters you must like flushing your money down the toilet.