Dear Friend,
Have you ever heard that the “offer” is the #1 thing you should test on your page?
I think it’s true. But what does it mean?
Mike Filsaime, quoting Gary Halbert, recently said that the offer is a matter of:
- What they get
- How they get it
- What they pay
- How they pay for it
And I think that’s an incredibly catchy way to think about all the ways you can try to change your offer.
So how do you come up with ideas for changing the parts of your offer?
Well, here’s a question that should help: “Do you know why people are currently not buying your product or service?”
List your answers to THAT question, and then ask yourself if any of the objections can be met by changing your offer in some way.
Let me use my own software as an example.
The Split Test Accelerator is a powerful piece of software that helps people increase their profits from any landing page they own.
So why wouldn’t someone purchase the Split Test Accelerator? Why would someone go to all the trouble of reading the sales page, and close the browser without making a purchase?
I’m going to explain what I think is the #1 reason in a minute, but here are some other reasons:
- They got there by accident.
- They are just getting started marketing online, and it sounds expensive considering they’re not making any money yet.
- They are busy with other projects, and don’t think they can fit in split testing on top of everything else (though it does sound like a good idea).
- They are happy with another solution they’re using right now, and they don’t see a need to change.
- They don’t believe you can really test 20 factors with the same amount of traffic it takes to test one factor — or they don’t believe some other claim on the sales page.
- Their website is on a platform that’s incompatible with STA.
Those are all good reasons to close the browser (or hit the back button) without buying.
I can probably remove some of these reasons for some people (perhaps with better explanations, more case studies, etc). And I probably can’t do much to remove other reasons.
But here’s the number one reason I think people leave my sales page without buying — at least the #1 reason I can do something about — and I think it’s something I can do something about by changing the offer.
They’re worried about HASSLE.
For some people — a lot of people – software means hassle.
And if there’s too much hassle involved with a piece of software, we won’t use it, no matter how excited we are about the potential benefits.
Here’s an example:
Just the other day I downloaded a marketing video from some well-known marketers and tried to watch it.
It was in mp4 format. I’m running Vista on my laptop, and my version of Windows Media Player didn’t have an appropriate codec for that format.
So I googled “mp4 codecs” and a few other search terms, and found a nice package of codecs I wanted to install.
Well, during installation, it told me I couldn’t complete the process, because I didn’t have administrator priveleges on my computer.
I’m the only one who uses this computer, and Vista says I have admin priveleges. But, apparently that’s not “real” admin privileges. To get those, you have to find and activate the “real” admin account.
There were conflicting suggestions about how to do this. I tried one method that came with nice screen shots. But what was happening on my computer didn’t match the screenshots they provided.
I gave up.
I JUST WANTED TO WATCH A VIDEO!
Now, I’m a reasonably bright guy. I’m fairly computer savvy. I have no doubt I COULD HAVE figured out how to play that video on my computer — if I really, really, really wanted to.
But, you know what? I decided it just wasn’t worth the hassle.
Now, I’m not sure who’s to blame here. The marketers who used mp4 format? Microsoft for not including mp4 codecs with Windows Media Player? Microsoft for having a funky privilege scheme in vista? The creators of the codec package for not finding a way to allow installation without “real” admin privileges? Or me for not just “knowing” from the moment I came out of the womb how to do all this in the first place?
Probably no one is to blame. Mp4 is a valid format. Incompatibilities like this just happen.
My point isn’t really to say who was to blame here. But the end result was that, because the process contained so much hassle, I didn’t wind up watching the video. And I wasted a lot of time “not watching the video”.
If a simple video can cause this much hassle, why wouldn’t someone guess that a complex Taguchi testing software program you install on your web server might be a source of hassle?
It’s a fair concern.
If it wasn’t my software, I’d be concerned.
I’d be worried that I might try to install the software, and it wouldn’t go right. And I’d have to contact customer support. Or, worse, I’d get busy and just set it aside, and wind up never using it. Or I’d have to ask for a refund. It’s nice that refunds are available, but, seriously, who ENJOYS asking for a refund?
Well here’s the good news.
I’m adding some new elements to my offer.
These are designed to put you at ease — to take away your fear of hassle.
For the first time, in June of 2008, I’m offering installation AND setup as part of a Split Test Accelerator purchase. (Now please note: you must always check the sales page for the current terms. I reserve the right to reverse this decision at some point in the future. I have to say this because this blog post will be here for a while, and I don’t want to have to edit it further in case I change the offer again).
I feel confident making this offer. Here’s why.
Kirt Christensen recently asked me how many refunds I give. And something dawned on me. I honestly can’t think of a single customer who asked for a refund after actually USING the Split Test Accelerator.
The few refunds I’ve given have been because of incompatibilities.
So that tells me that if I can get YOU set up and actually using the Split Test Accelerator, you’ll love it. You’ll almost certainly make back your money very quickly, and you’ll find out how much fun Accelerated Split Testing can be.
This way, if there is any hassle, I’ll be the one hassling it.
All you’ll do is order, give me some information I’ll need to do the installation, and wait for an email message from me telling you how to log in to your copy of the Split Test Accelerator and view the results that are already accruing on a test I’ve set up for you.
Of course if you still want to install the software and/or set up your first test yourself, you can. And it will probably go as smoothly for you as it has for most of my past customers.
But if you want to eliminate almost all possibility of hassle, and get started with accelerated split testing this month, KNOWING that you’ll get at least one test set up right away, please, take me up on my new offer.
Here’s the link to the sales page
http://www.splittestaccelerator.com
And yes, I’ve been working on it. There are many more screenshots, and some new explanations. It’s also a 2-page letter instead of 4. I’ll be reworking it more next month as well, but there’s some new information on there for those who have read it before.
– Jim
P.S., As always, feel free to leave comments below.