This article was originally published in the MarketingExperiments
email newsletter.
A new year. New hopes. New aspirations. And new marketing
goals.
To power you with the insights you need to hit those goals,
let’s look back at a four-letter word (well, technically four-number word, but
you get the idea) – 2020.
The year 2020 could not be over soon enough for many
marketers. Global pandemic. Economic calamity. Layoffs, furloughs, cut budgets,
and hesitant customers.
But every year has its lessons that helps us do better next
year. In this article, we’re focused on lessons learned from MarketingExperiments videos.
We’ll take a look at specific clips from these videos that can help power your
next great idea in 2021.
Here are my top lessons learned from our videos followed by
lessons from your marketing peers. This year essentially had three key phases.
PHASE #1: BEFORE COVID-19
Before Covid-19, MarketingExperiments was conducting a
well-received series of YouTube Live videos focusing on fundamental marketing
lessons.
Lesson #1: It’s not what you believe; it’s what they
perceive
In The
Power of Perceived Value: Discover how a well-marketed banana & roll of
tape produced a windfall, Flint McGlaughlin, CEO and Managing Director,
MECLABS Institute, explored a fundamental concept that is key to successful
conversion rate optimization – value perception (MECLABS is the parent
organization of MarketingExperiments).
In this clip starting at 12:27, McGlaughlin discusses how a
simple banana and a piece of duct tape could be truly worth $120,000 and what
that means for the pricing of your own products and services.
“In some cases, you see this unique phenomenon – it’s almost
magical – where perceived value becomes actual value,” McGlaughlin said.
Lesson #2: If you don’t organize your thinking, then you
can’t supervise their conclusion
In Unlocking
the Power of Incentive: Three keys to mastering perceived value differential,
McGlaughlin gives messaging strategies for presenting incentives and explains
how you can identify the best incentive for your offer.
In this clip starting at 13:07, he discusses the importance
of framing your offer for the customer.
“If you don’t organize their thinking, then you can’t
supervise their thinking. And if you can’t supervise their thinking, you can’t
guarantee the outcome – an inevitable conclusion one micro-yes at a time,”
McGlaughlin said.
AT THE START OF THE PANDEMIC
MarketingExperiments has been publishing content about what
really works for two decades. The focus has always been sharing discoveries
about the fundamentals of human decision making…discoveries that extend far
beyond any single marketing industry fad or technology.
So we’ve very rarely covered the news of the day. But some
events are too big to go unmentioned. As the Covid-19 global pandemic started
rapidly spreading around the globe, we shifted our content to show how these
same fundamental discoveries of human behavior could be applied to the daunting
new challenges marketers – and humanity – faced.
Lesson #3: Ask, “does the message heard match the message
said?”
On March 18th, 2020, McGlaughlin and the
MarketingExperiments team went live with Marketers
Stand Together: 3 powerful ways your marketing can combat coronavirus
COVID-19’s impact.
In the clip starting at 39:37, McGlaughlin brings a
messaging lens to a term that has been used cavalierly throughout the pandemic
without a true, deep understanding of what that the phrase really connotes to
people.
“Right now we’re going to have to come together as a
community. I don’t like the concept social distancing. I don’t like the
messaging. I don’t like the implication. And I don’t mind going on record
saying so.
The last thing we need right now is social distance. Now
don’t hear me wrong. We certainly need to maintain safe space and I get that,
but the notion of social distancing puts my mind in the exact opposite place it
should be at a time of great risk. What we need now is to come together, not
move apart.
And the people who employ this word are not thinking
properly about the core concepts we’re discussing right now. It’s the wrong
message. What they mean is fine but what they’re saying is different than what
they mean,” McGlaughlin said.
BORN OUT OF THE PANDEMIC – A NEW SHOW
“I never claimed that art cannot be produced without
suffering, only that art produced without suffering is not likely to be very
good,” Christopher Zara once said.
Of course you won’t find painting or sculptures coming out
of MarketingExperiments – our art is helpful marketing content. The crucible of
the pandemic gave rise to a new show, a new approach to help marketers.
The Marketer as Philosopher: Become a Force for the Good is
meant to teach marketers how to improve their marketing skills while applying them
to a worthy endeavor to benefit real people, right now. Each episode will include
a free tool, like the free
data pattern analysis tool that accompanied Episode 2.
Here is a lesson I found valuable from Episode 3.
Lesson #4: Great marketers do not make claims; they
foster conclusions
In The
Marketer as Philosopher, Episode 3 – The Conversion Heuristic Analysis:
Overcoming the prospect’s perception gap, McGlaughlin uses a product tag
and a pair of case studies to teach five practical ways to increase perceived
value and achieve your marketing results.
In this clip starting at 17:20, McGlaughlin discusses the
importance of helping your customers reach the right conclusion instead of trying
to force an idea down their throats.
“Don’t push, rather guide. For every claim, ask ‘what is the
credible fact upon which this claim is based?’ So if you’re making a claim on
your site, ask yourself a different question – ‘why can I say that?’ ‘Why is
that true?’
Then change that claim into a credible fact so that it
supports the right conclusion. Help them arrive at the right conclusion. You do
this because you have the right person and because you have the right offer for
them at the right time,” McGlaughlin said.
YOUR TOP LESSONS
In addition to what I learned this year, I wanted to hear
from our audience as well. What most surprised me was that their top lessons
this year were from videos we didn’t even publish in 2020, but rather from
previous years.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised – as I mentioned,
MarketingExperiments has always focused its teaching on timeless lessons…on understanding
deep human behavior and marketing truths that will help improve your results
regardless of the current economic conditions or marketing industry tool flavor
of the day.
MarketingExperiments videos have been viewed 592,230
times. Here are some of your peers’ top lessons from four of those views…
Lesson #5: It’s not enough to give your reader a reason; we
must place them within a story
“In 2020, I learned a valuable copywriting skill; I learned
how to match my writing to the thought processes of my customers. In my line of
work, I write home warranty reviews for a living. The final published copy,
while condensed and informative, can be a bit dry sometimes.
One video, titled Strengthen
Your Copy in 35 Minutes, explains a strategic writing formula for
increasing conversions. It explains writing sequences that include a rising
action, climax, and resolution. It’s similar to what we’ve been taught in high
school when writing a book report but refined to be geared towards copywriting.
This has helped me create review articles and home-related
blog posts that are not only informative but also compelling enough for the
reader to read in its entirety, as opposed to just quickly scanning the
content. There is a greater gratification and sense of a takeaway when a post
is read from start to finish, ultimately leading to more clicks of one or more
affiliate links.
The meat of the video starts at the 3:48 mark.”
– James Surrey, Founder & Chief
Editor, Review Home Warranties
Lesson #6: It’s not a webpage; it’s a signal set
“A very insightful lesson I learned was the concept of
diagnosis without prescription. This was from the video The
High-Performance Landing Page: 3 ways to maximize conversion with the power of
coherence. I learned that for a landing page to be successful, it has to
address both the customers’ pain points as well as a solution. Too often,
landing pages address the pain point, but the reader has to click on another
link or get to another site page for the solution. Both the problem and
solution need to be presented upfront.
In the sports betting industry, bettors are looking to
increase their winning probability. My landing pages need to address this and
make it clear the solution I’m proposing. Once I presented both the diagnosis
and prescription, there was an uptick in click-throughs, email signups, and
purchases of our betting strategy combos.
The part of the video discussing diagnosis without
prescription begins at 4:45.”
– Michael Kipness, Founder, Wizard Race and Sports
Lesson #7: The power of a brand does not come from the
promise it makes, but rather from the expectation it creates
“My absolute favorite MarketingExperiments video is the one
titled The
Myth of the Brand Promise back in June 2019. It highlights the need for
companies to be reminded that consumers do not pay for the branding, they pay
for the quality of product and service they will get. It stresses the fact that
a well-thought and high-budgeted brand does not guarantee high sale
conversions, they’re merely the face of the company that attracts and lures in
customers but it’s still the products and the company’s service that seals the
deal.
Additionally, branding is also almost always just an
egotistical representation of the company about itself. The truth of the fact
is that if companies want their business to be loved and respected by its
market, it must not be centered around the company’s views about itself but
rather should illuminate what the company can offer to enhance the lives of its
customers. At the end of the day, businesses exist to serve their consumers and
so it will come across to its market more successfully if the market views the
company as one of its own – by being the perfect embodiment of what they want
or need.”
– Arnas Vasiliauskas, Chief
Innovation Product Officer, CarVertical
Lesson #8: Adequacy is the enemy of excellence; if you
compound learnings, you may compound your return
“I remember watching The
New York Times landing page optimization on MarketingExperiments. I’ve
learned a lot from this one.
It helped me to better understand the philosophy behind
landing page optimization. It’s not directly tied to my field of work, but I
believe every business owner should understand the basics of digital marketing.
I was particularly fascinated by the long-form test (at 7:30 in the video) and
how it impacted conversion.
This kind of research helps me to have productive
conversations with digital marketing teams, and that’s the kind of dynamic I
need to do my work well.”
– Aaron
Haynes, CEO, Loganix
Related Resources
What
2020 Has Taught Marketers: 8 essential marketing lessons
The post Marketers Stand Together: 8 crucial conversion optimization lessons from MarketingExperiments videos in 2020 appeared first on MarketingExperiments.
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