Cabot Test Results
| VERSION A |
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How site visitors voted:
VERSION A (77%)
VERSION B (23%)
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Actual Test Results:
Sometimes test results tell you to stick with what you’ve got. When Cabot Heritage Corporation, an investment newsletter publisher, tested the word ‘subscription’ on a landing page call-to-action button, it decreased conversions by 22.9% within just two days, leaving the original call-to-action button the winner! Andrew Palmer, Cabot’s Director of Ecommerce Marketing, had a hunch that using the word ‘subscription’ would decrease conversions because some visitors would think they had to pay for the subscription. He conducted an A/B split test using Google Website Optimizer. He used, ‘Send My Free Report,’ button copy on the control test panel (Version A) and, ‘Start My Free Subscription,’ button copy on the variable test panel (Version B). “To think that changing only two words on your call-to-action button would decrease performance by 23%… just amazing,” Palmer said. “I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t test it myself.”
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I think there is evidence to suggest that subscribers are more interested in value than anything else when giving away their details.
In today’s spam heavy World as well as Subscribers’ fully aware their details can equal money, the willingness to commit simply isn’t there. That word, “Subscription” is easily perceived as commitment or a fee as was stated in the post.
Therefore, we as marketers’ must understand that we MUST give subscribers VALUE without any sign of commitment.
The word “subscription” implies a long term commitment or cost where “report” is a more immediate gratification. Andrew Palmer’s gut was correct
Agree with Bryan’s arguments. In general, “report” will work better than “subscription”,
but I would not be surprised to see less significant difference for some segments [ different local time; different geo position.] You even could get the inverted preferences if some related keywords, for example, “subscription” and might be even “newspaper” or “magazine” are included in the content area of the document. Such keywords would prime text “subscription”.
Agreed… for me it was the instant gratification element that made me choose Version A. Subscription not only sounds like a long term commitment but it puts the onus of action on me. Getting a free report does not carry that same meaning.
The first will get more sign-ups, but a lot more complaints later. It’s misleading. Misleading a potential customer. If I sign up for a free report and I get an e-mail subscription, you can bet I’m going to click the spam button. If you only track the short-term positive results, you miss the longer term negative effects. Bad test…
Although the use of “Report” as opposed to “subscription” likely affected the users’ reactions, what about the difference between capitalization? I find Option A easier to read because of the title caps. Perhaps this affected the experiment also?
[...] newsletter publisher found that modifying the words used on their form’s “submit” button changed sign-up [...]
[...] newsletter publisher found that modifying the words used on their form’s “submit” button changed sign-up [...]