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| Big Whammy |
As a direct marketing pro, I love tests. Settling for a
control is just a missed opportunity, and so long as you are making sure the
analysis has statistical significance and you are measuring for the right
outcomes (hint: not just clicks!), we are golden. Sometimes, literally.
Some tests are better than others, of course, in that they
lead to a next stage that is more actionable. But in my time in email, static
banners and dynamic ad units, over thousands of campaigns and tens of thousands
of individual pieces of creative, there have been a few consistent stone cold
losers, so much so that I cannot, in good conscience, even encourage the use of
a test cell on them.
So, steer away from…
1) Better Business Bureau style seals of approval.
First off, many consumers do not know what these logos mean,
and the logos usually do not minimize well, so it is difficult to get
legibility without devoting a significant number of pixels to them.
Secondly, the approval seal tends to fall into the realm of
false positive – which is to say, overcoming an objection to buy that might not
have even been in the prospect’s mind in the first place. In overcoming the
objection, the negative is brought up, and overwhelms the benefit.
Finally, there are the results – consistent losers of up to
20% or more in multiple consumer categories and metrics, at varying levels of
importance.
I understand why you might be proud of an endorsement, or
work in a consumer category where reassurance seems like it might be a lead generation
practice, or competitive separation. But I’ve never seen it work, and I’m not
really counting the days until it does.
2) Showing how to pay.
When it comes to e-commerce on lead gen, devoting significant
real estate to credit card logos and wallet approaches is a tacit admission
that you have two problems. The first is that you need the familiarity of a
well-known logo to make your brand look legitimate, and the second is that you
are hoping for an immediate, impulse-level purchase to carry the day. Neither
is a very powerful statement to make in lead generation, and dulls the impact
of your pitch.
Lead generation is rarely also lead fulfillment for paid
ventures. Trying to close the deal on first communication is putting the cart
before the horse. When it has been tried, it’s usually by brands who are
lacking in other things to sell. In my experience, you are better off with
selling copy, images, or even just more white space or a smaller piece.
3) Removing the call to action.
Sometimes you get a brand marketing play, or high e-commerce
campaign, that wants to protect the brand to the point of not having anything
so gauche as a button or click point. After all, everyone knows how to respond,
and your audience is advanced enough that you can spend pixels in a better way,
right?
Well, no.
It is possible that your distribution is poor enough that
performance does not go down too much by removing the lack of a call to action
element. (Which would make me wonder, well, why you are working with a network
that cannot get you better distribution. Moving on. ) You may also see similar
performance from a more subtle element, different language, or even icons
instead of copy. This point is not meant to argue for oversized buttons
regardless of offer, brand, or prospect demographic.
However, I have never seen performance improve, and do not
really expect it to, for pure branding pieces that seem above response. Since
it more or less flies into the face of direct marketing experience, dating back
to the early days of the industry, either offline or digital. You need to ask,
if you want the prospect to do something. The platform does not change that.
* * * * *
Speaking
of asking, mine is that you connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain
at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP box at the top right of this page.
In
addition to copywriting, direction and strategy, we also provide design,
illustration, photography, coding and hosting. Tell us what you need done, and your
budget, and we'll work out an RFP.
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