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We often advocate for "stacked" forms vs. multi-column forms. Here is some research that reinforces that. Stacked forms are completed much faster than side-by-side fields.

 @KISSMetrics - David Ogilvy is experiencing something of a renaissance these days as his experience and research in offline marketing are proving true in online marketing. And we need him. Images are an abused medium on the Web, and this article points out mistakes that you are probably making.

There are some real nuggets here, such as "Captions under images are read on average 300% more than the body copy itself" Ask your designer what research he has for his decisions.

This is an important article, and you should read it before you blindly follow the advice of lazy designers.

What makes people trust your Website more? As you know building trust with your visitors is critical to maximizing conversion. Here is some research that helps us to understand what makes visitors trust our site. Here are some highlights. 1:43-People trust more attractive websites. 2:21-Attractive websites are those that follow conventions. 3:05-Biggest source of frustration? Ability to find relevant information. 3:31-Website owners must increase the relevance of their information. 5:00-The best way to retain customers is to provide relevant information. Relevancy is dropping across the Internet. 6:10-How an Internet store is different from a physical store. 8:02-People who are on Facebook are more likely to recommend companies that they see on Facebook. 9:30-Satisfaction is what it is all about, affecting conversion and referral behavior. 10:00-Clam chowder

Most interesting part of this article, is the way that people make up stories about why they do what they do. This is why self-reported data is always we use it for qualitative research, that is but never to find answers to questions. Humans are very good at making up stories about why they do, and these stories are usually lies.

Even experienced research groups like Nielsen Norman can get testing wrong by adding too many variables. The author argues that too many variables changed in these tests

And he's right.

 @peeplaja has just saved you a whole lot of time. He's done the research and found the studies that you can use to refute the often poor advice your designers are giving your Web team.

Spend some time with this post and the links he references if you want to consistently create effective, high-converting websites.

I recommend a kind of social media strategy that we call "Content-oriented" social media. This strategy revolves around creating content and sharing it with your social networks. If it gets shared around, you generate more qualified prospects to your site to convert. Clicks are measureable, which we like at Conversion Sciences. Here are nine errors we make that limits the amount of sharing that goes on around our content. NOTE: In #8, the writer defines six sharing personas. Note that 7 of the 8 prefer email as a tool of their sharing. This is an article on social media. The insinuation is that email is a social media tool. You may know that I call email the largest social network on the planet. Just saying...

The last one on the list can really make a big difference.

7. Conduct user research or share findings with developers

It isn't hard to get user input thanks to inexpensive and easy-to-use services like UsabilityHub.com and Verifyapp.com.

Learn more about how and when to use tools like this in our free Everyday Behavioral Science training.

If we think using unfamiliar words makes us sound smart, @GuyLigertwood has broken the spell. We've been talking alot about behavioral science and the data that drives it. Now you will know what we say with 52 explanations of the terms we tend to bandy about. It's just enough explanation to "get it" and you can drill down into the liked videos.

 @copyblogger Here are the five most persuasive words we can use. Indivdually, each of these words appeals to a certain kind of person. If we use the Eisenberg Modes of Persuasion as a guide, we can assign each to a different mode.

"You" - Humanists are relationship oriented. When your voice shifts from "We" and "our company" and you speak to them in the first person, it feels more human -- and more Humanistic.

"Free" - This word appeals to the Spontaneous reader. These visitors are just looking for an excuse to take action.

"Because" - Methodicals want to understand the details. They make decisions deliberately and logically. Credible proof is important.

"Instantly" - This also appeals to our Spontaneous reader, who wants immmediate gratification.

"New" - This appeals to the Competitive, who wants to know what will make them better. New technologies, new versions, new looks get their attention.

So, two of the words are very Spontaneous, and we tend to act spontaneously when we've decided to buy something. "Free" and "Instantly" are bottom of the funnel words.

Read the research in this excellent post.

How you phrase a discount is a powerful way to increase conversions. Some visitors do not like to do math, or will do it wrong. Therefore, offering 20% off is less effective than save $18. However, high discounts (50%, 90%) may draw buyers more powerfully than the dollar value.

You have to find out for yourself.

Karon offers a nice list of alternatives and some links to research for your enjoyment.

Here's a nice roundup of do's and don'ts for conversion rate optimizers. Even experienced AB testers like us need to be reminded of the "big rocks" of CRO, and this article has them. Process, segmentation, qualitative research, and mobile.

This is a good overview of design trends from 2016. Not all of these trends are good ideas from a conversion optimization standpoint.

Scroll Animations, Large Thematic Images, Animated Micrinteractions, and Brutalism are probably hurting conversion rates.

The author makes a very important point: "this sort of experiment requires thorough research and in many cases the final result comes via several iterations tested and analyzed in terms of usability and visual perception."

 @KISSMetrics - You don't have to be a psychologist to create good messages and strategies for your business, but it really helps to know the subtle things that make people more comfortable taking action. This article summarizes some of my favorite research on buyer psychology.

If you offer a trial of your product, use email to deliver "mints" of helpful information. This will increase the likelihood that they will buy. See #4.

Design your pricing in clusters around your most profitable offering. See #5.

Be specific in your calls to action. See #3.

Community involvement and social proof are also covered. See #1 and #2.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Retargeting Emails - Do E-commerce customers like or loathe them? March 10th, 2011Leave a commentGo to comments By Charles Nicolls, SeeWhy At SeeWhy, when we first launched our remarketing service in 2009, Randy Stross wrote a piece about email remarketing in The New York Times suggesting that while remarketing might be a great idea for ecommerce websites, it's not a great idea for consumers. He likened emails following up on abandoned shopping carts to a salesman chasing you down the street if you didn't buy from his store. There are major differences, of course. We've long argued that remarketing emails, when done well, not only drive conversions but also build brand trust. They can deliver great service and provide customers with the confidence to return to buy-either online, by phone or in store. If Randy was right and customers universally resented the intrusion, then these emails wouldn't work. In aiming to answer the question more substantively, I turned to data, and specifically email marketing benchmarks. The key metrics to look at to determine whether customers like or loathe remarketing emails are: the recovery rate the open rate the clickthrough rate the unsubscribe rate Frankly, the evidence is overwhelming: Remarketing, when done well, is appreciated by customers. Here's the evidence: (1) The recovery rate The recovery rate is the percentage of visitors that abandon shopping carts, and remarketed visitors thatthen return and purchase following remarketing. At SeeWhy, we measure recovery rates across all our customers, and currently the average is 20 percent. So, one in five shopping cart abandoners come back and buy, having being remarketed. In some cases, the recovery rate is as high as 50 percent. Moreover, when remarketed customers buy, they spend on average 55 percent more than customers who didn't abandon their shopping carts. (2) The open rate The average email open rate for remarketing emails is currently 46 percent, m

The key insight that I got from this @copyblogger post is that, regardless of our "resting" personality type, we are different when doing different activities. My Myers-Briggs type pegs me as generally an "Environmental" type. However, when I'm researching, I'm generally "Fantastical" (and I'm not just complimenting myself). When I'm writing I'm getting my "Structural" on. In short, we can't treat people as one personality type. We change from channel to channel. What are the four personality types when people are solving the problems your business solves?

 @ReelSEO Having just completed my first two videos for my up-coming book, I was grateful to have these nine reminders of what makes video convert.

It's about time I started investing in video. The research and case studies I've read show that video is a powerhouse conversion tool, in almost all industries, B2B and B2C. Video isn't to boost your ego (although I like putting a little of myself in the footage). It has a job to do. These nine will help you get results.

Forrester Research finds that roughly 38 percent of all shopping carts are abandoned, while other data sources put that figure as high as 70 percent.

If you love the science of persuasion like we do, you should definitely be following my friend Roger Dooley's blog.

Here's a great example of how he uses research to deliver actionable advice to marketers and business owners like us.

"After clicking through 900,000 ads, researchers from Google discovered that the average mobile landing page loads in an embarrassing 22 seconds. That's over 7 times longer than most impatient internet users will wait before they abandon a page - 53% to be exact."