Hello. This is Devan Rome. Welcome to Part 10 of my 12-part series reviewing the concepts I’ve learned in CXL’s Digital Psychology and Persuasion Program. Here is a link to the course. In this series, I review the principles discussed and taught in the course. I also write about some of my opinions of the course. With that said and out of the way, I will now get on to this week (week 10’s) review of the course. I am now about half way through this 12-part series, and I am certainly learning a lot. I’m typing this from an airport and sending it a bit later because of the business travel I’ve been doing.
I am now going through the psychology of websites course. I am now on the value propositions course. A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. Your value proposition should be on every key landing page. Communicate the value you add to users. You should also communicate to what audience you are delivering this value. It should also include things you offer that other companies don’t. You don’t want to compete on price, usually. However, if you are competing on price, then you should be sure to say so! If your value proposition is not written in clear language, then you should probably rewrite it. A good format is headline, a short paragraph, and a few bullets. Whatever you communicate, it is important that you back it up with truth.
Now for Momo Price on value propositions. Mom will be my short version of Momoko.
Wow this video is almost 50 minutes. Oh well. Let’s get into it. She has a formula for conversion.
The formula Is 4 times motivation plus 3 times the clarity and value of your proposition.
She says that at the end of the day, your value proposition is quite simple. It may include terms like reason to buy, what’s in it for me, or what’s your unique advantage. She says the two main things you should focus on are “What’s in it for me?” And “Why should I choose you over X?” You want to get the Ron Swanson type prospect interested in you. You don’t want to be thinking about the person already excited about your product when making your value prop. Instead, you want to stress test your value proposition with the type of person who will say “So what?” and “Prove it.”
Momo says there are two common scenarios. You are new and niche. Or these are broad and established products. Your value prop will change based on what scenarios you are on. She uses a good graphic from copy hackers for thinking about this. She also gives a 7 item list for brainstorming a UVP for new / niche businesses. Se below for the system
She then does some examples user her UVP creation spreadsheet. I will link it here. Here is the link. She says to make sure you test your value proposition. She then does a lesson recap. Just passed the quiz. First try. Nice.
Now for a case study on urgency and e-commerce. Here are the cliff notes. In short, adding urgency to the page increased revenue by about 27%. Very nice.
Now for a video called define key action. You want to make that action easy. Easy to find. Easy to understand, and easy to do. Minimize that friction. One way to do that is to use defaults. He gives a few ways on how you can do this.
Now for how to create landing pages that address emtiotional needs. This video is with Talia Wolf. Everything we do involves an emotional reason. For example, if you sell insurance, you sell peace of mind. If you sell clothing, you might sell coolness. If you sell a SaaS product, you might sell productivity. Business people should be sure to think about it. She says to make sure your mobile site is optimized for mobile. Well, this video is from 2016, so I believe her. I think most good devs have adopted to this by now. She gives us a 4 step process.
Here are the 4 steps:
- emotional competitor analysis
- Emotional swot
- Emotional content strategy
- And then testing
She gives an online dating example. For competitors, you might look at their messaging, colors, images, and emotional triggers. Look at those few items and how they use them. This video is pretty good so far.
Now for the emotional SWOT. Analyze your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. For example, a weakness may be that you have a lot of competitors, and you may seem like everyone else. She then gives a framework for brainstorming a test hypothesis.
Color has an emotional effect. However, it can be abused, so be sure to use color wisely and prudently. She then talks about some tests she ran.
Now for Using Urgency to Boost E-commerce Conversions. Urgency makes people behave rashly because of emotions. Viljo Vabrit says that urgency can decrease or increase urgency. Many people think urgency equals persuasion, but this is not always the case. He gives some tops for making urgency work. He says you can get this from qualitative research. He says you should do the folioing three things.
- Find the right trigger, which can be a need, solution, or USP
- Then choose a tactic. This should be based on qualitative feedback.
- Then you should test.
Good presentation. Now I am 15 / 22 courses completed. Wow I am making good progress. Now I’m going to start the building habits and loyalty course.
There are some mentioned readings and studies at the beginning of this course, which I will include below:
Mentioned Readings and Studies:
Goal-Gradient Hypothesis – Columbia University Study
The Endowed Progress Effect: How Artificial Advancement Increases Effort – University of Southern California Study
Framing Reward is as Important as Reward Itself
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Now for the goal gradient and endowed progress effect. Loyalty is something every company wants, but not every company gets it.
This video talks about the goal gradient hypothesis. Rewards programs do not equal loyalty. Just because you have one doesn’t mean you have loyalty. Rewards programs are best used as a carrot to get customers coming back and getting more good experiences. ‘
Rewards + customer experience = loyalty.
The reward needs to come often enough that there is reinforcement. At the same time, the rewards cannot be too close together.
You may have variable rewards they are about surprise and delight. These rewards must be both desirable and achievable! One example that Dooley gives is that Starbucks apparently gave you a free menu item after your 12th visit.
The goal gradient hypothesis basically says that the closer you get to a reward, the faster you achieve it. This was first tested on rats. When they got closer to the reward, they ran faster. This was also tested on humans and was shown to be the case. I think the example they gave was with coffee rewards This was a good video. I’m going to have to think about this. Some mentioned readings and studies are shown below:
Mentioned Readings & Studies
Goal-Gradient Hypothesis – Columbia University Study
The Endowed Progress Effect: How Artificial Advancement Increases Effort – University of Southern California Study
Framing Reward is as Important as Reward Itself
Okay. That’s good for today. Thanks for reading.
