CXL Scholarship — 2nd Week Review

This is my second review regarding the CXL scholarship on Conversion Optimization. I have to say that I’m gradually getting used to the volume of information that I should learn each week. It is kinda tough, but definitely worth it.

2- Best Practices — Continued

• Having a good design can make or break your business. People will always judge you based on the user experience they have, so you’d better think about it thoroughly.
• It is very shocking to hear that people will try to assess your design in around 50 milliseconds! This number is so well-known and scientific that Google too approves it to be true.
• People pay far more attention to the design and creatives that they do to text and content. If your design catches their eyes, they will think you are credible and trustworthy.
• Using better photos and designs that can inspire people will ultimately make better impressions on them. Don’t make people think about your offer, show it to them instead.
• When it comes to design, users generally pick the simple ones. People have a mental image of news sites, online retail stores, blogs, and other things. Try not to recreate the wheel. Don’t forget that “people spend most of their time on other websites”.
• The search box possesses incredible value when it comes to e-commerce sites. You have to give your users the option to search for what they are looking for. The conversion rate will go up if you use a big and visible search box.
• If you have an add to cart feature on your site, you should use it naturally. Using this feature properly can increase your sales and conversions. Give people the right to decide whether they want to add or remove items, save them for another time, go back to the product listing page, or to checkout.
• Paying attention to visual hierarchy will be beneficial here too. Using bigger and bolder buttons will help you in closing more sales on your website.
• In e-commerce, both average order value (AOV) and basket size (number of items per cart) are important. Try to make a balance between them.
• When you want to lead people down the buying funnel, start by asking little things and gradually ask for bigger stuff (payment info). Give people the feeling that everything is safe and secure and their data stays safe.

3- Intro to Conversion Copywriting

• The opening of this section was too long and reading instead of watching is tiresome, kinda. But it talked about copywriting and its value in detail.
• It reminded me of a book written by Ann Handley called “Everybody Writes”. You should write with the customer in mind. There are two types of content: Informational and Entertaining. There is also a third kind that tries to sell stuff. It is invaluable.
• I read about the questions that we can ask our customers about their experience with our product. It was really a gold mine and opened a great door for me. Thank you CXL for this one in particular.
• When you want to talk about your value propositions, think again about your customers. Put yourself in their shoes and ask this question: what is in this (proposition) for me? They always look for benefits. The best thing you can talk about in your value propositions is the benefits that your customer gets.
• In talking about value propositions, avoid using jargon and weird language. Try to talk in their language and beware that whenever you try to speak fancy, you are distancing yourself from the audience.

• One of the things that caught my eyes was Peep saying that you have to test your copy by handing it to your peers, family members, or anybody who is around. This is kind of like the Mom Test. I don’t buy that. Asking them to highlight what sounds good to them was a good idea, though.
• Peep talks about a method that it seems he has personally invented to sort good copy and bad copy. It is called VCC (Value, Clarity, Credibility). Very simple but effective. Every sentence should go through this filter and get a score.
• Yes, you are right. Good copywriters are pretty rare to find all over the world.
• Microcopy is a micro-copy, a short text that packs a lot of meaning in it. It is usually used in interface design, advertising, etc. it should be succinct, concise, and persuasive. You have a few words to say a big thing and it is a bit challenging.
• Video is a great medium to say so much in an entertaining way. Shorter videos almost always perform better than longer ones. People have low attention spans and you have to try to keep them watching the content.
• Always start the video with the most important point. This is how the human mind works and wants to what will finally happen. Give it to him/her first and they will usually stay.
• You should pick video players that are based on data like YouTube and Wistia. You will need the data.

4- Product Messaging

• This course is taught by Momoko Price. I haven’t heard her name before, but she seems to be quite literate. She gave a brief about what is about to be taught in the course and it made me excited about the whole CXL Conversion Optimization, again.

• She talked about something she called the Copy Teardown framework. I didn’t get it why she is calling this thing a teardown framework, but it was something valuable to have.
• She had founded this framework based on three things: MECLab’s sth that I don’t recall, Cialdini’s Influence book, and Claude Hopkins’s Scientific Advertising. It was very good to see the book that I had read and loved to be listed here. I mean Cialdini’s book.
• The framework has been standardized in the form of a google sheet that you can make a copy. It assesses every part of the landing page and gives them scores between 0 and 2, the latter being the highest score. It seems well-thought and comprehensive which is based on best methods and practices. I have to say that I liked it.
• Message mining? Are you serious? Stealing ideas from your prospects and customers is very nice, but I kinda feel all this stuff she is talking about is just theoretical and doesn’t have any real-life value. Sorry, Momoko!
• You need to listen to the voice of customers in the form of surveys, user testings, and one-to-one interviews. This is all great.
• When you want to ask them questions, you have to filter your questions based on the stage they are currently in. if they are just visitors and don’t know much about you, don’t ask them to fill out NPS surveys! If they have bout something from you in the past, they are customers and can tell you about how they chose you.
• Try to act normal and don’t tell them that you are putting them in a survey, questionnaire, or anything like it. If they know that you are going to use them and their inputs, they will act weirdly and try to reject you. Act like a friend who asks his friend about his/her opinions.
• The value proposition is vague and obscure. Nobody knows what it is, yet everybody is talking about it and the necessity in its existence.
• Oh, I learned something totally new. I have known a term called brand-awareness, but it turns out that we can actually split it into two categories: if prospects are problem-aware or solution-aware. Happy to know that.
• You know, quantifying is always great. The tutor tries to quantify the ways that can help you come up with a good unique value proposition (UVP) and she sort of succeeds in it. But the whole process is so boring that I hardly can bear it. Using spreadsheets is a great way of doing modern business, but I think she is either overusing it or using it in a bad way. I am counting down for this lesson to be finished.
• The last part that I learned about was the message hierarchy. I don’t know if it was really needed to make things this complex or not. It simply wants to differentiate between things that a brand with high brand awareness can tell in its communications and things that a new brand should try to say.

• There was a line with a spike that was supposed to show the path that prospects go through in order to become a customer. It all started with UVP, continued with Motivation, Value, Anxiety, and finally a CTA. it was so hard to understand that you can’t simply understand it by listening to my words. You have to listen to what Momok said in the presentation.

I think that’s enough for this week this much. I will continue talking about this section in the following report.