Dedicated to Discovering How People Make Choices
When customers open an email, the first thing they see will determine if they continue reading and engaging with you or if they close the email and end the conversation. Getting them to read the first few lines is the very first step they take toward conversion, and it’s the most important one. You must capture their attention.
In this excerpt from a live session of the University of Florida and MECLABS Institute graduate certificate program, we look at two value propositions that MECLABS Institute and its research partner The New York Times tested to see which would generate the highest conversion rate. Watch the video to learn about the two key questions you should ask yourself when evaluating your value prop.
You need to ask yourself, 'How effective is this headline in capturing attention?'
– Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director and CEO, MECLABS Institute
This excerpt is from MMC5259: Customer Relationship and Effective Lead Management course. The full session aims to introduce students to the unique and unprecedented nature of the web and how it can be used as a living laboratory to study the cognitive decision process of our customers and predict their future behavior.
TRANSCRIPT
Flint McGlaughin: The case study from The New York Times. We're going to look at this moment only on a part of that journey at the micro level. In fact, you've heard us already describe this series of micro-yes(s), and one of the first micro-yes(s) involved with winning a relationship begins right here at the top of this page.
This is the control. So if I can, let me challenge you to look at this headline. If necessary, pause the video, but really think about this headline and ask yourself how would you improve it.
Now, as you're reaching down inside, you probably have some well-worn trails in your mind, and you probably have written some headlines. You've certainly read many.
But hold yourself back from going down that familiar path, because we've got to do something certain different within the cognitive structure. We want you to blaze a new trail, and you need to do that by falling back to that learning from the initial part of this course. Ask yourself, "How effective is this headline at capturing attention?"
Now, if you ask yourself that question, you set yourself up for the second. So tell me what do you think the second question is. I know this is recorded. I know you can't hear me. I also know that what we're doing together will truly help you prepare for the test and actually prepare to implement these things in your real life.
So do it with me. The first thing was to capture attention. The second thing was to convert it to interest.
So how well do you think this headline is doing either of those? Well, it's possible for us to get into a long session, but we're not. I just want to point out something that might be foundational. Does this headline convey a complete thought?
This headline is part of the treatment, part of a new design. Get 50% off The New York Times newspaper, NYT newspaper delivery for 12 weeks. "Unlimited online access free." So student or colleague, tell me what's the first thing you notice that's different about this headline and the one that came before.
If you're looking at it, you might note that, first of all, it has a sub-headline. That's probably the easiest thing to note. If you continue to look at it, you may notice that it’s point first, and the first word implies something for the customer — get. "Get 50% off." There's a lot of meaning being conveyed in just four words.
Now we're beginning to create an opportunity for a genuine relationship, and we're doing so by saying something that's meaningful enough and then saying something with meaning that matters, i.e., here's a chance to save a lot. If I happen to be interested in The New York Times, this starts to pique my interest.
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