What Is Wording Worth?

We had a client interested in improving the performance of their lead generation website. After we identified some challenges with calls to action on the site, we decided to test out a few different variations to see which one was the most effective with a particular customer segment.

Measure It

Working with the client we developed three variations to use in an A/B/C test on their site.

Convenient

The first variation of their call to action was the control and used the established messaging of the client’s brand. It highlighted convenience, and ease of service.

Fast Signup

The second variation used the same messaging but featured streamlined one-step signup that allowed customers to quickly enter information and receive a call to get started.

Free to Start

The third variation featured the exact same service but used totally new messaging which positioned the signup process as a “free evaluation.”

It’s Worth A Lot

If you have a marketing background, you’re probably not surprised that the three variations offering the same service at the same price to the same customer segment could have wildly different results.

What is wording worth?

But even if you do have a marketing background, you might be surprised to discover that the “tried and true” brand message – the one on every piece of printed collateral the client had – was the worst performing variation. The second variation with the established messaging and faster signup performed better than the control option, but not as well as the new messaging.

In fact, the new messaging generated 5 times as many leads as the variation that used the existing “convenience” messaging and almost twice as many leads as the streamlined signup variation.

So Get the Data First

Before we ran this test our client had an established brand message for this customer segment and it seemed to work pretty well.

In business we try to make the best decision every time, but without comparative data it’s tough to judge incremental improvement and measure the specific impact of marketing decisions. Site Optimization can can help you do that before you make a blind investment in re-messaging or rebranding by measuring actual performance.