Milan Vasilko
3rd June 2009, 10:16
I am sure someone out there must have compared this in a split test - which of these two incentives is more effective in converting visitors into real sales?
It would seem that a 'FREE report' offer will have better visitor-to-report conversion as it will be easier for visitors to commit, but then people might be put off by getting on yet another email list, might just want freebies and never make a real customer, probably would unsubscribe or report as spam later and might well actually just prefer to try the product instead.
A 'FREE product trial' offer will require higher level of commitment hence I would expect the visitor-to-trial conversion to be lower, but then it would seem that whoever signs up to a trial would be much more likely to become a customer. By signing up they are demonstrating that they are directly interested in the product itself and can be motivated to convert by experiencing the product first hand, time-limited offers, etc.
We are looking to understand which of the two approaches has generated larger volume of real sales for specific product examples, as in:
X site visitors converted to Y sing ups (report/trial) which converted to Z sales
Please respond only if you have done split testing on this for your specific products (and can say what it is) or can provide a reference to someone who did. We have enough personal opinions on the matter with no solid evidence already!
Thank you,
Milan
It would seem that a 'FREE report' offer will have better visitor-to-report conversion as it will be easier for visitors to commit, but then people might be put off by getting on yet another email list, might just want freebies and never make a real customer, probably would unsubscribe or report as spam later and might well actually just prefer to try the product instead.
A 'FREE product trial' offer will require higher level of commitment hence I would expect the visitor-to-trial conversion to be lower, but then it would seem that whoever signs up to a trial would be much more likely to become a customer. By signing up they are demonstrating that they are directly interested in the product itself and can be motivated to convert by experiencing the product first hand, time-limited offers, etc.
We are looking to understand which of the two approaches has generated larger volume of real sales for specific product examples, as in:
X site visitors converted to Y sing ups (report/trial) which converted to Z sales
Please respond only if you have done split testing on this for your specific products (and can say what it is) or can provide a reference to someone who did. We have enough personal opinions on the matter with no solid evidence already!
Thank you,
Milan