People tend to be clueless about prices. Contrary to economic theory, we don’t really decide between A and B by consulting our invisible price tags and purchasing the one that yields the higher utility. We make do with guesstimates and a vague recollection of what things are ‘supposed to cost.’

The truth is, spending time to utilize smarter pricing methods will go a long way in helping you improve your bottom line, because you could be losing out on a boatload of money simply because you are pricing your products incorrectly!

Below, you’ll see 7 common pricing mistakes that can kill your sales, and I’ll show you the research behind why they affect purchases and what you can do to fix them for good.

Ready to get started? Let’s dig in!

1.) Comparing Prices for No Reason

Chest-thumping about low prices is a guaranteed way to have prospective customers running for the hills—if you approach it the wrong way, that is.

A recent study from Stanford University reveals that when it comes to comparative pricing, a blunt request for customers to compare your prices against the competition (without a compelling reason why) can actually dissuade them from buying your product, as they lose trust in your marketing message.

According to the lead researcher of the study:

The mere fact that we had asked them to make a comparison caused them to fear that they were being tricked in some way.

These ‘explicit comparisons’ are not the same as implicit comparisons about prices that customers naturally make (“Can I afford this?”). It’s only when marketers ask without context that there seems to be a problem.

I personally love how Esurance positions their cheaper pricing against the competition: prices are lower because they’ve cut out unnecessary costs by being built online. They even have a page dedicated to showing customers why ‘cheap’ insurance isn’t always the answer, and they give potential customers an overview of how to offer lower prices the right way, similar to how we’ve crafted our copy on our Desk.com alternative page—the focus is on why prices can be cheaper, not just that they are.

2.) Not Testing Different ‘Levels’ of Pricing

If you’ve followed my work for a while, you know I’m a big proponent of customer profiling, or the art of creating a comprehensive dossier on your customers so you can figure out who they are and what they want from your business.

The fact is that although you should be targeting ideal customers, sometimes they will come in different forms. This reality is clearly evident through a pricing study in the book Priceless (surprise!) that demonstrates the power of offering multiple, higher price points for your ‘premium’ customers.

Researchers conducted tests on pricing levels using beer (after my own heart), initially starting out with two price points and then adding an additional option in the 2nd and 3rd tests. In the initial test, the two beers were offered at $1.80 and $2.50, and consumers were tracked to get an idea of how many were buying at each price point:

Test #1 — Standard beer + Premium beer

As you can see, most people opted for the premium beer, which would be great for the bar owner! The researchers weren’t done yet though—they wanted to see how the effects of anchoring would play out if they introduced a 3rd price point into the mix.

First, they tested a ‘cheap’ beer that was priced at $1.60, only 20 cents less than the standard beer. Surprisingly, this small change had some pretty drastic results:

Test #2 — Cheap beer + Standard beer + Premium beer

No good! Now people were buying the $1.80 beer far more often than the premium $2.50 beer, which was originally the heavy favorite. As this second test clearly shows, sometimes a cheaper option isn’t the best way to appeal to more buyers, as your prices may currently be correct, and going any lower might simply encourage people to choose the middle option out of principal.

This study isn’t over yet, however, as the researchers tested the lineup of beers a 3rd time, now introducing a super-premium beer at $3.40. The results were as follows:

Test #3 — Standard beer + Premium beer + Super-premium beer

Excellent! As you can see here, this test was just the ticket—not only was the $3.40 price point acceptable and bought by patrons, through the use of anchoring the middle option again became desirable (many people will often buy the middle option just because), and it returned to it’s previous popularity and even improved its sales by 5%.

While the answer isn’t always to raise your prices, an excellent takeaway from this study is that you need to test multiple price points for your different types of customers, as you may be losing business simply because you don’t have the correct amount of options!

3.) Not Keeping Prices Stupidly Simple

This is one of the silliest studies on increasing conversions through pricing that I’ve ever found! According to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, researchers found that prices that contain more syllables (when spoken) seemed drastically higher to consumers. In other words, consumers evaluated these tongue-twister prices as higher even when they were the same.

Here’s a visual example—consider the selection between the following prices:

• $1,499.00
• $1,499
• $1499

They should have the same results, right? Wrong. According to the study, the top pricing structure performed the worst, while the bottom structure performed the best!

Despite the fact that these three prices are the same in value, the don’t appear to be the same to customers, who often make snap judgements when scanning prices. When extra syllables, commas, and decimals were added to the pricing, it felt more expensive than the simpler pricing.

The researchers note that this phenomenon occurred even when the prices were not stated out loud, meaning that an internal ‘monologue’ to oneself about the price was enough to trigger this effect.

So what does this mean for your business? In an ideal world, you will avoid all ‘unnecessary’ additions in your pricing structure, instead focusing on listing the simplest price you can.

4.) Creating Friction for Conservative Spenders

While I showed you above that it’s often a myth that you’ll lose all of your customers if you charge higher prices, truth be told, you do need to worry about conservative spenders as well.

Why so?

Well, according to neuroeconomics experts, the human brain is wired to “spend ’til it hurts”, and a recent study from the Wharton Business School has revealed that there are a huge chunk of buyers out there who have a lower tolerance for buying “pain” than most.

These people are labeled as ”tightwad customers”, and they aren’t as uncommon as you might think. In fact, here’s the breakdown (according to Carnegie Mellon University):

1. Tightwads (24%): These customers spend less on average before they hit their pain limits.
2. Unconflicted (60%): These are average spenders.
3. Spendthrifts (15%): These customers spend more on average before they hit their pain limits.

With nearly a quarter of your potential customers (unless you’re in a luxury industry) being conservative spenders, how can you better sell to them?

According to some interesting neuroimaging research, there are quite a few ways that you can easily improve your customer acquisition funnel by better appealing to these conservative spenders.

a.) Reduce multiple purchasing points with bundling: Many customers like bundled purchases, but the research has shown that conservative spenders simply love bundling, because it reduces the amount of “pain” by limiting the purchase to one transaction.

Think of it this way: you’d likely be more inclined to upgrade a new car purchase to the “LX” edition (which includes the works) than to buy the basic version of the car and individually purchase the leather seats upgrade, the built in navigation, the extended service plan… etc. etc.

That’s because each new upgrade acts as a new “buying pain point”, and since these are more of a concern to tightwads, bundling can get them to pay higher prices on packages that they would have normally never purchased individually.

b.) Reframe your product’s value: If I asked you to consider my $1000/year piece of software, you’d be a bit hesitant, right?

Right, that’s because $1000 is pretty expensive.

But what if I asked you about my $84/month software? You’d easily be able to tell whether or not the value provided each month was worth that price.

The kicker: those two price points actually end up being exactly the same over time!

Researchers have found that we are terrible at estimating value at larger numbers, but if things are broken down into smaller increments, we are able to see the value in potential purchases much more clearly.

For conservative spenders, seeing this potential value is quite difficult: they need prices (and lengths of time) split into smaller increments in order to properly gauge the value they are getting. Keep this in mind if you have a pricey product that lasts for quite some time, or if your recurring revenue source charges for long commitments up front.

5.) Not Trusting an Old Classic!

We’ve all seen it before—but does ending a price with the number 9 really have that big of an impact?

According to research from the journal of Quantitative Marketing and Economics, the answer is a resounding yes! In fact, prices ending in the number 9 were so effective that they were able to outsell even lower prices for the exact same products.

The study took a look at comparable price points for items like women’s clothing, using options such as $34 vs. $39, only to find that the higher $39 price shockingly outsold the cheaper price point by 24%.

So one has to ask… can anything outsell the legendary number 9? The results from the study show that sale prices (‘Was $60, now only $45!’) were able to beat out the number 9 in a majority of cases. The thing is, when ’9′ was introduced into sale prices, it outperformed them as well—by listing a discount price with the number 9, sales increased even over a less expensive price.

In laymen’s terms, if the following two options were put head-to-head:

1. “Normally costs $70, now on sale for $55!”
2. “Normally costs $70, now on sale for $59!”

…the bottom option would actually sell more, even though it is actually priced higher. Apparently marketers and entrepreneurs should avoid the number 9 at their own risk!

6.) Selling Money Over Time Spent

Given it’s position in the market as a bargain beer, why would a company like Miller Lite choose ‘It’s Miller Time!‘ as it’s slogan? Shouldn’t they be emphasizing their low prices?

According to research from Standford professor Jennifer Aaker, they should not, as that would be a disastrous pricing method to pursue. Her study was able to show that in a variety of instances, consumers could recall more positive memories with a product when they were asked to remember time spent with it rather than the money they may have saved.

According to Aaker:

Because a person’s experience with a product tends to foster feelings of personal connection with it, referring to time typically leads to more favorable attitudes—and to more purchases.

In additional research published by the Wharton Business School, Aaker and her colleagues were able to show that, for cheap items, the best way to evoke positive emotions about the product was to remind customers of the time they saved by investing in it or the time that they enjoyed with it. In other words, Miller Lite would rather you recall those hot summer evenings spent drinking cold beers with good friends, rather than getting you to think about ‘cheap beer.’

When you are selling products geared towards bargain pricing, it’s better to focus on these positive moments around time spent rather than trying to market to customers on your already recognized low prices. What value are customers getting out of your product? What sort of time are they saving or enjoying? Consider those questions when crafting your copy and advertising.

7.) Not Utilizing the Power of Contextual Pricing

Is there ever a time when one Budweiser is worth more than another?

(If only every blog post could have so many beer related examples!)

Although cold-hard logic would dictate that they are the same product and should never be priced differently, anyone who’s tried to buy a drink at a popular bar knows that not all beer is created equal.

In a Vanderbilt study published in the New York Times Magazine, researchers found that customers were willing to pay higher prices for the exact same type of beer when it was sold from an upscale hotel vs. a run-down grocery store. The lead researcher Richard Thaler found that consumers had little objections to the higher prices, as long as the context (the more prestigious hotel) was correct.

But what does this mean for you?

As it turns out, context for many goods outside of this beer example are not as clear. For instance, ‘consulting’ tends to be more expensive than ‘freelancing’, though they are both occur on a contract basis. A ‘multimedia online marketing course’ can fetch a higher price than a ‘video marketing guide’, all because of the power of context.

Think about how you can frame your offerings as full-featured solutions vs. another me-too product, and through context, you’ll be able to command higher price points by placing yourself in categories where people are willing to spend more money (without complaint).

Your Turn

Do you know someone who could benefit from seeing this pricing research? Be sure to share this post with them!

Last but not least, if you want even more information that combines marketing + academic research, be sure to download my free guide on 10 Ways to Convert More Customers (with Psychology), no charge.

Han deals with force users, droids and imperial fleets on a regular basis, yet he’s been gifted with nothing more than a quick wit, his fellow “nerfhearder” Chewie, and the Millennium Falcon (equivalent in today’s standards to a beat up Camero).

Despite the fact that every other main character in the original Star Wars trilogy is either uniquely gifted, the “chosen one”, or simply benefits from the small advantage of being able to control shit with their mind, Han still prevails as the most badass character in each film.

Here are some life lessons from Mr. Solo.

1.) Don’t let people tell you the odds.

Sometimes, the odds are going to be stacked against you.

Sometimes, you’ll have a 3720:1 chance of navigating an asteroid field, but you just gotta do it.

The “odds” should only stop you from from things you can’t influence (like obsessively playing lottery tickets), they shouldn’t be a dictator for the goals you wish to accomplish.

Take it from the inventor of the first computer:

“That’s the problem with a lot of people”, he continued, “they don’t try to do stuff that’s never been done before, so they never do anything, but if they try to do it, they find out there’s lots of things they can do that have never been done before.”

2.) Shoot first.

Are you really going to wait for Greedo to make the first move?

Life doesn’t begin “when you’re ready” because it’s going on all the time… like right now.

Don’t wait until tomorrow, don’t start when you feel comfortable, and don’t delay in going after what you want, because eventually, it’ll be too late.

3.) Don’t be afraid to say, “I know.”

Be confident. Walk around like you know what you’re doing, even when you doubt yourself (something that everyone does from time-to-time).

Still scared? Fake it until you make it: there’s no better way to be the person you want to be than by acting like it from the get go.

Don’t underestimate the importance of confidence, courage, and a genuine belief in yourself:

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

You’re not the person inside your head, and without the confidence to act, you’ll be too afraid to do anything.

4.) Things going bad? “Situation normal.”

Things go bad sometimes; keep your cool.

Your biggest accomplishments and best habits will take weeks, months and years to form, yet many can be ruined far more quickly.

In a behavioral study on dieting, researchers found that the biggest roadblock was the first time things went wrong: people are very susceptible to “abandoning ship” whenever something doesn’t go their way.

Don’t be like them.

At the same time, know when to cut your losses; sometimes it’s best to just shoot out the intercom and move on.

5.) Don’t let kids get cocky.

Most people doing something worth doing will run into “haters” at some point… it’s best to ignore them.

Sometimes though, you have to put people in their place.

Pick your battles, but understand that there are people out there who will take a mile if you give them an inch.

Don’t let em’ hold any sort of power over you.

6.) Go for the straight fight. No sneaking around.

Han can be persuaded to rely on “tricks” when the situation calls for it, but by and large he sticks to being a straight shooter.

You should too: in a modern society obsessed with “hacks” and shortcuts, we often end up missing the forest for the trees.

Tackle things head on first. You’ll often find that the simplest solution yields the greatest results.

7.) Fly casual.

Don’t get jittery, Luke. There are a lot of command ships… err, opportunities out there.

Take it easy from time-to-time.

Sometimes the best way to get what you want is keep it casual: over-thinking situations and getting burned out from stress do more to hinder you than to push you forward.

Last but not least…

If there’s one last lesson Han has taught me that’s a bit transcendent of the other advice, it would be this…

Always come back for the people you care about.

Or as Han would say…

That’s two you owe me, junior.

Most people recognize this, but they implement this strategy so horribly wrong that it’s almost too painful to watch (almost, I still like to point and laugh).

They turn their business blog into a vendetta machine, trying to stir up controversy by calling out individuals and businesses.

That strategy is dumb because it puts you on a fast-track for being viewed as an attention grubbing sleazebag who lacks professionalism and the ability to keep their mouth shut.

And yet, I still LOVE creating controversial content… so how can we have our cake and eat it too?

Today, you’re going to see some academic research and a foolproof strategy to do just that!

Let’s dig in…

Your Blog is NOT Bulletproof (Like the News)

If you are doing content strategy for your startup, you need to recognize that you do not have the “bulletproof” power that the major media outlets do.

The news can call people out left and right.

The news can talk about highly controversial topics like politics, religion, and tragedies

Your startup blog cannot, and should not bother with these topics of “high” controversy.

This should be obvious to many, but when I say “controversial content,” many people confuse it with the things that news sites publish.

There is a much more specific definition that applies to business blogging, and even some research from Wharton that shows us that it’s this kind of “low” level controversy that we should pursue in the first place!

The “Toilet Paper” Strategy for Creating Controversy

While I’ve come across some strange scientific research about toilet paper usage (I’m not even joking), there is one issue that has far more to do with the psychology of arguing over controversy that applies perfectly to creating the kind of content that gets shared.

I want you to take a look at the image below.

Commit it to memory!

Apparently, this is a hotly debated issue in bathrooms across the globe!

Don’t believe me? Check out the 6,000+ article (with multiple sources) on Wikipedia about “toilet paper orientation”, in particular, this gem right here:

Did a regular columnist who’s been publishing for decades just say that that the toilet paper orientation argument was the most controversial thing she’s published?

Yup.

Why does this type of argument work so well?

There is actually some really fascinating research on the matter…

According to research from Wharton Business School on When, Why, and How Controversy Causes Conversation, it turns out that people tend to avoid discussing things of “high” controversy in many instances because it can make situations and conversations become uncomfortable:

“Data shows that controversy increases likelihood of discussion at low levels, but beyond a moderate level of controversy, additional controversy actually decreases likelihood of discussion.”

In other words, people have no problem arguing about toilet paper issues, but will shy away from controversy that crosses the social line (into topics of discussion that only the news can successfully cover).

That’s why an issue like toilet paper orientation works so well — it’s a topic everyone can relate too, it creates division in two very distinct camps, and it is an argument of “low” controversy, in that nobody’s feelings can get truly hurt over the issue.

If you’ve ever wondered why people love to argue about dumb stuff, well now you know.

But how can you use this sort of argument to your advantage?

Read below and we’ll dig into the specifics…

What Things are Actually Controversial?

If you are going to create a “toilet paper argument” to create controversy on your blog, you are going to need more information than “use low controversy” and to create division.

Fortunately, there are a few good strategies for starting a popular debate on your site.

Any debate that takes a “This vs. That” stance on highly discussed things, people, or ideas can create the sort of argument and controversy that you are looking for, but there has also been some interesting research that shows people care deeply about their 3B’s…

1. Behavior
2. Belonging
3. Beliefs

So, if you create division within someone’s behavior, beliefs, or feeling of belonging, they will seek to either confirm your stance or disprove your stance, but either one is good for you because it creates buzz.

This is why I noted in the above section to get it into your head that your blog is not bulletproof… because at face value, these 3B’s might inspire you to start attacking deeply seeded beliefs of behavior that would cause outrage at your brand rather than a lively debate.

Let’s take a look at a few examples so you know exactly how to execute (and avoid massive backlash).

Example #1 — Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers

This was a post I did on the Help Scout blog, and after being published, it hit the front page of HackerNews and did about 9,000 unique views in the first 12 hours.

What sort of controversy did I stir up?

Well, in the business world, there is a pretty big debate around customer feedback for innovation, or “sheltered” innovation. The argument that many make (including Steve Jobs) is that customers don’t often know what they want, and when asked, they’ll just ask for improved versions of what’s already out there (ex: Better CD players rather than the iPod).

The other side views customer feedback as essential to innovation, with customers providing insights about your product that would be impossible to gain without their feedback.

It’s a debate that people care about, but that won’t offend anyone.

No surprise then, when the post started picking up steam on social media, with most people sharing it with commentary (“I agree with this wholeheartedly” or “This is getting things wrong…”).

The comments left were multiple paragraphs long, with some strong opinions being shared from both sides.

To make things even BETTER, this post incorporated Steve Jobs, rather than a bland “This vs. That” scenario. Instead of just arguing about sheltered innovation and customer inspired innvoation, I took the opinion of Steve Jobs (and his many quotes on the matter) and framed the post as Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers.

Bonus takeaway: If you are able, be sure to “piggyback” on another popular topic, individual, or fad so you can gain extra exposure on the coattails of something that people already tend to talk about.

Example #2 — What Multitasking Does to Our Brains

The Buffer blog has a wider reach than us, so this post really took off, and even got a Lifehacker feature!

As you can probably guess, this post takes shots at a very common form of Behavior, but it turns things up a notch with a technique I love…

Instead of Leo making the argument against multitasking on his own, he instead serves as the “messenger” (ie, ‘Don’t kill the messenger!’), citing data and research and simply presenting the evidence.

Using research or a credible source as a shield allows you to deflect the debate away from a ‘Them vs. You’ battle into a ‘Them vs. the Data,’ you should definitely still take a side, but remember that an argument with relevant sources can go much farther (in terms of reach and controversy) than a an argument made purely on experience.

Consider the OKCupid article Gay Sex vs. Straight Sex, it takes a really risky dive into behavior, but because of the presentation of statistical information, it did far more good for OKCupid than bad.

Not that your next article needs to be so scandalous, I just want to reiterate how important data and other sources can be when creating a controversial argument!

Your Homework…

What’s a “toilet paper argument” that could stir up debate within YOUR industry?

Thanks for reading, please share this post if you enjoyed it.

One of my favorite books for covering the basics of business and entrepreneurship is definitely The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman.

In it, Kaufman recommends a large variety of other works to complement the basic information covered in his broad business book.

I personally think that education goes far beyond the classroom, and good books are the best place to start.

With definite inspiration from Kaufman’s list, I present to you the best books for entrepreneurs, a constantly changing list that covers all of the major aspects of running a business.

Put some of these are your “to read” list and get cracking!

—

Business Creation

• Go It Alone by Bruce Judson
• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
• The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
• The Knack by Norm Brodsky & Bo Burlingham
• Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim
• Bankable Business Plans by Edward Rogoff

Value-Creation & Testing

• Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
• The New Business Road Test by John Mullins
• How to Make Millions with Your Ideas by Dan Kennedy

Marketing

• All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin
• Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout
• Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham

Sales

• The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy
• Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff
• The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes
• Value-Based Fees by Alan Weiss
• SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham

Value-Delivery

• Indispensable by Joe Calloway
• The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu Goldratt

Finance & Accounting

• Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs by Karen Berman and Joe Knight
• Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits by Greg Crabtree
• The 1% Windfall by Rafi Mohammed
• Accounting Made Simple by Mike Piper
• How to Read a Financial Report by John A. Tracy
• Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson

Psychology & The Human Mind

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
• The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson
• The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
• Brainfluence by Roger Dooley
• Brain Rules by John Medina
• Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices by Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria

Productivity & Effectiveness

• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz
• Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst
• 10 Days to Faster Reading by Abby Marks-Beale

Problem Solving

• The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch
• Accidental Genius by Mark Levy
• Learning from the Future by Liam Fahey & Robert Randall

Behavior & Decision-Making

• The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
• The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz
• Re-Create Your Life by Morty Lefkoe
• Self-Directed Behavior by David L. Watson & Roland G. Tharp
• Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions by Gary Klein
• Smart Choices by John S. Hammond et al

Communication

• On Writing by Stephen King
• Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds
• Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
• The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly
• Show Me The Numbers by Stephen Few

Negotiation

• Bargaining For Advantage by G. Richard Shell
• 3-D Negotiation by David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius
• The Partnership Charter by David Gage

Management

• First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman
• 12: The Elements of Great Managing by Rodd Wagner & James Harter
• Growing Great Employees by Erika Andersen
• The Essential Drucker by Peter F. Drucker

Leadership

• Tribes by Seth Godin
• Total Leadership by Stewart Friedman
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
• The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan by George Bradt et al
• The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig

Project Management

• Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun
• Results Without Authority by Tom Kendrick

Systems

• Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
• Work the System by Sam Carpenter

Analysis & Statistics

• Turning Numbers Into Knowledge by Jonathan Koomey
• Marketing Metrics by Paul W. Farris et al
• The Economist Numbers Guide by Richard Stuteley
• Thinking Statistically by Uri Bram
• How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff

Corporate Skills

• The Unwritten Laws of Business by W.J. King
• The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
• The Simplicity Survival Handbook by Bill Jensen
• Hire With Your Head by Lou Adler

Corporate Strategy

• Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies by Nikos Mourkogiannis
• Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter
• Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
• Seeing What’s Next by Clayton M. Christensen et al

Creativity & Innovation

• The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
• Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker

Design

• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
• Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell et al

Consulting

• Getting Started in Consulting by Alan Weiss
• Secrets of Consulting by Gerald M. Weinberg

Personal Finance

• Your Money or Your Life by Joel Dominguez & Vicki Robin
• The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley & William Danko
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
• Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne

Personal Growth

• Lead the Field by Earl Nightingale
• The Art of Exceptional Living by Jim Rohn
• A Guide to the Good Life by William Braxton Irvine

Please share this list if you enjoyed it!

It’s a SaaS startup called Help Scout, and it provides easier an easy help desk/email support solution for small business owners.

The majority of the team currently resides in Boston with the TechStars community. You can read more about all that in this TechCrunch converage.

My past experience also includes contract work for these great startup teams:

• Bidsketch
• Crazy Egg
• BufferApp
• Unbounce

So, throughout this guide I’ll try to focus on the basics, as this was primarily made for those startup Redditors who have not yet engaged in content marketing very much… consider it a ‘beginner’s guide’ more than an advanced analysis.

1.) What is Content Marketing?

“Content marketing means creating and sharing informative, valuable, and free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.”

The type of content you share needs to be closely related to what you sell; in other words, you’re educating people so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you.

The primary goal with content marketing is not typically to make a direct sale (although it happens), it is to obtain permission to deliver content over an extended period of time, preferably through email (again, more on this later).

The secondary goal is to become a “thought leader” (buzzword, but I’ll explain) in your industry. The benefits of this is that your content gets you on the radar of larger publications, who will then link to you naturally.

When you are heading the charge in a certain field through content, you become a natural choice to link to in the mind of journalists and larger bloggers, and these links can obviously result in real revenue from new customers.

2.) Why Engage in Content Marketing?

People are naturally more inclined to shared content, after all, original content is what drives the Internet. Many potential consumers are looking for information that solves a problem, not an immediate sales pitch. The trust, credibility, and authority that content marketing creates knocks down sales resistance, all while providing a baseline introduction to the benefits of a particular product or service.

Content marketing solves the Know, Like and Trust problems in the following ways:

Know: People are often hesitant to do business with a company they’ve come across for the first time. Getting on their radar with free content that they are likely to come across on the web is a great way to give people a sense to “know” what your business is all about.

Like: Similarly, if this content is valuable, people will begin to like your business more. Reciprocity is a powerful force, and free content begins the process instantly.

Trust: After time (and preferably an email opt-in), those who consume your content will likely buy from you. Those who have already bought from you will trust you enough to jump at your latest releases or upgrades. Your business needs to keep providing utility outside of content of course, but getting to know your customers and providing them with valuable information can go a long way in getting people to trust what you put out.

3.) Necessary Tools (Before You Begin)

Content marketing starts with having a company blog, so you’ll need some sort of software that lets you create a blog in addition to your company’s homepage/salespage.

I personally recommend using a self-hosted WordPress blog (that’s WordPress.org) along with some solid WordPress hosting, my current favorite being WP Engine.

If your team doesn’t have a designer and you are using WordPress, I’d advise checking out r/WordPress for “theme” recommendations (I like StudioPress and WooThemes) or hire someone to whip up a simple design for you (I’ll go over conversion advice in a minute).

The other big tool that you’ll need is an email newsletter software. You MUST have this, it is essential for the content marketing process.

People are much more likely to buy via email than over social networks, it’s a much more private tool that is typically used to get stuff done, rather than check out articles and pictures from your friend’s BBQ. Focus on email above all else.

My two favorite offerings in this space are AWeber and MailChimp. Either one is fine, just know that MailChimp does not allow affiliate links in any form (on site or in your newsletter).

That’s honestly it! :) There are obviously some other much more advanced tools to utilize (I love using VisualWebsiteOptimizer, HubSpot, SEOmoz suite, etc.), but I know that information overload can be paralyzing, so keep it simple at first!

The only other tools that you should familiarize yourself with are the Google Keyword Tool and Google Analytics.

I’ll say this one more time just to be sure: do NOT start your startup’s blog without a newsletter in place, trust me.

4.) Defining Your Content Strategy

Okay, finally time to get into the good stuff!

So, the kind of content that you create needs to relate to your industry in a general sense, that’s a given.

As an example, over on the Mint blog, they talk about personal finance since that’s what the Mint software is related too. On the Help Scout blog, we talk about customer service, because we are an email support app. On places like SEOmoz, they talk about (surprise!) SEO.

Your topic needs to be broad enough that enough people will find it interesting. While having a variety of competitor’s may seem like a bad thing, it’s actually a good sign that you are getting near a popular topic: if a ton of blogs cover your topic, that means that there is a real interest in it, and that a lot of sites will be able to link to you.

It’s better to open a pizza place with a ton of competition than an asparagus restaurant with none, because although the asparagus restaurant is entirely unique, there is no demand for it.

More importantly, your content needs to define your offering and have a small, unique “twist” that the competitors lack.

The best way to do this is to pick a popular topic related to your product, and then add your unique twist on top. If you look at my site Sparring Mind, you’ll notice it’s all about lifehacks + persuasion, but I added the “twist” of featuring behavioral psychology research, and this helps it stand out from the competition.

Having this unique twist is INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT in creating a startup blog that is “citable”, as people will continue to refer and link to your site as the go-to place for a unique style of content. You can also stand-out by HOW you create content, such as focusing on videos if most people in your space write articles.

Your content strategy should also consist of “wheat-bread” content and “white-bread” content (discussed this with the HubSpot inbound marketing team, they swear by it).

Your wheat-bread content is going to be the in-depth stuff in your industry, when applicable. This isn’t going to be list post content, it’s going to dive in deeply into something in your industry, and really show readers that you know your stuff.

An example of this for us would be this post on customer loyalty programs. It contains a lot of research, isn’t easy to browse, and was made for our more informed reader.

White-bread content is the “50 Ways to ____” kind of content. Consider it BuzzFeed style content that is in your industry: it’s bite-sized, snackable content that gets a lot of social shares. Generally, it should target a good search term as well for SEO purposes.

An example of this for us would be this post on companies with great customer service. It did pretty well with shares and even helped us rank for ‘exceptional customer service’.

The other thing I’d recommend you implement into your content strategy is to create content for specific features that you think you can get. For instance, I’ve published certain posts that I KNEW would get featured on other sites because it was something that they’d love and would either link to or syndicate.

An example is this post that I wrote on how social media plays a role in customer service + sales. It didn’t do amazing for us, but it was syndicated on a MUCH bigger blog, you can see that post here.

I knew it would be picked up by somebody in the social media space, so I made it specifically for them.

5.) Cool Companies Who Don’t Suck at Content Marketing

Let this serve as a brief intermission and a great section to come back to for inspiration.

Here are a few cool startups who do content really well…

—

OKCupid (topic of online dating) — Now sold to Match.com, the OKCupid blog is THE shining example of using content to it’s maximum potential.

Instead of focusing on a boring topic like “dating tips”, the team analyzed extensive sets of data from their actual users to come up with highly interesting, incredibly detailed and notoriously controversial articles such as:

• Gay Sex vs. Straight Sex
• How Your Race Affects the Dating Messages You Get
• The Mathematics of Beauty

Seriously, acquaint yourself with their best posts (and overall content strategy) to get a fantastic glimpse of how this content thing is done.

Some of their top posts were smash hits, saturating the internet like few articles are able to, and were a primary reason that the company was able to grow so fast.

The team picked a highly popular topic related to their product (dating), chose an amazing unique twist (using data to construct dating advice), and did a stellar job of writing enticing headlines and highly engaging content.

—

iDoneThis (topic of productivity) — I know that the OKCupid example was going to seem a bit intimidating, given that company’s success, so my next example comes from a team who’s just getting started with content but who are also KILLING IT with their content strategy.

The iDoneThis software helps keep track of what you and your team members have… well, done throughout the day, and as such, they focused their content angle on productivity.

The thing they did differently was a quality + unique twist angle (sounds familiar by now, doesn’t it?) Instead of boring topics like “5 Dumbass Productivity Tips You’ll Forget by Tomorrow”, the team puts out great posts that deal with case studies that are actually unique and research that shakes up the typical productivity babble:

• Why Energy Management is the Key to a More Productive Day
• Peter Thiel’s Unorthodox Management Philosophy of Extreme Focus
• Jeff Bezo’s Peculiar Tool for Better Self-Management

Great stuff from a relatively young team, showing that you don’t need 10,000 customers who attempt a content strategy as grand as the OKCupid guys.

In fact, that only thing the iDoneThis team does wrong (in my opinion) is that they use Tumblr instead of WordPress, but that’s just my personal preference.

—

Shopify (topic of eCommerce) — Shopify is recognized as an amazing product, and yet they still put their heart and soul into creating great content (spearheaded by Mark Hayes, who definitely knows what he is doing).

Anything that has to do with selling things online is usually very susceptible to the “online biz in a box” scam crowd, so Shopify took the opposite approach and decided to create astounding content surrounding eCommerce space & online selling without all nonsense.

The articles always address legitimate concerns that REAL online sellers have, and are always quite in depth.

• 9 eCommerce Conversion Elements You Need to Test
• Using Behavioral Economics, Psychology, and Neuroeconomics to Maximize Sales
• Stop Obsessing Over Revenue: 3 Proven Strategies for Increasing Profitability

Those are 3 of my random favorites, but here are a few other great mentions…

BufferApp / KISSmetrics / AWeber / Wistia / Pingdom / Grasshopper / SEOmoz / Bidsketch / Buzzstream / MailChimp

One honorable mention: I didn’t mention this guy (that you’ve probably all heard of) because he doesn’t sell software anymore, but you can learn a TON about content marketing from Matthew Inman, creator of TheOatmeal.com

What you may not know was that Matt was a co-founder of SEOmoz and Mingle2, and a marketing consultant before that.

Despite his great sense of humor, he is very versed in online marketing knowledge (sensei level) and knows how to create content that the internet loves. Watch what he does closely, you can learn a lot more from him than grammar lessons and why you should be punching dolphins in the mouth.

6.) Content Funnel (Part 1: Getting Features)

The simplest way that I can explain content marketing “in a nutshell” is through what I like to call the Content Funnel.

Simply enough, it works as a 3-step process:

• Incoming links & mentions
• On-site content (your blog)
• The newsletter

Since email marketing is your best bet for creating more sales (and is highly scalable), that is the end-goal of all of your content efforts. The bigger the list, the better.

While getting links & traffic is a topic covered to death and is talked about CONSTANTLY in this space, I wanted to give a quick overview on some of the best ways to get mentions back to your site.

A.) On-site content

This is actually the second phase of the content funnel, but it’s the primary way you’ll be getting links once your startup’s blog reaches a decent size (X,000 email subscribers).

Simply put, the content you create on your company blog will generate links as people mention your content in their own articles.

That’s why you need to expend plenty of time creating “citable” content that people in your space can easily reference (think: Ultimate Guides, Beginner’s Guide to [blank], etc.)

B.) Guest blogging

Guest blogging just means writing an article for someone else’s popular (preferably) blog.

These guest posts result in more exposure, links, and subscribers for your own startup’s blog because you should be able to score a “byline” at the end of the post that let’s you pitch your software/product/service etc.

They key with guest posting is to pick quality blogs that have a big audience that may be interested in what you are offering. Just remember that audience size does not predict results: it’s more about the quality/reach of your individual post, and how well the audience reacts to your post (plus the engagement of the audience).

For instance, we’ve had posts with thousands of shares underperform posts with only a few hundred shares.

Remember to track these features to see which sites work well for your startup, and try to get featured there often.

C.) Syndication / interviews / collaborations

The absolute BEST way to get links, as it’s far more scalable than guest blogging.

I happen to be syndicated with Lifehacker for my site Sparring Mind, which means that the contributions editor checks out my new posts, and if they are a match with the Lifehacker audience, she’ll republish them (example).

If you can pick up some sort of syndication with a larger blog, you are in the money.

Another thing you can do is collaborate with another popular site via a joint piece of content (a video) or through an interview (podcast or video style).

These usually take 30 minutes – 1 hour, and are usually done on the spot: much easier to do than spending 2-3 hours per guest post.

You’ve likely seen places like Mixergy do this full time, but many smaller sites would love to interview you about your product if you can provide some value to their audience… ALWAYS be on the lookout to do so. It’s also great because interviews make you look more knowledgeable.

Your end-goal here should be to land features on big-time publications: FastCompany, Forbes, TechCrunch, Gawker sites, etc.

Those sites send truckloads of traffic, so try to leverage a story and email appropriate journalists to get yourself featured.

7.) Content Funnel (Part 2: Conversion Optimization)

Getting your startup blog past that initial “hump” is pretty tough, you’ll find it a lot harder to hit your first 2,500 subscribers than your first 10,000 (starting from scratch is the hardest stage of all).

Once you’ve got a decent flow of visitors coming in (minimum 100 uniques/day), it’s time to really start focusing on conversion optimization.

There are a lot of things to optimization both on your homepage and your blog page, but today we are going to focus on the blog only, and for this guide, only on how you can optimization for more email subscribers.

To keep things simple, I’ll break it down in 3 step again…

A.) De-cluttering is your #1 priority

If you take anything away from this section on blog conversion rates, let it be this: clutter kills conversions!

Drop everything except for the stuff you ABSOLUTELY want customers to interact with/see.

Your sidebar is typically the area where this sort of stuff will get out of hand, here’s what I recommend you include there (in order):

• Sign-up form for your newsletter
• Your most preferred social media profile
• Resources
• Popular posts
• Offer for your product

As a small startup blog, you don’t need to plug all of your social profiles, you don’t need categories or other garbage that nobody will ever click on (trust me).

KISS: keep it simple, stupid.

B.) Optimize email sign-up forms

One of the easiest (and most overlooked) things that you can do to increase newsletter sign-ups is to put the dang opt-in forms in the right place!

I go over this topic in my post for AWeber but I’ll give the breakdown below.

a.) Feature box / pop-up form

I know, “nobody” likes pop-up forms, but the data is pretty solid and it shows that they work and that most people will NOT complain about them (read more).

If you’re not down with a pop-up form, try a “feature box” instead, which is a large sign-up box that showcases what your startup’s blog is about, and why people should sign up.

You can find one at Sparring Mind as an example.

b. Top of the sidebar

Mentioned above, you should have an email sign-up form at the top-right (or top-left) of your sidebar, and make sure it’s above the fold.

This area attracts a lot of eye movement, and it’s prime real estate that should be used to build your newsletter.

c. Post footer

If someone takes the time to make it to the bottom of your article, you can pretty much GUARANTEE that they liked the post, or at least they are highly engaged with the post.

Since they are now done, this is the perfect spot to place a “What’s next?” opportunity, and since your newsletter is what you care about, a subtle opt-in form will work really well here.

d. A dedicated newsletter / freebie page

Ah, “landing pages”, the scourge of the internet. Fortunately, you can make them work honestly, not like those scam-infested, yellow highlighter POS pages that snake oil salesman use.

Really all you need is a dedicated newsletter page that you should frame like a landing page, that is, no sidebars or distractions. See a great example of this here.

This page can be your about page, a freebie page (a download), or just a basic newsletter sign-up page, just make sure you have one, and feature it prominently on your blog in some way.

C.) Resources galore

This part is so important that I decided it deserves it’s own section.

Before you read further, check out our resource page as an example (if you aren’t sure what a typical one looks like).

A “resource” is a free piece of content on something relating to your space and that your prospective customers might enjoy.

It’s entirely free, and can either be downloaded with an opt-in or without one. I recommend you at least make a few resources opt-in only and feature them on your blog sidebar, they work INCREDIBLY well and I can’t help but recommend them.

Here’s a resource of ours, paired with an infographic.

That download/opt-in box? It’s helped generated hundreds of new newsletter sign-ups, and will likely result in 1,000+ new subscribers in the next week or so.

Take the time to craft a well-designed resource on a topic relating to your product and you’ll likely find it replaying you back 10-fold.

8.) SEO + other inbound channels

Okay, so this is where this guide could get really out of hand, because these topics could be covered forever, so I’ll just give the briefest of overviews for this stuff.

First, let’s start with other inbound “channels”, or places to create content (besides your blog and guest posting) to generate more traffic.

A.) Inbound marketing channels

a.) YouTube

I’ll be honest, video is where it’s at right now, and that’s because videos can be easily embedded and are REALLY hard to do well, that’s why so few startups engage in this form of content.

YouTube can drive a ton of traffic if done well though. One great example is this Grasshopper video, which is a spoof of the formerly viral Shit [Blank] People Say trend.

If you can’t do video well, there’s always the possibility of teaming up with folks who can, and who you can offer something.

For instance, I’m helped to write a new video for ASAPScience, who handled the production part of the video, and the results were fantastic:

b.) SlideShare

If your startup is in the B2B space, you must try out SlideShare, it’s done wonders for us.

Check out this image of how well it’s performed vs. Twitter & Facebook.

Even with far less visitors, SlideShare outperforms on visitor quality by a large margin.

c. iTunes

Podcasting can take you a long way if you manage to hit the top of your section in iTunes for a few days.

With a decent sized email list (1000 or more), that shouldn’t be a huge problem.

I love how the 37signals guys do their podcasting, it’s a great example of a podcast that performs well and is highly interesting.

B.) Demystifying SEO

For all things SEO related, I recommend heading over to SEOmoz, starting with their Beginner’s Guide to SEO if you know nothing about the topic.

As stated, this is just going to be a really basic take to get you started.

In essence, your SEO strategy should target 3 levels of “keywords” (things people type into search engines) that vary by difficulty:

• Head keyword (your homepage)
• Body keyword (your resource pages)
• Tail keywords (your blog posts & individual pages)

Your head keyword, simply put, is what you want to rank for on your homepage. For Help Scout, we’d prefer to show up for things like “help desk software”, so I’ll occasionally link to us with that anchor text in order to help our rankings. We also include that term in our home page’s title tag.

For body keywords, you want to create a great resource page that digs into a topic that your business is all about. These are a big more difficult to describe, but you can check out this great example by Copyblogger.

They obviously want to rank for the actual term “content marketing”, so they made a resource page to target this keyword (since it’s quite difficult) that includes links to all of their best posts on the topic, a free resource to download, and a killer design. You don’t have to go all out like this page, but resource pages like this are AMAZING ways to rank for tougher terms.

The last type of keyword to target are the tail keywords, sometimes referred to as the “long tail”. These will be easier keywords to grab, but will result in far fewer search traffic. They are best left for individual blog posts and certain pages that you wish to appear in search.

For instance, this post of ours is going after the term ‘exceptional customer service’, because we wanted to write about it and it’s better to adjust the language to pick up a good keyword ranking if you can.

What I mean is, don’t write for search engines, write for people, but for each blog post, do a little bit of research in the Google Keyword Tool afterwards to try to pick up a decent keyword as well.

For instance, I could have titled the post “astounding customer service”, but “exceptional” had more searches, so I adjusted (with no loss of quality).

Wrap-up

So, that’s a wrap for this guide for r/startups, hope you all enjoyed it!

I’m definitely down for answering any questions you might have, or if you’d rather talk about something more in-depth, you can contact me here: http://www.sparringmind.com/contact/

Also, if you think of anything that I should quickly add to the guide, I’d be glad to make some edits!

Fin.

Thanks for reading, please share this post if you enjoyed it.

Bottom line.

…but I can’t just say that and not offer up the proof!

Below, I’m going to show you why building your email list/newsletter is far-and-away a better use of your time vs. focusing on your social media profiles, and I’m then going to get into the most in-depth post on building a list from a blog.

Let’s jump in!

Why List Building > Social Media Marketing

Don’t get me wrong, social media is a great traffic source for your blog… when other people are sharing your content.

You however, don’t need a huge social media presence to benefit from it, in the same way Seth Godin gets 1000+ tweets per article, yet he doesn’t even use Twitter.

What you should be focusing on is email, and there are a few reasons why…

1.) More people use email than social networks

According to a 2012 study by Iposos, email use still beats out social media by at least 85% vs. 62%.

Young people still use their email frequently despite this belief that every twenty-something is shooting Facebook and Twitter straight into their brains.

2.) You’re competing with FUN on social networks

People go to places like Facebook to check out pictures and status updates from their friends and family.

Although many professionals will use social media to get pertinent updates, everybody uses their email for personal + business information.

Think of it this way: You post a Facebook update during the summertime… do you think people would rather click on that over BBQ + bikini photos? I think you know the answer to that. ;)

3.) People guard their email, engagement is much stronger

Take a look at this screenshot from my AWeber account for my last couple of broadcasts:

For emphasis, here’s a bigger design-y version…

That means nearly 60% of people opened my email, and over 31% clicked on the link that was included!

Why that’s important: Compared to the average 1.64% click-through rate (as revealed by this study), you can see why social media is a crapshoot for building a thriving audience online… you could never dream in a million years of approaching a 30% CTR on Twitter!

Here’s a relevant example — back when my list for Sparring Mind was only around 3000, I also happened to have around 3500 Twitter followers. Upon sending out my new post, I found that my newsletter had brought in nearly 800 visitors… more than my Twitter profile sent (barely over 30) and all of my other social media profiles combined.

It’s not just me though, so much data has been published that shows email marketing crushes just about every other channel for value on the dollar…

I’d argue that only organic search can really compare to those numbers, and great search rankings are powered by a newsletter that sends people directly to your new content!

Convinced? Good!

Now let’s get in to how you can build your email list. :)

Step 1 — The 5 Best Places for Opt-in Forms

A large majority of your newsletter will be signing up via your blog and your resource downloads (more on those later).

That said, simply placing opt-in forms at the best places on your blog can help you tremendously increase sign-ups and subscribers with little extra effort.

Here are the 5 places you must place opt-in forms on your blog…

1.) Feature Box or Pop-up

I know a lot of people shuddered at the thought of a pop-up, but some case studies show that they are as effective as ever, and probably don’t annoy your readers as much as you think.

That said, you should definitely give the Feature Box a whirl if you are hesitant to use a pop-up, I use one on Sparring Mind and it is the single best place for email sign-ups on my homepage:

Essentially, a feature box is a large… well, box that sits above your content either site-wide or just on your homepage (it was largely made popular by sites like SocialTriggers and the DIYThemes blog).

The Feature Box works extremely well for the following reasons…

• It describes what your site is about: A good feature box will give a 10-second pitch of exactly what your site is about, meaning people won’t have to look at your navigation or even your content to decide if your blog is right for them.
  
• It’s eye-catching without being annoying: There’s no pop-over here, since the Feature Box is there when your site loads, it will grab a reader’s attention first thing, and if they don’t like what they see then they can easily scroll down.
• You can pitch the benefits of your newsletter: Other than having a dedicated newsletter page, few othe places on your blog will give you as much room to “pitch” the benefits of joining your newsletter, and none of those options are available on your blog’s homepage.

Conversions increased big time when finally got aroudn to adding a feature box, so be sure you at least test this option on your blog’s homepage, it is very likely that you will be glad you did.

2.) The Top of the Sidebar

The “classic” place to put a newsletter, but it’s been that way because this position works.

Not only does this piece of real-estate on your site typically sit above the fold (that way it can be seen immediately), but there’s also the issue of browsers being used to seeing opt-in forms here.

Have you ever seen a site with really bad top-level navigation?

…the culprit is usually that it is out of place.

The same thing applies to this top of the sidebar opt-in: people expect it to be there!

3.) The Bottom of Articles (Post Footer)

I tend to write really long articles, so I know if you make it to the bottom of one of mine, it’s very likely that you enjoyed it.

Even if your posts aren’t all that long though, you have to understand that if someone makes it to the bottom, they were at least captivated in some way.

That’s why the perfect way to end each and every article on your site is with an opt-in form.

Sure, they don’t get a ton of action when you look at your stats, but it’s a matter of convenience + common sense in allowing people who just read something from you and who want to sign up the ease of doing so right at the end.

Let alone the fact that when we reach the end of text content, our next though is, “What do I do next?”

Give them your most desired option!

4.) Your About Page

A strategy that was definitely popularized by Copyblogger, placing a opt-in form on your about page is one of the smartest things you can do if you include a fully featured look at the man/woman behind the blog.

That’s because if you open up your analytics, you’ll see that your about page is likely one of the most popular places on your site.

The problem is that most people make their about page, well… all about them!

Most people want to know what you can do for them, so you should put that first along with an opt-in form.

Next, you need to justify that you are worthy of being listened too, so this section should include some notable accomplishments and features… followed by another opt-in form!

Last, you should finally get to you, giving your backstory and how you came to start doing what you do.

While this structure may seem aggressive, I promise you that it has been tested by me and plenty others and will turn your about page into a conversion machine.

5.) A Dedicated Newsletter Page

Seems pointless after all of these other opt-in locations, but trust me, you want to have a dedicated page for people to simply sign-up.

The copy on this page can be pretty basic, just include a few simple reasons why your newsletter is worth joining.

What is this page really about then?

This page is useful to have because you can link to it — from guest posts/features, from your own articles, from graphics & visuals… have a simple place to access your newsletter (i.e., www.example.com/newsletter) is a must if you want to keep things simple when you are referring to where people can directly sign-up.

Here’s an example via my newsletter page.

Step 2 — Create Resource Pages

While pages like your newsletter sign-up page are outright “landing” pages, there is another powerful type of page that must have if you are looking to build your list.

These are called resource pages and while they operate similarly to traditional landing pages (in that they are distraction free/single column) there are a few other requirements to maximize their effectiveness.

1.) The page should address an important topic on your blog

The first requirement of a resource page is that it needs to address an important topic that commonly appears on your blog.

Since Copyblogger does these pages very well, let’s take a look at one of their examples…

Since Copyblogger is all about online marketing, having a resource page dedicated to a very important subject (landing pages) is a very smart thing to do.

It gives people a “starting point” if they are specifically interested on the topic of landing pages, it lets passerbys know that Copyblogger talks regularly about that subject, and it allows the Copyblogger editorial team to bring new life to some of the best content on the site that deals with landing pages.

Speaking of which…

2.) The page should link to 3-10 pieces of your best content (on the subject)

Categories are a crappy way to allow people to find your best content, because they put things in chronological order rather than letting you put your best foot forward (I only use categories in WordPress for my own organization).

Resource pages, however, are going to be prominently featured on your site, will be visited often by people who want more on the topic, and give you the advantage of putting whatever posts fit best on that page.

If you scroll down on that Copyblogger page, you’ll find they give you 9 “getting started” articles that represent the best of what’s available on landing page information:

Now interested readers can really get to the good stuff on your site about a topic that they enjoy (a win for both of you).

But wait a minute, what’s this have to do with list building?

3.) An opt-in box to get more info

Now that you’ve established that this is an important topic on your site, have showcased your best pieces of content on that same topic, and peaked your readers interest, it’s time to leverage the opportunity to build your email list.

This is why the final thing on your resource hub should be an email opt-in form, letting people know they can get updated on this kind of content in the future… for free.

Here’s how Copyblogger closes their resource pages:

Trust me, these pages work wonders and can see extremely high conversions rates for people who hit them!

As an added bonus: Since you can link to these pages aggressively from guest posts and other features, and since they serve as a “content hub” on a popular topic within your industry, these pages often rank very well in search engines.

Copyblogger ranks on the first page of Google for things like “content marketing,” “internet marketing,” “copywriting,” and yes, “landing pages” all from using this exact style of resource page.

Now you can do it to!

3 Creative Ways to Increase Newsletter Conversions

It’s good to constantly test your site once you’ve reached a reasonable amount of daily traffic (before this point, you’re wasting your time with conversion tests, go out and get more traffic!).

For those of you that are already bringing at least 500 visitors a day, there are a few ways you can keep your conversion rates from plateauing.

I’ve outlined my 9 favorite techniques below…

1.) Create a “toolbox” for current & future subscribers

We’ve all heard of the “freebie download” to entice people to subscriber, but you can’t get extraordinary results if you do things like everybody else.

Instead, why not create a subscriber toolbox, or a collection of goodies that people know they will get access to as soon as they sign-up for your list.

This seems daunting at first — but you have to realize that you can do this over time, and that you can even turn old posts into brand new e-books by getting a great designer to re-work the content for you.

It’s worth it too: our resources toolbox on Help Scout is the #1 place for new email sign-ups, bar none:

It increases the chances that a reader will see something they like, and it turns your newsletter into the central hub of your site — you paint a clear picture for people that your newsletter is where some of your best content resides.

This is where startups can learn a lot from the “cult of personality” bloggers (those who create a business around their personality and advice).

For instance, Ramit Sethi’s newsletter page is direct, but it gets results:

There’s another interesting thing to note about these toolbox pages…

According to a new study on “truthiness,” researchers found that images helped increase trust, even when the images were nonsensical or had nothing to do with the fact.

This is important for digital downloads, because this study directly shows that adding an image has the sincere potential to increase trust with a potential sign-up by giving a “face” to the digital content.

Make sure your toolbox/kit includes images for e-books and guides so readers can visualize what they are getting.

2.) Use a call-out bar at the top

That pink bar that I have floating at the top of my site is something that I’m currently testing myself!

I’m currently switching between the Hello Bar and a plugin called AttentionGrabber, both are the best on the market and used by many popular platform builders.

Both options allow you to A/B test, and the real question here is where should you be sending people, and wall should the call out say?

Right now, I’m focused exclusively on my newsletter (as I have nothing to sell), so I point my bar to my newsletter page, and simply explain that my best content gets sent out via newsletter.

I don’t have a freebie to offer, so my pitch is based on value alone, but if you have a download to point out, that works extremely well for these two bars and you should definitely split-test some text/button copy.

3.) Opt-in Sliders

I find these really interesting, and plan on testing one out myself soon.

Basically, when a reader scrolls to the end of a post, this “lightbox” will slide in from the right or left side of the screen (out of the way of the text), so you get the eye-catching benefits of a lightbox pop-up without being as annoying.

I really like how James Clear utilizes this with his single-column design:

The key here is to utilize your real estate wisely, you won’t have as much room as a feature box to be persuasive, so keep things short and sweet and as mentioned above, try to include an image if you are including downloadable content.

5 Ways to Increase Newsletter Engagement (with Psychology)

List building is essentially pointless if you aren’t building a responsive newsletter that actually wants to receive what you broadcast.

Engagement can usually best be measure by things like open rates and click-through rates, and I showed you above that mine are some of the highest out there (I’ve only seen much smaller highly specialized lists do better).

How to I maintain engagement like that with such a large list?

My “secret” is nothing more than using proven psychological principles in every single email that I send!

Below, I’m going to go over 5 different studies that can help you improve engagment, even for a 5 and 6-figure email list.

1.) The Information Gap

One research whose work I follow closely is George Lowenstein’s, and it’s for reasons such as this: his studies on the Information Gap Theory are a perfect fit for creating email broadcasts that people will click through from.

His findings show that when we encounter things that make us curious, we have a strong desire to “close the gap” so we can avoid the dissatisfaction of not knowing the outcome.

You’ve definitely encountered this before, as it’s really a scientific take on suspense. Research in this area (such as those studies around the Zeigarnik Effect) show that human beings hate leaving things incomplete if they’ve had a strong start.

According to one study, when subjects were interrupted while doing brain-buster tasks that they were making progress in…

…nearly 90% carried on working on the puzzle anyway.

The takeaway is that creating suspense in your newsletter broadcast will make people want to see it through “to the end,” which means clicking through to wherever you are sending them.

Do not use suspense in the subject line though!

This creates a subject that is too vague, but be sure to create this need to “close the gap” early in your broadcast, I know it has helped me maintain amazing click-through rates for myself and clients!

2.) The Less is More Approach

Columbia psychology professor Sheena Iyengar made waves with her research on Why choice is demotivating, later expanded on in her book The Art of Choosing.

Her famous “jam study” was able to show how people react to an abundance of choices, and why the process of action paralysis seems to occur when we have a lot of options in front of us.

Sheena conducted the study by selling jam at an upscale supermarket, testing between 6 types of jam on some days and 24 types of jam on other days.

While she noted an increased interaction from customers with the 24 jam display, only around 3% of customers actually BOUGHT the jam, vs. over 30%for the 6 jam display!

Having more options increased “engagement” (lol), but LESS people actually made a choice and purchased a jar of jam!

I apply this to email marketing for startup blog by following the one email, one goal rule, in that each email should only have one desired outcome (view a blog post, see a new feature, hear about an update, etc.).

If you are asking for multiple things, you are really asking for ZERO things, because multiple choices will cause people to do nothing instead.

I wrote more about this “lean newsletter” strategy over on the Visual Website Optimizer blog.

3.) Use Urgency the Smart Way

This one is dead-simple, and has more to do with being crystal clear with your subscribers over any fancy psychology tricks.

Social psychologist Howard Leventhal conducted a study on urgency by testing how people would respond to packets of information on the tetanus disease. He wanted to see how he could convince more people to get vaccinated.

He tested 2 different types of packets…

1. One pamphlet just had information about the dangers of tetanus
2. The other pamphlet had the same information and minimal instructions on where subjects could get vaccinated

Leventhal found that even though the follow-up information was very minimal, around 23% more people got vaccinated when they received the second pamphlet.

He concluded that when urgency is invoked without instructions, we tend to mentally block it out by convincing ourselves, “Well, I don’t need to worry about that anyway.”

With information on what to do next, it is harder to ignore the warning signs.

Use this in your newsletters by being totally clear about what people should do.

I use phrases like “click here to read [blank]…” for my links all of the time, it may seem obvious, but I’ve found that by trying to be less clever with my calls-to-action, and speaking more directly to my subscribers, has really boosted my click-through rates in blog emails.

4.) Invoke Strong Emotions

While I use this information frequently when creating controversial content, it applies to email newsletters as well.

A while back, Wharton professors Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman released a study on What Makes Online Content Go Viral?, and found that while “practically useful content” was king, content had a better chance of going viral if it invoked one of these emotions:

1. Awe
2. Anger
3. Surprise
4. Anxiety and Fear
5. Joy
6. Humor

(Notice ‘Anxiety’ sitting up there, as we mentioned in the Leventhal study!)

Now, I’m not saying that your newsletter broadcasts need to make people laugh, cry, or fall in love, but they should be aiming at one emotional string.

Think, “Woah, I never knew that!” [surprise], or, “Am I making those mistakes?” [anxiety], or, “I cannot stand it when when people do that either!” [anger].

You are not a news site, so don’t go too far with this, but always try to make your broadcasts at least a little bit interesting (especially if you are using plain-text) by crafting copy that gets people somewhat excited.

Boring = no engagement.

5.) Keep Them on Their Toes

Reciprocity is a powerful force.

The thing is, social psychologist Norbert Schwarz revealed that surprise reciprocity is even more powerful!

He found that as little as 10 cents (this was in 1987, but adjusted for inflation the amount is still small) was enough to create good feelings from one person to another.

Remember that this is percieved value, so giving people things that cost you nothing (but time) can still have this same effect, even if you don’t do that sleazy marketing stuff of assigning your e-Books with an arbitrary “$97 dollar value!” (So dumb)

Apply this to your email marketing efforts by surprising people with free stuff.

Blog posts don’t count, because there is no surprise, people EXPECT them to be free.

I’m talking about things like free guides, unpublished videos, or webinars… all will create engagement and surprise your email subscribers.

When you’ve established that something free could always be around the corner, people know you aren’t just pitching them in every email, and I guarantee you’ll see open rates go up (as long as the stuff is good.

Speaking of which… since you made it to the bottom of this long post, I want to give you something for free!

• Click here to download my free report on ’10 Ways to Convert More Customers (with Psychology)’

It’s beautifully designed, and if you loved this last section, I guarantee you’ll dig it!

Thanks for reading, please share this post if you enjoyed it.

That’s not to say that the book isn’t valuable, it’s just that each section reads a little too quickly and won’t dive into topics deeply (if that is what you are looking for).

That being said, there are some great fundamental discussions in the book.

I wanted to discuss the section on core human drives, and hear your thoughts about this categorization of what people want.

How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices

To make things even more ‘meta,’ the section on core human drives was originally based off of a passage in Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices (by Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria).

In it, Lawrence and Nohria discuss 4 drives that have a profound influence on our decisions and actions:

• The Drive to Acquire
• The Drive to Bond
• The Drive to Learn
• The Drive to Defend

To which Kaufman add’s a 5th in the form of:

• The Drive to Feel

The question is, what do these drives actually mean, and how to they pertain to YOUR business?

The Drive to Acquire

People tend to have a natural desire to obtain physical objects, as well an “immaterial” conquests such as status, power, and influence.

Many businesses are built on these and related desires.

Fine clothing retailers, brokerages, consulting companies, Italians who make extremely fast (and pretty) cars: if a company aims to fulfill your desire to be richer, more notable, or more influential, they are selling you on your drive to acquire.

The Drive to Bond

Human beings are social animals.

We all, on some level, seek to feel valued and cared about through forming relationships with others.

The dating service industry is an all too obvious example of this, but one can also look to more general offerings in the world of business: any business that offers something that aids you in being more well-liked or highly regarded falls in here.

Kaufman also cites examples like restaurants as being apart of this drive (the community aspect & the importance of restaurants in the realm of dating).

The Drive to Learn

As different as we may be, all of us seek to satiate our thirst of curiosity.

Look at colleges (which, let’s be honest, are businesses), training programs, book publishers, and many more business types that offer knowledge as their product.

If you are selling new information (newspapers), new experiences, or the ability to be competent in a new skill, you are selling the drive to learn.

The Drive to Defend

Possibly the one drive that seems undeniably apart of all of our psyches: we all desire to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

We also seek to secure and maintain our property, which is why businesses like alarm system companies, insurance agencies, legal services and even martial arts training sell this security to us.

Any business that seeks to eliminate a danger or promises to prevent bad outcomes is selling on this drive to defend.

The Drive to Feel

This is the last drive that Kaufman has added on to the original four.

He describes it as:

The desire for new sensory stimulus, intense emotional experiences, pleasure, excitement, entertainment, and anticipation.

I agree with him on this, because offerings like concerts (and music in general), games, movies, and athletics all offer these new experiences, and they don’t necessarily pertain to “learning” something new.

Any business that offers this form of excitement and pleasure discovery is selling the drive to feel.

What Do You Think?

Kaufman describes these drives as important because he believes that:

Whenever a group of people have an unmet need in one of more of these areas, a market will form to satisfy their need.

And where a market is formed, businesses can thrive.

At the end of the day, do you believe that all businesses sell some combination of:

• status/power
• love
• knowledge
• protection
• pleasure/excitement

…Or is this summation leaving something out?

I’ve wondered what you all think about business offerings that fall in the “boring” category: do steel mills or paper companies (typically selling to other businesses) sell on these drives?

Or are the drives really only applicable to selling to “regular folk”, or your traditional customer?

Thanks for reading, please share this post if you enjoyed it.