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Plain Sales Letter vs. Graphic Sales Letter: Who Wins?

by Dayne Dylan Banned
8 replies
I know this all comes down to testing, but I am curious if any of you have done A/B split tests of doing a normal sales letter, that looks like it's on just a white sheet of paper online, vs a sales letter that has the fancy graphics header at the top, background, etc.

I'm going to do a test for one of my $97 products and see how it goes.

My thinking is if you have a fancy header, and depending what is in it, it might immediately show the prospect that you are selling them something.

A normal sales letter, just plain at the top with a great headline, etc. does not necessarily give that away.

Anyway, just wanted to open this up for discussion and your thoughts/tests, etc.
#graphic #letter #plain #sales #wins
  • Profile picture of the author Jason_V
    Dayne,

    I would appreciate you posting your results here, I have been curious about this topic too. Also, if you could (I understand if you can't) can you at least say what niche your product is in?

    Thanks,

    Jason
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  • Profile picture of the author Dayne Dylan
    Banned
    I'll be sure to post when I know. As far as the niche, all I can say is it's not in IM.

    Anyone else split test these two types of sales letters?
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  • Profile picture of the author gjabiz
    Originally Posted by Dayne Dylan View Post


    My thinking is if you have a fancy header, and depending what is in it, it might immediately show the prospect that you are selling them something.

    A normal sales letter, just plain at the top with a great headline, etc. does not necessarily give that away.
    First, you may be right. But it begs the question where are the readers coming from? I ask, because if you get 100 people to read your deck copy, I'd wager that 99.5 KNOW you are trying to sell them something...even in a plain old white "normal" SALES LETTER.

    Off line, maybe personalization works to get them to open and read your letter, but even then, most know a pitch is coming.

    I've done both, and there is only a statistical difference depending on the traffic, IF I know anything about them (house list for example).

    Maybe other's have had a different experience, but a well written headline and deck copy which resonates does no better than a well written and well designed header or banner which resonates with the traffic...so, in my opinion, it is good thing to test, but first get the right kind of traffic to your offer.

    gjabiz
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Grace
    I have split test this, a client a few years ago was doing a CB launch so he wanted to have those loud, annoying, multi-colored headlines ans sub heads all over the place like all the other vendors. I thought we should test against plain black and white...

    Conversions where 1.5 percent higher with the plain page.

    This was the MMO market as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cool Hand Luke
      Originally Posted by Don Grace View Post

      I have split test this, a client a few years ago was doing a CB launch so he wanted to have those loud, annoying, multi-colored headlines ans sub heads all over the place like all the other vendors. I thought we should test against plain black and white...

      Conversions where 1.5 percent higher with the plain page.

      This was the MMO market as well.
      Just to be clear here, by "1.5 percent higher" does that mean it was converting at 2.5x what it was when it had the fancy graphics (i.e. a conversion rate of 1% jumping up to 2.5%) or do you mean it literally converted 1.5 percent higher (i.e. a conversion rate of 1% jumping up to 1.015%)?

      Genuinely curious, although I think I know the answer already.
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  • Profile picture of the author serryjw
    Originally Posted by Dayne Dylan View Post

    I know this all comes down to testing, but I am curious if any of you have done A/B split tests of doing a normal sales letter, that looks like it's on just a white sheet of paper online, vs a sales letter that has the fancy graphics header at the top, background, etc.

    I'm going to do a test for one of my $97 products and see how it goes.

    My thinking is if you have a fancy header, and depending what is in it, it might immediately show the prospect that you are selling them something.

    A normal sales letter, just plain at the top with a great headline, etc. does not necessarily give that away.

    Anyway, just wanted to open this up for discussion and your thoughts/tests, etc.
    I think it does depend on where your traffic is coming from, just like was posted above...BUT I also think it depends on what you are selling. Is it B2B or is it B2c with a 'serious' products like investments...
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Grace
    Luke, yeah my math verbiage sucks

    So 1.5% going to 3%
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  • Profile picture of the author maximus242
    I think its pretty obvious he is talking about percentage points. There would have to be a huge test to get a statistically significant result for a 1.5 percent increase instead of percentage points.

    I think its just obvious nobody would waste 100,000 visitors to get statistical significance for a 1.5 percent increase. Confidence intervals at such small differences in scale are very hard to get accurate data for.

    While 5000 visitors is enough for most tests to be statistically significant, with such a minute difference in response you would have to have a rediculous number of visitors to prove graphics got a measly 1.5% increase. 1.5 percentage points could be proven very easily, plus who the hell bothers to talk about test results with a 1 percent increase, nobody says my test boosted conversion from 1.0% to 1.01%, its a waste of space.

    In other words, its obvious we are talking about percentage points here.
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