Should I Try a New Pitch Page Or Not?

6 replies
My conversions in the past few days have been horrible (just to give you an idea - 1 out of 300), so I figured it was time for a new pitch page. For three days I was working on re-writing it by the rules (I literally was buried under best copywriting books to make sure I stay withing the guidelines). I moved things around, rewrote lots of text and changed the look, added some more stuff and more testimonials because I get new testimonials all the time. The new page is half-way done now.


Suddenly yesterday I had record sales (with the same old pitch page) that fully compensated for three-four days of lousy sales.


Now I am "stuck" with a half-done IMO killer pitch page (this is editorial style vs. the original page which has a screaming headline and oversized bullet points).


I am not very technical and my page is not PHP so I can't do split testing. Also I am not sure if I change hoplink URL I probably won't be able to bring up the old page in affiliate hops at all.


Sales have been pretty good since yesterday and I am scared to change anything.


What would you do in this situation?


Would low sales be an indicator that a new pitch page is needed or is it somehow related to perhaps the three-day weekend and the fact that a lot of people have gone on vacation? Or perhaps they spend more time outdoors and not in front of the computer?


Basically, do low sales mean bad pitch page or people are not spending time online? But then again, conversion ratio was bad on the same approximate number of hops as before which means if people are not browsing online, conversions should still be about the same just fewer hops.


Also I need to mention that my conversions are a lot higher when an affiliate does a pre-sale vs. when direct linked from google adwords or when they come direct from organic searches. Would that mean that an editorial style page would work better (meaning a page that doesn't look like an ad).


Your advice is greatly appreciated!
#page #pitch
  • Right now, it probably means you don't have enough data from your testing to come to that conclusion yet. I would seriously look into using Google's website tools, it would probably help you out a lot. Don't throw out what is currently working, but don't throw out what you've written so far, either. Test - that is the only way to know for sure.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Raybould
    Activetrader-

    Remember this- the first time
    you put a page up on a site,
    the conversions will be the
    lowest they'll ever be.

    The reason?

    Because you should always be
    split testing. And you don't need
    to know PHP to split test, all
    you need is something to display
    alternate pages to your visitor.

    Google's website optimizer tool
    does this just fine, and it's free.
    Very simple to use too.

    Also, it takes care of all the math
    too, so you don't have to figure
    out if an improvement is statistically
    significant or not.

    So to answer what I'd do in this
    situation:

    Get the new pitch page finished,
    and split test it against the old
    one. Whichever wins, use that
    as your new control, and start
    a whole slew of split tests with
    that - headline, offer, guarantee
    etc.

    There are a couple of great posts
    on split testing in the War room,
    definitely check them out if you
    have access.

    Good luck

    -David Raybould

    PS- remember, personal preference
    has no place with this kind of testing...
    The bottom line is YOUR bottom line.
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    • Profile picture of the author activetrader
      Thank you all, you have been very helpful!

      Originally Posted by David Raybould View Post

      There are a couple of great posts
      on split testing in the War room,
      definitely check them out if you
      have access.
      Yes, will definitely do that. I was going to join yesterday and got distracted. Is it immediate access after payment or do I have to wait to get access?
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      Me

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  • Profile picture of the author megaresp
    Originally Posted by activetrader View Post

    What would you do in this situation?
    Always test, pitting the new copy or method against the old. Never stop trying to find something better than what you have.

    Originally Posted by activetrader View Post

    ...do low sales mean bad pitch page or people are not spending time online?
    It could mean anything. What matters is your average/day, not your actual sales for today. If the average starts to trend down, then you may have a problem.


    Originally Posted by activetrader View Post

    Would that mean that an editorial style page would work better (meaning a page that doesn't look like an ad).
    It might do. But why speculate when you can test?

    If you've not come across A/B (or split) testing before, this page offers a pretty good explanation. Once you have the concept, there are sure to be plenty of resource available from people in these forums that help you construct and run split testing.

    Google WebOptimser is a free tools that runs split tests, and also ties in with Analytics.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jon Steel
    You should not change it just because no one really converted over the weekend. This is like you performing a taste test of some new soft drink and deciding you don't like it just by getting tasting a drop on your tongue...

    The reason is because sometimes people are converting - other times they aren't. Do you think McDonalds sells 50 burgers everyday? Of course not, it varies. However, if you were selling like crazy one month and then it just stopped over the second month - that is something worth considering...

    As everyone else said you have to test -

    By the way - I notice that over the weekends my sells tend to decline as well.

    Lastly, I prefer "Advirtorials" (Ads that look like editorials) over ads. This is because people put their guards down when reading something that looks like information. However, if you lace your advitorial with enough marketing tactics - you can get them to want to buy before they realize you are even selling something...

    Good Luck,

    js
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  • One of the greatest reasons to constantly test? To be ready to respond when sales really do drop off, not from external factors, but from offer or copy softening. Always, always, always try to beat your control. Because when the control stops working... ugh! That's when testing gets really stressful.
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