10 replies
Just wondering... Everything I see in the IM niche is priced with a "7".

$7, $17, $27, $97, $497 etc. Is it some sort of psychological thing?
#sevens
  • Profile picture of the author Dan Allard
    Originally Posted by Jack Nacho View Post

    Is it some sort of psychological thing?
    Yeah it's a marketing tactic. A lot of gurus talking about pricing strategies and how your price should end with a 7. But I've never seen anyone back it up with statistics from testing.

    Personally I think it's B.S. but I haven't tested it either. But my reasoning is this- do you ever watch infomercials? Every infomercial price I see ends in a 9 or a five, $49.99 for example. Same with prices at major department stores.

    Obviously infomercial marketers and the marketers for department stores do a lot more testing than internet marketers. They have focus groups and base their work on solid research. So I try to follow them more when it comes to pricing.

    Some day I'll test it for myself though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    Yep, as Dan said it is a marketing tactic that seems to be spread religiously amongst IMers. Where it came from and whether or not the idea is backed up by solid data has eluded me at least. I don't buy into it personally.
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  • Profile picture of the author michaelgee123
    "7" is the lucky number. Many people are trying to "get lucky" at IM and somehow get rich quick. Hence use the number "7"

    P.S. This post is total bs so disregard it. I do the same thing Dan does with pricing.
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  • Profile picture of the author mauii
    Originally Posted by Jack Nacho View Post

    Just wondering... Everything I see in the IM niche is priced with a "7".

    $7, $17, $27, $97, $497 etc. Is it some sort of psychological thing?
    Studies show that people ignore the least significant digit in a price, and round down. That's why you see lots of retailers ending I 9's or 5's. The rational behind the 7 is that people have become immune to the 9 trick because its so popular. So 7 became the new 9.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_pricing

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...nding-7-a.html
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Paul M View Post

    In the IM market everyone seems to adopt it because everyone else already has.
    This.

    "Quoted for truth".

    It's just like many other things in internet marketing, in that respect, isn't it?

    Someone once allegedly split-tested it with the menu prices in a pizza restaurant in the 1960's, and unfortunately one of the people present was a "marketer"; ever since then everyone's copied it because "it must work, otherwise people wouldn't be doing it, would they?"

    After all "IMers have tested it"!

    Not many people know which IMers have tested it, and when, and in what niche of which market and for what sort of product with which kind of traffic. But hey ... it was somebody whose cousin's friend's cousin's friend's cousin's girlfriend was in "IM" of some kind, and she said that, and anyway none of that stuff matters a damn, does it? The point is that IMers "have tested it" and "it converts better".

    Meanwhile, over the last three years, I've seen some real testing done by my own clients and former clients and I've discovered that:-

    (i) For a short report, $10 converted significantly better than $7 (I thought $12 might have converted better still, but I couldn't persuade the client to test it);

    (ii) For an e-book $39 converted slightly better than $37;

    (iii) For a video and membership package, $22 converted a lot better than $17.

    In each case, when I say "converted better", I mean more sales, not just more money, though that was obviously true as well.

    But the established wisdom is for prices to end in a "7", and it must work, otherwise "people wouldn't be doing it, would they"?

    In other words, it's just like so many other things in internet marketing (did I already say that?): it's right out of the Urban Myth School of internet marketing.

    Originally Posted by Jack Nacho View Post

    Is it some sort of psychological thing?
    You tell us: you're the expert on writing an article in "7 simple steps".
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    The "sevens" really don't matter much if you're getting alot of sales on a daily basis. You might make $60,000 a year with a $10 product as opposed to $50,000 with a $7 product... but in truth, is $50,000 a year really not worth it to you? I think (and know) it is.
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  • Profile picture of the author JakeTech
    "Odd-even pricing theory says that prices ending in odd amounts such as 77, 95 and 99 suggest greater value than prices rounded up to the next whole dollar" - Drew E. Whitman, Cashvertising
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  • Profile picture of the author Kim Standerline
    Apparently they (whoever they are) are talking about getting rid of the penny here in the UK.

    Be interesting to see what happens with those odd numbered sales then in supermarkets etc lol

    Kim
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    • Profile picture of the author bigslamgyrl
      Originally Posted by Kim Standerline View Post

      Apparently they (whoever they are) are talking about getting rid of the penny here in the UK.

      Be interesting to see what happens with those odd numbered sales then in supermarkets etc lol

      Kim
      Getting rid of the penny? You will have to post how that one turns out! Who knows, maybe the penny will become like some collectors item because there will be no more in currency.

      Maybe in 50 years the penny will be worth $20 in the UK
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      • The one good point of the "7" is that it might cause the buyer to do a double take at your pricing.

        I'm rolling out a non IM site soon and thinking of applying the "sevens" as buyers won't be expecting it and might catch them by surprise.
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