Conversion Sciences

https://youtu.be/iV7QiA0rG40 Audio Podcast AI can write website copy that outperforms 80% of what is online today. You just have to teach it who it is writing for. In this episode of Intended Consequences, Conversion Sciences founder Brian Massey shows you how to use AI to generate website copy that actually converts. The secret is not a better prompt. It is writing for the four ways people make buying decisions. You will learn the Modes of Research framework, first published in "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark," and how to map it onto Myers-Briggs types so any language model speaks your language. Then you will watch live rewrites that turn flat, jargon-filled copy into messaging built for Competitive, Methodical, Spontaneous, and Humanist visitors. By the end you can build your own AI messaging agent in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and let it do the rewriting for you. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN Why most B2B copy sounds the same and caps your conversion rate The four research modes and the buyer behind each one How to use Myers-Briggs as a shared vocabulary with any AI The simple prompt that teaches your chatbot to rewrite by mode How to generate personas straight from a URL How to A/B test copy that is finally different enough to win How to build a reusable AI messaging agent for your brand CHAPTERS 00:00 Why AI copy beats 80% of website copy01:30 Styrofoam copy and the conversion ceiling02:40 How our own biases sabotage copywriting04:10 ICPs and the four-persona problem05:40 Corner cases: copy big enough to A/B test06:00 The 4 Modes of Research framework06:50 Competitive and Methodical buyers08:00 Spontaneous and Humanist buyers09:30 Placing copy on the page by buyer mode10:30 Why language models beat humans at this11:20 Myers-Briggs as a shared language with AI14:00 The simple prompt to train your chatbot15:00 Generating personas from a URL (Calm.com)17:40 Rewriting copy for each mode, live24:00 B2B example: HR services, CHRO vs CFO29:50 Laying out multiple voices on one page31:00 Q&A: getting your team to trust AI copy33:20 Building your own AI messaging agent38:00 What is next: ad and landing page alignment38:50 Q&A: CTAs, ad frequency, and brand salience RESOURCES Download the slides | Get the Cheat Sheet Messaging skills and full prompts: https://conversion.science/msg-skills Conversion Sciences: https://conversionsciences.com Book: "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark" by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg: https://conversci.com/catbark Roy H. Williams and the Wizard Academy: https://www.wizardacademy.org Subscribe for more on conversion optimization, AI, and the experiments behind what actually works.

Emotions drive conversions — and in this episode of Intended Consequences, Brian Massey sits down with Joe Putnam, founder of Conversion Engine, to explore how top-performing ecommerce brands are using AI CRO strategies to scale faster, test better, and connect more deeply with their customers. You’ll hear how Joe’s team analyzes customer reviews at scale to uncover emotional triggers, how they test ad angles that competitors often miss, and why a “boots that hurt” campaign might not be the golden angle you think it is. 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: Ready to improve your ecommerce site’s performance? Learn more about Conversion Science’s fully-managed Ecommerce Optimization Services. Why Emotions Still Win in Marketing (Even for Practical Products) “People buy with emotion and justify with logic,” Joe explains — and it’s not just for luxury brands like BMW. From cowboy boots to baby products, emotional triggers like trust, belonging, pride, and joy show up in customer language all the time. Even in seemingly utilitarian products like closet storage or bathroom scales, people make decisions based on how they feel about the product, not just what it does. The key is knowing which emotional buttons to push, and that’s where AI CRO strategies come into play. Finding Emotional Patterns Sentiment analysis is the process of identifying the emotions behind the words people use — especially in product reviews, support tickets, and social comments. Traditionally, marketers had to manually scan hundreds of reviews to pick up on these emotional patterns. Today, Joe’s team uses ChatGPT and other AI tools to streamline this process: “We copy and paste hundreds of reviews into ChatGPT and ask it to do an emotional sentiment analysis,” Joe says. “What problems are being solved? What are people feeling? What language are they using?” AI CRO strategies like this quickly surface pain points, unique selling propositions, and emotional value statements that can power ad copy, email campaigns, and landing pages. Building an Emotional Connection Once the team has pulled emotional themes from the reviews, they organize them into distinct messaging angles — each one reflecting a different emotional trigger. These angles might include: Trust & security: “I know these will last. Worth every penny.” Belonging: “I feel like I’m part of a community.” Confidence: “I walk taller when I wear these boots.” Joy & reward: “I bought these for myself as a gift. It felt amazing.” Instead of just running ads that say, “Tired of boots that hurt?” over and over, Joe’s team builds multiple ads targeting different emotional angles. Then, they let the data reveal which message resonates most with the brand’s audience. Takeaway: You’re probably underutilizing your customer reviews. With the right prompt, AI can uncover 3–5 powerful emotional angles you may have never tested. Does AI-led Sentiment Analysis Work for All Products? Yes, even for “boring” or utilitarian products. Joe explains: “Whether you're selling cowboy boots or closet storage, you’re always trying to tap into emotion. It might be fear, trust, anxiety, or satisfaction. But emotion is there. And when you find the right one, your results improve.” Some products might lean into pride or aspiration. Others might connect through relief or peace of mind. In every case, the emotional experience is as important as the feature set. Why AI Doesn’t Replace the Marketer Let’s be clear: AI isn’t doing the job for you — it’s helping you do your job better. Joe emphasizes that AI CRO strategies are a shortcut to better ideas, not a replacement for judgment: “You still need human intelligence to decide which angles are worth testing, which copy resonates, and which ideas are off-brand. AI gives us more clay to mold — but we still have to be the sculptor.” AI may generate seven ad angles. But maybe only two of them are good. With a trained marketing team, you can spot the winners, test them faster, and scale what works. Additional Reading: How to Seamlessly Integrate AI Marketing Into Your Strategy The Role of Landing Pages in Emotional Alignment The best ads in the world can fail if the landing page doesn’t match the emotional promise. One mistake Joe often sees: sending all ad traffic to the same product listing or category page, regardless of the ad’s message. Instead, he recommends: Creating custom landing pages for different ad angles. Reinforcing the same emotional message from ad to landing page. Using customer language throughout the copy and CTA. “If the ad is about personal pride or reward, make sure the landing page reflects that. That emotional consistency is what drives higher conversions.” Mistakes to Avoid with AI and CRO While AI can be powerful, it’s not infallible. Joe warns of a few key pitfalls: ❌ Mistake 1: Believing Every Insight is Gold Not every insight generated by AI deserves to be tested. Use your experience and brand knowledge to filter the noise. ❌ Mistake 2: Ignoring the Landing Page Even strong ads will underperform if the landing page doesn’t deliver on the emotional promise of the creative. ❌ Mistake 3: Over-engineering Prompts You don’t need “prompt engineering” skills to make this work. Start simple: “Conduct emotional sentiment analysis on these reviews.” Let the AI do the heavy lifting — then dig deeper based on what it returns. Quickstart Guide: How to Use AI in Your Ecommerce Ad Strategy If you want to try this for your brand, here’s a simple way to get started: Collect Reviews – Grab 100–200 reviews from your product pages or Amazon listings. Drop into ChatGPT (or your AI of choice) – Use a prompt like, “Analyze these for emotional sentiment. What feelings are customers expressing? What problems are they solving? What language repeats?” Extract Emotional Angles – Look for clusters: trust, pride, satisfaction, relief, identity, etc. Translate into Messaging Pillars – Create 3–5 core messaging angles that represent your product’s emotional impact. Test in Ads and Landing Pages – Build multiple creatives — each aligned with a different pillar — and track which one drives the most engagement and conversions. Final Thoughts: Emotions Scale. AI Speeds It Up. The secret to ecommerce success isn’t just in your product specs. It’s in the emotional response you trigger. And now, thanks to AI, you can discover those responses faster than ever. As Joe Putnam puts it: “AI doesn’t give you the final product. But it gets you 80% of the way there — and helps you uncover ideas you wouldn’t find on your own.” Want help turning sentiment analysis into high-converting campaigns? 🔬 Talk to a Conversion Scientist

Google’s document leak uncovered surprising connections between conversion rate optimization (CRO), search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience (UX). Listen in as Conversion Scientists® Joel Harvey and Brian Massey talk about these connections and what they mean for optimizers. Subscribe to the Podcast iTunes | Spotify | RSS All Episodes TLDR Summary The Interplay of CRO and SEO (01:00 - 04:00) Fundamental Building Blocks of SEO and CRO (04:00 - 06:00) Strategies for Great Content and User Experience (06:00 - 11:00) Balancing Personal Voice with SEO Requirements (11:00 - 14:00) Differences Between Web Design and UX Design (14:00 - 19:00) Importance of User Research in UX Design (19:00 - 23:00) The Holistic Approach to User Experience (23:00 - 26:00) Summarizing the Conversation (26:00 - 28:00) *** Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are often seen as separate entities. But there's a surprising amount of overlap between the two: Both aim to improve user experience (UX) and deliver great content, ultimately leading to higher engagement and conversions. Google’s document leak made this abundantly clear. In fact, we’re excited about the connection between CRO, SEO, and user experience. Let's explore how these disciplines intersect and how you can leverage their synergy to boost your online performance. The Interplay of CRO and SEO When considering the relationship between CRO and SEO, think of them as two sides of the same coin. CRO is SEO. The things that fundamentally improve your SEO are also the things that fundamentally help you to improve your conversion rate. Google's recent revelations make this undeniable. The core elements of successful SEO are great content and an excellent user experience. It’s not about keyword stuffing; it’s about quality. There was a time when SEO was all about exact match domains and keyword stuffing. But those days are long gone. Today, SEO is about understanding and meeting user needs, which is precisely where CRO comes into play. "It's not just about keyword stuffing. It's about having the best content and a great user experience. Those are the real fundamentals of SEO and CRO." Fundamental Building Blocks of SEO and CRO At the heart of both SEO and CRO is a deep understanding of user needs and behaviors. Whether you're offering content, a product, or a service, the key is to provide something valuable that addresses a problem or fulfills a desire. Without this fundamental understanding, your optimization efforts will only go so far. The era of gaming the system with keyword tricks is long gone. Genuine engagement is now the cornerstone of success. This approach applies to both SEO and CRO. To succeed today, you must adopt a user-centric mindset. "If people don't like the content, no matter what you've done from the keyword and link perspective, it probably isn't going to work anyway, because other people aren't going to be talking about it," Brian emphasizes. Strategies for Great Content and User Experience Creating great content and a seamless user experience requires a balanced approach. On one hand, you need to be yourself and communicate authentically. On the other, you must adhere to the data-driven demands of SEO, such as keyword density and topic coverage. Reconciling these strategies can be challenging, but it's essential. Consider this advice from Anne Handley’s newsletter: "Be yourself, be your brand, and talk the way you talk." This encourages a more relaxed, authentic approach to content creation. However, there's also the technical side of SEO, which often requires precise keyword usage and structured content to rank well. Start by embracing your unique voice and passion for the subject. Write as if you're speaking directly to your audience, sharing your insights and experiences in a way that feels natural. Joel captures this balance well: "The argument for writing with your own voice is that it has energy and passion. The content is fun. By contrast, whenever you’re writing for parameters to feed an SEO algorithm, it isn’t fun." Once you have your core content, refine it to incorporate SEO best practices. This means integrating relevant keywords naturally, ensuring the content flows well and remains reader-friendly. By doing so, you're not only creating content that is optimized for search engines but also maintaining the authenticity and flow of your original message. Balancing Personal Voice with SEO Requirements Balancing a personal, authentic voice with the technical requirements of SEO is one of the biggest challenges in content creation. Content infused with passion and personality is more engaging and resonates more deeply with users. While SEO is crucial for driving traffic, it shouldn't overshadow the need for genuine, compelling content. As Brian says, "If you're letting SEO lead it completely, that is the tail wagging the dog.” Instead, aim for a harmonious blend where SEO insights inform but don't dictate your content. Use data to inform and influence your decisions. Not only will you be able to maintain an authentic voice, you’ll also build a stronger connection with your audience. Differences Between Web Design and UX Design Understanding the distinction between web design and UX design is critical. While both aim to enhance user interaction with a website, they do so in fundamentally different ways. Web design often centers around aesthetics and layout, focusing on how the site looks and feels. This involves creating visually appealing elements, choosing color schemes, and ensuring the site is attractive to visitors. In contrast, UX (User Experience) design delves deeper into how users interact with and experience your site. A UX designer’s role involves continuous research and testing to ensure every element on the site meets user expectations and enhances their experience. As Brian explains, the UX designer is “designing to the content.” A web designer is generally laying out a page and leaving space for images and copy to be added after they’ve done their job. For example, a web designer might create a visually stunning homepage, but a UX designer will take it further by testing how users navigate that page, identifying friction points, and making adjustments based on user feedback. Their process ensures that the design is not only attractive but also functional and user-friendly. Importance of User Research in UX Design User research is a cornerstone of effective UX design. It’s not just about creating visually appealing designs, it’s about ensuring every interaction aligns with user needs and expectations. User research helps identify and rectify any friction points in the user journey, leading to a smoother and more satisfying experience. Think about the difference between designing a beautiful website and designing a website that users find intuitive and enjoyable. The latter requires a deep understanding of your users, which comes from thorough research. By gathering insights into user behavior, preferences, and pain points, you can design experiences that are not only visually appealing but also highly functional and user-friendly. "User research isn't just a one-time activity. It's an ongoing process that involves continuously gathering feedback and making iterative improvements," Brian emphasizes. By continuously optimizing each touchpoint, you create a cohesive and engaging journey that fosters loyalty and drives conversions. For instance, conducting user surveys, interviews, and usability testing can reveal valuable insights about how users interact with your site. These insights can then inform design decisions, leading to a more intuitive and satisfying user experience. The Holistic Approach to User Experience Think of user experience like the role of a flight attendant. A flight attendant's job isn't just about serving drinks or demonstrating safety procedures. It encompasses the entire journey of the passenger, ensuring comfort, safety, and a pleasant experience from the moment they board to the time they disembark. User experience works the same way. It’s not just about avoiding errors; it's about creating delightful, memorable interactions at every touchpoint. From the initial website visit to the final purchase, every interaction should enhance user satisfaction. This involves addressing potential issues, eliminating friction, and finding opportunities to delight users and exceed their expectations. "Nothing exists in a vacuum,” says Harvey. “Nothing exists without its own context. So experience is a holistic thing. Everything you do and show and say to people, as well as how it makes them feel — that's user experience." It’s like a flight attendant who is attentive to small details, like remembering a passenger’s preference or providing reassurance during turbulence. When optimizers pay attention to details in UX design — providing intuitive navigation, fast load times, and personalized content — it can significantly impact user satisfaction and conversion rates. Your Takeaways Understanding the deep connections between CRO and SEO is crucial for any digital marketer. Here are the key takeaways: Great Content and User Experience: Focus on delivering valuable, engaging content and a seamless user experience. Authentic Voice: Balance SEO requirements with authentic, passionate content creation. User Research: Incorporate user research into UX design to ensure every interaction meets user expectations. Holistic Approach: Treat user experience as a comprehensive journey, from first interaction to final conversion—just like the holistic care a flight attendant provides throughout a passenger’s journey. By implementing these principles,...

Technically, a “bounce” is a visitor that looks at only one page, or a visitor that spends an embarrassingly short time on the page. Keep reading to find out how to reduce bounce rates. A bounce is any visit for which the visitor only looks at one page and does not interact with it. This sounds truly unfair as someone may spend minutes on your blog post or landing page, and still be counted as a bounce. A visitor bounces when they don’t find anything close to what they were looking for when they visit your site. Either you’re attracting the wrong visitors or you don’t know why they are visiting. Bounce is the most extreme form of conversion problem. High bounce rates are an indication that you are throwing good marketing dollars down the tubes. Whatever you’re spending to get traffic to your site is being wasted. How to Reduce Bounce Rates or the heartbreak of “bounce” Boing! That’s the sound of someone finding your site, but not finding what they wanted ON your site. Boing! That’s the sound of website content that doesn’t match your marketing. Boing! That’s the sound of a website that talks about the company instead of the visitors’ problems. Bounces Aren't Helpful to Businesses What are some strategies to reduce bounce rate? This is a common question, and requires an understanding of the definitions of bounce rate. The bounce rate is a bit slippery and requires some examination. The intention of measuring the bounce rate is to figure out how many of your visitors are leaving almost immediately after arriving at your site. This metric provides for a lot of error in interpretation. "A high bounce rate means your site is crappy." This is rarely the case. A more accurate explanation is that your site doesn’t look the way your visitors expect it to look. Understanding what your visitors expect is the way to reduce bounce rates. Instead, there are usually some more valid reasons for your high bounce rate. Here are the things digital marketing and conversion experts examine when confronted with uncomfortably high bounce rates. 1. You're measuring it wrong How you measure your bounce rate can give you very different insights. For example, blogs often have high bounce rates. Does this mean that visitors don’t like the blog? Many analytics packages measure a bounce as a visit, or session, that includes only one page on your site. Visitors who take the time to read an entire article would be considered a “bounce” if they then left, even though they are clearly engaged. We set a timer for our blog traffic, so that any visitor who sticks around for 15 seconds or more is not considered a bounce. You can set a timer to the amount of time you consider appropriate. 2. How to Reduce Bounce Rates: Diagnose Technical Difficulties We are fond of saying that you don’t have one website, you have ten or twenty or thirty. Each device, each browser, each screen-size delivers a different experience to the visitor. If your website is broken on one of the devices popular with your visitors, you will see a bump in overall bounce rate. If your pages load slowly, especially on mobile devices, you can expect a higher bounce rate. Broken internal links and 404 pages are also cause for bounce. If your page breaks out in a chorus of Also Sprach Zarathustra when the page loads, you may enjoy a higher bounce rate. /wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Kevin_MacLeod_-_Richard_Strauss_Also_Sprach_Zarathustra.mp3 #top .hr.hr-invisible.av-158c1xv-0f3fff04d92ea45ef949f5320848a2c0{ height:5px; } How to diagnose device-related technical problems Your analytics package will track the kind of device your visitors are coming on. Is there a problem with this site when viewed with the Safari (in app) browser? The Google Analytics report Audience > Technology > Browser & OS shows that there may be a technical issue with Safari visitors coming from within an app. This may also reflect visitors coming from mobile ads, and they may simply be lower quality. See below. With Google Analytics Audience > Mobile > Devices report, we see mobile devices specifically. The Apple iPhone has an above-average bounce rate, and we should probably do some testing there, especially since it's the bulk of our mobile traffic. With an above average bounce rate, visitors on an Apple iPhone may be seeing a technical problem. 3. Good Traffic Quality Helps Reduce Bounce Rates If you are getting the wrong visitors, you will have a high bounce rate. Remember StumbleUpon? Getting your site featured on the internet discovery site often meant a flood of new visitors to your site… and a crash in your conversion rate. Stumble traffic was not qualified, they were just curious. Your bounce rate is a great measure of the quality of your traffic. Low quality traffic bounces because: The search engine showed them the wrong link or a broken link. Do you know how many visitors used to come to our site looking for a “conversion rate” for Russian Rubles to Malaysian Ringletts?! User intent. The visitors aren’t ready to buy. They were in a different part of the purchase process. Visitors coming from Social Media ads have notoriously low conversion rates. They weren’t looking, they were just surfing your product pages. We take a closer look at the source of traffic to diagnose a traffic quality problem using Google Analytics Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels report. Direct is one of our biggest traffic sources and brings in one of the two highest bounce rates. Here we can see that traffic coming from social media and those visitors coming “Direct-ly” have a high bounce rate. If you are driving a lot of visitors to your home page, you may want to consider presenting them with links to more relevant content. As Tim Ash says, “The job of the home page is to get people off of the home page.” He didn’t mean by bouncing. With regard to social media, we may have a problem with broken promises. 4. Broken Promises Lead to Conversion Problems Do your entry pages consider the source of visits? If your traffic is clicking on an ad that promises 20% off on a specific propane grill, and they’re directed to your home page, you’ve broken a promise. You might think that they will search your site for the deal. You might even think they’ll search your home page for the deal. You’re wrong. Many will jump. Every ad, every email invitation, every referral link is a promise you make to your visitor. If they don’t come to a page that lives up to the promise, they are likely to bounce. Does the headline on the page match the offer in the ad? Does the product in the email appear after the click? Are your calls to action in alignment with the landing page? Are the colors and design consistent across media? This Ad takes the visitors to a page that is almost designed to disappoint. Looking at your ads on a page-by-page basis is necessary to diagnose and correct this kind of bounce rate problem. 5. Vague Value Propositions don't help reduce bounce rates Ultimately, if you’re not communicating your value proposition to your visitors clearly, you are going to enjoy a monstrous bounce rate. 21 Quick and Easy CRO Copywriting Hacks Keep these proven copywriting hacks in mind to make your copy convert. 43 Pages with Examples Assumptive Phrasing "We" vs. "You" Pattern Interrupts The Power of Three var gform;gform||(document.addEventListener("gform_main_scripts_loaded",function(){gform.scriptsLoaded=!0}),document.addEventListener("gform/theme/scripts_loaded",function(){gform.themeScriptsLoaded=!0}),window.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){gform.domLoaded=!0}),gform={domLoaded:!1,scriptsLoaded:!1,themeScriptsLoaded:!1,isFormEditor:()=>"function"==typeof InitializeEditor,callIfLoaded:function(o){return!(!gform.domLoaded||!gform.scriptsLoaded||!gform.themeScriptsLoaded&&!gform.isFormEditor()||(gform.isFormEditor()&&console.warn("The use of gform.initializeOnLoaded() is deprecated in the form editor context and will be removed in Gravity Forms 3.1."),o(),0))},initializeOnLoaded:function(o){gform.callIfLoaded(o)||(document.addEventListener("gform_main_scripts_loaded",()=>{gform.scriptsLoaded=!0,gform.callIfLoaded(o)}),document.addEventListener("gform/theme/scripts_loaded",()=>{gform.themeScriptsLoaded=!0,gform.callIfLoaded(o)}),window.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",()=>{gform.domLoaded=!0,gform.callIfLoaded(o)}))},hooks:{action:{},filter:{}},addAction:function(o,r,e,t){gform.addHook("action",o,r,e,t)},addFilter:function(o,r,e,t){gform.addHook("filter",o,r,e,t)},doAction:function(o){gform.doHook("action",o,arguments)},applyFilters:function(o){return gform.doHook("filter",o,arguments)},removeAction:function(o,r){gform.removeHook("action",o,r)},removeFilter:function(o,r,e){gform.removeHook("filter",o,r,e)},addHook:function(o,r,e,t,n){null==gform.hooks[o][r]&&(gform.hooks[o][r]=[]);var d=gform.hooks[o][r];null==n&&(n=r+"_"+d.length),gform.hooks[o][r].push({tag:n,callable:e,priority:t=null==t?10:t})},doHook:function(r,o,e){var t;if(e=Array.prototype.slice.call(e,1),null!=gform.hooks[r][o]&&((o=gform.hooks[r][o]).sort(function(o,r){return o.priority-r.priority}),o.forEach(function(o){"function"!=typeof(t=o.callable)&&(t=window[t]),"action"==r?t.apply(null,e):e[0]=t.apply(null,e)})),"filter"==r)return e[0]},removeHook:function(o,r,t,n){var e;null!=gform.hooks[o][r]&&(e=(e=gform.hooks[o][r]).filter(function(o,r,e){return!!(null!=n&&n!=o.tag||null!=t&&t!=o.priority)}),gform.hooks[o][r]=e)}}); "*" indicates required fields URLThis field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. window.dataLayer=window.dataLayer||[]; window.dataLayer.push({ ecommerce: null }); window.dataLayer.push({ event:'view_item', ecommerce: { items: [ { ...