I recently ran email creative test where I created 2 nearly identical emails, the only difference between the 2 was the use of a burst in the header with different messaging. One version featured a burst with the product price ($149.99) while the other version featured an identical burst with the savings ($50). I was actually very surprised by the results.

You can view each version by clicking on the images below:

For this test, I ran a 15/15 split to our email marketing list, with the remaining 70% going out to our winner. My assumption for the test was that viewers would respond better to the $50 savings as opposed to the $149.99 product price, but as I said above, I was surprised by the results. After the 15/15 split, it was determined that the product price version was the clear winner.

Opens: Both emails ran with the same exact subject line, so as expected, the open rate for both was close, around 24%.

Click-throughs: My hunch about click throughs was that the version with the savings would receive more click throughs. This assumption held true, with the about a 15% higher CTR on the savings version. My thinking is this could be attributed to the fact that people wanted to know the price before making a decision.

Clicks/opens: Based on the above metrics, it obviously means the clicks/opens fell in favor of the savings version.

Conversions: Here’s where my prediction went wrong… The version with the case price had nearly 60% more conversions than the savings version. In actuality, I was a little on the fence about which version would get more conversions, so I can see why the case price won out (customers knew up front what the price was, so they arguably are further along the purchase process), but I honestly thought the numbers would be much closer.

Conversion Click Rate: The numbers continue to shift now, with the version with the bottles beating out the wine glass 10.6% to 14.4%.

Conversion Revenue: The lift in the conversion of the price version translated to almost 70% more revenue.

Revenue per click: Not only was the conversions higher, but the revenue per click was nearly double for the product price version.

If conversion is king, then clearly the version featuring the product price was undoubtedly the winner (and thus deployed to the remaining 70% of our list). And this was a great example of how seemingly small changes can have an effect on conversions. It also shows that with emails, it’s not always about the opens or the clickthroughs. Even with more opens, and more clickthroughs (i.e. visitors to the page), it’s still about providing the right information at the right time.

What I believe to be the reasoning for the higher conversions is that the reader knew up front what this product would cost. If they felt like it was too high, they didn’t click. If they thought the price was reasonable, then they clicked through to learn more, and if they agreed with the price, they clicked through to purchase, knowing exactly what they would be paying. While the $50 savings may seem very enticing to some, thus leading them to click through, it may result in more of a “sticker shock” upon seeing the price. Thus, savings version pushed the user to the product page while in a different (earlier) stage of the buying process, which could be the reason for a higher abandonment of the purchase.

And suddenly, my “subtle” difference isn’t as subtle as I once thought.

In Part 2, I talked about the Competitive Buyer Modality, and showed an example of a page targeted to that group. Now, it’s time to talk about the Humanistic buyer. While the true Humanistic buyer modality, like the competitive, is one of the smaller segment types, a lot of the humanistic elements can be carried over to the other buying modalities and so it is still very important. Humanistic buyers tend to be family oriented, and care about personal growth for themselves and others. They tend to be slow-buyers, but are very open-minded when looking for a solution. They can also be very loyal to product, and look for a strong relationship with the seller. When they are happy with a product, they like to share and recommend it, but, on the flip side, they can be just as vocal when they are disappointed. Customer service is important to them, sometimes just as much as the product itself.

Imagery of families, or pets, or cute animals draws their attention, even moreso than product imagery. Messaging of value, trust, strength and longevity are key. They also like community and environmental aspects, so “green” products tend to do well with humanistic messaging. Good examples of humanistic advertising tend to be found in cleaning products, bathroom items (soaps, toilet paper) and groceries. Because women (moms) typically do the shopping for these items, some advertisers might think humanistic should primarily appeal to female buyers, this isn’t always the case, and it should be based on your target market.

Once again, I’ll reference the Market Sense Blog on appliedmarketing.com as a good place to find tips on marketing to Humanistic Buying Modality:

Appeal: Drawn to authentic relationships.

Website: Present your product from the human perspective. Tell stories about how others selected, implemented, used, and solved their problems with your product.

Information Needs: Answer questions on who you are and who has used your product to solve his/her problems. Will want to explore the possibilities your product presents with you.

Understand: The big picture – how choosing you will affect their relationships. They will want the best people solution.

Process: They will want to explore the possibilities, understand the big picture, evaluate the human aspect of your product. The most important part of their process is the relationship.

Time: They will be relatively slow paced. You will have to spend more time than usual building and nurturing the relationship.

Risk: They are willing to take leaps of faith based on their intuition. Yet, they will steer away from decisions that create conflict and confrontation.

Decision: Will want the emotional confirmation that this is the right choice for the people.

The creative team I worked with also did a page focused on the humanistic buying behaviour, which is the example shown below (click to enlarge).

The product offering is the same product as the comeptitive example in Part 2, a credit report monitoring service, and had the same challenges – Appeal to the humanistic buyer modality without alienating the spontaneous buyer. So, while this project isn’t a true example of a 100% humanistic approach, it does contain elements geared to the humanistic buyer modality in order to appeal to a broader market.

1. Use “parent/child” imagery.
2. Bold, bright color palette.
3. “Trust” element placed very prominently in the header
4. Messaging about “financial future”, coupled with the family imagery alludes to the fact that your finances can effect your family/children.
5. Prominently placed customer testimonial.

Again, this isn’t a fully focused humanistic landing page, and they are several other ways we could more directly target the humanistic buying behaviour, but the purpose of this was to repurpose the existing product and make it appeal to a different buying behaviour. The product itself, along with it’s benefits, use, delivery and purchase are exactly the same as the competitive example (and, as you’ll see, the same as the methodical and spontaneous examples in parts 4 and 5 of this series as well). The idea is to make changes in order to target a broader audience, or possibly target a direct segment. If this were a true “humanistic campaign”, there are other changes we would make not only to this lp, but also the “drivers” (banner, search listing, etc) to truly focus on the humanistic buying modality.

As with all the buyer modalities, it’s important to know your customer/audience, and choose which focus might work best for you. However, I hope this post gives you a little more insight on how to target a broader audience, and I hope you return to read the next part in the series.

Still not sure how I feel about Twitter yet. I was VERY reluctant to join, but finally decided that it was time to take the plunge. Mainly, I wanted to get the account name for spitshinedesign before someone else snatched it up.

Tweets are slow going so far, although a little more frequently then I expected. Only following a few key groups as well, but so far have found some useful links and information being shared. I can see how it can get a little addicting, but hopefully it won’t become too much. The upside is I’m finding myself more motivated to write blog posts in order to share them on twitter, the downside is it’s becoming a bit of a distraction at times, as I find myself reading other peoples links more than I write my own. Hopefully I will find a decent balance soon. In the meantime, check it out and follow me if you like what you see.

For some bloggers, it seems lack of ideas is a big reason why their blogs aren’t kept up. However, for me, I don’t think lack of ideas is the problem. In fact, I think having too many ideas is the real problem! 

A lot has been going on since I was posting regularly… New job, new apartment, an approaching wedding, more freelance work… all of these things have definitely spawned plenty of ideas. And of course they also consume much of my free time, which I would guess is the other top reason why bloggers stop posting regularly (not necessarily in that order).

I have lots of ideas – big ideas, small ideas, good ideas, bad ideas and probably a lot of ideas that may only interest me. So, I’ve decided that I have to take the advice of that famous shoemaker, and “Just Do It”. I’m going to try to start writing something, ANYthing on a more regular basis. Am I worried that I’ll be sacrificing “quality” for “quantity”… well, unfortunately yes. But I’m hoping that by getting some of these ideas down (even the bad ones), it will make room for more good ones (hopefully GREAT ones). 

Back in January, I came across quite a few articles of people who planned to write a post a day. Will I be that aggressive? Probably not… mainly because my time is limited, but also because I do want to strive to provide useful information for designers and online marketers, and no turn this into a daily journal of my personal life. Am I ruling out “a post a day”? No. I’d love to do that (2 or 3 posts a day even), but I want to keep it relevant. However, with that thinking in mind, you might find a succession of shorter posts, possibly even just a sentence and a link to someone else’s ideas.

And yes, you may occasionally here me ramble off-topic, but I’ll try to stay on track.

As always, thanks for reading!

With about a dozen major releases ( and another on the way in a few short months) Photoshop has become one of, if not THE most important tool in any graphic and Web designers arsenal. As a photoshop user since version 5.0 (circa 1998…), the webdesingerdepot.com article is a short walk down memory lane, listing some of the major changes between each release. A little strange thinking back on how we used Photoshop WITHOUT some of the great tools used today – can’t even imagine working in Photoshop without layers or “Save for Web”! The article also includes an interview with John Knoll who (along with his brother) created Photoshop.

While I’ve come across some designers who swear by Fireworks (especially for web stuff), I can’t imagine using anything other than Photoshop. Easily the most important design tool I have. Many thanks to the Knolls for creating such a great product (and continually making it better).

Here is a rundown of the topics covered, and although each one is discussed only briefly, it still offers a good amount of information:

1. Padding vs. Margin
2. Floats
3. Center Alignment
4. Ordered vs. Unordered Lists
5. Styling Headings
6. Overflow
7. Position
8. Background Images
9. Image Enahancement

The article ends with a nice list of tutorials on how to slice up PSDs to XHTML.

While it did take me longer than I had hoped to complete, I actually found it easier to do than the first round. I’ve picked up on CSS a lot more in the past 15 months, and have become more familiar with WordPress, which I used for the blog portion of the site. With the first version, I thought it would be easier to pick up an existing WordPress theme, and just modify to fit my site. While I was happy with the way that site turned out, I decided that I would try creating a custom template from scratch (well, actually from a stripped down WP them called Starkers Theme by Elliot Jay Stocks), and found this to be MUCH easier. The build went much more smoothly, and I was much more comfortable with adjusting the code and moving things around. There was still a bit of trial and error with the WP items, as I am still learning WP, but I found myself getting around eaiser and easier.

I have to say, I’m pretty happy with the site as a whole. While I’ve done a few other sites in WordPress, and have used the Starkers Theme for those, I think this site is the most appealing site I’ve done with WP. It’s been a while since I posted, and I’m hoping now that the site redesign is complete, I’ll be able to find more time to add posts more regularly.

I’m also looking forward to work on www.gotoandlearnflash.com again. Not only hoping to add more tutorials, but to give that site an overhaul as well. It’s been an extremely busy few months, and while things are still pretty busy, I think I have to make a commitment to myself to get re-motivated to work on some personal projects.

Take a look around the site, and let me know what you think!

This year, hundreds of thousands of people will hear the words “You have cancer,” and there’s a good chance that some of them will be people we know and love. Most of us have been touched by cancer in some way… and we all have the power to make a difference. That’s why I have chosen to fight back right here in my own community by participating in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life®.

My girlfriend Maria is an employee at the Wilton, CT branch of the American Cancer Society, and has been actively involved in Relay for Life (and other cancer awareness programs) for over 5 years. Last summer her and I volunteered at several local relays, and were participants in another by forming a team of family and friends. It’s a night full of fun, hope, and remembrance. It’s a great event and one that should be experienced by any one who has been touched by this horrible disease.

Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature activity. It offers everyone in a community an opportunity to participate in the fight against cancer. Teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Relays are an overnight event, up to 24 hours in length.

The American Cancer Society sponsors Relay events across the country and chances are there is an event in your own town or nearby community. I encourage everyone to Find Your Nearest Event and get involved. While donations are always appreciated, these are free events, so even if you just choose to go and walk a few laps to show your support, Relay for Life is a wonderful event.

If you would like more information or help with forming your own team, please contact Maria DeCarlo at maria.decarlo@cancer.org or visit her Team Page for the Monroe, CT relay. Maria will be happy to help you find your closest relay and get you started as a team captain.

From Maria:

I Relay because cancer has touched too many people in my life… so I decided to do something about it. I formed a team (for the Monroe, CT Relay) last year, just to get family and friends to come and see what it was all about. To my surprise, we raised close to $2,000.00, and had the best time doing it. So, we’re back for a second season. If you’d like to check out my team page, make a donation or get involved, click here or email maria.decarlo@cancer.org

Thanks for reading, and I encourage everyone to get involved in your local Relay For Life event!

Level: This is a beginner lesson, but I will assume that the reader is familiar with the basic use of the Flash software including stage, timeline, drawing tools, property window, etc.

Version: I will be using Flash CS3 and AS2 (athough tut is compatible with earlier versions of Flash) and instructions are for the Mac. Windows users would use the PC counterparts for specific instructions on Flash Menu/Shortcut instuctions.

Description: The fifth part of a Flash tutorial on making a Flash game similar to the old BreakOut game for Atari. In previous parts, we created the movement for the paddle and the ball, set up the bricks and the script for collisions, added scores to our Flash game, and in our last tutorial, we set it up to go to a “You Win” screen. In this tutorial, we will set up a players “lives”, as well as what will happen when the player runs out of lives.

Demo:

(Refresh page if you don’t see the ball animation)

Let’s get started!

Let’s open up our Flash files from Part 4 of this game tutorial. While it’s not necessary, you may want to do a “Save As” and give your document a new name (“breakthru_game5.fla”). The reason you may want to do this is it might make it easier to review each part of the Flash tutorial later.

In our last tutorial, we set our Flash game to go to a new frame when the player “wins” the game (or clears the board). Now, we want our Flash movie to change if the player “loses” the game. By “losing” the game, we simply mean the player has run out of “lives” (or balls). So, the first thing we need to do is set up some new text boxes to display our players lives. This is done similarly to how we set up the score text in Part 3 of this Flash tutorial series. In fact, to get started, we are going to do a copy/paste of the text we set up.

Click on frame 1 of our main timeline (Scene 1), and be sure your “score text” label is not locked. On the stage, select both the static text box (where it says “Score”) and the dynamic text box (the box with the dotted line around it) (Fig. 1). Tip: It may be easier to select these if you lock all the other layers except your “score text” layer.

Choose “Edit > Copy” (command-C) to add these items to the clipboard. Add a new layer above your “score text” layer and name your new layer “Player lives”. Click on frame 1 of your new layer and choose “Edit > Paste” (command-V) to paste a copy of your text boxed to the stage. Position these boxes at the bottom right corner of the stage, aligned with your score text boxes. Double click on the “Score” text on the right side of the stage, and type the word “Lives”. Now, click on the dynamic text box next to the “Lives” text and in the Properties Panel (“Window > Properties > Properties” or command-F3) change the “var” text field to say “lives” (Fig 2). Last step is to click on frame 2 of our “Player Lives” layer, and right-click (option-click) and choose “Remove Frames” from the menu flyout.

We now have our Player Lives text boxes ready, so now we have to add the code that will dynamically change when our paddle (player) misses the ball (player life). On our main timeline, click on frame 1 of the “actions” layer, open the Actions Panel (Windows > Actions or alt-F9) and add the following code below the existing code:

var lives = 5;

This, as you probably could guess, sets our dynamic text box with the var name of “lives” to display he number 5, where 5 is the number of chances the player has to drop the ball before losing the game.

Now that we assigned a number of player lives, we need to add some script that tells Flash to take away a life when the player misses the ball. On our stage, select the white circle (ball). You’ll remember in Part 1 of our Flash game tutorial we set added some script that reset our ball if the player missed the ball. In that same section of code (the if statement towards the bottom), we need to add some additional code to tell Flash to deduct a number from our “Lives” text box. Add the bold, blue code below to your existing code (green code should have been added in part 1):

if (this._y > 300) {
_root.lives -= 1;
if (_root.lives == 0) {
_root.play();
}
_x = 150;
_y = 100;

dir = Math.round(Math.random() * 1);
speed = 10;
if (dir == 1) {
var Ang = 45;
} else {
var Ang = 135;
}
xspeed = speed * Math.cos((Ang) * Math.PI / 180);
yspeed = speed * Math.sin((Ang) * Math.PI / 180);
}
}

Explanation of the new code:

if (this._y > 300) {
_root.lives -= 1;

If our ball y coordinate is greater than 300 (goes below the paddle), subtract our “lives” by 1.

if (_root.lives == 0) {
_root.play();
}

If our “lives” is equal to 0 (meaning we have no lives left), then play our main timeline.

Go ahead and test your movie. On start, you should see that you have “5″ lives. Each time you miss a ball, you should see your lives go down by 1 number. If your lives goes all the way to 0, you should see frame 2 of your main timeline come up… but wait, it still says “You Win…”. Well, we don’t want it to say that unless we clear the board, so we need to make it say something other than that if we lose, right? Well, luckily Flash makes it pretty easy to do that.

—- ads by google —-

Click on frame 2 of the “You Win” layer in your Flash file. Select the “Congratulations…” text box, and in the properties panel, change the drop down to “Dynamic Text” and in the “Var” text field give it the name “gameOver”. You’ll notice that when you change the text box to “Dynamic Text”, the actual text in your box did not change. That’s because you can input text to a dynamic text box in Flash and have it display in your movie, but because it’s “dynamic” you can modify it using ActionScript code. So, since if the player wins, we want this text to read “Congratulations…” we will leave this. But, if the Player loses, we need it to say something else. We’ll add that code now.

Click on frame 2 of your “actions” layer, open your Actions Panel and add the following code below the existing code:

if (_root.lives == 0) {
gameOver = “<p align=’center’>Sorry, you lose! <br><br>Your Final Score Is:</p>”;
}

What this says is if our player lives is equal to zero, our dynamic text box should insert the text between the quotation marks. But hold on a minute… what’s with all the extra text here? Well, if your familiar with HTML code, you should recognize this as HTML markup language. That’s right, Flash can render HTML text in a dynamic text field! But, for this to happen, we need to tell our text box to render HTML code.

Click on frame 2 of the “You Win” layer, and select the top dynamic text box. In the Properties Panel, click on the “Render Text as HTML” button (the button with the angle brackets (<>) on it (Fig 3).

That’s it! I must say our game is looking pretty good right now, don’t you agree? We have our basic challenge of bouncing a ball into multiple bricks, we can keep score, and now we only have a certain amount of chances in order to accomplish our goal. Pretty cool. While this game seems pretty complete, there’s so much more we can do to this game, including adding a start screen, adding additional levels and making different skill levels. Study up on these tutorials, and hopefully you can figure out how to do some of these things yourself, but if not, check back soon as I plan to cover all of these steps in future tutorials!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you were able to follow along and create your own Flash game, and I also hope that they have given you a nice little primer for Flash game development. Good luck and don’t forget to check back soon to expand on our Flash Breakout Game!

Source files (Flash 8): Flash Tutorial: Breakthru Flash Game Part 5

Probably will be a little slow going for a while, have a lot of ideas just need to get them down on paper. Hopefully I will be able to start posting design tutorials and helpful resources here.

First time using WordPress, finding it pretty easy to do. Playing around in the CSS and customizing the theme to match the site has been a challenge, but definitely a good learning experience. Like I said, I have some more ideas, so hopefully I will get some more going and be able to work more with WordPress.

Check back soon to see what’s going on!