🔍How to keep people reading

Here’s the scenario:

2 Email campaigns.

Both selling the same $120 widget.

• 1 campaign has a “10% OFF” coupon

• The other has a “$10 OFF” coupon

Which one CONVERTS at a higher rate???

The answer took me down a rabbit hole…

Turns out the $10 OFF approach consistently converts BETTER than the 10% off approach.

But how could that be?

That’s less savings…

10% of $120 is $12… so better savings than $10 OFF, RIGHT?

The explanation is a little-known psychology concept, that can be a marketing superpower:

👉 COGNITIVE LOAD 👈

Basically this — how much work do readers have to do, to understand the point.

When you make the discount in “$’s”, it’s MUCH simpler (especially true for products over $100 in value)

Think about it:

It takes work to calculate 10% of a total number.

But it takes almost ZERO work to imagine a crisp, $10 bill.

The best part about Cognitive Load—it applies to ALL areas of copywriting.

• Open Rates in email

• Conversion Rates on landing pages

• “Hang time” for social media posts (hang time means how long people “dwell” on your post on the timeline)

If you aren’t seeing the results you want, cognitive load is one of the first things to look at.

Ask yourself: “How can I make it easier for my readers to get the point?”

Or: “How can I communicate this simpler?”

Simple sells.

Simple scales.

Simple keeps people reading.

Best,

Brett Erik

P.S. Every week I send an email to premium subscribers with templates, tips, and tricks on how to grow, scale, and monetize their social media accounts.

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P.P.S. Here’s one of the studies I drew these conclusions from, there’s a wealth of research on this topic if you want to learn more: