Response Up 1.5x by Changing Just a Few Characters of Text? I Attended the "Microcopywriting 1-Day Program"
Orecon's Takuma Yamamoto (known as "Yamataku") was holding his "Microcopy 1-Day Program" in Shimbashi, so I attended. If you're interested in making money online or work in the field, you may have heard of microcopy or Yamataku's name.
My impression after attending... to give the conclusion first, it was a very substantial seminar with lots of usable techniques.
So I'm putting what I learned (tips) out there.
For today it's at a bullet-point level, but when I gain insights from practice, I'll write articles drilling down into them.
- The secret to Uber's and Airbnb's business growth rates lies in microcopy. Example self-introductions encourage sign-up and, at the same time, help keep the service itself from becoming boring. In Japan, Pato, the "Uber of hostess clubs," is also putting effort into this.
- Button wording like "Submit" and "Click here for details" is out.
- That green is the button color with the highest response rate is old news. It stems from Windows XP's high share and its green buttons. You should benchmark against the buttons of tools your target users are used to.
- Red buttons unconsciously evoke "emergency, highly urgent actions," so their response rate is low.
- For swiping copy and colors, the magazines your target reads are the material.
- The poor user experience of a major mail-order company's own e-commerce site, symbolizing its steadily declining performance.
- Microcopy is greatly related to the business background behind it. "Free" is a power word, but it doesn't work for businesses targeting the wealthy.
- Click triggers such as a "money-back guarantee" should be properly displayed on the payment screen too. Users forget right away, like chickens.
- LINE@ messages are better short. Keep them under 500 characters.
- Not just microcopy — keep text within three lines. Text longer than three lines is stressful for users to read.
- Avoid "!" because it worsens response. Conversely, "?" gets a high response.
- Benchmarks and swipe targets for microcopy: in Japan, the developer blogs of (listed) smartphone game companies and the VOYAGE GROUP's sites; overseas, 1-800flowers.com, Zappos.com, Zendesk, Hulu, and the like.
- What matters is not "your own words" but "words familiar to your customers."
With microcopy, really small text changes or additions can change click-through and conversion rates. I think it's well worth knowing about and learning.
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