🚀 This Week's Hacks: How smiling watch faces lead to 95% higher CVR 🙂

#1. Increase CVR by 95% using the Human Likeness Effect in ads

A research paper from back in 2018 about print ads proved a few points that are still relevant today:

- Ads featuring faces are better at catching the customer's attention

- Those ads get recognized more frequently by customers

- They improve brand recognition

This phenomenon (the benefits of showing faces or face-like images) is called the Human Likeness Effect. And here's how you can use it today to boost CVR and improve brand recognition:

1) Add faces when you can to your ads and website. For example, add a headshot of an author on your blog or an image on your homepage of people using your product or service. In one case study, an art seller swapped the photos of the paintings on their site to photos of the artists. This led to a CVR increase of 95%!

2) Get creative with the definition of "face". If including real photos of faces isn't in line with your brand, you can try creating likenesses instead. That's what Rolex did with their watch ads that showed the watch set to 10:10. It resembles a smiley face, and has been scientifically proven to be the setting that performs best.

3) Don't go TOO realistic. There's a spot called the "uncanny valley" where an image can be too realistic and unnerving - think, zombie-like. If you're using something besides a real-life photo of a face, consider avoiding enhancements that put it past this point of no return.

Source: Journal of Advertising Research

#2. Improve sales email CVR following this framework

PAS is a popular sales copywriting framework that stands for:

P: Problem

A: Agitation

S: Solution

Here's how it looks in action:

Problem: "There's been a huge increase in layoffs in 2023."

Agitation: "More are probably coming because the recession isn't even over."

Solution: "Check out these tips to make yourself an essential employee at your company:"

It works because you make people think about a problem. Then you make the problem seem worse. And finally, you offer a solution to this incredibly pressing problem.

Here's how you can apply it to a multi-email sales campaign to encourage conversions:

Email #1: Explain the problem

Email #2: Emphasize its consequences

Email #3: Share a story about a transformation/case study that used your solution

Email #4: Back up your solution with social proof

Email #5: Reveal your solution, show how it works, and include an offer

Email #6: Establish urgency with a time limit or exclusive bonuses

Source: Jon Brosio

#3. Reach 30% more users on Instagram Reels

There are a lot of mixed signals to weed through when building an organic social strategy for your brand. You'll see one competitor uses 30 hashtags in an Instagram post, then you'll keep scrolling and see another uses just 2. Or how about those pesky emojis - to use or not to use the 👉. Or 😊. Or 👋.

Luckily, a recent study of 65,000 Reels and 180,000 posts on Instagram offers some real insights into how to improve your Instagram Reels reach with some tangible tips. Here goes:

1) Use 2 - 4 hashtags. The study showed that Reels with more than one hashtag had 30% more reach and 18% higher engagement on average than those with none. The magic number seemed to be between 2 and 4 hashtags.

2) Write captions with less than 100 characters. Reels are menat to be short and sweet, and most users are swiping through them. So it makes sense that captions with less than 100 characters had the highest reach.

Source: Dash Hudson

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Required Reading:

Role of Dynamic Ads in Marketing

Dynamic ads can increase brand loyalty, improve visibility, and boost CTR and conversions. Dive deeper into dynamic ads vs. static ads - and why dynamic always comes out on top.