Can You Trust the “Science” of Optimization?
Fact: offering customers more choices kills conversion rates.
Fact: you can prime customers to behave in certain ways with certain phrases, images or ideas.
Researchers have shown it’s true.
Fact: if you give potential customers a small gift, you’ll create a debt that customers will eagerly repay.
Robert Cialdini wrote about that years ago in his popular book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
These ideas (and dozens of others) are so widely accepted that almost no one questions them.
But maybe we should.