In this NXNE session, Dr. Brian Cugelman, a researcher and consultant with AlterSpark, will show you how to leverage persuasive psychology to design websites that are more engaging, higher converting, and better able to retain users. This workshop includes a blend of theory on the science of persuasive technology, visual examples, and an overview of tools commonly used to design higher converting websites.

1. PSYCHOLOGY OF CONVERSION
RATE OPTIMIZATION
www.alterspark.com
Brian Cugelman, PhD

2. AGENDA
1. Your presenter: Brian Cugelman, PhD
2. Persuasive psychology and technology
3. Persuasive architectures
4. The persuasive communication model
5. Optimization experiments
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3. YOUR PRESENTER: BRIAN CUGELMAN, PHD
 PhD and published scientist on
digital behaviour change
 Corporate and group training
 Conversion rate optimization
consulting
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@cugelman

4. © Copyright 2013 | Brian Cugelman, PhD | AlterSpark Corp.
PERSUASIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND
TECHNOLOGY
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5. 5
BEHAVIOUR CHANGE TECHNOLOGIES

6. WHAT IS BEHAVIOUR CHANGE TECHNOLOGY?
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BJ Fogg
Technology Persuasion
Persuasive
Technology
Websites
Mobile phones
Video games
Software
Virtual reality
Fitness tech
Shifting beliefs
Attitude change
Behaviour change
Motivation
Compliance

7. HOW DOES CHANGE WORK?
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Belief Attitude Behaviour
Start a new good habit + + +
Remove an old bad habit -  - -
Increase existing good habits   
Decrease existing bad habits   
Prevent bad from starting

8. © Copyright 2013 | Brian Cugelman, PhD | AlterSpark Corp.
PERSUASIVE ARCHITECTURES
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9. HOW WAITERS CAN INCREASE TIPS
• Satisfying customers’ needs
• Building trust through honest advice
• Making a personal connection
• Being liked
• Doing favours
• Target marketing
• Sex appeal
• Making tipping easy, and forcing higher tips
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10. WITH A DEPENDENT VARIABLE, WE ALL FIGURE OUT THE
PSYCHOLOGY OF INFLUENCE
In person
• Service industry: tips
• Comedians: laughs or boos
• Authors: public reaction
• Sales person: Sales or door
in face
Online
• E-commerce: sales funnel
• Social media campaigns:
buzz metrics
• Software developers:
downloads, support calls
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11. EVIDENCE-BASED BEHAVIOURAL MEDICINE
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Dose
Active Ingredients
If your technology were a medicine,
would its ingredients act like vitamins or addictive drugs?

12. INGREDIENTS OF HEALTH BEHAVIOUR CHANGE TECH
CUGELMAN, B., THELWALL, M., & DAWES, P. (2011) Online interventions for social marketing health behavior change
campaigns: A meta-analysis of psychological architectures and adherence factors. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 13(1),
e17. http://www.jmir.org/2011/1/e17/
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EffectSize(d)
Interventions(%)

13. INGREDIENTS
• Ability
• Benefits
• Costs
• Motivation
• Opportunity
• Punishments
• Rewards
• Self-efficacy
• Threats
• Triggers
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14. 14
Proposition
Scarcity and
environmental context
Social
learning
(norms)
CTA
Framing offers
Social diffusion
facilitation
Decision
making
Decision making
Source
Trust
Ethics,
morality,
and values
Source

15. 15

16. OPTIMIZATION: THE MIX OF INGREDIENTS THAT ACHIEVES
THE MOST IMPACT FOR THE LEAST EFFORT
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Number of Persuasive Ingredients
InfluenceCapacity
How do you know when you have too few or too many?
Too
few
Too
many
Just right

17. MORE PERSUASION PER SQUARE INCH
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18. © Copyright 2013 | Brian Cugelman, PhD | AlterSpark Corp.
THE PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION MODEL
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19. PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION MODEL
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20. TAXONOMY OF 50 PERSUASIVE PRINCIPLES
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21. © Copyright 2013 | Brian Cugelman, PhD | AlterSpark Corp.
OPTIMIZATION EXPERIMENTS
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22. OPTIMIZATION WITH EYE TRACKING
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If we want people to engage with ad copy
more, how could we modify this image?

23. OPTIMIZATION WITH EYE TRACKING
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24. THE BENEFITS OF OPTIMIZATION
Your digital products:
 Stand a better chance of impacting what matters:
beliefs, attitudes, behaviours
 Can predictably persuade/convert a percentage of
people exposed to them
 Can be scaled with somewhat predictable outcomes
 Can be translated to other media
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25. MEASURING SUCCESS
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Independent
variables
(Cause)
Dependent
variable
(Effect)
The causal
factors that you
can manipulate
The outcome
that is changed

26. INDEPENDENT VARIABLES TO TEST
Structure/style
 Layout
 Colour
 Editorial tone
Psychology
 Audit
persuasive
architecture
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http://www.my-landing-page.com
Headlines
Body copy, body copy, body
copy, body copy, body copy,
and body copy.
Photos
Calls To Action
Sub-section titles
Body copy, body copy, body copy,
body copy, body copy, body copy,
body copy, and body copy.

27. DEPENDENT VARIABLES
DEEPER IMPACTS FACILITATED THROUGH DIGITAL TRANSACTIONS
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Digital Behaviours
• Reading content
• Signing-up
• Subscribing
• Downloading
• Retweeting
• Liking/ Plussing/ Hearting/
Acknowledging
• Marking content as offensive
• Posting a question/topic
• Voting
• Commenting
• Sharing
• Tagging
• Forwarding
• Inviting friends
• Buying a product
• Bookmarking
Offline Impacts
• Changing beliefs
• Changing attitudes
• Changing behaviours
• Buying a product/service
• Making referral
Everything that can be counted
does not necessarily count;
everything that counts cannot
necessarily be counted.”

28. OPTIMIZATION EXPERIMENTS
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Control
(baseline)
Variation A Variation B
Conversion rate: 2% Conversion rate: 5%Conversion rate: 1.5%

29. TYPES OF OPTIMIZATION EXPERIMENTS
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Split test A/B tests Multivariate
Radically different ideas Testing different variations Many elements
2 x 3 x 4 = 24
A B A B C

30. IMPLEMENT EXPERIMENTAL VARIATIONS
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31. Run tests and assess results
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Nothing is good or bad without a comparison
You always need a control, which shows
how your technology is performing now

32. THE OPTIMIZATION PROCESS
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1. Define
page goals
and audience
2. Develop
hypotheses
3. Implement
experimental
variations
4. Run tests
and assess
results
5. Implement
the winning
ideas

33. WHAT’S NEXT?
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team@alterspark.com
(416) 921-2055
Sign-up for our newsletter
Learn about my course
Speak about corporate training
Discuss conversion rate optimization
www.alterspark.com
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