When it comes to buying IM products - do you care about design?

Putting it bluntly, I see a lot of products out there that I would call hideous. Their functionality is great, but they way they've packaged everything together is quite the opposite.

Websites that want to make me puke, reading like a long ass novel, droning on for 5 or more screen heights, with the standard red and black text, rather than segmenting and properly structuring their site, so that features are in one place, testimonials in another, a CTA is visible and in contrast with the surrounding area above the fold etc.

User interfaces laden with buttons everywhere like an airplane cockpit, no real help notifications that tell me what I should be doing with a particular form field or button, and when the product breaks; there's no error message explaining what went wrong.

It seems however that in internet marketing, these types of things are readily accepted, and I'm not sure whether this is just because the users simply don't care whether they have function with form or function without form, or it's just the way that developers who sell to internet marketers build their products.

I'd like to know what you as webmasters and consumers at the same time think about design and form when it comes to internet marketing products.

What I would personally consider good, objective website design:



The creators of BaseCamp (37signals) are an 8 man company, yet their products are most popular in many of their fields. The founders wrote a book which has testimonials from the likes of; Mark Cuban, Tony Hsieh (Zappos.com founder), William C. Taylor (Fast Company magazine founder).

What I would personally consider shit, non-objective website design:



This is horrible. The stocky red and black font, reads like a novel. This is a piece of software, yet the seller feels the need to tell a bullshit story to sell it - at least I'd immediately call bullshit (pointers show why).

I've spent three years in internet marketing, and this is the norm. Seldom do sellers of internet marketing products go out of there way to really showcase the product their attempting to sell as best as they can, and instead seem to rely purely on the copy (which often smells like bullshit) to sell a product, even if it's a software product which actually has some genuine functionality.

I'm wondering though, if this is because such sites actually sell better (I doubt they do), or whether it's just because it's the norm and sellers are complacent about this type of thing (never really bothering to split test straight big block copy vs real structure), but buyers like the product and will buy it in spite of an ugly looking website/trash copy, or another reason entirely.

What do you as both webmasters and consumers at the same time think about the subject, and which of the two examples would you prefer to purchase from?

I like the second one because it looks converting

nethead01 said:

I like the second one because it looks converting

Click to expand...

But that's my point. I feel as though these types of pages were run way back when, and it's now just assumed that "they're converting". Or are you saying you'd rather purchase from the second because it looks converting?

i would buy from the second one, the first one looks like a business site or something

It depends on the target market entirely.

If you're targeting gullible newbies, the second one may work better. If you're targeting business-savvy people, you need to cut the hype and get to the facts. The fundamentals of marketing apply in both the cases.

37S, in fact, has a great study published on the long form sales letter: http 37signals.com/svn/posts/2977-behind-the-scenes-highrise-marketing-site-ab-testing-part-1 (formatted that way because I can't post URLs)

The two products in question here are totally different, and target different people. SEOPressor is targeting people who want to believe those claims. They are just telling people what they want to hear (not that I agree with that). Basecamp, on the other hand, is targeting all types of small businesses — these people, generally, will prefer something like Basecamp over the ugly-long-sales-letters.

I see you're a designer and can understand where you're coming from. I do agree with you that the first one looks better.

Just my opinion though.

I see the second type all the time and I immediately hit X in the top right of my window. It feels WAY too sales pitchy, like they've put 110% of their effort into trying to get me to buy something from them.

I hate that.

The first one on the other hand looks like they actually care about their product or service or whatever it is they're selling and I would take my time to click around and explore a little bit to see whats going on.

First one looks like they'd be charging for something out of my price range.

The second one looks like a Clickbank product or WSO.

apoorv said:

It depends on the target market entirely.

If you're targeting gullible newbies, the second one may work better. If you're targeting business-savvy people, you need to cut the hype and get to the facts. The fundamentals of marketing apply in both the cases.

37S, in fact, has a great study published on the long form sales letter: http 37signals.com/svn/posts/2977-behind-the-scenes-highrise-marketing-site-ab-testing-part-1 (formatted that way because I can't post URLs)

The two products in question here are totally different, and target different people. SEOPressor is targeting people who want to believe those claims. They are just telling people what they want to hear (not that I agree with that). Basecamp, on the other hand, is targeting all types of small businesses — these people, generally, will prefer something like Basecamp over the ugly-long-sales-letters.

I see you're a designer and can understand where you're coming from. I do agree with you that the first one looks better.

Just my opinion though.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I definitely get where your coming from. It definitely depends on the target market, but I would've those who've been here for a couple of years, i.e. neathead01 (no hate buddy, your opinion is your own ) would've pulled away from sites that look like they're trying to pitch miracles, and gone for the former option - hence why I put the question out .

Thanks for the SvN link by the way, I'll look forward to reading it!

EDIT: Ah, I remember seeing that page. Just to note, I personally think there's a BIG difference between 37Signals long form, and the second example's long form .

First one looks like they'd be charging for something out of my price range.

The second one looks like a Clickbank product or WSO.

Click to expand...

That's an interesting take. The first product has a free and $24 a month plan, while the second costs either $47 or $97 depending on the license type, so while in the long run the first is more expensive, the up-front cost is less.

And you're right, the second is a ClickBank product.

love all the 37signal designs - so easy on the eyes

leaving design aside, quick browse through makes it obvious how easy it is to get support (for the first one) - not so much for the second one - whoever wrote that likely moved on to another BS sales copy page