Author

Paul Cheney 89 posts 98 comments

Paul Cheney, Senior Manager, Content & Marketing, MECLABS Institute, MarketingSherpa, MarketingExperiments. Paul is the Senior Managing Editor of MarketingExperiments.com at MECLABS Institute. He helps turn raw research into easy-to-understand content for MarketingExperiments readers. He earned his B.A. in English literature from Covenant College. Before joining the MarketingExperiments team, Paul wrote grant proposals and fundraising letters for a mid-size nonprofit in New Jersey. He has also worked as a freelance Internet marketing consultant and copywriter for small businesses. In his spare time, Paul enjoys reading, writing poems and dating his wife, Callie.

Copywriting: 5 Proven Discoveries That Strengthen Copy

Can You Write Viral Copy like The Huffington Post?

Paul Cheney Dec 22, 2014 3

After evaluating patterns from the top 100 most shared articles from the past year on The Huffington Post, we found what’s really causing their articles to go viral.

Conversion Marketing

Customer Response: The surprising reason why color matters

Paul Cheney Oct 30, 2014 4

Sometimes the simplest changes on a webpage can significantly impact that page’s performance. This MarketingExperiments Blog post covers a test of color variations on a webpage search box. The end result may come as a surprise.

Copywriting: 5 Proven Discoveries That Strengthen Copy

5 Call-to-action examples that increased conversion rate (just by being helpful)

Paul Cheney Oct 6, 2014 8

Effective calls-to-action aren’t based on a set of “best practices.” Instead, they should be thought of as an element of customer service. That approach makes the CTA about the audience, not the marketer. This post features five…

Digital Subscription Optimization

Subscription Checkouts Optimized: How experimentation led to compounding gains at the revenue level

Paul Cheney Aug 25, 2014 0

Complex or confusing checkout processes can negatively impact ecommerce conversion rates. A process that's not clear or logical to a customer can have them saying "yes" one moment, and "no" the next. Read on to find out the results of a…

A/B Testing

Stock Images Tested: Does ethnicity in marketing images impact purchases?

Paul Cheney Aug 4, 2014 7

Does ethnicity in marketing images affect a campaign’s performance? Besides being an important marketing question, it’s also an interesting social question. Read this MarketingExperiments Blog post to learn more about how one newspaper used…

Lead Generation

Lead Generation Test: How adding urgency increased conversion rate by 6%

Paul Cheney Jun 29, 2012 1

Simply setting a test up and running it can be hard enough, but planning a test so that you can actually learn something adds another layer of complexity to the process. Learn how HubSpot involved the Optimization Summit 2012 audience to…

Conversion Marketing

Marketing Intuition Contest: Which homepage generated a 331% lift in conversion

Paul Cheney Jun 27, 2012 11

As a valuable piece of real estate for any department in a company, the homepage must communicate many objectives. So, how do you best optimize it while meeting all of those objectives? Examine the two treatments and tell us which…

Value Proposition

Nonprofit Marketing: How a long, ugly page generated 274% more revenue

Paul Cheney Jun 15, 2012 5

Many #OpSummit tweets have communicated surprise at the idea of moving the call-to-action below the fold and still being able to get results. To help us all understand a little better where the best place for your call-to-action is,…

Conversion Marketing

What to Test: 4 sample landing page treatments from Optimization Summit 2012

Paul Cheney Jun 11, 2012 6

At Optimization Summit 2012, we will enlist 285 marketers to help us determine the best treatment for a live test. Get a sneak peek at the treatments proposed by HubSpot and our team, and gain ideas for your own pages.

Calls-to-action Tested: 3 words that increased conversion by 43%

Paul Cheney Jun 6, 2012 1

Copywriting doesn't have to be a game of hit or miss. Through testing, MECLABS has discovered a repeatable framework can help you consistently write effective copy. See the test where our team increased conversion 43% with three words.

Email Copy Tested: How adding urgency increased clickthrough by 15%

Paul Cheney Jun 4, 2012 1

Urgency is a powerful copywriting tool. When used authentically, urgency can be quickly added to almost any piece of copy for a lift in conversion. View one of our test where three words near the call-to-action intensified the urgency of…

A/B Testing

Landing Page Wireframe: Why focusing on ‘one variable at a time’ doesn’t work

Paul Cheney May 18, 2012 4

Testing one variable at a time isn't always the best approach to getting results. While the goal of a test is to get a learning, there is one way to get a learning and change more than one variable on your landing page at a time.

Copywriting: 5 Proven Discoveries That Strengthen Copy

Do question headlines work?

Paul Cheney Apr 25, 2012 13

We recently noticed a pattern for three experiments we used as examples of what not to do on your landing pages -- question headlines. So we began to wonder whether there was something inherently wrong with question headlines. Read on for…

Form Optimization: 3 case studies to help convince your boss (and Sales) to reduce form fields

Paul Cheney Mar 30, 2012 9

So your boss still thinks that “optimization” means making your site load faster. We get it. Here are 3 case studies in a Power Point deck to help you pitch the simplest of all optimization projects to your boss (and sales)...

Digital Advertising

Which PPC Ad Won? (Marketing intuition contest)

Paul Cheney Mar 28, 2012 16

We recently ran a PPC ad test for North American Spine in which a MarketingExperiments blog reader helped create the treatment. Before Dr. Flint McGlaughlin presents the experiment in our Web clinic, we're asking our readers to predict…

Marketing Intuition Contest: Which landing page generated more conversions?

Paul Cheney Mar 14, 2012 18

Think you have what it takes to predict the outcome of an A/B split test? Leave a comment on this post showing telling us which treatment you think won and why and you could win a B2B Summit Training DVD ($299 value) free.

Lead Generation

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Author

Paul Cheney 89 posts 98 comments

Can You Write Viral Copy like The Huffington Post?

Customer Response: The surprising reason why color matters

5 Call-to-action examples that increased conversion rate (just by being helpful)

Subscription Checkouts Optimized: How experimentation led to compounding gains at the revenue level

Stock Images Tested: Does ethnicity in marketing images impact purchases?

Lead Generation Test: How adding urgency increased conversion rate by 6%

Marketing Intuition Contest: Which homepage generated a 331% lift in conversion

Nonprofit Marketing: How a long, ugly page generated 274% more revenue

What to Test: 4 sample landing page treatments from Optimization Summit 2012

Calls-to-action Tested: 3 words that increased conversion by 43%

Email Copy Tested: How adding urgency increased clickthrough by 15%

Landing Page Wireframe: Why focusing on ‘one variable at a time’ doesn’t work

Do question headlines work?

Form Optimization: 3 case studies to help convince your boss (and Sales) to reduce form fields

Which PPC Ad Won? (Marketing intuition contest)

Marketing Intuition Contest: Which landing page generated more conversions?

Lead Generation Tactics: How testing can help you choose the best tactic for your business

More YouTube Views: 20% more video plays from one simple change

Test Your Marketing Intuition: Which call-to-action won?

PPC Mysteries Revealed: 7 Answers to your pressing PPC questions