Intuition is seductive. No matter how often it disappoints us or leads us astray, we always seem to return to it with open arms. Then it betrays us again. And again.

In a session this morning at the Selling Online Subscriptions Summit, Flint McGlaughlin demonstrated the fallibility of marketing intuition with three recent case studies. Before presenting the results from our optimization tests, he asked the audience to pick the winners. Each time, the majority of the crowd selected the page that underperformed. In one example, only two attendees chose the page that improved results.

This isn't meant to embarrass this group of marketers. On the contrary, these are seasoned, savvy professionals who know the Web and their industries. It simply reaffirms what MarketingExperiments has found time and again with optimization: more often than not, intuition is wrong.

That's why we test, get results, and test again, ad infinitum. This basic but essential mantra is what gets the double-digit gains we saw in the three case studies (see them here: one, two, three). It also keeps our learning process on track when control pages outperform certain changes, or a good idea falls through the cracks.

We should be learning constantly, from our successes as well as our mistakes. That's one of the best ways to train ourselves to outsmart our marketing intuition.

Next week, I'll be blogging from the Selling Online Subscriptions Summit 2008 in New York.

This year's event will cover several topics, including: offer strategies, building subscriber bases through segmentation and usability, re-purposing content, and proven ideas for getting paid in a slow economy.

Please email me or comment on this post with your questions about online subscriptions. I'll try to get answers from our Summit speakers and attendees, and post the best Q&A of the bunch throughout the week.

And look for us to continue the theme this summer with a MarketingExperiments Web Clinic on optimizing subscription paths.

The same way the telephone replaced the telegraph and the Internet surpassed snail mail, email is running out of gas when comes to communicating with Gen Y.

Texting is increasingly associated with convenience, immediate gratification, instant results, friends, and fun. Email is associated with responsibility, work, relentless spam, and long-winded missives from boomer parents.

So I'm going to make a leap: If your business model falls into the convenience, immediate gratification, instant results, or fun categories (or all four of them), and you haven't yet added texting to your marketing mix, it's time.

Let's look at some hard numbers to bring it home.

Papa John's earned $400 million in online sales in 2007, and in November of last year rolled out a text-ordering service. Today, more than 20% of all sales come from online and text messaging, and profit from those channels is projected to grow by 50% a year.

WJBQ (Portland, Maine) just had its second annual WJBQ "Q Baby Idol" contest. According to a recent Mobile Insider article by Steve Smith, the contest drew 400,000 emails and 231,000 text votes last year. This year it saw almost a million texts and just 250,000 emails.

Mainstream marketers are also forging ahead with texting services as a primary way to connect with their customers.

Hearst Magazines has provided a texting option for its Gen Y CosmoGirl! readers for over two years, but recently teamed up again with ShopText.com to roll out text-based coupons, free samples, and contest entries to their Good Housekeeping, O,The Oprah Magazine, Redbook, and Seventeen readers as well.

Amazon recently launched its TextBuyIt service, which allows customers to enter UPCs and product names in their phones, compare prices, and buy immediately if they like the Amazon offer best.

Email obviously isn't in danger of extinction any time soon, but a recent study by The Yankee Group is projecting 1.7 billion global active messaging users by 2009. Why not start communicating with your future customers now via the channel they respond to best?

As Paul Golding said so eloquently: "Email is like placing a letter in someone's in-tray, whereas texting is like tapping them on the shoulder and saying look at this. . . ."

And if you need a translation of this entry's title, check out the links below, courtesy of lingo2word.com:

f UR nt txtN UR lEvN $ on d table

I hope you were able to join us for yesterday's Web Clinic on optimizing eCommerce websites. It was a lively, actionable session and we were sifting through attendee comments all morning.

(NOTE: Subscribe to our free MarketingExperiments Journal and you'll be notified by email when our Web Clinic content is posted online.)

Our optimization experts -- Flint McGlaughlin, Jimmy Ellis and Aaron Rosenthal -- plowed through a series of research-tested concepts, best practices and pitfalls to avoid with eCommerce sites and landing pages. They also performed a rapid-fire review and critique of five eCommerce websites submitted by our Journal subscribers.

We'll break out some of those sites and the specific recommendations in future blog posts. And if those sites apply the ideas, perhaps we'll get some new success stories.

Meanwhile, one key takeaway was the idea that eCommerce site visitors fall into two main categories: Hunters and Browsers.

Hunters already know what they want, and are looking for a quick, safe transaction, while Browsers need more convincing and a different approach to prompt them to make a purchase.

To be most effective, an eCommerce site must address the motivations and thought processes of both audiences, and take them both into account when developing pages, site paths and conversion funnels. That's the foundation that should be in place before the real fun starts with page elements and design using weighted objectives.

Keeping those two audiences in mind, here are five questions that will help to frame optimization efforts for eCommerce site pages:

1. Which type of visitor -- Hunter or Browser -- is this page trying to serve? (Consider the channels and traffic sources.)
   
2. What are the weighted objectives of this page?
   
3. How does this page stop the visitor and connect with them?
   
4. Does this page instantly communicate my Business Value Proposition to visitors?
   
5. How does this page attract my visitor deeper into my product mix as it relates to the weighted objectives?

When a site or page has these fundamentals locked in, it's much easier to determine a baseline for success, test changes to increase conversions -- and measure the results. Try these questions with your own eCommerce page and let us know what you think.

Want to have your website or landing pages optimized by our experts? Just sign up for the MarketingExperiments Journal. You'll stay apprised of all our upcoming Web Clinics and have the chance to submit your site for a live optimization.

(See optimized version, right, and earlier version, below.)

"Giving your suggestions a chance to show results, I waited sixty days since rebuilding the site following your webinar participants' helpful comments," Eric said. "Conversion rate rose from 3.9% to 6.6% (30-day results)."

"I should also point out that we took the opportunity to target our paid-click advertising on those keywords which were more relevant -- and cut out those which were not productive. That reduced our ad spend by 60% yet increased conversion 200%.

"In conclusion, design and delivery of the message is foremost and many websites would benefit from your work -- I highly recommend you for that."

You can click here to read our brief containing the recommendations Eric received. It also includes the extensive guidance five other sites received at the same clinic.

You're also welcome to join our next free Web Clinic on May 7. Our optimization experts will be reviewing eCommerce websites, making specific recommendations, and answering audience questions. If you haven't participated in one of our live optimization clinics yet, what are you waiting for?

You don't want to pass up the chance for a double-digit increase in conversions, do you?

But while copywriters are focusing on snappy offer language, and designers are worrying about typefaces and buttons, information graphics (like a comparison matrix) can get lost in the shuffle. So does the ROI that these page elements can help produce.

Our sister company, MarketingSherpa, recently reaffirmed this with a test.

By adding a comparison matrix (see image) to underscore the benefits of membership, Sherpa increased free trial subscriptions by 76%.

Testimonials to the right of the new chart and below the call-to-action also reinforced the facts, demonstrated the value of a membership, and helped relieve anxiety.

Why did a simple matrix table get such a dramatic response - especially when its length increased the amount of friction on the page? Because the eyes and mind process the comparison much faster than if the information was written out in copy.

Scan the matrix and the thought process goes something like: "OK, non-members get this. Members get all that. Wow, that's a lot more good stuff for members. Seems worth it to me. And this is a free trial? Let me get my credit card. . . ."

When potential customers are in a hurry, weighing their options and facing a decision, the best thing your transaction pages can do is make their choice easy, comfortable, and fast.

Tony Vacarcel, Marketing Optimization Manager for MECLABS, contributed to this blog post.