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Featured Posts

Nov 22, 2022

Where you should display your price

Scientific research found that we perceive prices as cheaper when they are below products (vs above), increasing sales.

Thomas McKinlay

Sep 06, 2022

Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

Give a note thanking customers for their purchase. They must be handwritten, but photocopies work just as well as originals. In experiments, they increased future customers spending 2x.

Thomas McKinlay

Jan 14, 2025

Bad news? Send AI. Good news? Be human

We don’t think AI has bad intentions, so we are up to 2.6 times more likely to accept bad news given by them (e.g. accept a higher-than-expected price).

Thomas McKinlay

Case study: How to boost marketing opt-ins

Opted-in customers are 26% less likely to churn. Here’s how to encourage them to opt-in for marketing communications.

Thomas McKinlay

Nov 04, 2025

Don’t over-restrict limited-time offers

Overly restricting limited time offers (e.g. too short time, strict refund limits) can reduce sales by up to 68%, compared to no offer at all. Try to keep them 1 day long.

Thomas McKinlay

Oct 28, 2025

Say who your product is NOT for

People were up to 48% more likely to choose a product when it stated who it was not for (e.g. “Not for risk-taking investors”) vs who it was for (e.g. “For a safe investment”).

Thomas McKinlay

Oct 23, 2025

Premium

Case study: Booking modules vs. inquiry forms

“Productized” booking modules on your website are likely to increase conversions and satisfaction compared to open-ended inquiry forms.

Thomas McKinlay

Oct 21, 2025

“Woman-owned” businesses seem more competent

Businesses that have a “woman-owned” label (e.g. on Google Maps) are perceived as up to 27% more competent and higher quality.

Thomas McKinlay

Oct 14, 2025

The optimal email marketing frequency

7 monthly emails is the ideal average frequency. Sending 4 instead of 7 reduced customer lifetime value by 32%. For best results, vary the number of emails based on purchase frequency.

Thomas McKinlay

Oct 09, 2025

Premium

Case study: The optimal donation page

How to design and write a donations page for a non-profit so that people are more likely to care for the cause, and donate.

Thomas McKinlay

Oct 07, 2025

Make your discounts a bit harder to get

Requiring a small task to access a discount increases sales (e.g. type a code, solve a CAPTCHA). In experiments, redemption rates were up to 59% higher.

Thomas McKinlay

Sep 30, 2025

Keep video ads under 10 seconds

Extremely short video ads (≤10 seconds) drive up to 40% more traffic and better engagement than 15-30 second ads, for a lower cost.

Thomas McKinlay

Sep 25, 2025

Premium

Case study: Optimizing a videogame page on Steam

How to optimize your descriptions, videos and images to maximize conversions for a videogame product page on the 3rd party Steam platform.

Thomas McKinlay

Sep 24, 2025

Special: How we would grow Tickup

How we’d use science-based strategies to grow this startup. A special case study co-written with Andrea Bosoni from Zero to Marketing. From positioning to Reddit marketing to optimizing chatbots and reviews.

Thomas McKinlay, +1

Sep 23, 2025

Rounded prices get more offers from buyers

People are less likely to make offers to buy, or respond to offers received, when they use precise digits (e.g. $1,525) compared to rounded amounts ($1,500).

Thomas McKinlay

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