A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but it wouldn’t get as many clicks. When it comes to copywriting and conversions, spelling matters—and in the case of spelling eBook, ebook, Ebook, or e-book, it can matter a lot.

Let’s dive into the data and explore what it means for getting the most ROI out of your copywriting.

Spelling Matters: “ebook” Outperforms “eBook” by 125%

In one pay-per-click experiment, “ebook” got more than twice as many clicks than “eBook”—nothing else changed in the ad, only the capitalization.

One version of the ad read:

Creating An Ebook?

Another variant read:

Creating an eBook?

And other read:

Creating an ebook?

After more than 70,000 impressions, the results were clear: “Ebook” and “ebook” got a 0.9% click-through-rate (CTR, i.e., 9 out of 1,000 people clicked on the ad). In sharp contrast, the “eBook” variant got a measly 0.4% CTR.

Before we banish eBook forever, there are a few catches: this experiment was conducted way back in 2006, and it neglected to test another popular variant: the hyphenated e-book.

E-book vs. eBook: To Hyphenate or Not to Hyphenate?

Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on one experiment—we can also turn to bigger data sets and the opinion of experts.

According to Google Trends, which measures relative search traffic over time, ebook or eBook has always been a lot more popular than e-book.

Similarly, Google nGram Viewer, which searches a corpus of English books, shows that eBook is almost three times more popular than e-book—at least in printed books up to 2008.

What do the expert style guides have to say? Strangely, they seem to go against the popular, unhyphenated usage: the AP Stylebook, The Chicago Manual of Style, the Buzzfeed Style Guide, and The New York Times all endorse the hyphenated e-book.

Don’t be surprised if the hyphen falls out of favor sooner rather than later. Famously, email used to be commonly spelled “e-mail”—The New York Times only dropped that hyphen in 2013, though other publications did so years earlier.

How Small Details Make a Big Impact on Conversion Rates

So, what spelling variant should you use? In short, there’s no right answer: whether you go with the popular ebook/eBook or the elite e-book, you’ll be able to justify your decision.

The real insight here is how seemingly miniscule tweaks can have an outsized impact on your conversation rates.

Michael Aagard and Oli Gardner from Unbounce found that changing one word in a call-to-action button nearly doubled clicks: going from “Start your free 30 day trial” to “Start my free 30 day trial” increased the CTR by 90%!

Copywriting seems intuitive enough—you might even think obsessing over word choice is excessive or inconsequential. These results show why that line of thinking is misguided at best.

Copywriting is indeed a finely honed craft, and things that might seem small—a hyphen here, a different word there—can make a big difference on your clicks, conversions, and revenue.

Get in touch with MarkeSmiths today to learn more about how high-ROI copywriting can drive more revenue for your business.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” they say—but they’re wrong.

In content, branding, and copywriting, it’s paved with “not-bad” intentions.

And when it comes to conversions and optimization, not-bad website copy can bring the pain: fewer clicks, less leads, depressed revenue, and anemic ROI.

What’s the difference between good and not-bad?

Good copy takes a positive stance that stands for itself.

Not-bad copy negates a negative in an attempt to stand out.

It’s the difference between touting what you can do, and whining that you’re not as bad as the rest. Good website copy makes its own case, not-bad copy contrasts against the competition.

Here’s an imaginary example of good, positive copy:

Gain peace of mind with easy, intuitive widgets.

And here’s a taste of not-bad, negative copy:

Stop struggling with frustrating, poorly made widgets.

One leaves you feeling optimistic and at ease, the other riles and agitates your nerves.

The second example tries to differentiate the product, but doesn’t actually tell you anything it—it just badmouths the competition. Even worse, it conjures up negative emotions associated with widgets—emotions that can accidentally rub off on your not-bad widgets.

But don’t take our word for it: let’s look at the data.

Not-bad copy drops conversion rate by 18.7%

How does not-bad copy work in the real world? Let’s say your audience is seconds away from giving you their email address via an online form.

You know they might be hesitant to hand over their contact info after being burned by spammers, so you reassure them with a small note highlighting your privacy policy.

In a fascinating experiment, Michael Aagaard of ContentVerve tested this exact strategy. He added a note that read, “100% privacy – we will never spam you!”—a perfect example of “not-bad” copy.

Guess what happened?

Conversions dropped by 18.7%. Why?

It’s a classic case of not-bad backfiring. Aagaard hypothesizes that, “although the messaging revolves around assuring prospects that they won’t be spammed, the word spam itself gives rise to anxiety in the mind of the prospects.”

Even if you’re trying to distance yourself from a negative practice, naming that negative still gives it power. The reader may not have even thought about the possibility of spam before seeing the note—and now they’re on guard.

When Aagaard changed the copywriting to focus more on a positive, authoritative message—“We guarantee 100% privacy. Your information will not be shared.”—conversion rates improved dramatically.

Arguably, “not be shared” is still not-bad, but it doesn’t leap off the page like “spam.” Instead, positive, affirmative words like “guarantee” and “privacy” are more prominent—even the negative verb, “shared” is far more warm-and-fuzzy than “spam.”

Negative emotions can unconsciously taint your brand   

When you sling mud at a competitor, you’re bound to get your hands dirty. Raising the specter of a negative outcome gets it swirling around the reader’s mind—even when you pivot to your not-bad solution.

Again, don’t take it from us—there’s science to back up this idea of accidental contamination.

In a brilliant post weighing the light and dark sides of copywriting, Daphne Sidor refers to a fascinating New Yorker article by Maria Konnikova about the power of headlines. The article highlights a neuroscience study demonstrating that after reading a negative headline about a murderer, readers will implicitly view an accompanying photo negatively—even if the photo shows the victim, and the copy clearly says so!

Sidor then gives us a great example of how this negative, not-bad approach backfires in commercial copywriting.

“Just by virtue of appearing next to the negative headline, Dr. Jones himself is likely to be subconsciously viewed as one of the ‘deceitful’ dentists the headline warns against,” explains Sidor.

While the underlying copy makes it clear that Dr. Jones is not-bad—he’s one of the good ones—the headline screams negativity, and that taints our image of his business.

Handle words with care

That’s not to say you should never use negative terms or compare yourself to the competition; it’s important to recognize the reader’s pain and differentiate, and negative language can actually be more effective in creating urgency (a topic we’ll explore further in a future blog post).

But it’s important to remember that going too negative is more likely to hurt than help.

Our minds work in mysterious, fuzzy ways—when we hear something bad, we put our guard up and become more cautious, even if it’s a good person telling us all the ways they’re not-bad.

Good copywriting makes its case positively, without stooping to the level of lesser competitors. Instead of telling the reader you’re not-bad, take pride in the good you can do for them—your conversion rate will thank you.

Get more high-ROI copywriting tips for remarkable brand growth. Contact us and subscribe to our newsletter to learn more and get started.  

I’m so pleased to announce that in 2016, MarketSmiths will be releasing a series of Ultimate Content Guides: brief, highly readable resources intended to help marketing decision makers assess copywriting skills, benchmark pricing, weigh options, create strategies, and develop and execute remarkable, lead-generating content plans. Our recommendations encompass an entire universe of copywriting resources—and are intended to help you understand clearly and concisely the value of content, and how to bring experts strategically into every marketing scenario.

In full disclosure, these guides are late. We first conceived the idea in early 2015—and, as every company that engages in any marketing initiative can probably relate—it took us a year to see them to fruition. They are also the culmination of another year’s worth of experience—including more ghost-blogging, more collaboration with content marketing teams, and a case study in thought leadership that employs myself as a guinea pig (and is still in progress).

Titles include the following, for a general business population:

• The Ultimate Guide to Assessing Copy
• The Ultimate Guide to Hiring a Copywriter—For Every Job
• The Ultimate Guide to What Content Costs
• The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing

They also feature website copywriting tools:

• The Ultimate Guide to Evaluating Your Company’s Website Copy
• The Ultimate Guide to Turning Your Website into a Lead Generation Machine
• The Ultimate Guide to Attracting Business Through Your Blog

They take us through the process of creating content:

• The Ultimate Guide to Extracting Maximum Value from your Copywriter
• The Ultimate Guide to Re-Assigning (or Firing) Non-Performing Copywriters
• The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Thought Leadership Blog

Finally, they encompass every industry MarketSmiths writes for on a frequent basis:

• The Ultimate Guide to Financial Content
• The Ultimate Guide to Healthcare Content
• The Ultimate Guide to Technology Content
• The Ultimate Guide to Educational Content
• The Ultimate Guide to Food, Travel, & Lifestyle Content
• The Ultimate Guide to Writing About Luxury
• The Ultimate Guide to eCommerce & Product Content

Do sign up—and take full advantage of this value-rich resource. And do give us feedback:

• What content-related topic would you most like to read about?
• What are the most pressing content or copywriting issues on your mind?

Sign up here to receive notifications—and links to download new guides.

In this installment of MarketSmiths’ Badvertising, we look at what happens when your copy editor falls asleep at the keyboard. As usual, do not try this at home!

The Scottish Labour Party’s Marketing Misspell

It wasn’t supposed to go like this. In October 2015, the Scottish arm of Britain’s Labour Party released a promotional video for its 2015 conference in Perth.

The theme? It’s “Time To Take A Fresh Look” at next year’s Scottish Parliament elections. For months, Labour leader Kezia Dugdale had hammered home the party’s complaints about the Scottish National Party’s poor record on education.

And then this came on screen:

 

Ouch. Just goes to show that you can’t take your video’s copywriting for granted. But surely no one will make hay from such a small typo, right?

Social Media Has a Field Day

As one can imagine, social media went crazy on the typo and the video went viral—for all the wrong reasons. Twitter went a-flitter with comments ranging from “Remember, the independence referendum was a once in a genertaion event,” to “It took precisely 98 minutes from the start of #ScotLab15 [Scottish Labour] for the first f##k-up. Great stuff.”

Even the Scottish National Party’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon, joined in on the fun.

Unsurprisingly, the video was quickly removed.

Small Mistakes, Big Problems

Whether it’s a major political party or a commercial business, people perceive you based on the image you project both online and off. Often, it’s the small mistakes—like typos, grammatical errors, or other issues—that detract from your larger marketing message, sending a negative perception and causing big problems.

Scottish Labour’s message was almost undone before it even started by the simple reversal of two letters. It made the party appear silly and inconsequential.

It’s important to always project the best image—always have another pair of eyes look at your materials before you publish.

Consolation Prize

Whatever the outcome of the election, Labour supporters did take solace in one bit of silver lining from the video’s copywriting blunder. Thanks to the notorious typo, the hashtag #ScotLab15 trended heavily on Twitter in the UK.

Brvao. I mean, bravo.