Button Copy

Clay Collins of The Marketing Show has recently reported on a couple of very interesting A/B tests on button copy–that’s right, the legend on a button!–that made a remarkable difference in how many people clicked. You might think that by the time someone was ready to click, as long as she could figure out what the button meant, the details of content wouldn’t matter much. But you’d be wrong!

Test Results

The tests were for a button to sign up for a newsletter and a button to start a free trial. In each case, the A/B test covered the use of the word “your” vs “my” in the button. That is, “Start my free 30-day trial” vs. “Start your free 30-day trial”, and “Create My Account” vs “Create Your Account”. In both cases, the number of people clicking was substantially higher (increased by more than 1/3) for the “my” version.

The Explanation

Since there are two tests with remarkably parallel results here, it appears that site visitors prefer the button copy to be written from their point of view–in the first person–rather than in the third person. That sounds reasonable, because of course I want to start “my” free trial or create “my” account, not “your” trial or “your” account.