Do Pictures of Women Convert Better Than Pictures of Men?
After sharing the results of my “Point at Your Opt-in Box” test, one of my blog readers, Jay Jennings (from sonictoolkit.com) asked a great question…
Jay asked…
“I’d like to see the test results of splitting between a guy pointing, and a woman pointing. My hunch is the woman would win out, even if she’s not the “owner” of the site.”
Well… It just so happens that I have actually tested this exact thing several times in several markets. And what I’ve found is this…
In MOST (but not nearly all) cases, an attractive woman will out pull a picture of a man.
But… There is a TON of variation here in the results depending on WHAT you are selling and WHO you are selling it to. (And even WHO is doing the selling.)
In most B2C markets pictures of young, attractive women boost response. However, in many B2B markets, pictures of men (dressed professionally in suits, ties, etc.) pull better.
Also, I’ve found in several B2C markets where WOMEN are selling to other WOMEN, that having “too pretty” of a picture can actually hurt response.
This one has shocked me on several occasions now. My educated guess is that when a woman is selling to other women, having a photo that is “too pretty” can hurt the relateability factor. (Unless you are selling cosmetics or weight loss products… Then usually the more attractive picture still wins.)
Also, for what it’s worth…
In a couple “women vs. men” tests, I’ve found that in a few cases the women pulled slightly better on forced opt-in (squeeze pages) than they did on the actual salesletters.
So if your are selling something with a fairly wide, mass market kind of appeal… Go ahead and test a picture of an attractive woman pointing at your product, optin box or main call to action.
Then come back here and share your results!
Happy Testing!
Eric
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September 6th, 2007 at 10:19 am
[...] Another glaring discrepancy was in an email promotion we created for a dating site. The email used photos of supposed members to punctuate the points being made in the text, as many internet dating sites are wont to do. The problem with this one was that the female photos were all full-body shots, while the males were just headshots. When I questioned the reasoning behind this decision, I was told that “you know what men like.” And, apparently so does the rest of the marketing world. [...]
September 7th, 2007 at 2:39 am
[...] Well… It just so happens that I have actually tested this exact thing several times in several markets. And what I’ve found is this… (more…) [...]
September 7th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
[...] Do Pictures of Women Convert Better Than Pictures of Men? Eric Graham @ Conversion Doctor [...]
October 10th, 2007 at 5:13 am
[...] Interestingly, the woman must be attractive, but not "too" attractive, according to Graham, especially when the product is directed specifically to women. You can read his original post here [...]