Marketing is Design
softwarebyrob.com
softwarebyrob.com
The answer to almost any marketing question is "it depends" and getting to the "right" answer for your situation can take lots of time and testing. This can be very frustrating when you're used to the relatively instant feedback that you get when developing an application.
The code either works or it doesn't, and you know almost right away. Not so with marketing, and that can be a tough pill to swallow.
Great post by Rob and thanks to rwalling for finding this and sharing. Using "marketing is design" as a mental model is a great idea and will hopefully keep me from beating my head against the desk a few less times in the future. :)
Ah, drats. I didn't guess right. But seriously, if you don't have a money-back guarantee, start your A/B test now. Its one of the easiest, no-brainer-for-software, works-just-about-everywhere techniques I've seen.
The greatest way I've found to learn about this is analyzing my own thought process when buying something online. You immediately begin to empathize with your own customers.
"commoditization of your offering, and a sign that your marketing department is not very creative."