Removing the photo and signature from a lead page: +15.3% sign-ups
Test run byMarketingExperimentsResearch publisher
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsTaking the writer's photo, personal greeting and signature off a lead page raised form conversion from 34.6% to 39.9%, a 15.3% lift.
MarketingExperiments (MECLABS) ran this A/B test on its own site, which offered a free informational product.
The team expected the personal version to win, and it did not.
- Form conversion rose from 34.6% on the personal version to 39.9% on the institutional version, a 15.3% relative lift.
- The result went against the team's expectation, and common advice at the time, that a personal touch would convert better.
The change
The writer photo, personal intro and signature were removed.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A page about two screens long, written as a personal sales letter with a photo of the writer, a personal introduction and a signature. Visitors filled in a short form to get a free informational product.
Variant
Largely the same sales copy, but without the photo, greeting or signature, giving the page a more institutional tone.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- The photo, greeting and signature added length and distraction between the visitor and the form.
- A personal sales-letter style can feel like a pitch, while a plainer page may read as more credible for an informational offer.
- Visitors wanting a free resource may care more about what they get than about who wrote the page.
Caveats: Sample size and duration were not shared, and MECLABS called it a single test that needs follow-up. The data is from 2005.
Who ran it
MarketingExperiments ran this test for a MarketingExperiments test site offering a free informational product and published the results (MarketingExperiments). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on MarketingExperiments →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we remove personal sales-letter elements (author photo, greeting, signature) from our lead page, then more visitors will complete the form because the page is shorter and feels less like a pitch.
- Primary metric
- Form conversion rate
- Guardrails
- Lead quality or downstream sales
- Time on page
- Who should test it
- Lead-gen and B2B marketers offering free guides, reports or tools. If your brand is built around a known founder or expert, the personal elements may be the reason people trust you, so test carefully.
Questions
Do author photos help landing pages convert?
Not always. In this test removing the photo, greeting and signature lifted conversions by 15.3%, but results depend on how much your audience trusts the person shown.
Should a lead page sound personal or professional?
Test both. Here a plainer, institutional tone won for a free informational product, which went against the team's own expectation.