Can fun, slightly unprofessional text be good for conversion rates?

[PatrickGriffith]

I operate on a freemium model.  The three plans are currently called "Free", "Gold" and "Platinum".  Besides being incredibly square and boring, these titles are also meaningless.

I'm doing a slight redesign of my site, and the new (unreleased) site has a very fun, playful feel.  I'm also trying to make everything more streamlined and obvious.  I'm considering renaming the three plans "Boring Amateur", "Kick-Ass Amateur" and "Bona Fide Professional" on the registration page and simply "Boring", "Kick-Ass" and "Professional" elsewhere.  There are lots of places on the site where I have to refer to "amateurs" vs "professionals" - these tags would make that easier to explain. Easier = more sales.

What do you think about using unprofessional text like this?  Is it too risky, possibly offending too many people and losing sales?  Or is it a good eye-catcher?

I know the best answer is "test it."  But this is one of those changes that I don't want to have to put my users through too many times.

Thanks for any thoughts!

[MassivePrime]

Here's my two cents. I run two web sites offering the same service, one in the UK and one in Italy. One of the qualities most people remember me by from what I heard (and what I've been told) is my sense of humour.

Last year I decided to incorporate this in my two sites and the results could NOT have been more contradictory. The UK market seemed to respond better to my naming the services and membership statuses in a humorous manner than their italian counterparts. I actually lost two Italian clients because they took offence to having their membership status as 'Principianti' which in essence means newbies.

I want to add that there was no rudeness in the humour employed by either site, I simply did away with any formality.

Result: Perhaps some A/B testing would have been clever in hindsight but ultimately what I lost with this experiment I more than made up for in clients with a sense of humour!

[PatrickGriffith]

Good point on keeping it industry-related.

"High School", "College", and "Pro" would be the obvious, safe choice.

I'm going for something closer to "Little Leaguer", "College Superstar", "Professional".  I just have to figure out how to say it in a compact, memorable way.

[Boodreaux]

If it is a sports related site then there are tons of different terms you can bring to bear on the matter!  Sounds fun.

[Boodreaux]

Maybe name it "Toe in Water", "River " and "Niagra Falls"

or

Mild Sauce, Medium Sauce and Hot Sauce (with flames)

Boring seems a little too risky..for the little guys getting their foot in the water.  I am not sure but SEOmoz has me hooked to sign up however they did it. lol I start my paid subscription tomorrow and even though I now I am not a "PRO" it makes me feel good that I am moving in the right direction.  So you have to look at the pre-sale and the post-sale.  After a person buys something you don't want them having buyers remorse and feel "Boring".  Again just thoughts but maybe your campaign would attract a different audience with more cash.

[Copstead]

I would make it fun but keep them related to your sports industry.

[SEOExecutive20]

Yes, I usually take on every project with a different criteria.  Depending how important this project is for you, it's probably better you play it safe.  Let's take SEOMOZ for instance, which has different names for user levels and they sound professional and fun at the same time.  I would tighten it up in this way by balancing between professional and fun.

[PatrickGriffith]

Haha.  While that might work, I'm also thinking of making the change for ease-of-use purposes.  The new names, with "amateur" and "professional" already built into the names, saves me from having to include a lot of unnecessary text elsewhere on the site.

[PatrickGriffith]

Free-user conversion is really important for us because the data provided by the free users is what powers the paid memberships.  Without free users we have nothing to sell.

It's hard to explain in text how I want the word "boring" to be construed.  And that's my fear.

[stubby]

Looking at your site, I think you could get away with a lot.

I would be tempted to do something like:

"Girly Man Plan", then "Real Man Plan", then "Manly Man Plan" or whatever.

You would of course alienate the women, but I am guessing there are not too many there in your line of business.

Good Luck.

[SEOExecutive20]

I totally agree and that' why I clearly stated that it may decrease the conversions :).  I was just suggesting what I would do.  I guess I'm a little bit more of a risk taker

[blacey]

Smashing Magazine has a good article on price plans (granted its not about price plan names) but I thought it might be of benefit to you.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/10/13/pricing-tables-showcase-examples-and-best-practices/

[PatrickGriffith]

Good points.  The audience is mainly 18-35 year old males.  That being said, there are also a fair number of 45-55 year olds.

I suppose there is a lot of wiggle room between "Gold" and "Kick-Ass". Maybe I'll try to tone it down slightly while still being playful.

[blacey]

With things like this, you can't let you personal persona dictate what you do. What you want and what your target audience want could be two separate things entirely. This is why I said you need to take your target audience into account.

[blacey]

You need to know what to say and how to say it when using coloquioal (unprofessional) text on a website.

I agree with stubby MailChimp does it very well but I think their branding has helped them get away with it. They use a chimp, and as we all know chimps can be mischievous animals so maybe this visual cue gives them a bit more flexibility with the wording on their website.

They are still a professional company and they do supplement the humour and 'banter' (for use of a better word) with page upon page of useful and professional information. If used sparingly and used well you can get away with it and I think it can benefit conversion rates.

In terms of the plan names you might want to think of your target audience before using words like, "kick ass" but food for thought. If you website is targeting young adults then I'd say Kick Ass is acceptable, if you're targeting the middle-aged / elderly then I'd suggest avoiding it.

[SEOExecutive20]

The whole point of a freemium model is  to get lots of free users  to eventually convert into buying members.  Although, I totally like the new names for your plans, it may decrease the conversions due to the fact some people are big babies and may get offended if you call them boring.  Personally, I would go for it because I like to be bold and take the risk.

[stubby]

I tend to like it.  MailChimp does it very well (mostly after you sign up).  SeoMoz does it a some, but not as well as Mailchimp.

I might cringe at "boring", but in general I would say it engages people just a hair so they know you are real.