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Welcome to do this, not that, the podcast from marketers. We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode. We also keep it short, like this intro. Let's check it out. We are back for do this, not that. And I get excited whenever there are tactics that cost nothing. Take five seconds to try. You don't need to get your IT department involved. And. And they can increase your conversions by over 20%. It doesn't matter if you're a business marketer, a consumer marketer, a nonprofit marketer. This crushes it. So what are we talking about? We're talking about false choice button pairing. What. What does that even mean? And yes, big brands do this all the time. I'll give you a million examples. It crushes it. But if I said to you, okay, you're on this landing page, all right? And there are two buttons on the page. One button says, yes, show me the Playbook. And then another button says, no, I like wasting money. Which one are you going to click? You're going to click the one that says, yes, show me the playbook, right? Because you don't want to feel like a loser. You. You don't want to be like, no, I don't want to be like, I don't. I don't want to waste money. You don't even realize it. It's in your subconscious. But when you frame two buttons like that, you have this thing called false choice pairing. And button A sounds like you're the hero of a Marvel movie, and button B sounds like you're still using Internet Explorer. You're going to pick button A all the time. And so it's this idea of false choice button pairing that works so incredibly well and so many brands do it. Let me give you a million different brand examples, and let me give you the stats and how you're going to do it. Groupon does this all the time, okay, with their daily deals. You know, they'll have sign up for free deals, or it will say, no, thanks, I hate saving money. You know, app Sumo will say, get insane deals or no, thanks, I'm rich already. Dollar Shave Club uses it on a lot of their landing pages. Start my shave plan. No, thanks. I like overpaying for razors. CASPER the bed company get 15% off. And then the other button on that page is, no, thanks, I like bad sleep. How about Shopify's partner program? They have it where it says, start building stores. And then the other option says, no, thanks, I Don't like money. And it could even be for a conference, right? Digital marketer does it for their conferences all the time. Save my seat. And then the other button says, no, thanks. I hate learning new things. You will see it more and more now that you're a little bit more aware of it, but you're really not picking an option, you're picking an identity. Right. Button A is basically saying, I'm ambitious, I'm proactive, I'm a go getter. Right button B says, I fear growth. I enjoy chaos. I like wasting money. I microwave fish at work and make it smell like garbage all day. What do you think? You're clicking now? World Data Research has done a ton of research on this topic, and there's some really cool data. So, first off, false choice pairing increases conversion rates on offer pages. For business offers, it increases by 24%. Consumer offers, 18% when you have these two options. And that second button is kind of rude. Okay? On lead magnet pages, having false choice buttons will increase your signups by 22% on average. On free trial pages, 15% increase. Webinar registration pages and 17% increase. And newsletter signups, a 28% increase. And there's actually real science behind it. This is not some sort of TikTok gimmick or some sort of garbage like that. There's these two dudes, Daniel Kaneman and Amos Tversky. I definitely butchered their names. Whatever. They call this, the framing effect, right? When your no button says something like, no, I like wasting money, it's basically a version of loss aversion. No. People react more strongly to potential losses. Right. Or negative identity implications than they do to neutral phrasing. Your brain would rather avoid feeling stupid than gain something good, right? And so why this works so well? Nobody ultimately wants to be, you know, the villain in their own movie. They don't. They want to seem like they're smarter, they feel better about themselves. They're not wasting money, they're not wasting time. All the things. So when you're going ahead and you're setting up that page, right, that landing page for your offer, that newsletter subscription page, that free trial page. Right, that thing for your lead magnet, whatever it is. And it could be a regular offer, too. Let's say you sell a skin care product. Yes. Fix my skin or no filters are enough. It can be for anything. Could be if you're a nonprofit page. Yes. Help feed a family. No, I'll just scroll past. How about yes, I need. I'm for volunteers. Yes, I want to Help. No, I'm too busy right now. This crushes it. If you've never tested it, it's slightly fun to makes your brand stand out a little bit. And yes, all these big real deal brands do this. This is not off brand. This is just framing. This is called marketing. This is how you win. Costs you nothing. Takes five seconds, easy test to try. All right. I get so worked up. I always get worked up. Whatever I'm talking about. I get excited. I'm like, let's do it. Let's try it. I'll tell you what I'm not excited about. I'm going to get into. Since you didn't ask, this is a portion of the podcast where I talk about nonsense going on with me. So I'm turning 50 this year, right? I know you're like, really? I thought you were turning 70. So I'm turning 50 this year, the first week of April. And why am I telling you this? I'm telling you this because my family, they're all, like, hyped. What are we going to do for your 50th birthday? That's. I've been getting this question a lot from them. And here's my problem. My problem is I don't care. I never care about my birthday. I know that's not like, I'm not trying to be cool. I don't know why. I just don't care. I think because I don't like going out with a big group of people and having to spend an evening with them because I'm antisocial. So my family's like, what are we going to do? We got to do something big for your 50th birthday. They go, what do you want to do? Do you want to have, like, bring together all your friends or whatever? I'm like, absolutely not. So, like, what do you want to do? So this is what I've been telling them, and they want to. They want to beat me up. I said, what I would really like to do is find a farm somewhere. And I want to live on a farm for, like, two days. And I want to get up with the chickens and I want to milk cows, and I want to do whatever you do on a farm for, like, two days. Because I'm not, like a real dude. Like, I get excited when I change a battery in something and it works. That's my level of fixing stuff. Like, I'm the worst. I. It's not that I don't want to be able to do it. I'm just not good at, like, Stuff that people can do. I'm not good at it. And so I'm like, maybe I can go live on a farm for two days and just feel like salt of the earth. Like, I'm part of, like, you know, real humanity or something like that. And so I throw this idea out to my. My. My wife and my teenage kids. Like, absolutely not. That sounds terrible. Why can't we go to, like, you know, a spa or something? Like, I don't want to do that. That sounds horrible. So I'm in this pickle here because I think when you get to these milestone birthdays, the people around you care more about it than you do. And anybody out there who lives on a farm, can I come stay with you for two days and take care of chickens? I'll probably want to do it for 10 minutes. I'll probably want to leave because it probably smell disgusting, and I'll be grossed out. And, yeah, I don't even know what I'm talking about. But, hey, I appreciate you. Listen, leave this thing a review, please. That's awesome. It helps to circulate the show. And go to jschwedelson.com we got a lot of stuff going on. And talk to you later. Wait, the party is not over. Go to jelson.com because I want to do stuff with you. I want to partner with you. When you click on the button, partner with Jay, you let me know what you got going on. Work with my agency. Work with me directly. Get access to all of my free resources@jschwedelson.com and I got a book coming out this April. It's called Stupider People have Done It. And all of the net proceeds are going to the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Go on Amazon. Buy Stupider People have Done it. That way, you can help kick cancer's back, but with me. And if this podcast wasn't the worst podcast you've ever listened to, it might have been. Leave it a review. Follow the show. You are awesome. Go out there and crush it.
Main Theme:
This episode of "Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson" is centered around a simple, free, and instantly actionable marketing tactic to increase click-through and conversion rates: false choice button pairing. Jay unpacks how altering the wording of call-to-action buttons can boost engagement dramatically, and explores the behavioral science behind this effect. The episode also briefly detours into Jay’s humorous struggle with planning his upcoming 50th birthday.
Notable Quote:
“When you frame two buttons like that, you have this thing called false choice pairing. And button A sounds like you're the hero of a Marvel movie, and button B sounds like you're still using Internet Explorer.”
— Jay Schwedelson [02:11]
Jay cites numerous brands that utilize this psychology-driven button pairing:
Notable Quote:
“It could be for a conference, right? ... Save my seat. And then the other button says, ‘No thanks, I hate learning new things.’”
— Jay Schwedelson [03:38]
Notable Quote:
“You’re really not picking an option, you’re picking an identity.”
— Jay Schwedelson [03:15]
Jay provides conversion lift numbers from real studies:
[05:20]
Notable Quote:
“World Data Research has done a ton of research on this topic, and there’s some really cool data…”
— Jay Schwedelson [05:01]
| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|------------|-------| | 02:11 | Jay S. | “Button A sounds like you’re the hero of a Marvel movie, and button B sounds like you’re still using Internet Explorer.” | | 03:15 | Jay S. | “You’re really not picking an option, you’re picking an identity.” | | 05:01 | Jay S. | “World Data Research has done a ton of research on this topic, and there’s some really cool data…” | | 05:14 | Jay S. | “On lead magnet pages, having false choice buttons will increase your signups by 22% on average.” | | 06:40 | Jay S. | “This is not off brand. This is just framing. This is called marketing. This is how you win.” | | 07:13 | Jay S. | “Costs you nothing. Takes five seconds, easy test to try.” |
“My problem is I don’t care. I never care about my birthday.” [07:42]
“What I would really like to do is find a farm somewhere. And I want to live on a farm for, like, two days. And I want to get up with the chickens and I want to milk cows, and I want to do whatever you do on a farm…” [08:14]
“Anybody out there who lives on a farm, can I come stay with you for two days and take care of chickens? I’ll probably want to do it for 10 minutes. I’ll probably want to leave because it probably smells disgusting…” [09:30]
Jay’s main advice:
Test false choice button pairing today. It’s fast, free, fun, and delivers major conversion lifts across business types. Lean into playful, identity-based “No” phrasing to drive results.
Memorable tip:
“This is not off brand. This is called marketing. This is how you win.” [06:40]
Jay wraps up with characteristic humor, reminding listeners it’s okay to break the mold both in their marketing and their birthday plans.
This summary captures all the key marketing insights, the science behind the techniques, implementation tips, and Jay’s unique voice—perfect for marketers who want to improve results or anyone who enjoys practical tips delivered with humor and authenticity.