Tip: Leverage the endowment effect in your copy to increase signups

Prompting potential customers to sign up is all well and good. But you can boost signups by phrasing your CTA like they're already on board and simply need to claim their reward.

When Livongo tested leveraging the endowment effect in email copy, they increased their open rate by 25%, their clickthrough rate by 88%, and their registration rate (within a week of the email) by 120%. Not bad, considering that all they did was change the CTA from "Join the program" to "Claim your welcome kit", and reword some copy to match. The main reason it worked is that people value things more when they feel that they belong to them. Of course, there were other factors at play too (for example, claiming sounds easier and more rewarding than joining). But the endowment effect is powerful and this example illustrates the importance of giving users a sense of ownership — even before they sign up. That way, instead of being on the outside considering whether to come in, they'll already be in. And all they have to consider is whether to reap the rewards.