Signups and Marketing Physics
I Rewrote My Signup Page Today. No Idea If It'll Work.
I spent two hours today rebuilding my signup page based on a framework I read about 20 years back. It might improve conversions. It might do nothing. I won't know for weeks.
But here's what I changed and why I think it might matter.
The Problem I'm Trying to Solve
My signup page for my LLMS.TXT generator listed features:
- 20 pages per analysis
- AI-powered scoring
- Dashboard access
Very informative. Very boring. I looked at it and thought: "Would I feel anything reading this?"
Nope.
The Framework I'm Testing
I came across Doug Hall's "Marketing Physics" concept years back and it stuck. The idea is that every offer needs three things:
- Overt Benefit (OB): What outcome does the customer actually get?
- Dramatic Difference (DD): Why you instead of alternatives?
- Real Reasons to Believe (RR): Proof it works
Most of us (definitely me) skip straight to features and forget the outcome part.
What I Changed
Old headline: "Solo Plan - $4.95/month"
New headline: "Stop losing customers to the competitors AI recommends instead of you"
Honestly? I don't know if that's better. It feels more compelling to me. But I'm not my customer.
Here's the full value ladder I'm testing:
| Tier | What I'm Trying | The Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Free | "Find out if you're invisible to AI" | Curiosity hook - make them want to know |
| Solo | "Stop losing customers to competitors" | Loss aversion - pain of the status quo |
| Growth | "Dominate AI recommendations" | Confidence - now you're winning |
| Scale | "No limits. Just results." | Mastery - for the serious players |
Will this progression actually guide people up the ladder? I have no idea. It's a hypothesis.
Three Other Bets I Made
1. Defaulting to Growth tier instead of Free
The theory: people anchor on whatever's pre-selected. If Free is default, they start there and confirm "Free is fine." If Growth is default, they consider whether to pay first.
Counter-argument: Maybe this just annoys people who wanted Free?
I'm trying it. We'll see.
2. Moving the form below trust signals
Classic AIDA says: Attention → Interest → Desire → Action.
My form was at the top. That's asking for action before building desire. So I moved it below the "Real Reasons to Believe" section.
Could backfire if people just want to sign up fast and now have to scroll. But I'm betting most people need convincing first.
3. Making "Most Popular" actually visible
I had a tiny gray badge. Nobody was going to notice that.
Now it's a teal badge with a star, ring highlight around the card, and a filled button instead of outline.
This one I'm more confident about. If you're going to recommend something, actually recommend it.
What I'm Watching
I don't have enough traffic to A/B test properly, so I'm just shipping this and watching:
- Do more people complete signup?
- Do more people pick Growth or Scale vs Free?
- Does time on signup page go up (engaged) or down (confused)?
If nothing moves in a few weeks, I'll try something else.
The Honest Truth
I read about Marketing Physics and thought "this makes sense." But lots of things make sense in theory and fail in practice.
I'm not an expert on conversion optimization. I'm a solo founder trying things, measuring what happens, and sharing the journey.
If this works, great - I'll write about what the data showed. If it flops, I'll write about that too.
I should for sure focus on A/B testing different benefits, but I'm not quite there yet.
That's the deal with building in public. You don't just share the wins, you share your flaws, gaps and struggles.
Building LLM.txt Mastery - helping businesses get found by AI assistants. Today was signup page experiments. Tomorrow is waiting to see if any of it mattered.