Archive for June, 2004
Apple, Conversions, and Usability Part 2
When you ask people about what makes something good, like the iTunes music store, they usually spew out simplistic and obvious answers. “It’s just cooler”, “They have the songs I like,” “It’s easier to find stuff.” But ask the same folks what makes it cooler, or easier to use, and rarely will you extract a cohesive answer. This is likely because we all have a lifetime of practice being critical comparing one thing to another, and very little practice questioning ‘the good’. ‘Good’ and “Right” are qualities we unreasonably expect without thought of consequence. Rare are the occasions where ‘good’ and ‘right’ are questioned about their motives or processes.
The iTunes music store is one of those ‘good’ things that seem elusive to our understanding. Even their most blood thirsty competitors are having a hard time putting a finger on it and duplicating it. Yes …the iTunes music store is GOOD. But why?
I could easily write a small booklet about the things going right in the iTunes store, but I only want to focus on two. One simple, and one not so simple.
First the simple….
Two words can make a big difference.
Next to each and every song is the price and an easy to read button that says “Buy Song”
Apple fought vigorously for your right to do exactly that…buy songs! They arranged it so whenever I click “Buy Song”, guess what happens? It downloads and ….boom!! Instant Gratification! No hassle, no required burning! My freshly bought song just sits there smiling at me waiting to be listened to. I can do whatever I want with it. It’s mine ….all mine.
Apple gets to do something none of it’s competitors can, they get to ask for the sale in clear easy to understand manner. And everyone knows that in sales, just asking for the sale closes a lot of ‘em.
Sounds almost too easy huh?
When I’m shooping for song I want to buy songs. I don’t want to ‘burn’ them, nor do I want to add them to playlists or radio stations…I want to OWN them with no hassle. I’m selfish that way, looks like millions of others are too.
It’s simple, when you ask a customer to do exactly what she wants to do, guess what she’ll do? I’ll give you a hint…two words…
Your website probably didn’t have to go though all kinds of hoopla and licensing arrangements with greedy record companies to have the ability to sell what you sell right? Maybe you could increase conversion by simply asking for the sale more often.
Are you asking for the sale in the right places with the product and prices prominently displayed, kinda like this site?
We’ll talk more about the second more complicated GOOD thing tomorrow.
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
Apple, Conversions, and Usability
Bryan Eisenberg, Future Now’s Chief Persuasion Officer, shared this little tidbit with me today.
The Internet offers a virtually frictionless way for consumers to buy; that means we must work that much harder to persuade and inform buyers since they are one click from your competitor across the globe. As a merchant you have to decide: will you do the hard work; leave it up to the buyer; or will you let your competitor do it? It’s up to you, the buyer is always one-click away from goodbye.
It reminded me of a letter I just sent to my favorite online music service Rhapsody.
A Letter to Rhapsody Online Music Service
To Whom It May Concern:
I recently signed up with your online music service and was tickled to find an added bonus that I did not anticipate. I am writing in hopes that you will advertise this and others may share my same joy.
What attracted me to your service was the ability to listen to and create my own ‘radio stations’ using your huge library of over 700,000 songs, what was even cooler was the ability to ‘skip’ over the songs that I didn’t like, now that is sweeeeet!
After only a few minutes of using your service I was jotting down new songs I heard on your ‘radio stations’ that I wanted to buy. Immediately I was able to find them in the iTunes music store, download them, and put them on a CD. What an impressive side benefit. Why don’t you guys advertise this?
The only thing that would make it better is if you added a feature that allows me to click on a song and then immediately begin downloading that song in iTunes? I believe this will be a popular feature for Rhapsody users.
As I am writing this someone just told me that I could actually buy songs and make CDs using Rhapsody. Well that is a neat trick! I never would have guessed that. You have done a wonderful job of hiding the prices for each song, and I always wondered what that little flame next to songs that says ‘burn’ means. I somehow thought it meant to get rid of the song, but I see now what you mean.
Next week I am gonna have my cousin, who is a computer programmer, come over and train me on how to make CDs using Rhapsody. I’ll let you know how it turns it. Best of luck and keep up the good work!
Musically Yours,
Anthony
Is it any wonder that the European iTunes Music store did 800,000 songs in one week? About 4 times the number of the nearest competitor! Is it any wonder why Apple has about 70% of the world’s legal online song downloads?
The music is the same, the prices are the same, so what is the big difference?
While their competitors work hard on adding differentiating features that users might like, the iTunes music store stays focused on a singular simple purpose, to convert traffic into song sales. With that goal in mind they applied their superior ability to build usability into the online music buying process. When a clear business objective is married with persuasive usability, the results are devastatingly powerful. It’s actually harder for music lovers NOT to buy songs on iTunes than it is to buy them.
This is what Future Now means when we use the word usability, it’s getting all the obstacles out of the way and thereby empowering the user to take the action you want them to take.
Next I wiill share a few Future Now style usability tips by dissecting the iTunes music store.
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
Wizards First Rule
Below is a real life email exchange between X-Gaming Customer Service (A Future Now Client) and one of their site’s visitors…the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.
—–Original Message—–
From: Customer
Sent: Sunday , June 27, 2004 12:08 AM
Subject: Bulletproof?hi i am just wondering if the x-arcade is really bulletproof
—–Original Message—–
From: Xgaming, Inc
Sent: Monday , June 28, 2004 10:39 AM
Subject: Bulletproof?Not literally sir, it is made of wood.
Herbert
Customer Service Representative
Roy H. Williams “The Wizard of Ads” explains the above interaction with far greater eloquence than I can. He calls it “The Wizard’s First Rule” and teaches it in his Magical Worlds Communications Workshop taught exclusively at Wizard Academy. You should go.
In the same workshop Roy also teaches a communication technique called “Particle Stack” which we used extensively when writing the X-Gaming home page copy. The copy has been live less than a week and we have already seen some nice increases in conversion.
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
Eureka! It’s the Killer App: a Conversion Rate Booster
We’re excited! The high spirits are palpable! We can taste the sweet smell of success and it’s better than hot-fudge sundaes.
We have the track record. Last week we counted them up and documented over two-hundred clients that have achieved a minimum of double digit increases in their conversion rates. The clients are even happier than we are.
What’s the secret? Is it something we keep wrapped up tight in a magical black box that attaches to a server? Is it something we can sell that your IT department can implement over a weekend? Is it some super-duper formula that we’d have to kill you over if you let our secret out?
IT’S NOT MAGIC!
A wise person once said that creativity is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration; similarly designing persuasive websites is simply harder work.
What a shame! If only we marketed to the lazy and the gullible we could sell them such a clever “black-box” solution.
We’ll have to continue to make our money the old-fashioned way. We’ll earn it!
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Written by:Jeffrey Eisenberg
World World Please Make Sense!
I have to admit this week has been a little disorienting for me.
First, they introduce a “C2″ version of a spud! Does that mean I can someday eat healthy french fries? I’m confused 
Second, I am thrown another loop when I read our nation’s leaders use really bad words. Who knew?!
Third, I find out that Dogs do actually play poker.
Finally…Gerry McGovern calls me a SALESMEN. I’ve been called alot of things…but a SALESMEN?????
The world just makes no sense anymore. Please mommy make it stop.
If you’re on the Web, you’re in sales
By Gerry McGovern
Everybody on the Web is in the business of sales. It doesn’t matter whether you’re managing an intranet, a government or university website. You’re still selling something; still trying to get someone to do something. What do you want people to do? How are you going to convince them to do it? Read more.
I guess I can take some solace in one constant, that all of us at Future Now are really really good at this ’sales’ stuff.
Have a good weekend, take up a new hobby, I hear surfing is getting interesting these days.
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
Web Analytics
Which best describes your company?
1) We monitor our site’s metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
2) We don’t.
If you don’t watch your sites metrics you probably fall into one of these groups
1) You think web analytics are too complicated and wouldn’t know what to do with them
2) You can’t afford web analytics
3) You don’t know which tool is best
4) You know everything and therefore don’t need this information
According to an article in Internet Retailer 24% of of retailers do not even know their own conversion rates, if that sounds like a big number to you keep in mind that last year that number was 66%.
Marketers becoming more sophisticated about web metrics, survey suggests
The importance of conversion metrics measurement is sinking in with more retailers, according to a recent survey by analytics provider WebTrends and eMarketer. At the Ad: Tech San Francisco conference last moth, a survey of 342 marketers attending revealed that only 24% didn’t know their online conversion rates. Read more.
Here is a little help for those 24% of you.
Group #1
Tools like WebTrends and HitBox provide easy to understand charts, graphs, and even training classes, making web analytics much more approachable. No more need to be intimidated by complicated logs and numbers. We can even help you sort through your analytics.
Group #2
How can you afford not to? We understand budget limitations and cash flow problems but the longer you go without knowing what is happening on your site the more likely you are going to need one of these.
Group #3
Get a little help sorting out your Web Analytics Options.
Group #4
Buy yourself a great gift, you deserve it.
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
Milk! It Does A Grocery Store Good
It’s 9:03 am on a Monday
The steam from your decaf ribbons skyward from your Styrofoam cup, you find yourself in the conference room at your favorite grocery store chain headquarters.
Meeting subject: Increase Sales
The Regional Veep Steps brazenly to the front of room.
“I have found our silver bullet! It is an area where we can dominate the other grocery stores, where we can be the best, where we can squash our competition. Ladies and Gentlemen I want to create the worlds greatest easiest and most convenient grocery store. From this day forward, our customers will be able to find the most commonly purchased items, specifically milk, right next to our check stands. Early consumer tests indicate we will be known far and wide for having the most user friendly, intuitive, and convenient store layout in the industry. Our Customers have been dreaming about easier quicker access to the milk cooler …this will explode our store traffic and sales. “
“Sounds like a wonderful idea”, you ponder, “In fact why didn’t I think of this? Hmmm maybe I should switch to caffeinated!”
On the web, usability is similar to product placement and store layout in the brick and mortar world. Future Now’s Chief Persuasion Officer, Mr. Bryan Eisenberg defines usability this way…
Usability- The ability to implement effectively the body of knowledge concerning the human-computer interface in order to remove any obstacles impeding the experience and process of online interactions.
Future Now was privy to a recent survey conducted by Jupiter Research that queried CEOs from some of the states largest companies to identify some of their biggest website challenges. “Usability” topped their list of concerns.
The milk snuggled up all cozy with the checkout stand rings like a wonderful ‘usability’ coup for any of us that make the dreaded trek to the rear end of the grocery store for a singular gallon of milk. And this ‘usability’ revelation is bound to sell more milk. At the very least 98% of respondents will scream “Hell yes please do it” on any usability test. (The other 2% don’t like milk)
But there is a problem with this scenario, Grocery stores must sell a lot more than just milk. Implementation of this idea would result in lower average sales and in turn lower top line sales. Have you ever noticed all the things you snag along the way to get the milk?
Usability is not the silver bullet to better conversions and better sales, but only one factor in the equation.
So what actually is usability’s role in conversion? The team will have more on that later.
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
A Wonderful Mess
Well, well. Aren’t we Internet worker bees causing quite a stir…again!
From BusinessWorld Online…
E-Biz Strikes Again!
The Internet has rewritten the rules for books, music, and travel. Which industries are next? Here are sixAs the Internet boom turned into bust, corporate America could be forgiven for allowing itself a small sigh of relief. When all was giddy, and the stock market giddiest of all, big companies feared the disruptive power of the Net. Look what happened to Barnes & Noble (BKS ), they fretted, as Amazon.com (AMZN ) changed the game of bookselling. Or how Expedia Inc. (IACI ) overran travel agents. No one wanted to be the next to get “Amazoned.” Read more.
But we shouldn’t let our dot com heads get too big, we didn’t really rewrite the rules of entire industries, we were just able to follow them more specifically.
The Internet just gives saavy customer centric companies a way to follow the rules much better. We are better equipped to do a superior job giving our customer exactly what she wants, when she wants it,and how she wants it. She responds in kind by tossing more and more of her cash our way.
And giving the customer what she wants, when she wants and how she wants it has been the only relevant business rule since the first cave-dude traded some firemaking flint for a slab of mammoth rump roast.
Dot Coms forgot that rule during bust numero uno, and if I can do anything about it I wanna make sure we don’t do that again.
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
I Can’t Do EVERYTHING!
When you are in the persuasion business, going under in the sea of a client’s high expectations can be a serious occupational hazard.
When businesses line up to ask us for help, we see thier eyes google with dreams of triple fold increases in conversion, the corners of their lips drool with possibilities of increased sales. But if doin’ this stuff was easy, everybody would be doin’ it right?
Can I help you increase conversion? YES It’s highly likely.
Can I help you be more persuasive in your online sales efforts? Absolutely!
But no honest persuasion expert can do the clients job for them.
At Future Now we have no shortage of companies looking to hire us, in fact becoming a client of ours means that you have to persuade us that you won’t be asking us to do your job(That among numerous other things). Our most impressive success stories come from clients that work harder , smarter and take greater responsibility for their own results. Does that sound like your business?
Conversion and sales both online and off are the result of a number of factors, marketing and the conversion process are only a two of them. The only two I can really affect, that of course is assuming you are doing your job too.
So what’s the clients job you ask? Simple…ensure your customer’s experience is all they want it to be and then give them more. (I said simple, not easy)
When Visitors Achieve Their Goals, Conversions Increase
BY Bryan Eisenberg | June 18, 2004Anything resulting in a lower level of customer satisfaction or a lost customer is a defect — a flaw in your Web site, sales process, product/service, or fulfillment.
When a visitor doesn’t convert, your site has a service defect. Your processes don’t deliver on promises to customers or prospects. Conversion rate reflects the effectiveness of your ability to persuade visitors to take action, and customer satisfaction. The only way to achieve your goals is if your visitors first achieve theirs.
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Written by:Persuasion Architects
Are You Using the Words Your Customers Are Using?
Understanding the keywords and trigger words your customers would use is essential to your ability to persuade
Numbers and words, numbers and words. Imagine Jiminy Cricket on your shoulder whispering that in your ear. Or, if you’re not keen on crickets, imagine the Dallas Cheerleaders waving their pom poms as they chant that mantra over and over.
Why? Because as we say around here, numbers and words are pretty much the Alpha and Omega of ebusiness. What’s it all about, Alfie? You got it … numbers and words.
Last time we talked at length about metrics, specifically your Key Performance Indicators. Numbers. Now I want to look at words, the special words that relate to you and your business. Except I’m not interested in the words you would use to describe yourself, your products or your services. I’m interested in the words your potential visitors would use. And oddly enough, they don’t always call stuff what you’d call it.
Why should you care about the words your potential visitors use?
Read the rest of this article.
Read the entire newsletter: Volume 94
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Written by:The Grok
