Archive for April, 2005
How to Improve A/B Testing
A/B testing is a proven means to increase conversion rate. It’s not as simple as it appears. It’s more than simply testing two or more versions of Web pages, banners, search ads, or whatever persuasive element you can imagine. It also has limitations.
A/B testing, unlike the intuitive creative process, must be treated like a true scientific experiment. Many clients come to us frustrated by the results of their tests. Almost without fail, we discover their tests don’t conform to experiment design. Most just have two versions of an element at the wall to see what sticks.
Unless you’re one of those learn-the-hard-way types, benefit from our experience. Here’s what we’ve learned from seven years of trial and error.
Continue reading my column at ClickZ…
Related Posts:
Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
How to Screw Up Live Chat
Jack Aaronson does a great job in his column on ClickZ.com: "How to Screw Up Live Customer Chat (and How to Fix It)". This is really worthwhile reading for anybody using or considering live chat on their website.
Related Posts:
Written by:Jeffrey Eisenberg
Selling B2B Decision Makers
You sell business-to-business (B2B). Whether you sell paper clips or a highly complex, high-dollar solution, you must reach out to a decision maker. These elusive decision makers hold your transaction’s fate in their hands. And contrary to popular practice, selling B2B isn’t a mechanical, unemotional, linear, logical process.
To reach out and persuade decision makers, remember: decision makers are people. Treat them that way. Sell them that way.
They have identifiable motives, needs, and preferences. They have hopes, dreams, and goals. Their buying habits as consumers compared with their buying preferences as business decision makers may not be as different as you think.
Here are a few practical tips for making your B2B online communication efforts less stiff, more human, and a lot more persuasive.
Continue reading my column at ClickZ…
Related Posts:
Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Don’t Let Your Customers See Your Corporate Underpants
Maintaining the look/feel accross your various online efforts promotes customer confidence and improves conversion
Are ours showing? We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for an offer we don’t want you to miss (I promise, my usual article follows - scroll down if you can’t wait for the corporate underpants discussion).Maybe we’re overcome by excitement … or maybe we need our heads examined. Whichever it is – and it’s probably both – we’ve put together a pre-release opportunity for you to acquire not one, not two, but three copies of our new book, Call to Action, for the price of one (we’ll even ship them to you at no charge if you are in the US).1 You should see the look on our accountant’s face!
We’re doing this to thank our loyal readers and followers. And, as Roy Williams explains in his recent Monday Morning Memo, we want to orchestrate some major buzz.
Read the rest of this article.
Read the entire newsletter: Volume 109
Related Posts:
Written by:The Grok
The Curse of Choice
When the human brain can sift through dozens of choices in a fraction of a second, how do you ‘command’ choice?
And then there’s the talented, hilarious Sean D’Souza, guiding force behind New Zealand’s PsychoTactics.com, who shared top-notch tips with us right and left.
We have called the confusion that results from the online tendency to offer every single option you can think of to your visitors “paralysis of analysis.” And yet, taking any action on a web site is an exercise in making a choice. So how can you make it easier for folks to choose?
Read the rest of this article.
Read the entire newsletter: Volume 109
Related Posts:
Written by:The Grok
Call To Action Book- How To Improve Your Conversion Rate
Buy one book for $13.95 and get two books free plus free shipping: your net cost is only $4.65 per book.
When I read through Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg’s book for the first time I begged them to sell it for twice as much as they had it priced.
Obviously they didn’t listen.
They want this powerful informational mojo about increasing online results in as many hands as possible.
They are generous like that.
This hard cover book is a steal at the suggested retail price, but at only $4.65?
It’s offensively underpriced. You should take advantage. You should buy one and give(or sell at a profit) the other two copies to someone you know that has a website or works in an internet capacity. Offer ends May 1st, US only.
Don’t be surprised if you buy this book and feel the urge to send Bryan and Jeffrey more money. It’s impactful stuff, and I am not the only one saying that.
Related Posts:
Written by:Persuasion Architects
What Is Content? SEO and Conversion
So far, 2005 has been virtual blur of goings-on at Future Now. In addition to keeping our clients happy, we have had many things that have been pining for our time and attention. Thus the light posting here.
Of the many things going on, I was tapped to speak at the NYC Search Engine Strategies Conference back in early March. I was a panelist on the "What Is Content?" session.
Frederick Marckini of Search Engine Watch, reporting on the panel, sums up the great need for what we discussed…
How did the subject of "content" find its way onto the agenda of a search engine marketing conference? Because often, higher rankings in search engines go to websites with higher quality content that earn more links.
One of the most obvious, yet surprisingly overlooked, components of a search strategy is the creation of quality content.
In our search engine marketing practice, the number of companies we encounter that expect high rankings in search engines for Web pages containing pictures, but no text, amazes us. Attaining a top ranking in search on a particular keyword requires that the targeted keyword appear somewhere in the text of the page, and often it requires that the page contain some amount of text (read: content) far in excess of what the design folks think looks pretty.
Make no mistake, this law of search engine marketing is clear: less content, lower rankings.
As a Persuasion Architect, our stance is clear. Search engine spiders don’t have credit cards, so we never write content for search engines. We write content for customers. As a result, sites designed with Persuasion Architecture rank in the top 10 among the major search engines for a majority of our targeted keywords.
I watched alot of folks at the conference getting all giddy about the possibility of being ranked well on Google as if that was the most important part of the conversion battle( that excitement is obviously not exclusive to conference attendees). Great search engine rankings will likely drive traffic to your site, but if your site can’t convert your traffic into sales, what is the point?
You can get a play by play of what was presented at the panel and read the forum discussion that ensued. Mr. Marckini also outlined what was presented.
During the conference I also had a chance to hang with some of the members of the newly formed Web Analytics Association. Way cool!
Related Posts:
Written by:Persuasion Architects
User Interface 10 Conference - October 2005
Bryan and I are honored that Jared Spool invited us to present an entire day on Persuasion Architecture at the User Interface 10 conference. Have you checked out the preview site yet?
Related Posts:
Written by:Jeffrey Eisenberg
Judge Sentences Spammer to Nine Years
You can read the article for yourself. I’m not sure if 9 years is a just sentence. However, I wonder if it will deter spammers. I bet he won’t be sending spam from prison.
I’m not pro-death penalty but a friend had an interesting angle on it. While discussing a criminal on death row he asserted that the death penalty would deter crime. When he was challenged to present evidence for that statement he responded cofidently that death would certainly deter that criminal. It stopped the discussion.
Do you ever wonder why people hate spam more than junk mail?
Related Posts:
Written by:Jeffrey Eisenberg
B2C Vs. B2C, It’s all about persuading people
We hear it all the time. The B2C sale is simple, the B2B sale is complex. At the end of the day, whether you are selling to Joe Customer who is interested in a motorcycle or Joe Business Guy who is interested in a Zerox some factors will never change. To even worry about them is folly. Consider this…
- Joe Customer and Joe Business are HUMAN BEINGS both have dreams, goals, motivations, and buying preferences. How much different would their approach be to buying? Not as much as you would think.
- Mostly it is the product itself that really determines the complexity. Selling a paper clip is a B2B transaction, and selling a home is a B2C transaction. Which is more complex?
In our free newsletter, the Grok ,we recently outlined the critical factors to consider when developing your sales and marketing process.
Your business category is not the issue. The complexity of your sale is not the issue. Whether your sale is impulse or a considered purchase is not the issue. Buying into these notions as determining factors when it comes to your ability to design persuasively is thinking that will lead you down the garden path.
Understanding and managing your sale as a persuasive process is the only relevant issue. Read the entire article.
Related Posts:
Written by:Persuasion Architects
