I’m reserving my final opinion on the Dell blogging experiment. I’ll give them a few months to see if the net effect of publishing their blog is positive or not. I don’t expect anything great from Dell. Their culture is simply too focused on numbers over people, too inward looking and creatively constipated. However, this experiment may open them up a bit and they need every little bit they can get. Craig Danuloff came closest to expressing my views in…

...continue to read "Dell Blog Provides Amusement"

If users don’t quickly see what they clicked on your ad to find, they’ll leave your site frustrated and may never return to your site or click on ads in the future. Here are some pointers for making sure that doesn’t happen:

Link to the page on your site that provides the most useful and accurate information about the product or service in your ad. Ensure that your landing page is relevant to your keywords and your ad text. Distinguish…

...continue to read "Landing Page Guidelines – Provide relevant and substantial content"

Waiting For Your Cat to Bark is now a #1 best seller!

Today we hit #1 on the overall book best seller’s list on Amazon.com

Wow! 

Thanks for the support.  Oh and if you don’t have a copy or three, what’r you waiting for?

...continue to read "#1 at Amazon.com"

Well we are extremely flattered that he mention both of our books. Here is what he had to say:

  Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? : Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing" ‘Waiting for Your Cat to Bark’ makes in interesting argument that simply tracking marketing measures to a Web site is not actually effective — it doesn’t take into consideration the reasons driving the behavior of consumers. The book conveys an important message: The consumer is in charge and…

...continue to read "What is John A. Greco, Jr., president and CEO of the Direct Marketing Association reading?"

Solve the dilemma of complex B2B sales and lead-generation processes with personas

Online sales are growing, but the Internet still influences a lot more sales offline than it does online! Think Persuasion Architecture is simply for sweaters and backpacks?Maybe you know WebEx? It’s a great business solution for powering online meetings , web conferencing, teleconferencing , conference calling, and video conferencing services. They don’t do shopping carts. The basic sales goal on the WebEx site is to persuade the customer…

...continue to read "When Shopping Carts Aren’t Your Thing"

The fact that your products or services aren’t suited to shopping carts doesn’t mean the Web shouldn’t be a focus for implementing your business strategies

The fact that your products or services aren’t suited to shopping carts doesn’t mean the Web shouldn’t be a focus for implementing your business strategies.In an emerging media and experience-based economy, the Web is the glue that binds a business’s multi-channel marketing efforts. Today, the Internet plays a critical role in how customers perceive brand, shape…

...continue to read "But We Don’t Sell on the Web: At Least 8 Things You Can Learn from Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?"

Everyone knows it’s cheaper to keep a customer you already have than it is to earn a new one.

For many businesses customer retention is key to profitability.

So when I ran across this potent customer retention tactic the other day, I had to share it with you.

...continue to read "Customer Retention Strategy"

Part one of this series explains why and how word of mouth gained supremacy. Now that traditional advertising techniques are losing potency and customers wield more control, what’s a marketer to do?

This column explains the three factors that fuel word of mouth and offers suggestions on what forward-thinking companies can do to fuel word of mouth.

The Three Word-of-Mouth Triggers

Recall the last few times you personally participated in word-of-mouth culture about your experience with a product or service. The product either exceeded…

...continue to read "Ruling the Roost: Word of Mouth, Part 2"

Sometimes it takes a good example from out of left field to show what Persuasion Architecture is attempting to accomplish. There’s a good article at Open Loops with advice on doing your homework before a job interview.

...continue to read "Persuasion Architecture in a Job Interview"

We are just 3 weeks into our book tour. Jeffrey and I have been splitting most of the cities because of all the bookings. I was the lucky one who went to Minneapolis. Even with a few travel delays and some intersting posturing by the hotel clerk about how "I booked a smoking room," seems so did the 6 or so people before and after me – however they booked on Expedia & Priceline – and they either dealt with…

...continue to read "Cat Tales from the Road"