What does a visitor have to do before you consider her “converted”?”Uh, duh, Grok,” I hear someone say. “Like, buy something, dude.”

Bing, bing, bing. Confetti falls. The crowds cheer.

Nobody would get that wrong, right? Well … it’s a good partial answer. But the real answer is that most Web sites have multiple points of conversion. Dozens. Hundreds. Sometimes thousands!

“Say what???”

Come into my parlor.

Here’s what I’d really like to tattoo on the ebusiness lobe of your brain: Conversion takes place whenever a visitor takes an action we want them to take. And because it can only be the participant’s decision to take that action, we must persuade them. If you want a bottom line on doing business online, that’s it.

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People often ask me what I mean when I say it’s important to appeal to the emotional needs of the folks who come to your Web site. Like, is it really about writing extravagantly, in a fashion that suggests the emotions of the copy’s author are stirred up and yours are about to be next? Should we be in search of flamboyant prose?

It’s then I realize people don’t really have a handle on what it means to appeal to emotion. I mean, if you’re looking to acquire an excavator, how meaningful or appropriate is effusive, flowery language? Think it will stir you up or send you running?

And yet, however much they may rationalize the result, every single person who sets out to acquire an excavator will base his or her decision on emotions.

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