A Day in the Life of a Persuasion Architect

Web Interaction Optimization Software

It's been fun seeing how focusing in on customer conversion rate optimization has become the 2006/2007 Rallying Cry for Marketers, according to independent research firm Forrester Research Inc. In a report titled, "Marketing Technology Adoption 2006," June 2006, Forrester interviewed 371 marketing technology decision makers and influencers, and more than 40 percent say their organizations "have plans to implement Web interaction optimization software by the end of 2007."

We are glad to see the market catching up with what we have been preaching since 1998 and are looking forward to releasing more features of our Persuasion Architecture MAP^TM suite of software and releasing little micro apps to make the software available to many more interested customers in 2007.

The Future of Consumer Research

No sooner than Jeffrey Eisenberg posts his rant about the state of consumer surveys do we get another authorative glimpse into the future of research from our brilliant strategic partner Michele Miller.  Check out what she writes over at Inc.

Companies like Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), Pepsi (NYSE:PBG), and Best Buy (NYSE:BBY)  now realize the methods they used to mine  for information in the past were often unproductive and inefficient. The pressure-cooker atmosphere of a group of strangers in an unfamiliar setting, combined with questions skewed to obtain answers favorable toward a product, is often a dangerous (if not deadly) concoction. Over the years, countless products that should never have been introduced made it to market, and vice-versa.

Today, major advancements in science, technology, and human-behavior studies offer new tools for studying consumers that are more natural and provide greater insight into what a customer wants. What techniques should you consider?  Read the entire article.

It's OK Not To Blog, Really!

Mark Healey's post "Follow The Leader" is worthwhile reading. He's correctly identified why so many people blog and why they can now take comfort in their decision not to blog any longer.

I'm hoping that the citizens of the blogosphere take note of their newly found me-too justification for not blogging. It will be nice to see the clutter and the me-toos reduced.

Internet Killed the Radio Star?

Contrary to popular belief radio is not dying.  It is, however, changing drastically.  What we are witnessing is the medium of 'audio broadcasting' being molded and morphed at the hands of a populice in more control of their choices.

Radio isn't radio anymore, it is now 'terrestrial' radio and it sharing more of it's audience (and revenue) with it's offsping; internet radio, podcasting, and satellite radio. 

Even as the populice is having influence on the radio universe many broadcasting sites remain irrelevant and downright yucky.  And of course 'terrestrial' radio is struggling to remain viable.  The answer to this? 

From Audiographics.com

Today, consider a few terms that will help; radio personas, predictive modeling, and persuasion architecture. Combining the three allow stations to build an online presence that delivers better results.

Building a radio persona will let you create predictive marketing that gives clues to how you should build your web site with persuasion architecture. Read the entire article.

  Interestingly enough, this conclusion came as a result of Bryan Eisenberg's 2 part rant over at ClickZ about the state of satellite radio's online efforts.  Read part one, then part two.

Barking Cats in Time Square

Thought you had travel far and wide, wait in long lines at Barnes & Noble book signings, or spend 6 figures in consulting fees to have breakfast with the Brothers Eisenberg?  Think again... or rather, just pop on over to the Crowne Plaza in Times Square NYC next Thursday @ 7 AM.  Bagels are on us (and our good friends at WebSideStory and Responsys too) but seats around the table are limited, so please do register in advance at: http://www.websidestory.com/promotions/eisenberg/register.html

For those of you outside of NYC, I guess I lied (sue me ;) you do have to travel far and wide... unless of course we're coming to a neighborhood nearby.

Two Ways to Get People's Attention

I hope by know everyone is aware of the traffic cost inflation problem. Even more so, I hope we are all aware how resistant customers are to advertising.

Even in Search Engine Marketing, we have seen many studies which show that people are less likely to click on an a PPC ad than a organic listing. This also fits in with the fact that people focus in on the active area on the screen and only glance towards the sides. In other words they are looking for content. Meaty, juicy, relevant content. What content has become the hottest content as of late? Why of course consumer generated content. It is a total win-win for everyone. Consumers get relevant content from the voice of other customers and retailers get content they didn't have to pay staff for and that usually impacts conversions positively.

Now imagine for a moment you could use all this user generated content not only to persuade and convert people who are on your site, but what if you could also use it to drive potential customers there. Sounds like a good plan, huh?

I think so too. That's why I am so proud that my good friends at Bazaarvoice have just implemented a syndication feature to the already pretty cool Bazaarvoice ratings and reviews functionality.

Imagine you are on the prowl for a shiny new video iPod. Go to Smarter.com and do a search. You'll eventually get to this page for the 30Gig Black Video iPod, click on the review tab or the link under the product rating and you'll see the syndicated reviews from Bazaarvoice clients Overstock.com and CompUSA. Cool, right? Their current syndication partners include Smarter.com, MSN (always one of the top converting search engines), PriceRunner and Froogle, with more to come soon. I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised that conversions on these clicks are very high (we've already seen a 60% higher than the average visitor on the landing page conversion in one analysis).

How likely are you to click on one of these reviews? Do you think your customers might? Any suggestions?

Picked up a copy

I really enjoy Seth Godin's blog so I ordered Small Is the New Big: and 193 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas. Have you ordered it or read it yet?

I just noticed that Amazon reports that people who bought Seth's book also bought Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing. Perhaps you have ordered/ read it. Let me know if you enjoyed it.

Stay tuned, for more PAPR news...

Today's leading story on ClickZ:

http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3623082

Anyone doing PR just may want to take 5 and read the article.

The Advertising Death March?

Advertising will always be with us.  There will always be products, services, and circumstances that will warrant the use of advertising. Still, there can be no doubt that advertising as it is, as it was, must and WILL change dramatically.   

It all compounds into one simple dynamic.  Customers are ignoring marketing, and today's advertiser is paying more for less return on their ad dollar.  The old  advertising template is broken, the carcasses of failed ad campaigns are piling up.  The success of our new book is only one indication. 

Another nail in the advertising template's coffin comes to us courtesy of usability guru Jared Spool, whose research also confirms this with a loud echoing shout.  Customers not only ignore advertising, they develop techniques to do so. 

Ouch.

Who can afford throwing more money at old school advertising and idly wait for their cats to bark? 
Volunteers? Anyone?

It's Amazing Even Harry Potter Sells Any Books

Jeff Jarvis strikes again. I know my brother Jeffrey blogged about him recently. And we reference him in connection to his "Dear Mr. Dell" post  in "Waiting For Your Cat To Bark?".

This time Jeff blogs about some terrifying statistics about the book market. Did you know that 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school? It gets worse than that. Only read his post if you want to spend the weekend depressed.

We know roughly how few books it took  for us to hit #1 on the Wall Street Journal's Business best-seller list this week. Are you as concerned about this active illiteracy as we are?

Dell Blog Provides Amusement

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 his post: "Blogging Into A Buzz-Saw : The New Dell Blog"

Nevertheless, the entire discussion has kept me amused. Don't miss out on the fun. Read Jeff Jarvis's blog post along with the comments; I had a good laugh.

What's fresh on my iPod...

Joe Jaffe's utterly fabulous, Across the Sound podcast- definitely check it out, it's a must listen to each week.  Truth be told, I only got through half the show today, on my race from Penn Station to have a conference call with a new partner doing some fascinating "usability" testing (I use the quoted term very loosely, but more on that later this week), but as I was walking in the door, Jaffe dropped this on me, and I stopped immediately.  I couldn't help but wonder, WWMBT? (what would Matt Belkin think ;)

Joe said (and in fairness, I'm sure he had help coming up with the idea but added enough significant value in his own right - I'm loosely attributing it to him here, because he definitely introduced me to it):

1. Data is "the sun rises at 5:12 AM"
2. Information is "the sun rises from the East, at 5:12 AM"
3. Knowledge is "If you're lost in the woods without a compass, follow the direction of the sun to find your direction"
4. Finally, wisdom is "Don't get lost in the woods"

I love it... and it's a perfect anecdote for the dangers in pure data reporting over the knowledge (dare I say wisdom) acquired from true analysis.

I love being on top of Ann Coulter...

Something tells me, her appearances on both Leno and Letterman will put her back over the top when it's all said and done though. 

Just the same, we're mighty proud to be sitting at #2 overall spot at Amazon tonight.   

Care to help us get to number 1?  We'd be beyond appreciative.  If you'd prefer to save a few extra bucks, rumor has it Sam's Club priced the book at $10!

Stray cats barking throughout the office!

Well forgive the shameless plug, but we're finally 100% publicly shipping our latest book Waiting for Your Cat to Bark: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing.  Amazon, BN and Sam's Club jumped the gun a bit, but we forgive their exhuberance.  After all, there's probably no better time to start shipping than when a book is recommended in the Sunday edition of the New York Times.  We couldn't be more proud of it, and the reception we've received thus far.  There's been far too much feedback to share here, but a random sampling shows podcasts, newspapers, tv & radio stations, and online reviews getting into the mix.  Here's a few of our personal fav's: (feel free to add your own ;)

• Craig Danuloff from Commerce360, leads an insightful chapter by chapter discussion of the book.
• Mike Grehan recently podcasted his fireside chat with Jeffrey & Bryan, and wrote about it on ClickZ
• The good folks behind 800-CEO-READ offer their thoughts (and free books)
• WonderBranding's own Michele Miller donating her own charitable dollars to inspire future readers
• Chuck McKay, of Advertising Made Simple, offers the Small Biz take on the value of Cat

There's been plenty of pub for the release, I gave you five, and in a variety of formats.  I hope there's something in there for everyone.  Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who's enjoyed the Waiting for Your Cat to Bark experience, and to those of you who haven't... what are you waiting for?!

Maybe it wasn't Al Gore...

perhaps it was Elmer's who invented the internet.  The web as glue is in full swing.  Observe, just this week alone:

1. For the second consecutive night, on a two separate networks, a tv show I was watching ended with a URL, and some additional, only-available-online, content.  We're not talking rehashed, repurposed, repeated highlights either- we're talking genuine, 100%, never-before-seen, FRESH CONTENT... completely free.  You think that traffic source comes any more highly qualified?   
   
   [Note: Sadly, in both cases the networks utterly failed to follow up the successful driving point (i.e. tv show) with a funnel point that leads the visitor into a scenario where some interaction can take place.  That sound you hear is the cash register signaling yet another squandered opportunity, the likes of which becoming even more critical with continual traffic cost inflation.]
2. FX unleashes a contest which collects CGM.  What type of consumer generated media, you ask?- the type that got Chevy in such hot water a few months back.  This one incentivizes submissions with a $50,000 check.  Oh yeah, and one more thing worth noting, they only accept submissions through myspace! 
   
   [Note: Sadly, because their site is 100% designed in Flash, linking to it, creating a buzz, and sharing the viral WOM becomes far more difficult than it should be.  Oops.]
3. Our copy of Strategy + Business arrived at the office offering a field guide for the new Marketer (yes, I did wonder if they'd include a reading list, and if Waiting For Your Cat to Bark would top the list.) and a cover story entitled "The Future of Advertising Is Now" (free registration required).  It's well worth the read, and a harbinger of things to come.  They predict marketing excellence in organizations who:
   
   
   • "Shift spending and management attention to digital media, and use those media to more effectively influence consumer purchase behavior.
   • Develop formats to promote interaction with audiences, especially their most likely consumers.
   • Create new research approaches and metrics that measure outcomes, not inputs.
   • Combine “above-the-line” advertising (TV, radio, and print) and “below-the-line” marketing (promotions, sponsorships, events, public relations) in new two-way, integrated campaigns.
   • Create their own branded entertainment assets and appeal to customers directly through them."
   
   [Note: As far as I know, they weren't intentionally referring to the results of planning marketing strategy with Persuasion Architecture, but it sure sounds like they were.]
   
   Did I mention, it's only Wednesday? 

To think like a Persuasion Architect...

start by studying Emotions.  Watch people.  Interact.  Communicate.  Experience.  Feel.  Poke.  Prod.  Ask different questions, look from different angles.  Sound daunting?  It doesn't have to be... and more tools are coming.