A Day in the Life of a Persuasion Architect

Our Blog Has Moved: Click for RSS Info

Okay, so maybe one last post for those who rely on their RSS feeds...  It's not that we haven't been blogging lately.  Far from it!  We've moved to www.GrokDotCom.com with more fresh content and industry news than ever before.

If you don't subscribe to The Grok newsletter, you may not realize that A Day in the Life... and GrokDotCom are now one in the same!  Save the new feed at: http://www.grokdotcom.com/grokdotcom.rss

At GrokDotCom, you'll see Future Now's blog and newsletter have merged.  But we've added something special. The new A Day in the Life... section is updated hourly with select posts from thousands of our favorite integrated marketing blogs.  So, rather than scouring your RSS feeds each morning, afternoon, and night, try visiting today.futurenowinc.com first to see what everyone's talking about.  See you there!

(This post will self-destruct in 5, 4, 3, 2... )

The New GrokDotCom.Com

Good things are happening.  This will be our last post as we will no longer be publishing here on Typepad.  We are aggregating all our content in one place,  GrokDotCom.com .

You will now find our blog, our podcasts, our  newsletter as well as a few new goodies, all in one convenient place.

See you over at GrokDotCom.

For Immediate Release: Future Now Seeks Engagement Coordinator

BROOKLYN, NY - January 29, 2007: Would you like to work in a team environment where you can really make a difference?  If you are someone who can multi-task, stay on course while still putting on a smile, our dynamic marketing consultancy is the place for you.

Future Now, Inc. (www.futurenowinc.com) is currently hiring a full-time Engagement Coordinator to help support its vastly growing client base.  In this role, you will be the person who handles our inbound requests for services, playing a direct role in ensuring the success of our soon-to-be clients. You’ll also support the business development team, playing a direct role in generating new business.

Equal parts sales, planner, customer service, operations support and sometimes business therapist, the Engagement Coordinator is vital to our reputation for customer delight. Our clients range from Fortune 100 companies, to start-ups, to family-owned online retailers.  As such, we need someone who will be professional, candid, friendly and responsive to those seeking our help.

You will help us be great by:

• responding to new requests for services within the hour
• hearing potential client’s frustrations and documenting their initial perceptions
• articulating clearly the value of Future Now’s consulting products and services
• exceeding expectations with your reliability, discipline and attention to detail
• helping potential clients buy according to their preferences not ours; coordinating with business development to involve additional Future Now resources when appropriate
• playing a critical role in the success of our company and the success of our clients’ businesses—quite literally changing lives
• being responsible, hard-working, trustworthy, and generally fun to be around

You will excel in this role because we will:

• train you fully to meet the diverse demands of our clients
• support you fully with the resources of business development necessary to delight customers
• incent you to rise above and beyond with a with a career-making opportunity at a high-growth company AND
• provide bonuses at defined milestones based on overall delight of new customers

Salary: $33 - 36k plus benefits, and bonuses (up to 50% of base)

How to apply:

Write a press release about a professional experience which highlights your ability to be engaging, empathic, thorough, attentive, definitive and conclusive.

(Please note: All applications must be sent to [email protected]. Resumes will NOT be accepted.)

Minimum requirements:

• Verbal and written clarity; fluency in English
• 3 years of experience dealing with business-to-business customers
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Must have professional references  

Problems with Landing Page Optimization?

Every time I read a "best practices" guide to optimizing landing pages, I cringe.  I know full well the limitations and the biases inherent in what the teacher is about to dispel to the pupil.  Even worse, I know full well the pupil is likely to accept the teachings as gospel, and run off to begin implementation.  Honestly, I don't blame them- implementation led by a methodology will inevitably outperform pure talent or intuition.  However, the assumption in that last statement is that the methodology is based upon a framework that has been well thought out and proven successful.  How many methodologies do you know that live up to that assumption?

Given this, you can imagine my thoughts when I saw "10 Landing Page Optimization Tactics" from Larry Chase arrive in my inbox.  In my experience Larry's stuff is fantastic, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt, even with my low expectations given the topic.  You know what I discovered?  His tactics were really just principles, and in them were some excellent words of wisdom, as always.   Experiment with registration forms, and test multiple landing pages (see a theme here?) were just two of his stratagems.  To his credit, he also added *sample* tactics (following through on his chosen title), but more as clarification and inspiration than as implementation orders.

It's not all a love fest here this morning however, Larry did present what I'd consider to be the cardinal sin of Landing Page Optimization- keep them in the funnel.  Don't offer escape routes, as he called it.  Hmm, escape routes.  I don't know about you, but I'm hard pressed to think of a positive mental image involving escape routes.  Burning building.  Bank Robbery.  Painful (and long) first date?  Why do we assume eliminating the "escape route" is sufficient for visitors continuing the process?  Doesn't the X button at the upper right corner of the browser offer the ultimate escape route? 

Larry's not the first person to suggest this of course, and he won't be the last.  It comes from thinking about where you drop the visitor who clicks through your email or PPC ad as a page, rather than an event within a scenario.  You want one principle to improve your landing pages?- Don't do that.  Don't assume you can stuff your visitors into a linear funnel, and because there's no way out, gravity will pull them through.  Stop waiting for your cat to bark.  The online world is one without gravity.  In the online world, visitors control their own momentum.

AdAge on Viral Campaigns...

Scott Donaton's latest article over at AdAge touches on something I wrote a while back, after the Agency.com fiasco.  He astutely writes (emphasis is added):

As with ads in any medium, those that work are those that start with an insight, show an understanding of their target audience, and have an authentic, relevant connection to the brand. Those that don't smack of having been produced because someone wanted to do a viral video to please himself, his boss or his board. They're the commercial equivalent of YouTube videos of kids falling off skateboards.

I couldn't agree more.  Too bad the insight part is the key, and plucking those off trees isn't exactly a viable strategy in 2007. 

Email Marketing Can Be Sticky

Is it me or have you also noticed Amazon has been sending out many more recommended book emails? Their last one really caught my attention.

It started... "We've noticed that customers who have expressed interest in Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results by Bryan Eisenberg have also ordered Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide by John Jantsch.  For this reason, you might like to know that John Jantsch's Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide is now available."

John is a great guy. I had the pleasure of spending some time with him in Kansas City during my book tour. We recorded a podcast together. I'd have to agree with Amazon, if you found Call to Action valuable you should order a copy of Duct Tape Marketing.

Some Google Advertisers Cutting Spending

From Dow Jones MarketWatch...

Keyword inflation, low conversion rates sending merchants elsewhere

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A growing number of online advertisers are bidding a partial goodbye to Google Inc.

Frustrated by the soaring price of Internet-search advertising and diminishing returns from the ads they buy, mid-sized advertisers say they plan to reduce how much business they do with Google this year -- in some cases, significantly.

Last year, for example, eBags.com co-founder Peter Cobb spent between $5 million and $8 million to peddle suitcases, handbags and other carrying cases online. Google got 75% of that amount.

But this year it will get "significantly less," Cobb said. "The Google percentage has got to go down," he said.

In many cases, the cost of an eBags.com ad placed on either Google's own Web site or one of its affiliates now equals 45% of the price of the product it promotes. That's crimping the company's own profit margins and forcing it to look elsewhere to market its bags.

"We're testing print ads right now," said Cobb, whose company will spend up to $8 million on ads in 2007.  Read the rest of the article

The article continues...

Keyword search prices on many terms rose between 40% and 60% last year, according to advertisers like Dan Sackrowitz, chief executive of Bare Necessities, which sells lingerie online. He saw his Google ad budget soar 50% last year.

The problem is obvious, traffic costs are puffing up like a marshmallow in a microwave and advertisers are having a hard time finding ways to increase traffic and lower costs.  Simply put, Google advertisers are hooked.

Instead of looking for ways to increase return on traffic investment, the average marketer will  look for another traffic fix.  We've said before that the marketing battleground of the future is not traffic acquisition, it will be traffic conversion. 

The exceptional marketer is looking for ways to optimize their keyword and landing page conversion rates. 

Optimizing landing pages is something we've been doing with our clients for quite some time.  We are a premier channel partner with Google and their new testing platform Google Website Optimizer beta.  If you are interesting in our landing page optimization coaching service, we are going to take on a few  testers over the next few weeks to participate in this beta with us.  Contact us if you want to know more.

AdAge: Waiting for Your Cat... is #5 in '06

What a great end to 2006!  Not only did Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing reach #1 on the Wall Street Journal list, as well as charting big on the New York Times, USA Today, BusinessWeek, and Amazon bestsellers lists, but now Advertising Age is chiming in with a meowing high-five.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot?  We're still not sure if that's rhetorical.  One thing's certain, though: if 2007 shapes up any better than this year, we'll be entirely bored with congratulating Lisa T. Davis and Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg for their fantastic work.

So, for those who haven't gotten around to reading the book, what are you waiting for?

Book of Tens 2006

10 books you should have read

18 December 2006 (Volume 77; Number 51)
(c) 2006 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart: "What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds" (Kaplan Business)

Uses data from experiments by real marketers to cut through the doomsday hype and cynical opportunism that surround the slow death of conventional advertising.

2. Charles Hughes and William Jeanes: "Branding Iron: Branding Lessons from the Meltdown of the U.S. Auto Industry" (Racom Books)

Uses lessons from the car business to hammer away at the importance of creating world-class brands, chastising the industry for going "safe, soft and somnolent."

3. Chris Anderson: "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More" (Hyperion)

One of the most-discussed concepts and most-used catchphrases of the year, the "long tail" theory has its fair share of lovers and haters.

4. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton: "Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management" (Harvard Business School Press)

Denounces many modern management practices based on hype and conventional wisdom.

5. Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg and Lisa T. Davis: "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing" (Nelson Business)

Breaks down tools such as consumer-generated media and word-of-mouth marketing to help marketers reach today's aloof, independent customer.

6. Seth Godin: "Small Is the New Big, and 183 Other Riffs, Rants and Remarkable Business Ideas" (Portfolio Hardcover)

Tips and ideas culled from Godin's blog and Fast Company column for everyone from McDonald's to business schools. The, er, big idea: Act small if you want to be big.

7. Robert Gordman and Armin Brott: "The Must-Have Customer: Seven Steps to Winning the Customer You Haven't Got" (Truman Talley Books)

For companies looking to expand, this book lays out the steps to not just retaining core customers but winning over those who are more elusive.

8. Glenn Reynolds: "An Army of Davids" (Nelson Current)

How advances in technology "empower ordinary people to beat big media, big government and other goliaths." Podcasts and blogs are the least of your worries.

9. Pat Fallon and Fred Senn: "Juicing the Orange” (Harvard Business School  Press)   

Unlike many advertising books, this is smartly written and fun to read. But it must be said that the "aha" moments are evened out by the number of businesses no longer making juice with Fallon.

10. Fred Reichheld: "The Ultimate Question" (Harvard Business School Press)

Reduces customer-loyalty quandaries to a breathtakingly simple question: "Would you recommend us to a friend?" Of course, after that, things get more complicated after that.

Deja Vu: Web Rage Still Lurks

I had to do a double take when I read this article. I am still irked that these fundamental conversion issues keep popping their ugly head.

It's Mouse Rage Syndrome, and it infects all Internet users sooner or later, according to a study of 2,500 Web users that was released Tuesday. Conducted by the Social Issues Research Centre in the United Kingdom, the study identified key factors that can negatively affect cardio functions, as well as the immune and nervous systems.

What's the root cause of Mouse Rage Syndrome? It's primarily caused by badly designed and hosted Web sites, according to the research center.

All Web surfers are familiar with the causes: slow-loading pages, layouts that are difficult to navigate, pesky pop-ups, and unnecessary ads, including banners. And, of course, the killer cause: site unavailability.

"The test results indicate that users want Google-style speed, function, and accuracy from all of the Web sites they visit, and they want it now," according to the SIRC report. "Unfortunately, many Web sites and their servers cannot deliver this."

Courtesy of EETimes

I thought we had beat the drum one too many times when we published "Get That SIte to Me Fast" in GrokDotCom in 5/2002. In case you need more evidence, in November Akamai and Jupiter Research put out a press release about research that shows 4 seconds as the new threshold of acceptability for retail web page response times.

If you aren't sure how long your site takes to load you may be held liable for Web Rage!

Preparing for Panama: another case for Persuasion Architecture

A new Ad-Age article offer strategies for winning at Panama, namely:

Instead, marketers' focus will shift from managing their bids to managing the entire conversation with their customers. By improving attributes such as the relevance of keywords, ad copy and landing pages, advertisers provide a better user experience while having an positive influence on their own ad costs.

Panama certainly raises the stakes for all those who have yet to realize how critical true Customer-centricity has become (let's not forget transparency either).  With the added competition, it's nice to have a methodology to follow...