A Day in the Life of a Persuasion Architect

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.

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 Eisenbergs 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.

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!

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?

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?

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 entrie article.