A Day in the Life of a Persuasion Architect

Landing Page Guidelines - Provide relevant and substantial content

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 sponsored links from the rest of your site content.
Try to provide information without requiring users to register. Or, provide a preview of what users will get by registering.
In general, build pages that provide substantial and useful information to the end-user. If your ad does link to a page consisting of mostly ads or general search results (such as a directory or catalog page), provide additional information beyond what the user may have seen in your ad or on the page prior to clicking on your ad.
You should have unique content (should not be similar or nearly identical in appearance to another site).

Starting with your ad, each interaction you have with your potential customers and customers should be geared towards building a trusting relationship. To avoid leading users astray:

Users should be able to easily find what your ad promises.
Openly share information about your business. Clearly define what your business is or does.
Honor the deals and offers you promote in your ad.
Deliver products, goods, and services as promised.

The above is not ground breaking advice from a Conversion Rate specialist. The above is taken directly from the Google Adwords help center.

Basic, common sense, and sound advice for any Adwords advertiser to increase their conversion rate, right?

All these guidelines sound simple, not impossible, and stir up a resounding "Duhhh, of course we should be doing that" thought in your head right?

But why are so few doing it?

Is it the Diet Coke diet phenomenon? Are some advertisers thinking that if they order a triple deck burger, super large fries and a DIET coke that they are actually on diet?

Is PROVIDING RELEVANT AND SUBSTANTIAL CONTENT really that hard?

Well improving conversion IS alot like dieting, easy in concept(eat less, burn more calories), but a little bit more difficult in practice. Planning relevant, persuasive scenarios from an Adwords ad(driving point) to the landing page(funnel point) on through to the final conversion process(conversion beacon) is tough, daunting, and often complex work. Anything worthwhile usually is.

Well if you just needed a little more incentive to improve your Google Adwords campaign, I've got good news for ya! Google is going to start charging you more for low quality landing pages.

Get relevant or get broke.

Marketing Sherpa Reader's Choice

Our friends at Marketing Sherpa have their annual Reader's Choice Blog & Podcast awards currently ongoing.  We're thrilled (and humbled - have you seen some of the names in our category?) to be nominated, but more than that, we're prouder than ever that some of our partners efforts are being recognized for the absolute gems that they are. 

Michele's WonderBranding and Holly's Marketing to Women Online are both more than deserving of your votes (and you only have 2 more days to do so).  Please do be so kind, and lend them your support- I know we have.

By the way, while you're there it wouldn't hurt to cast a vote in the direction of some of the other excellent blogs nominated, like Sam Decker's Decker Marketing, John Jantsch's Duct Tape Marketing or Joe Jaffe's outstanding Across the Sound Podcast.

You can vote here: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=28308

The State of Online Retailing

It keeps going down, down, down.

What?

The average conversion rate for online retailing.

In 2002 it was 3.2%, in 2003 it was 2.4%, 2004 it was 2.6%, and last year down to 2.4%

All this according to the Shop.org State of Online Retailing 2006 report.

Think about 2002, ages ago in internet years right? Now think about 2005. Today sites are better, better technology. Faster sites. Better usability. Better web analytics. Majors sites have been redesigned since 2002. More users have broadband, and visitors are more comfortable buying online.

So what is going on?

Lot of folks still waiting for their cats to bark. Are you?

Conversion or Persuasion- where in the funnel is your problem?

Today was a busy day in the office, and one in which meetings were back to back, to back.  I started talking with my CFO, took a detour to meet with a potential partner, and ended the day spending time with some new (and potential) clients.  Very different audiences, yet one common discussion kept popping up, and it comes as no real surprise, it comes up daily around us.  The topic you ask- the difference between Conversion and Persuasion.  The cognoscenti will recall we've been speaking and writing on the topic for some time, but it's worth reading Bryan's last article nonetheless.  Here's a tidbit:

The linear conversion funnel has its place. Though rudimentary and limited, it a great blunt-force beginners' tool for online marketers with little or no metrics in place (and there are far too many of those left)...

...Instead of considering the conversion funnel by itself, we should think of it as living at the bottom end of the buy/sell process. Conversion is no longer the biggest problem facing online marketers; persuasion is.

Without persuasion, there's no incentive for visitors to walk through your linear sales process.  Unlike conversion, persuasion isn't linear.  The conversion funnel is smooth and simple, but the persuasive resevoir that feeds it is as complex and non-funnel-like as your visitors are.

Want to keep reading?

AB Testing: Too Little, Too Early?

by John Quarto-vonTivadar

Lately, everywhere you go analytics industry folks are talking about AB Testing. That’s a good sign, since it means the industry is focusing on an overlooked leverage point in their web analytics investment.

But as so often happens, achieving full buzzword compliance has become the goal rather than the means; what lies behind the words is often lost. In this case, “AB testing” – the buzzword – has become a euphemism for plain old “testing”, which, like ordering liver on a first date, may be good for you, but is certainly not sexy. But throw some “AB” in front of “testing” and your dour liver is magically transformed into paté de foie gras.

This is a bit disturbing, especially when you hear people sprinkling the “AB” condiment to add flavor to anything from a focus group (“Hey, did you AB Test the response to the new company logo?”) to the mundane (“Suzie’s lamp is out, can you AB Test the light bulb?”) to the painfully comical (“Honey, let’s AB test the Lord of the Rings Director’s Cut with the Wide-Screen edition!”).

Mixed in there, perhaps lost among the cacophony of buzzword hype, are the ingredients to some real AB testing and with it a future vision of how to achieve its true objective.

What is AB Testing?

AB Testing is based on a simple principle that we’re all familiar with:

1. compare and contrast alternatives;
2. based upon measurement, act accordingly.

Let’s say we want to determine whether Nolan Ryan is a better baseball player than Homer Simpson? How should we proceed? First, we might set a metric for what we mean by a “better” baseball player. We can measure evidence in concrete ways, noting the two subjects’ different batting averages or RBIs or the like. What we’re searching for is the right metric—a formula that would lead us to a correct decision. Such a formula is more precisely termed a “fitness function.”....
______________________________________________________________________________

This is the begining of a 14 page paper John wrote recently about AB testing. We're still not sure how we will be distributing it but if you are interested in reading it then email me ( jeff at futurenowinc.com ) and I'll send you the PDF.

Error Messages Shouldn't be Confusing

(what's this?)

I love to going to concerts. Living in New York, I can catch two to three shows a week. A lot of times I can just walk right up and buy tickets, but for popular shows I need to plan and get them in advance. Wanting to go see “Thursday” next week at the Starland Ballroom, I go to Ticketmaster.com.

Knowing that there are tons of shows listed, I decide to type Starland Ballroom into the search engine. I find Thursday and I click the link to get to the show page. After selecting two tickets, I choose the only option, general admission standing room. I hit the look for tickets button and went through the word verification tool. Suddenly this page pops up:

This is the least informative message I have ever received. It doesn’t define my problem and it just lists every possible problem that might have occurred while checking out. There is no indication of what I should do next and even if the show is sold out. Did I select too many tickets? Was there a problem with my ticket section selection? I will never find out the answers to this question because I will call the venue and buy the tickets myself. Ticketmaster, since you aren’t the only solution you can’t make consumers jump through so many hurdles to get what they want.

 

Speak to Me

(what's this?)

Living in New York has been a bit of a shock. It is cold, really cold. Coming from California, I didn’t realize what it’s like walking to the subway in twenty degree weather to get to work. I figure that a jacket would be a good gift for my sister who is coming to New York at the end of December. I decide to check out Gap.com because it sounds like a good place to get something affordable and nice.

I click the Women’s icon and I get sent to a page that has a large graphic that says “Last Minute Gifts”. This sounds perfect so I click it and get sent to a page of bestsellers. Even though there is red everywhere I continue on and click on the essential belted coat.

There are a bunch of cool tools that show off the features of the coat. It’s a great looking page and they let me see the coat in each color available by just passing my mouse over the color swab. Also listed are all the materials made to manufacture the coat and its features. All this information is great, but where is the copy? Will this coat really help her brave these cold winters or is it just for show? Does the included belt have any benefits? Will she enjoy this present for its fashionable design and do different colors have specific benefits to different types of people? All these technological bells and whistles look great and get me interested in looking at the coat. The lack of persuasive copy keeps me from buying it. Even if I would have bought it there is no text reassuring me that this would have been the right gift for my sister this holiday season.

Fishing for a Holiday Present

(what's this?)

My dad likes to fish. He is in California and I figure I could still order something to get over to him in time for the holidays. I figure that Sportsmansguide.com would have something to interest him.

After typing in the URL I am sent to a page that redirects me over to the site. This page had a text link that will send me to the page if I’m not redirected automatically. Suddenly I see this:

I did not come to your site to enter some contest. I want to buy something fishing related. If you wanted to offer me a contest put it somewhere on the side. This is taking up almost all of my Active Window and it looks very unprofessional. It reminds me of the pop-up ads that used to run rampant on the web. I click the “No Thank You – Close” button and finally I can see some of the top navigation. Seeing no product categories, I decide to “Amazing Deals”. I see two keyboards, and digital drums. What would a sportsman do with these items? Play his theme song? With no way to refine my search and no other navigational options on the page, I feel lost and I leave the site.

Trying to Get an IPOD the Hard Way

(what's this?)

 

With this being the year of the podcast, I’ve decided that an IPOD would be a great present. I check out PCMall.com and I and notice that IPODs are all over the homepage. After scrolling down, I select the IPOD Nano with engraving.

While going through their sales process I was faced with counterintuitive steps, no status indicators, and no scent. The Calls to Actions on the site are misleading micro actions and there are too many steps to get to the checkout process. This is the only site that I’ve been to that hasn’t taken me to the shopping cart or shown me a message after clicking the “Add to Cart” button. Why couldn’t I have just checked out right away? With all of these steps just to get to the checkout process, how many people are actually going through them?

Finding a Gift That Makes Sense

(what's this?)

Every year my friend Sarah has her birthday around the holidays. Sometimes I get her a birthday present and sometimes a holiday present. This year I’ve decided I would get her something for her birthday . 1800flowers.com sounded like it would be a good place to find a present. I didn’t see what I was looking for on the homepage, so I decided to type “birthday” into the search engine. See the screenshot below for my results.

The search result shows me 182 different items to choose from. On the left hand they have an option to “refine this search”. I figure this is a great way to find the right present. Looking closer, I notice that this tool isn’t helpful at all. Some of the options presented to me are “Anniversary”, “Wedding”, and “New Year’s”. How will these trigger words help me find what I need? If I went to a florist and told them I needed a birthday gift would they point me over to the anniversary section? Would they ask me if I needed it for New Years? The florist wouldn’t ask me irrelevant questions. This year I will just have to go down to the store and get something there.