The Difference Between Sales and Marketing

This past weekend I attended an annual Fall Festival that’s held in my town. It’s a fun time of year in the Northeast, with great weather and Halloween just around the corner. Anyway, there were a lot of people at the festival and a lot of activities, including a section dedicated to local businesses. You know, where businesses can set up booths and interface with prospective customers. I decided to take a walk through this section, and I can tell you, at least half of the people manning their booths shouldn’t have been there in the first place. As I walked by each booth, I began to question whether these were the marketing people who thought it would be a good idea to set up at the festival or if these were actually the salespeople. And, I couldn’t help but think of the stark difference between sales and marketing. A few people were on their cell phones, others were talking with their coworkers and not engaging the crowd, and other booths were flat-out empty. Keep in mind, there were a lot of people at this festival… Luckily there were a few salespeople that I spoke with that were engaging, knowledgeable, and charismatic, which was a breath of fresh air, so to speak. ;-) Although the words tend to be thrown around together, sales and marketing are two very different areas of focus, requiring extremely different skill-sets to succeed.

A closer look at the difference between a marketer and a salesperson:
In a nutshell, a marketer is the person responsible for researching a product or service, exploring target markets, mapping out price points based on several business factors, branding products and services, developing and analyzing campaigns, and yes, helping salespeople understand the unique selling proposition for each product. There are some ultra-talented people in marketing that couldn’t sell their way out of a paper bag.

On the other hand, a salesperson is the connection between marketing and prospective customers. Salespeople live to sell, love to present, look for sales opportunities all of the time, and are highly driven people who risk a good part of their income on their own sales ability. They close deals, period. That said, there are some outstanding salespeople who couldn’t market a product if their lives depended on it. Remember, not "sell", but "market".

I’m a big World War II buff, so here’s one of my war analogies. If a marketer and a salesperson were on a battlefield, the marketer would be mapping out the best possible strategy for success and then handing it to the highly skilled salesperson responsible for charging the hill. In war, if you mix the two up, people die. In business, products and services fail, and people get fired.

Some quick differences between a salesperson and a marketer:

The Marketer:
* Performs market research
* Explores target markets
* Runs focus groups and launches surveys
* Analyzes data constantly
* Develops pricing strategies based on a number of business variables
* Brands products and services
* Develops and analyzes marketing campaigns
* Refines and adjusts marketing strategies based on data and feedback
* Can answer questions with hard data, which in my opinion, is always hard to argue with. :-)

The Salesperson:
* SELLS (seriously, salespeople need to spend most of their time selling)
* Chomps at the bit to interface with customers and prospective customers
* Has serious sales chops and has worked hard to build his or her skill-set
* Lives to present and always looks for opportunities to show off their product or service
* KNOWS HOW TO CLOSE A SALE (don’t laugh…most people have no idea how to close a sale)
* Is driven by achieving and exceeding goals (quotas, sales competitions, financials, etc.)
* Has a successful track record of selling. Great salespeople don’t magically show up one day…they’ve been selling their entire lives, even as kids
* Exudes confidence, knows his or her products inside and out, has a passion for sales, and can overcome obstacles while juggling fine china

Why they should work together, but remain separate:
In general, you don’t want your marketer selling and you don’t want your salesperson developing the marketing plan for your product or service. Note, I said “in general”, since there are some people that are both salespeople and marketers… It’s rare, but there are a select few. You definitely want your marketer involved in helping your salespeople craft their presentations, explain the core selling points, provide data for overcoming barriers, etc. and you want your salespeople working with your marketers to learn what’s going on in the field. But overall, the marketer should market and the salesperson should sell.

The Bottom Line
Most marketers would have no idea what to do in a sales presentation and most salespeople would have no idea how to market a product. Marketing involves tedious research and analysis, and a heavy focus on data. Sales involves extraordinary social interaction, presentations, inordinate amounts of motivation, the ability to travel where needed and when needed, and a serious sense of urgency to hit numbers. Some marketers sweat just thinking about presenting to a group of executives, where great salespeople jump at the chance.

Internet Marketers Meet Your Top Salesperson:
For many of you, your website is your top (and only) salesperson. Now, if you know great salespeople and know what they bring to the table, then you understand the enormous challenge you face in trying to make code, graphics, and web functionality achieve what they can. However, in an increasingly competitive online marketplace, that’s exactly what you need to do. You’re the marketer, mapping out your online marketing strategies based on extensive research, planning, and analysis. You work with your developers and designers to craft a persuasive selling system (your website) that helps prospective customers find answers to their questions, all while getting them more excited about your product. And, if you’ve done your job well, your chief salesperson, I mean your website, will help you land new customers. So the more you, as the marketer, understand the sales process, the better your website is going to be at meeting visitor expectations and increasing conversions. Because, you are creating a website that answers questions in a way that a top salesperson would. You need the right scent trails, the right calls to action, know when to provide more information, and know when to ask for the sale, which is not easy, considering your website doesn’t have the ability to crack a joke when needed or shake someone’s hand. Or can it? So, although sales and marketing are very different areas of focus, both should work together in web marketing to optimize your efforts. Marketers, learn from your salespeople, and salespeople, learn from your marketers. Just know the boundary between the two.

So, are you a salesperson or a marketer? Did someone add both words to your job title? Let me know what you think.

GG

Why is My Homepage Bounce Rate So High?

Over the past few months, I've received dozens of questions about homepage bounce rate so I decided to dedicate a blog post to it. I'm glad to see executives and marketers getting more involved with website optimization. I think it shows the true evolution of web marketing.

Let's start with a definition of Bounce Rate:
The percentage of visitors that visit one page on your website that exit the site before visiting another page.

Hence the word "bounce"... Here's a quick example. Tom sees a paid search advertisement for xyz company. He clicks through the ad and hits the homepage (more about why this could be a problem later.) He quickly scans the page and doesn't find a call to action to what he's looking for and promptly goes back to the paid search listings. That's a bounce.

I figured that providing a list of some of the most common problems would be a smart way to build this post. So without further ado: (in no specific order...)

1. Your homepage doesn't speak to your personas (types of buyers)
I have mentioned this about a dozens times in related posts, but in my opinion, the best way to optimize your website is to determine your customer personas (types of buyers) and then build persuasive scenarios based on those personas. The days of pointing visitors to a website and simply listing a navigation and a quick intro are gone... I gave a quick example of persona development in my last post (HD TV buyers) if want to reference it.

2. Confusing Homepage Layout and Content, So What Exactly Do You Sell??
Let's say you are speaking to your personas (as mentioned above) and you still experience a high bounce rate. If that's the case, then there's a good chance that your homepage isn't laid out properly. As part of an abbreviated persona development project, my client learned that their customers tend to look for a search box when they hit the homepage of an e-commerce site. As a result, they moved their search box to a more prominent location on the page, improved their search algorithm, and improved the way their search results are displayed. Now, that's a great example of learning from your customers and making the appropriate changes to your website structure. And, they utilize a robust web analytics package to analyze their site activity to ensure the changes they made to the site are working. It's a constant evolution. That's just one example, but you should look at how you introduce your company, your text navigation, the visuals you have on the homepage, the lingo you utilize in the copy, the dimensions of your site as compared to your average visitor (via your analytics package), how quickly your page loads, etc.

3. External Campaigns Driving Visitors to Your Homepage
This can inaccurately bump up your homepage bounce rate and is a common problem that I see in web marketing. For example, paid search campaigns that lead to the homepage of your website, email marketing for a specific promotion that lead to your homepage, banners (yes, unfortunately some web marketers still use banners) that lead to your homepage, etc. I understand if you are undermanned and cannot build campaign landing pages, but I cannot emphasize how this can help your campaigns on multiple dimensions. You can split test landing pages, you can talk specifically to the campaign recipients, you can provide unique content for the promotion visitors, and you can track that landing page at a granular level. In addition, you can utilize your web analytics package to view clickstream reports to see where visitors go after viewing that specific landing page. I can keep going here, but I think you get the gist of why landing pages are important. Using landing pages will also give you a more accurate bounce rate for your homepage. Maybe 7% of your homepage bounce rate was from external campaigns. But please, don't go and refine your homepage until you have accurate data.

3. Ranking in Natural Search for Keywords that Aren't Directly Related to Your Company
If you haven't optimized your website for search, your homepage might actually be ranking for keywords that don't directly relate to your business. Typically, this isn't a big driver of traffic, unless you've really added content and phrases on your homepage that can be interpreted by the search engines as something else. This is something you can easily find via your web analytics program. Just pop into Natural Search and view the top keywords from each search engine. You'll be surprised what you find. For example, if you wrote a book on starting a golf instruction business and you get a few thousand people per month visiting your site by entering the keyword "best ways to increase the distance of your drive", then your homepage bounce rate might be inflated. Figure out why you are ranking for that keyword and then form a strategy for ranking for keywords that directly relate to your business. If you don't have the skill-set in house, then hire a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist.

4. Website Visitor Expectations are Not Met Properly (This also relates to the external campaign listing above...)
If you set expectations too high in an advertisement and suddenly you receive a lot of traffic from that advertisement, there's a chance a good portion of that traffic could bounce. If you sell Samsung TV's, but don't sell Panasonic TV's and your ad claims that you have the widest selection on the face of the earth, then it shouldn't be a shock when people looking for Panasonic TV's bounce off your site! One of the best lessons I learned regarding marketing copy was from John Caples (probably the most famous advertising copywriter ever). Keep it specific and keep it realistic. For example, "We provide a wide selection of Widescreen HD TV's from Samsung, Sony, Pioneer, and LG in sizes ranging from 26" to 50". Compare that to "We have the widest selection of HD TV's in North America and we must move our inventory today! We have every size imaginable!" If someone visits your site from the second ad and they are looking for a 60" Toshiba, they will probably bounce.

So, how do you fix your website bounce rate problem?
1. Track everything via a robust web analytics package and start analyzing the results (where are visitors coming from, which links on the homepage are most active, which real estate areas on the homepage are most accessed, is on-site search easily accessible, etc.)
2. Determine your personas and map out a plan for speaking to those personas right on your homepage (and in your navigation). This involves speaking with your customers, using web surveys, and speaking with your customer service people.
3. Split test changes to determine if they are working for you. If you don't have a benchmark, then how will you know if you are improving anything?
4. Run clickstream reporting to see where people are going (after you make changes based on your persona development). This will enable you to see which elements drive the most sales. In addition, it will enable you to see which elements drive the highest abandonment rate. For example, you might find that 45% of the people that click through your "New Additions" link leave the site on the next page.

And as usual in web marketing, be creative, be analytical, listen to your customers, listen to your customer service people, and track everything. It's definitely not easy, but if you utilize a structured approach, it could chop your homepage bounce rate down to a reasonable number!

GG

Web Marketing Surveys, The Value in Gaining Customer Feedback

More and more, companies are looking to make important changes to their websites in order to increase conversion. A few years ago, most website changes were about look and feel or functionality, where today I hear the word "conversion" much more (and especially at the executive level). It makes sense, doesn't it? Web Analytics packages have evolved and web marketers can now view their data easier and faster than ever before. That said, where do you start? Should you use a structured process like the steps in Persuasion Architecture or use another approach that you've utilized in the past? Regardless, finding out what your customers think is essential. There are many ways to accomplish this from focus groups to usability testing to online surveys.

In my opinion, all should be used to gain important feedback prior to mapping out the blueprint for change. For this post, I've decided to target website-based surveys. In my experience with helping clients launch online marketing surveys, the first step is typically the hardest. "Well, what are we going to ask them and why?" is what I typically hear. At this stage it's important to think about your customers and the types of buyers that will be visiting your site. Based on personas that you map out, you can start to flesh out the questions that will enable you to make key decisions about the changes to your website. For example, if you sell HD TV's, two possible personas that come to mind are:

1. The Cutting Edge Buyer - He always wants the latest and greatest equipment.
2. The Discount Shopper - She wants an HD TV, but cannot afford the latest and greatest. She wants the best possible TV for the budget she has.

Keep in mind, there are probably 4-5 other potential types of buyers for this category, but I wanted to give you some quick examples. Note, these are not demographic-based, they are buyer process-based. There's a big difference between the two (and why I believe Persuasion Architecture is a strong process to go through.)

So What Do We Ask Them?
Now you can start to flesh out your questions for each persona. So, for the two sample personas I listed above, what do you want to learn from them? Maybe how important product visuals are, product reviews, or if they would use a forum for customer support? Maybe you want to see if they will read your blog, participate in the blog, or if they cannot stand blogs. You will be surprised what you find. Think about the Discount Shopper persona, maybe they want to access a sales-only page where they can sort products to their heart's delight. Or, maybe they want to subscribe to RSS feeds for the latest sales. My point here is that you should not answer the questions...but that your goal is to learn from your customers. Don't try and answer your own questions, chances are you are too close to the product line, website, and company. You might be right 20% of the time, but 20% won't earn you a promotion...

Survey Monkey, A Great Online Survey Solution
Now that you have your questions, how do you go about setting up the survey? At this point, everyone involved will have a different opinion on how you go about launching the survey. Should the IT department set it up, should you go with a free survey solution, or should you go with a paid service. I almost always recommend the latter. I really like Survey Monkey and several of my clients have taken my recommendation to use their service. The professional subscription is only $19.95 per month and you get a robust online survey solution that's customizable to boot. You can read their online survey features here, but they should cover ~99% of what you want to achieve. The reporting is strong and offers an excellent export feature so you can import the data into Excel (or whichever data analysis program you use). Anyway, I have found it to be a solid solution for launching and tracking online surveys. And, it's fast.

Make Sure You Sweeten the Offer
In order to increase response rate, I highly recommend including an incentive for filling out the survey. And I'm not talking about a $5 gift card to Starbucks. Offer something of worth or you risk having an extremely low response rate. For example, I have a consumer products client that offered their customers 15% off their next purchase. That could translate into $15-20 off their next purchase. The incentive completely depends on your customer base. A quick brainstorm session would yield a dozen or so incentives that you can use.

Analyze the Data
After the survey is over, take the time to analyze the data from several viewpoints. The open-ended questions sometimes yield incredible information. Think about it, if someone took the time to actually type in a response, it's probably worth reading, right? Some people even include their contact information, which can help you build focus groups down the line. It depends on how passionate the customer is and how much they want you to change!

Closed Loop Communication
Last, but not least, let the respondents know what you are doing based on their feedback! This is probably the most overlooked step in the process. Your customers will likely feel as if they didn't waste their time and that you take their feedback seriously. Also, it's a great opportunity to look for customers for focus groups or even word of mouth marketing campaigns.

In closing, online marketing surveys can help you understand how your customers really feel about your products and website, and can help you make decisions based on data versus your own opinion. Use a solid solution for launching surveys and analyze the data fully before making any decisions. Then follow up with the people that responded. You can start to foster a stronger relationship with your customers, which can lead to loyal customers and hopefully increased revenue. And, isn't that what it's all about?

GG

When Website Redesigns Attack! A Gripping Story of Vanishing Search Engine Rankings

This is a story of a website going full circle, and not in a good way... If you are thinking about redesigning your website and you believe that search traffic is important to your business, then this post is for you. Read on...

First, my purpose is not to focus on the company or website I refer to below, but to focus on the concept of redesigning a website without fully understanding the impact it will have on natural search. This is not a rare occurrence...it unfortunately happens all of the time.

Help, Google Doesn't Like Us!
Almost two years ago, I assisted a company that hit rock bottom from an organic search standpoint. They went through a complete website redesign and started to notice that their search engine rankings dropped off of a table. This had gone on for about a year prior to my showing up. The first thing the CEO asked me to do (and the term "ask" is being nice..) was to get the site ranking in the search engines as quickly as possible. The site was essentially non-existent in the engines and nobody at the company knew why. The site was a Pagerank 0, with old content indexed in Google, and the site wasn't ranking for any competitive keywords. So, I was handed a budget and launched a major SEO initiative to turn things around. After making significant changes to the site architecture, content, and navigation, we went live with a new codebase. Four months later, the site had over 65,000 pages indexed in Google, earned a Pagerank 7, and began ranking for dozens of competitive keywords, including hundreds of long tail terms. The site did a 180 and was humming from a natural search standpoint. I wish the story ended here...

Flash Forward to Today...
I noticed that the site was recently redesigned again. It was actually more of a refresh than a redesign. As I browsed the site, it didn't take long for me to notice some serious problems... Some of the most important changes that were made for organic search were now gone. Important keywords were missing from the site, title tags weren't optimized on key landing pages, and I could tell that nobody focused on SEO when mapping out the redesign. Uh oh. So I started testing some competitive keywords that the site was once ranking for...the site was no longer ranking for them... So, what will happen to some of their natural search traffic? Well, it will probably go to a competitor's website.

The Danger of the Website Redesign
I'd love to say that this is a rare occurrence, but it's not. When redesigning a website, it's critically important to have key people from a wide range of roles involved during the process. This starts with the web marketing team to map out the strategy and blueprint for the redesign. Then, the programmers and designers should be involved in the storyboard and prototype process. Also, you should include any specialists along the way, like search specialists and rich media specialists to ensure the entire project will go smoothly and achieve the goals of the redesign.

Don't Skimp Over Strategy
Sometimes (ok, often), the strategy piece is briefly completed and the designers and programmers run with the latest and greatest technology to wow visitors (or worse, to gain experience with new technology). When this happens (from a search standpoint) search rankings tend to go down. For example, that really cool, dynamic navigation isn't being indexed by Google, the new code is so smart that it's 302 redirecting visitors all over the place, and someone forgot to add descriptive title tags, description tags, and descriptive links on the site.

So, What Should You Do?
If you are planning a redesign, ensure you use a structured approach that includes key people from a wide range of roles in the process. This is one of the reasons I truly believe in Persuasion Architecture. Your web strategy is fully mapped out prior to designers and programmers getting involved.

My guess is that the CEO will pick up on the lower traffic levels and start asking questions. I wouldn't want to be in the room when that happens. :-()

GG

e-Commerce Shipping - Online Consumers Demand a New Standard

Let's face it, everyone shops online now. If you haven't shopped online for something in the past year, then stop reading this post and repeat the following lines:

* My name is {SayYour Name} and I'm a little afraid of technology
* Per Glenn Gabe's Request, I am going to try and overcome my fears and buy something online this week
* Heck, I'm going to buy something online today and then after I realize how fun and efficient it is, I'm going to thank Glenn from the bottom of my heart and recommend his internet marketing services to every marketing manager I know --sorry, I had to add this last line ;-)

Now I know I'm on the "You Better Believe It" end of the spectrum when it comes to buying online, but heck, my mother even shops online and she's 64!

Did You Say 4-7 Days?
I'll now get to the point of this post... I recently made a few purchases online and I was a little shocked to see that it would take up to a week to receive my items (as the default shipping option.) Could that be right? 4-7 days? Maybe I should have just run out and picked up the items from the store... Here's my point. I love shopping online. Not a surprise, right? That said, e-tailers need to understand that consumers today expect more from their online shopping experience. If I purchase something online, I want it delivered in less than 3 days and without having to pay extra for priority shipping. Am I wrong to think this way? I don't think so. I've worked on enough web marketing surveys, focus groups, and persona development projects to know what consumers expect from e-commerce shipping...and it's not 4-7 days!

Online Shopping is an Immediate Action
Let's break it down. Purchasing online is an immediate action. You log onto a site, select items to purchase, enter your credit card information, and then place your order. This can all be done in less than 5-10 minutes if you know what you need. I've actually purchased books from the Barnes and Noble website in less than 2 minutes...which is my all time record and I have this record time hanging on my office wall. OK, I'm kidding about hanging it on my wall, but I did purchase books in less than 2 minutes this year from bn.com. And yes, this keeps me coming back to their site. They get it. Functionality, speed, reliability, and getting their products into the hands of consumers as quickly as possible is the way you keep quality customers buying from you (and also get them writing about it on their blogs!)

A New Standard for e-Commerce Shipping
Now I'm not crazy to think that overnight shipping will be a standard (we can all dream, right?) but I truly believe that companies selling on the web need to understand that online buyers want their products as soon as possible. That way, they won't feel the need to just run out to the mall and pick up the items with their own bare hands. I know, they'll have to speak to the teenager in the store who seems like he had a few too many the night before and can't seem to focus, but ultimately, they will find what they need and take it home with them.

Calling All Web Marketing People...
So, if you are reading this post and you are in control of your company's e-commerce site, please remember that your e-commerce shipping standard should match your online buyer expectations. i.e. Don't list 4-7 days as the default in your shipping column or you might find that customers who are ready to click "Submit" will instead be clicking "Close Window" and doing something crazy like getting in their cars and driving to a store. God help us all!

GG

Website Optimization, Bounce Rate, and Conversion Rate

I just read an article about Click Fraud by Daniel Jupp, and although I thought it was a good article about the problem, there was a bullet that I would like to elaborate on. In the final section of the article, Daniel says:

"Website traffic analysis software can help identify what visitors are doing when they arrive at your site. If the software indicates that a large number of visitors are arriving at the home page, not going anywhere else and leaving the site very quickly, this is a good indicator that click fraud is taking place. Again, this data can be saved and reported to the search portal. "

Here's my point. I help companies build and execute their web marketing strategies and website optimization is a big part of my job. This includes landing page optimization, email optimization, paid search optimization, etc. I aim to increase conversion, period. Anyway, the part about checking your web analytics application to notice high bounce rates on your homepage struck me as odd.

First, if you are driving people to your homepage via paid search, then you should reevaluate your campaign strategy. I know this is a necessity sometimes if you lack the resources necessary to build custom landing pages, but to think that a high bounce rate on your homepage means you are experiencing Click Fraud is a stretch! There are so many websites out there that are not optimized properly to meet customer expectations (and to ultimately increase conversion). And I'm not talking about small websites without marketing budgets... There are three large scale websites in particular that I have worked with over the past 18 months that see over an 18% bounce rate on their homepage. And yes, I am working on that... So, if a website has 400,000 visitors per month, they are seeing 864,000 people per year leave without taking another step... Just imagine the revenue bump if you converted even a small percentage of those visitors. For example, if you converted .5% of those visitors that bounce and your average sale is $50, that's $216,000 in revenue.

Landing Pages Are Crucial to the Success of Your Campaign
Back to my point, when launching any type of online marketing campaign, a landing page is crucial. Think about it, imagine wanting to buy a Jeep Commander, finding a dealership, walking in, only to have the salesperson dump you on a lot filled with 1000 cars and only some of the them are Commanders. If you have a large e-commerce site, then that's exactly what you are doing if you send prospects to your homepage from a paid search campaign or email. The landing page should be tailored to convert that prospect, period. It should include all of the information that the person needs to move forward in the buying process. What's on the landing page completely depends on your product and company, but be specific, be brief, and provide clear calls to action.

In closing, high bounce rates on your homepage do not necessarily mean you are falling prey to Click Fraud... It might very well mean that you aren't driving people to the right place or that your homepage isn't part of your persuasive selling system! Don't spend all of your time on the external factors of a campaign (the creative, the blast, the keyword research, etc.) You should also think about where you are sending them. In my experience, too many companies are still a few years behind when it comes to website optimization, using landing pages properly, and enhancing conversion via scientific marketing.

GG

PS A quick analogy...I have a 3 year old daughter and she loves watching "Far Far Far Away Idol" at the end of Shrek 2 (a parody of American Idol and with all of the creatures from Shrek). The performances were extremely well thought out, well written, and well executed by the animators. Each contestant was hilarious in their rendition of the popular song...there is even an appearance by Simon Cowell. Then the winner is announced and the entire scene falls flat... It was apparent that they ran out of time during the production of the segment. It just doesn't feel right, my daughter even looks disappointed, and you're left with a feeling of "that's it??" I couldn't help but think that this is a great analogy to sending someone to an un-optimized page on your website via an online marketing campaign. So, be sure to think of Shrek 2 when mapping out your next marketing campaign! ;-)

A 180 For the Web - Persuasion Architecture

There is a buzz in the air at online marketing agencies, interactive agencies, and in marketing meetings across corporate america, it's about Persuasion Architecture. If you haven't heard of P.A., it's a revolutionary model for developing persuasive selling systems on the web. The system was created by by the Eisenbergs (Jeffrey and Bryan). Their latest book, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, immediately plunged me into brainstorming mode as I thought about projects that could immediately benefit from this model. So hold on to your hat (or should I say cat), here comes an idea that may have you excited, then depressed, and then excited again. I'll explain why as you read on...

The Current Process (and hopefully the soon-to-be extinct process...)
Let's take a step back for a second and review how most websites and e-commerce sites have been developed. We have a product, we want to sell the product online, we have a web development staff adept at coding, and marketing people adept at selling.

--The meeting begins..."we want to sell our widgets on the web, so let's focus on the features of the widget, we'll code the site for the lowest common denominator, target the top 1 of 2 types of buyers that will be hitting the site, and let them figure out the benefits based on the features."--

So, there may be 6 or 7 different types of buyers that will hit the site, but we are developing the site (design, code, copy, etc.) for 1 or 2. Can you start to see why the average conversion rate for e-commerce sites is between 1.5-2%?

--Then the interactive designer walks in..."Let's add AJAX for some interesting interface functionality and definitely add a flash movie that greets every visitor hitting the site."--

Uh, now we are facing another problem, NOT LETTING PEOPLE FIND WHAT THEY NEED QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY.

--Then the copywriter speaks up, "I will target our top 1-2 types of buyers with copy that jumps off of the page. The headlines, subheads, internal links and sidebar copy will sell like there's no tomorrow."--

OK, that sounds good, but what about the other 4-5 types of buyers? Are you seeing a pattern here?

Then the site is developed, it doesn't focus on the benefits of the product, it only targets 1-2 types of buyers, it's coded with functionality that will keep people from finding what they want, and the site converts at......1.75%. Woohoo!

How do we improve this situation??
In Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, the Eisenbergs explain how to create a persuasive selling system on the web. In Persuasion Architecture, there are 6 steps:

1. Uncovery - map out the business topology, understand the competition, the customers, the prospects, and other important aspects that can affect the buying process.

1a. Persona Development - determining the types of buyers that will traverse the site. This is not demographic information, it's more about how they need to access information and what they will need to make a decision.

2. Wireframing - (not storyboarding) a non-graphical decision trail through the site.

3. Storyboarding - site mockups which help flesh out the wireframe.

4. Prototyping - after the storyboard is ready, the prototype is ready for development.

5. Development - let coders do what they do best...code. If the previous 4 steps were done correctly, the development staff should almost entirely be able to focus on core development. No marketing decisions here for non-marketing people!

6. Optimization - with the proper web metrics program in place, you will be able to test and refine the site, paths, pages, and content to increase conversion.

This was obviously a quick introduction to Persuasion Architecture and I highly recommend you read the book, but I definitely wanted to introduce the model here. I plan to write more posts about this powerful model as I implement projects using Persuasion Architecture. If you are in web marketing, read the book, and then revisit my blog and post your comments. I'd love to hear your thoughts.