Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results »

Call to Action includes the information businesses need to know to achieve dramatic results from online efforts. Are you planning for top performance? Are you accurately evaluating that performance? Are you setting the best benchmarks for measuring success? How well are you communicating your value proposition? Are you structured for change? Can you achieve the momentum you need to get the results you want? If you have the desire and commitment to create phenomenal online results, then this book is your call to action.

Within these pages, New York Times best-selling authors Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg walk you through the five phases that comprise web site development, from the critical planning phase, through developing structure, momentum, and communication, to articulating value. Along the way, they offer advice and practical applications culled from their years of experience "in the trenches."

Contents

FOREWORD....................xi
INTRODUCTION: A BRIEF CONVERSION PRIMER Calculating Your Company's Conversion Rate....................xiii
Your Vertical Industry's Conversion Rate....................xiv
The Micro-Perspective on Conversion....................xv
Conversion versus Persuasion: A Bigger Picture....................xvii
Benefits of Increasing Your Conversion Rate....................xxiii
CHAPTER ONE: PLANNING An Incredibly Condensed History of Persuasion and Sales....................1
Value-Customer Defined....................3
A Solid Foundation....................7
Principle #1: Avoid Accidental Marketing....................10
Principle #2: Get the Winning Edge....................12
Principle #3: Understand Your Customers....................14
Principle #4: Don't Frustrate Your Customers....................15
Principle #5: Shun Assumptions That Kill Sales....................20
Principle #6: Put Customer Service Where It Counts....................23
Principle #7: Emphasize Conversion....................27
Principle #8: Recheck the Basics....................32
CHAPTER TWO: STRUCTURING From Traditional to Persuasion Architecture....................38
Architect Your Path to Success....................42
Uncovery-A Closer Look....................48
(Wire) Frame Yourself....................68
Storyboarding-Now the Plot Thickens....................69
Why Success Among the Failures....................107
KISS Your Customers If You Want Them Back....................109
CHAPTER THREE: COMMUNICATING 20,000 Leagues into theBrain....................112
Does Your Online Writing Have What It Takes?....................115
Case Study: MaxEffect Before and After....................119
Image and Web Site Images....................123
Can't Smell It on the Web?....................127
When Your Copy Must Leap Oceans....................129
In-Site Search Engines-Thumbs Down....................131
E-mail Strategy-Saying the Right Thing at the Right Time....................133
Advanced Wordsmithing: Three Stylistic Ways to Become Memorable....................139
Some Final Thoughts on Language....................140
CHAPTER FOUR: MOMENTUM The Foundation for Momentum....................143
Persuasive Scenarios....................146
Don't Slow 'Em Down....................150
Qualifying Your Visitors....................152
Overcoming Analysis Paralysis....................157
Map Scent Trails That Build Momentum....................159
The ABCs of GTC (and By the Way, POA)....................171
Twenty Tips for Lowering Shopping Cart Abandonment....................178
How CafePress.com Lowered Its Abandonment Rate....................185
What About Your Web Forms?....................195
The New Frontier: Complex Sales....................205
CHAPTER FIVE: OPTIMIZING "Good Enough" Conversion Rates?....................209
E-Commerce Metrics: Drowning in Your Own Data?....................213
Ending the Single Page Visit....................218
Is Your Home Page Helping or Hindering Sales?....................219
Beyond the Sacred Portal of the Home Page....................221
Increase Your Pay-Per-Click ROI....................222
Optimizing Your Scent Trails....................223
Making the Dial Move by Testing....................224
Web Analytics for Retailers....................229
GLOSSARY....................238
NOTES....................258