Review: Persuasive Online Copywriting

Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank
by Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Lisa T. Davis
Wizard Academy, 2002
Paperback, 176 pages, ISBN 0971476993

In their irreverent but on-point GrokDotCom site (www.grokdotcom.com), as well as in ClickZ columns, the Eisenberg brothers have been educating readers about the online sales process for some time. This marvelous slim book pulls together -- in a clear and very readable fashion -- their insights into how words influence selling on the Internet.

The book has two parts:

1. Persuasive Online Copywriting (91 pages) and
2. Understanding Online Conversion (50 pages).

For my Web Commerce Today readers I decided to review the book for its nuggets on how to improve your conversion rate. But as I read the book, I realized that the section on conversion improvement can't stand alone; readers first need to understand the power of persuasive copy before they can grasp the Eisenbergs' concept of conversion. The authors point out, "Far too many sites invest more time, talent and money in design than in copy, without realizing their money would be better spent the other way around."

However, the process involved with improving a site's conversion rate isn't straightforward. In many companies it is sabotaged by interdepartmental politics. They authors note:

"To be most effective, your marketing and sales messages and methods must be congruent. Unfortunately, most companies do not have a single person who is 'directly responsible' for the 'sales effectiveness' of the company Web site. If you can help change that, you will be doing your company a huge service."

They begin their comments on improving conversion rates by focusing the merchant's attention on WIIFM -- every shopper's inherent question, "What's In It For Me?" They explain the sales process as a series of micro-actions that culminate in the macro-action of making the sale, describing sales as a five-step process:

1. Prospect, delivering qualified traffic to the site, part of the marketing function.
2. Rapport, developing rapport through the variety of ways the shopper experiences the website.
3. Qualify, helping shoppers identify the best product or service for their needs.
4. Present, presenting shoppers with their best options. This goes back and forth between qualify and present until the shopper finally chooses a product or service.
5. Close. Closing includes answering questions, resolving objections, encouraging the close, detailing service plans, offering payment options, and explaining guarantees.

The authors explain how to apply each of these steps both to website sales as well as e-mail messages. Then they detail steps in the shopper's buying decision which mirror the five-step sales process.

One chapter delineates the AIDAS acronym that drives sales (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, and Satisfaction). The next examines brain research on how humans respond to words and the sales process. Finally the authors discuss execution -- testing, measuring, and optimizing a site. They offer several case studies that illustrate how attention to the sales conversion process can have a dramatic impact on the conversion rate.

Here's a book that's actually fun to read and will go a long way in getting your head into the mode of thinking necessary to boost your online sales. Strongly recommended.

You may purchase this book from Amazon at a discount using the following links. (Unfortunately when this was written, the book was unavailable at Amazon sites outside the US.)
US: http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971476993/ref=nosim/wilsoninternetse
CA: http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971476993/wilsonweb-20
UK: http://amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971476993/732
DE: http://amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971476993/wilsonweb
FR: http://amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971476993/wilsoninternet
JP: http://amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/0971476993/