Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [105]
Ask a friend or relative to help who will be completely honest with you about your website. These areas are particularly difficult for people, so review your site on your own, and then ask others for their opinions about the readability of your site. Is the main point readable and primary on that page? What items distract from the overall message or make reading difficult?
Create a checklist for your reviewers, asking them about the specific elements contained in the Stanford University study (http://captology.stanford.edu/pdf/Stanford-MakovskyWebCredStudy2002-prelim.pdf). Ask each tester to rate your site in terms of credibility, readability, contrast, and text size. Feel free to add a few more rating categories after you’ve read the study.
After reviewing the changes you have made and the assignments from this week, understanding how search factors play along with human factors should show that there is little difference. There may be slight changes in keywords and wording of benefit statements, but the process is remarkably similar.
Chapter 10
Week 7: Master the Science of Online Persuasion
Of all the books, recordings, and videos concerning persuasion, all the original ideas can be traced back to a single volume, Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Often, the older, established wisdom is simply accurate and more deeply rooted in understanding than modern business literature. Rhetoric scientifically breaks down the modes of persuasion available to a speaker, and the necessary elements of providing a persuasive message. Ultimately, three elements are critical to making a persuasive argument: logic, emotion, and credibility. We’ll cover those topics in the first three days of this week.
Chapter Contents
Monday: Build a Logical Proof
Tuesday: Use Emotion to Convince the Reader
Wednesday: Communicate Credibility
Thursday: Test Your Persuasive Message
Friday: Plan for Misspellings and Plurals
Monday: Build a Logical Proof
The beginning of persuasion is the logic or proofs of your argument. If you are selling software, your selling points must be clear. What is it that makes your product, service, offering, or organization a better choice than the rest? This is the heart of the logical proof, providing reliance upon a good decision based on facts and a convincing argument.
The foundation of reasoning effectively is understanding the issues that are facing your audience. Attempting to sell something without understanding the true needs of the searcher will cause them to ignore your message. Building a message on the understanding of your audience and the education and reasoning necessary to inform and develop an educated decision and understanding of your company will not only develop solid content for your marketing but also provide multiple benefit statements.
Consider the Voice over IP (VoIP) company Vocalocity. The company’s marketing content introduces the VoIP product but understands that many searchers know something about VoIP but not enough to have specifics on how it works or how it can improve a business. By introducing the concepts as well as the products, the website builds on the logical proofs of reason to show a case first for switching to VoIP and second for purchasing its products (Figure 10-1).
The sales process for this type of product can be extensive. Many commitments and levels of commitment are involved, so there are multiple levels of education and information necessary to build trust and decision points for a conversion. By educating the searcher with logical arguments (see the following list), Vocalocity builds trust and, in turn, credibility with its approach to selling phone systems:
“A phone system you won’t outgrow.” While small business are looking at small budgets to start, no one wants to get locked into a system that will be outdated in a few short years or won’t grow with the business.
Overcoming fears of VoIP technology through testimonials and benefits of the less