Is conversion as hard as it’s made out to be? Sure it can be. But only when you goof up big time. There’s a time to convert, and there’s a time to lay off converting. And how the heck are you going to know when’s a good time? Well, you can start guessing, or you can start reading and listening to this audio/transcript on Conversion.

http://www.psychotactics.com/websitemasterclass01.htm

And yes, those 6 seats aren’t going to stay cold for long. What you’re going to learn in California, isn’t just some hyped up stuff. You’ll learn how to build a business without affiliates, without joint ventures, without advertising, without stomping on your competition, and without a huge list. Sounds incredible? Welllll it is (the workshop, I mean). Check it out. I think you’ll like what you see.

If you’re looking to create attraction, there are ways. And there are ways. But seeing the entire picture takes some doing. That is, you need to see Attraction, Conversion and Consumption in one picture. But let’s face it. It’s a lot to take in the whole concept of Attversumption at one go.

So here’s Part 1: Attraction.
http://www.psychotactics.com/websitemasterclass00.htm

And hey, there are just 6 seats left for the Masterclass in Campbell, CA.
If you don’t have a huge mailing list, you’re stuck–unless you find a way out–and how to work a small list. You’ll find that information about the Masterclass on the Workshop Page

We all know that as compared with attraction and conversion, consumption is way harder. And yet it’s possible to create consumption–sometimes well over 100% despite changing very little.

In this simple case study, you’re about to see below, nothing changed.

The content didn’t change.
The training material didn’t.
The trainer stayed boringly the same
The duration of the course didn’t change.
You get the drift, don’t you?

Now to say nothing changed at all, would be a little drastic. Even when we don’t notice it, things do change. But overall, nothing changed much–except one change right before the course started. But before we discuss that change, let’s look at the exciting statistics of consumption.

Yes, exciting…because when you are able to increase consumption, consumers/clients get a far greater benefit, and keep coming back for more.

But without more yada, yada, let’s get on to the proof of increased consumption…
Look at Graphic 1: Graphic 1 represents the Protege Program in 2006. The same number of people did this course. And were expected to use the associated Protege forum. And if you look closely, you’ll notice that there were far less posts (actually by a chunky 100%) over Protege 2007. So what’s different? What changed?

Year 2006: Protege Program. Note: The graphic is wrongly marked. You need to see the posts, instead of the topics.

Year 2007: Protege Program: For the same period, notice how much the consumption has gone up–without any change in numbers or requirements for the course.

As you can see in the graph above:
The discussions and questions for the entire year 2006 were 1140 posts. And copywriting for the entire year was 335. The discussions and questions for just Nov-March 2007 are already 2374. And copywriting questions (with a fair bit of the course yet to rollout is already at 535).

See the consumption? In dramatically shorter periods, with us comparing apples with apples, the consumption has jumped by over 200% in the first case (and we still have 9 months to go on Protege). And for copywriting, the jump in consumption is again almost 200%–again with at least 40% information—still to be finished on the copywriting course).

What makes this study interesting is:
1) Same number of Proteges
2) Almost identical content.
3) Different forum software, but identical means of posting/answering.

The only difference is the year: 2006 vs. 2007.
What’s interesting, is that the copywriting course is not yet over (we have 2-3 classes to go and then some) and already the posts and consumption is much higher in a shorter period.

What changed?
Increasing consumption is a tricky issue alright, and boiling it down to one factor is often extremely hard, if not impossible. But what changed here was the factor of barriers. The 2007 course had far more barriers in place, as compared with the 2006 course. You had to jump over far more hoops to get to the 2007 qualification stage.

And we’ll discuss barriers in the posts to come…

But how else would you increase consumption in a course? Let’s hear your ideas…

To see an example of a mini-barrier, click on the link below
http://www.psychotactics.com/websitemasterclass.htm

Here’s why ‘WHY’ is such a powerful attraction factor“Stop taking two and three plates of food,” my mother said to me angrily.

I was at a wedding and seven years old. Back then, at a lot of the weddings we used to go to, the food would be pre-served on a plate. I could never get enough of those calorie-ridden platters. Waylaying different waiters, (so I would not be recognised), I’d polish 3-4 plates without blinking an eye.

Mum wasn’t impressed, and told me to stop and desist.

“Why?” I’d ask. Her stock reply was always, “It’s bad manners to do that.” This Dustbin Hoffman (yes, I do mean Dustbin and not Dustin) act obviously got her goat, but it left me unfazed. It must have bugged her more than I expected though, because in a short while Dad was peering down at my food-stuffed face.

My question remained unchanged. “WHY?”

“If you invite a hundred people to a wedding, how many would you cater for?” he asked. “A hundred,” I answered, proud of my analytical genius. “If you ate four plates,” he continued, “how many would remain?” He prompted quickly, “Ninety-six right?” I nodded vigorously. “That means some people don’t eat. If you’re so hungry, we can go out after the wedding and get something to eat, but don’t deprive others.”

Dad Made Sense. Do You?

Dad understood psychology. He had to sell my brain an idea that my rumbling stomach didn’t want to understand. And he did it by answering the question, ‘WHY?’ How many of us ignore this powerful trigger in our marketing because it seems too obvious, almost too simple?

 Why ‘Why?’ Puts Elvis’ Shaking and Moving to Shame

Let’s examine the six honest men. What, How, When, Where, Who and Why. Which one of these is the most powerful psychological movers of them all? This would be better answered with an example.

Let’s assume you needed to go to the supermarket. All the other triggers (how, when, where, who and what) would make absolutely no difference if you didn’t know ‘WHY’ you were headed there. Everything else would be totally irrelevant. Once you know WHY you’re doing something, everything else is just a matter of logistics.

Why Does 90% of Advertising and Marketing Communication Go Down the Drain?

Simple. Look for the WHY in advertising and scarcity pops up instantly. All the fancy layouts and the smart headlines can’t quite compensate for the niggling question that goes unanswered. All your customers want to know is, Why should I choose you? Why should I take this decision? Why should I spend this money? Why should I look at your website? Why should I read your brochure?’ Why should I listen to your speech? ‘Why? Why? Why?’

Dump the cotton woolly fluff. Get your customer’s brain to go scrambling like an over-enthusiastic pup after a Frisbee. Once you have enough WHY factor built into what you’re selling, everything else is just clip, clop, fall in place stuff.

Be an Accountant, Do an Audit

Look at your communication. Like reeeeeeeaaaaally look at it! What about your website? Does it answer the question WHY straight up? And does it do it on the first page? How about your brochure? Does its headline make it a cinch for dustbin land? What about your speech? Do you have enough beds to compensate for your lack of WHY?

I could go on, but I suspect you get the message.

Be merciless. If the WHYs don’t stack up, dump the communication. Or chop and change it till it does.

Finding the Right Level of Why Power

If you noticed, Mum actually answered my WHY question. She just didn’t answer it to my satisfaction like Dad did. Herein lies a subtle, yet formidable difference.

It’s not enough to simply have the WHY question answered. It’s got to be the most ‘Rambo in your face’ answer, or it will bounce higher than a defaulting cheque. Let your WHYs loose on each other, and let only the one with the most testosterone come out shining.

We are dealing with customers that inherently detest change. WHY is the only motivator that allows them to make that shift. Change is still a scary word, but at least the justification sits nicely in their cranium.

In fact, if you look closely, even a WHAT question like, What’s in it for me?, is really a “WHY” issue. All it is saying is ‘Why should I pay attention?’ Give your customers the WHY factor and their buying sprees will reflect nicely in your growing bank account.

This is simple, down to earth advice. Yet it represents one of the most powerful psychological triggers why people buy. WHY on earth would you ignore it?

Have you run into instances of why? Or lack of why? Does why cause you to buy?

—————————————————————-

If you haven’t done so already: (That’s a clue!)

You may believe you’re completely hype-proof. Yet day after day, we search for the elusive magic potion. On one hand we say, we don’t ever buckle under hype, but the proof shows us otherwise.

I know this sounds too crazy to be true…But have you ever bought something like these magazines below? Do you still buy them? Welllllllllllllllll….read the headlines

.
Look at what we tend to buy (knowing fully well a large part of this miracle cure is beyond us)

Cam we really lose our gut? Can you really ’score’ every time?  Sure, technically we can. But how many magazines will you buy before you lose your gut? And will you really ’score’ every time? And then, if you do, do you use the steps in the magazine? Or some other method?

So are we really susceptible to hype?

What do you think?

Sean

Does hype sell? Most of us would say no. In fact, we detest hype, right? But if you said no, you’re off the mark. Hype exists, because it sells.

And selling depends on one and only one thing to begin with:

It depends on the target audience.
The target audience is everything.

You might be talking to clients who are turned off by hype. And truly, that’s not your audience at all. Sure, you’ll get responses that say: “I don’t switch on to hype.” But you’d be totally off the mark.

You’d be off the mark, because you’re talking to an audience that is already biased against ‘get rich quick’, or ‘get thin quickly.’ But such an audience exists. And I’ve been to not one, but two seminars, where in one case they had to pay $2500 for three days, and in another case the audience had to pay $8000 for 5 days.

In both cases, the sales pitch was pure hype. In the first instance, they actually said you could (and anyone could) earn $20,000 or more in a day, even with zero-experience on the Internet. And then, at the seminar, they proceeded to prove the point. 249 people watched as one person became $20k richer (through a system that can only be considered a scam for those 249 people).

But hey, we’re not debating the scam part. We’re talking about the factor of ‘does it attract or not?’. And the answer is: It does.

To the right audience.

In the second instance, 450 people paid $8000 (do the math) to be at an event. There wasn’t just hype–there was super-hype. The presenter even flew in his two Porsches into the seminar tent. He sold them pictures of his mansion on the hill–and his unending flow of income.

It worked. You’re damned right it worked. And to date, it works in both these instances year after year, after year.

Because both of these seminars are actually running seminars (no, I won’t give you the names or venues).

So how do I know?
One of them I was asked to speak at. The other one, I was given a complimentary pass. Why did I attend? I wanted to see how these events are held (just so we could do the exact opposite–it helps to study what is being done if you want to know what to do, yourself).

So yeah…they work.
Not for this audience, but they do work for the right audiences.

And they work exceedingly well too!

Be aware of whom you’re talking to. Target audience is everything.

And while we are indeed on a ‘hype topic’, which words signal ‘hype’ for you as a reader? Let’s see if one person’s hype is not another’s hype…

Headlines set in Times New Roman upper and lower case have a 92% comprehension rate. However, headlines in sans serif type, all caps cause a 59% drop in comprehension rate. (By the way, if you set your headline in all caps, in pretty much any type, you’re going to cause a fair bit of readability problems (See example below)

Example 1: See how the upper-lower case is just so much easier to read than all caps?

And here’s another example: Reverse type, such as white lettering on a black background, has 0% good comprehension. Zero as in nada. Ink colors, such as bright red on a white background, aren’t much better at 10% good comprehension. (Is that why they stopped having blackboards? )

Una mas example: 80% of readers will look at a vertical shape or graphic before they’ll look at a horizontal one.

So hey, if you’re trying to attract, would you or would you not pay attention to the above facts?

And do you agree that this information, which no doubt was written for the print media, applies to the Internet? Or not? And why?

(Info courtesy: Marketingsherpa, who in turn got it from the Newspaper Ad Bureau of Australia, who printed this information in 1984–that’s like the last century!)

Is Drama so very vital in creating attraction? Drama is all very fine, but only provided you can create either a set of connectors, or disconnectors. Drama for drama’s sake (remember the ‘running nude down the street‘ post), may work once, or twice, but then loses audiences. So if you’re driving a blog post or an article or any communication–drama is vital. But heck, you don’t have to go for 1000 words before heading back to the main piece. A skilled writer/speaker can dart back and forth many, many times and still keep interest with connectors and disconnectors.

An example of a disconnector could be something that’s completely detached or opposite to what’s being represented in the headline:

Example
========================================
Headline: The Logical Case For Increasing Your Prices
===============================================

Let’s do something really, really stupid.
Let’s avoid increasing your prices. Let’s actually decrease them.

By a whole 50%.

So instead of earning $50 per hour, you actually start earning a measly $25.Then just for good measure, let’s reduce your prices by another 50% to $12.50 an hour.

===============================================
Now that’s a disconnector, because the article started with ‘the logical case for increasing prices’, but if you read the complete article on pricing, you’ll see how the connector quickly steps up to the plate.

And since we’re rambling about connectors so much, let’s take an example of a connector.
==================================================
Headline: What The Second Law Of Physics Has To Do With Your Success
===================================================

You often wonder why you can’t get things done and why success seems to be a little late in coming. There’s a precise reason that has something to do with you zzzzzzzzzzzing in the physics class.

Huh?

What’s physics got to do with marketing and business?
===============================================

In a matter of seconds you can fly from connectors to disconnectors. And indeed, create intense drama. Attraction is a precise skill. Sure ’tis meant to get you to read, consume, whatever…but attraction can go pretty haywire and not get results.

And hey, if it’s results you’re after, then you can’t simply attract for attraction’s sake.

Sean

In their post ‘The Web’s Old Wives Tale: People Don’t Read Online‘, Bryan Eisenberg (backed by a Poynter report study say: Crapola! People do read online. Well I disagree. And agree.

And heck no, I ain’t fence-sitting. Because this study has to be looked at in perspective.

There are online readers and offline readers. And the twain don’t meet.

Now first, let me agree with you; then disagree.
I’ve tested that people do read online. When I wrote for a portal where which had over 200,000 weekly readers, I inserted a ‘teaser’ at the 800 word mark. This was in an article that was a chunky 1500 words long. Now this portal wouldn’t (in most cases accept more than 500 words per article because they believed it was too much to read online). Well, as you say, and as the study proves: That’s crapola.

Hundreds of readers found the teaser in the article, and then went across and picked up the ‘hidden pdf’ inserted at the 800-word point. Hundreds more went onwards past that point to subscribe to our newsletter (which was way down at the bottom of the newsletter).

So yeah, I agree.

But I also disagree.
Because when we say, ‘Customers Read Online’ we’re only testing what we’re testing. So we’re only testing the ability for customers to read an article for instance. But what if they’re reading a salesletter? What then? I was of the firm opinion that customers read online. And still believe that most of them are attracted to the online version. And then, almost inexplicably, they need to print the document to read offline.

Which takes us to both sides of the story…
In the research we did, we were selling a higher-priced training course. And yes, most of the customers did read online and buy the course online. But at least 15% of the customers did print out the lengthy 15-20 pages of the sales letter and read it offline. They circled; they underlined; and they bought. That 15% put a nice bit of change in our bank account–and is not something that you’d want to ignore.

So yes, statistics may indeed prove that clients do read online.
Stats may indeed prove that customers do read the story all the way down to the 77% mark.
But what may be lost in the story is that often you’re selling a concept; product or service online. And that if you get lulled by the statistics, you may not provide an ‘offline’ option. You may not provide a ‘Print this Page’ button. Or you may not provide a ‘printable PDF.’

As I said. I agree. But I disagree too.

What do you think?

So you’d think a free offer would like to a free offer, right? No it doesn’t. And then business scratch their heads, and wonder why things don’t work.

What I’m saying is this: Attraction can work prettttttty well. And then you play goof-ball with conversion. And completely avoid the customer from consuming your offering.

Why is it that things go so wrong? Why would a simple task lead in almost zero-conversion?

Let’s take this example from Shutterfly.com.

When you get a free offer, what is the first and last thing on your brain? Why the word: FREE. You can’t think of anything else. You want to see FREE and nothing but FREE. And when you go to the page below, you see nothing that says FREE.

Here’s what I got in my email. It says FREE. It has a deadline. It gets my attention.

The disconnect when you click to the link. Where did FREE go? Where did the deadline go?

You dither. Is it really free? What’s that $9.99 doing on the page? What was the offer all about? Where did FREE go? What happened to the deadline of March 28?

You see the disconnect and the resulting confusion?
I haven’t been to Shutterfly.com for a while. So they they are, prodding me to get my act together by making a simple, effective offer. And in the process, they’re increasing my consumption.

But consumption works both ways…
If they get me to use their service more often, I’ll use their service more often. If they confuse me more often, I’ll expect their service to be confusing–and may not go back.

Paypal ran into this consumption issue many years ago…
Paypal got a reputation in the market. Not so much from the the grapevine, but more so from the users–namely people who bought products or services using Paypal. Paypal would want to link to these customers’ bank accounts, and make all sorts of crazy, irritating-enough demands.

The consumption-slide sets in
Instead of more buyers buying through Paypal, more buyers started opting in for non-Paypal buttons to click on. Now of course, Paypal has cleaned up their act, but the perception remains.

Shutterfly scored high on attraction…
And then totally blew their chances on conversion. As for consumption, let’s not go there, shall we? What could have been a clean path from attraction –right away to consumption, ended abruptly at confusion.

And yeah, I still don’t know if that offer’s free.

Is it just me, or are you confused too?