Interview With Bryan Eisenberg, Future Now Inc.

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Interview with Bryan Eisenberg www.futurenowinc.com or www.grokdotcom.com

When did you start your own business and how did it come about? Very early in the short history of ecommerce, we were painfully aware that most Web sites failed to understand and incorporate the business imperative in this new medium of exchange. The medium was new, but basic business principles and consumer psychology hadn't change. Future Now was founded in 1998 with the goal of helping online businesses understand the importance of the conversion process, that they might dramatically increase their conversion rates. Of course, nobody back then was talking about "conversion" and as the dot-com catastrophe quickly demonstrated, very few were even thinking about the relationship between their Web sites and their bottom lines.

You will notice our book is really in two parts: the first part addresses the various roles copywriting assumes online; the second part, which presents our perspective on conversion, is really the heart of the book. The sine qua non.

People understand the idea of copywriting and recognize its value. And copywriting is one of the elements in a Web site that is easily adjusted to evaluate the effect. But in our minds, the topic of copywriting was the doormat, inviting the reader into the greater structure of the online conversion process.

Your company, Future Now, Inc. has been in business for a little over five years now, what has been your biggest challenge and how did you get over that hurdle? We began our business in 1998, and published our first issue of GrokDotCom in March 2000.

Back when we started, only a handful of people understood the importance of conversion. We were banging our heads against a brick wall trying to persuade folks it was in their best interests to look to their online persuasive processes – they simply weren't listening. And to boot, they didn't even believe they should be listening: "Conversion? Don't waste my time. It's all about traffic."

So we kept publishing, accepted speaking engagements and worked selectively with clients who wanted to work with us, slowly building up a reputation for what we could help clients accomplish. Frankly, the dot-com bust didn't hurt us a bit. When the dust settled, people were very keen to reevaluate what had clearly gone wrong.

When you started your business, did you make a lot of cold calls to land your first jobs? If so, can you share one of your more successful cold calling techniques? We have always felt the whole corporate culture of cold-calling is fundamentally adversarial. Not the ambiance we wanted to generate around our initial contact with folks, from either a personal nor and educational point of view. I mean, how do you cold call someone who doesn't believe in the value of what you have to offer and construct a truly meaningful business relationship out of it? It might happen every once in a blue moon, but we instinctively knew that if we had to work hard at persuading folks our principles and methodologies were exactly what they needed, we weren't destined to enjoy a mutually satisfying association.

Basically, we started "speaking" to people through our newsletter, GrokDotCom. That led to an invitation to write an ROI Marketing column for ClickZ, and it was primarily through this channel that we were able to develop a presence and larger client base.

Is there really a difference in writing copy for the web versus writing copy for print? If so, what is it? There are several differences between web copy and print copy.

Visitors to your web site have made the choice to come; their experience is voluntary and participatory. They are task-oriented. You are not trying to snag their attention as if your web site were an advertisement or a brochure; your goal is to quickly let them know they are in the right place, you have what they need, you understand their felt needs, and you know how to help them quickly find what they are looking for.

The copy that comprises your calls to action (e.g., Click here to download the all-new browser) must be compelling and imply a benefit. After all, this is the place where you are offering your most focused encouragement to take action – take this action to get this benefit. Simply suggesting your visitor "Call us" might work in a brochure, but it doesn't work effectively online.

I think the most important difference between online copy and print copy is that online copy must be crafted so it can be formatted for reading on a computer monitor. Studies have shown that people do not read a screen the way they read a piece of paper. A thorough understanding of the principles eye-tracking as well as scanning and skimming allows you to present text so that your visitors are far more likely to "see" it, get the "gist" of it, and then make their decisions about whether or not they want to fully engage with it.

In your book, Persuasive Online Copywriting, you mention the importance of having a scannable website. What is scannable web copy and how great of an impact does it have on converting sales?

When people come to your Web site, they are coming to you because they believe you have something they want. They are engaged in a task. But not all people approach this task in the same way. The fact that people have different personality types means that they have different needs that must be satisfied so they can complete their "buying decision process." Some people know exactly what they want, and your job is quickly to let them know you have it and where it is. Some people sort of know what they want – they are interested in "buying," but they need more information, or perhaps would appreciate an alternative. Here your job is to provide the essential information and help them narrow the field in their evaluation process. And then there are those visitors who aren't really in a "buying" mood, but they could be persuaded.

The persuasive architecture of your Web site must be able to handle these very different approaches. And you contribute to that ability by making your copy easily scannable. Things such as highlighting key phrases, hyperlinking critical words, using meaningful headlines and subheadlines, breaking up large blocks of text so the eye isn't inclined so skip over them.

When you format your copy for scannability, you help each of your visitors quickly identify if you can provide exactly what they need, however that may fit into their tasks. And when you don't waste people's time, when you come across as being understanding, confident of yourself, trustworthy, when you meet their exact needs … well, why wouldn't they "buy"?

Bore them, tick them off, ignore them, make them work too hard … this is when your visitors will happily click to your competition.

In your book, Persuasive Online Copywriting, you mention the importance of knowing your audience. What is the most important aspect in determining who one's audience is? The most important aspect in determining who your audience is depends on an understanding of dominant personality types – ways of being in the world that appear generally to characterize all humans. One way we base our applications is on the work of Myers-Briggs and the Myers- Briggs Type Indicator. It is not that we ignore demographic or topologic information, but we have learned that before you start speaking to age groups or income levels, you have to present things in a way that will appeal to the personality's felt needs. A Methodical person wants lots of detail, appreciates specifications, likes to know things are in order. A Humanistic person is far more interested in the others who have worked with you or used this product or service … the felt need of a relationship will prevail.

If you understand these fundamental differences, then you can create copy that targets those needs. The Methodical visitor will value "methodology" and "detailed analysis," while the Humanistic visitor will look for "testimonials" and "personalized approaches."

Knowing your audience means understanding how they approach your Web site and the decision to "buy." When you have that information, you can construct specific scenarios, or navigation pathways, through your site that help you "sell" to each of them as they wish to be "sold to."

Many websites use long, over-exaggerated sales letters to sell electronic and print books as well as other marketing packages. Do those cookie cutter sales letters really work? And if so, why? To some extent, almost anything will "work." Even an untargeted direct mailing usually generates a conversion rate of one percent or more, which many direct marketers find acceptable. It just depends on how you define "work."

It's important to consider that length alone is not a significant factor. The key is to say exactly what you need to say in the fewest words possible, without sacrificing clarity, style and tone. We have found that when you have identified the points of relevance – the "meat" of your message, as we call it – your marketing campaigns are likely to be far more successful. And sometimes a longer message is going to convert much better than a short one.

You can think of an email as one of your Web site's landing pages – except your readers didn't come to you, you came to them. So the email has to satisfy all the requirements we would look for on any landing page, which would include: does it communicate relevance? does it identify the benefits of taking action (e.g., clicking through to the Web site)? does it inspire confidence? does it speak to different personality types? are there clear calls to action?

If that's the cookie cutter you're cutting with, then you will certainly convert more of your readers.

In your book, Persuasive Online Copywriting, you state "start paying close attention to your Web logs. For now, look carefully at your reject pages – the ones where visitors exit or fail to take action." How can one use web logs to determine the types of changes needed on the exit pages to keep visitors on the site longer, or even make that purchase? Web logs can identify your highest reject pages, but they can't really explain what specifically about that page frustrated your visitor. This is where the science of metric analysis meets the art of interpreting the persuasive structure.

We would start such an evaluation by looking at the obvious stumbling points: calls to action, point of action assurances, lengthy forms, navigational dead ends. The list of possible reasons why folks bail is actually enormous.

In identifying potential sticking points, we would prioritize the problems and then proceed to make changes, one at a time, closely evaluating the Web logs to determine the effect of that single change.

This is the process of testing, measuring and optimizing, which should be a standard, on-going part of Web site management. There are always things that will help you improve that little bit more … and sometimes considerably more.

We like to ask folks, "So, how much money is too much to earn?"

Thank you for allowing us to interview you!

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