ebook

Champagne Fountain Your presentation will set off a cascade of content.

It was a few paragraphs from my book in a Chapter entitled “How Content Fuels Conversion.”

It started off pretty well, but it ended in a lie.

Amid my discussions of video and images; of draftsmen and imagemakers and storytellers appeared a few lines. They’re there on page 92.

Digital content has legs. One item of content can be cascaded into a variety of channels like a fountain of champagne glasses at a wedding.

For example, how many opportunities do your employees get to present at conferences, training sessions, seminars, and webinars? Film them and record good quality audio. This bubbly content fills the top glass of your cascade.

Have someone edit the video into a series of shorter videos, ripe for YouTube and other video services. You’ve just filled the next layer of glasses.

Share the slides used on slide-sharing services such as Slideshare and Scribd. Voila—another, wider layer glasses fills  with sparkling champagne.

For just a few dollars, the video can be transcribed. Lay this out as a report or white paper and distribute it for lead generation. Another layer of glasses fills.

I go on to describe how this transcription turns into blog posts, social media posts and more. I then go on to tell the lie.

The transformations discussed in this example are often not time-intensive.

The truth is, that they are not as time-intensive as creating the content from scratch. But these transformations do take time.

My idea has been stolen

Since the publication of the book, I’ve tried to get someone to steal my idea so that I would have a resource to turn to. I’ve had conversations with a number of agencies and freelancers about why content is like champagne. Businesses are creating the champagne every day. They just need glasses, stacked just so to turn it their content into an online party.

Dust off one of your presentations

How many people saw that webinar you recorded last quarter? Most webinars draw less than 100 viewers. There are a lot more people out there who won’t watch a webinar, but who are qualified prospects. I invite you to dust off your webinar or presentation and turn it into a Slideshare presentation, blog posts, a report, an eBook – you choose the package.

Most importantly, create the content landing pages and social media posts that generate sales and leads. After all, this content is only valuable if it grows your business.

Every so often, your CEO is asked to speak about some aspect of the market. Every now and then, your tech guru is asked to talk about how brilliant your technology is. And how many times is your sales team pitching to audiences about your fantastic offering? Each of these moments is an opportunity for a cascade of content for your marketing efforts.

Is your presentation cascadeable?

Here’s how you can tell if your content is a good match for the cascade:

  • Do you have recorded audio or video of the presentation? Slides are rarely enough to convey the understanding needed for someone to do a good job creating content. The quality of your audio need only only be good enough to generate a transcript.
  • Do you have presentation slides? Video and recorded webinars don’t provide the resolution needed for visuals.
  • Is your presentation just slides full of bullets? These kinds of presentations don’t typically make for good visual content such as infographs, eBooks and reports.

Other than that, there’s no risk in uploading your presentation for us to look at. We don’t ask for a credit card.

The Audience is Bigger Than The Room

The audience that initially heard the presentation is tiny compared to the audience for the cascade of content it will generate.

  • Cascade content is shared with a larger audience via email and social networks.
  • Cascade content increases frequency with multiple slices from the same presentation.
  • Cascade content engages more of the audience through text, audio and images.


Photo courtesy paulodonnel on Flickr under the creative commons.

The big brains in the Conversion Sciences lab have been working around the clock to bring you an interactive ebook about the science behind business video. Business Video Through the Eyes of Your Prospects is a must read for any business looking to invest in video.

business video cover The guys in the lab coats have taken their pile of data on business video and created an ebook that is not only chock full of information, but stocked with over 30 minutes of video examples. Let’s be honest; when it comes to video, seeing is believing. And the best way to show what works (and what doesn’t) is through actual video.

While we can’t promise that this book will tell your future, make your hair thicker, or cure the common cold, we can promise the following:
* An explanation of how video works in the brain
* Results of our split test to maximize conversion
* Results of a post test to measure comprehension
* Over 30 minutes of video so you can see for yourself
* And so much more!

To make a long story short (too late!), you will absolutely want a copy of this book. Before you invest in business video, read this book, watch the videos, and create a video strategy based on what will really work. Get the most out of your video budget by focusing on the video that’s going to have the best ROI.

Download Business Video Through the Eyes of Your Prospects.

Everyone is excited about “whiteboard” video, in which concepts are drawn at super-high speed on a whiteboard to explain or sell what you offer.
business video cover But Whiteboard video is not cheap, and the geek scientists here a Conversion Sciences wanted to learn if whiteboard video was worth the extra price.
First, we used an eye-tracking camera to see how people watch whiteboard video. Watch the incredible video we made that tracks viewers’ eyes as the watch whiteboard video right in the interactive eBook.
But, we didn’t stop there.
We did the same for “talking head” video and for “webinar” or “slide” video. These are the three most common forms of business video.
You’re going to be surprised at what we discovered.
We also did a split test of these kinds of videos to see which would generate the most conversions in a business setting.
Don’t invest in video until you’ve read Business Video Through the Eyes of Your Prospects.
This interactive PDF book includes all of the eye-tracking videos and more.
* An explanation of how video works in the brain
* Results of our split test to maximize conversion
* Results of a post test to measure comprehension
* Over 30 minutes of video so you can see for yourself
This extraordinary ebook will save you from investing $5000, $10,000 or more in the wrong video. Get instant access to the Business Video Through the Eyes of Your Prospects.
Video can significantly improve your conversion rates and revenue. The wrong video can do the opposite. Avoid expensive video pitfalls with this interactive eBook.

The Conversion Sciences team is packing up the coffee cup beakers and the lab coats and heading to downtown Austin for the Which Test Won Live Event happening this Thursday and Friday. We know you have a few questions, so here’s the rundown.

What is Which Test Won Live?

“WhichTestWon’s The Live Event is the most advanced — and practical — show of 2013 for digital marketers who care about conversion rate optimization (CRO). Be inspired by 17 new Case Studies, create a hands-on testing plan for your site at 11 exclusive workshops, and then network (and party) with your peers.”

Sounds cool! What will the Conversion Sciences Team be doing there?

Our usual mix of mayhem and useful information of course! Come by our booth in the exhibit hall for a first crack at our new ebook Business Video Through the Eyes of Your Prospects. Thursday is the official launch, so stop by for specials and maybe a giveaway or two. We’ll also be doing live site critiques at the top of every hour. Step up for a critique or just watch as the Conversion Scientist gives real live businesses the skinny on what’s working (and what’s not) on their site.

I have to be there! How do I get a ticket?

Head over the Which Test Won Live site to get a ticket. We can promise you will not be disappointed. Remember, it’s this Thursday and Friday May 9th and 10th at the Austin Music Hall. We hope to see you there!
business video cover

You can still pre-order a copy of Business Video Through the Eyes of Your Prospects for a special discount. Get yours reserved today!

How to Use Ebooks Strategically and Reach Your Content Marketing Goals | Copyblogger

This article on ebooks comes at an important time at Conversion Sciences as we put the final touches on a unique ebook of our own (preorder Business Video Through the Eyes of Your Prospects).
Content is the way you charge and release the power stored in your marketing batteries (customer lists, email lists, social media networks).
And don’t forget that ebooks now outsell print books.

Why Facebook is blue: The science of colors in marketing – The Buffer Blog

If color is your concern, here are some guidelines and some dazzling graphics. However, don’t overthink color. The comments offer some sobering thoughts on the effect of color on success. 

Want to get Brian’s For Further Study posts delivered right to your inbox? Click HERE to sign up.

I’m going to make this brief.

As a reader of The Conversion Scientist, I’m offering you free copy of Your Customer Creation Equation: Unexpected Website Formulas of The Conversion Scientist for your Kindle, iPad or Smarthphone.
All you have to do is visit the Amazon Kindle Store and have the book sent to your iPad, iPhone, Android, or Kindle.
You can read it on the Amazon Cloud Reader on your computer, or through the free Kindle App available for your Smartphone or iPad.
The book gives you the foolproof formulas to creating a website that not only gets the right traffic, but converts that traffic to customers, returning customers and advocates.
Some of the great things you’ll learn in this book:

  • Identify the unique customer creation formula for your site.
  • Set up your own digital conversion lab to measure your progress.
  • Develop landing pages for your site that actually deliver.
  • Charge your marketing “batteries” to reduce your advertising expenditures.
  • Communicate authoritatively with designers, developers, and executives.

So please, do not buy this book.
Go over to the Kindle Store and get your copy absolutely free. Your website will thank you for it.

How to build a marketing database that keeps prospects engaged

It sounded like the perfect market:

  • A large and growing marketplace
  • A need so critical that it strikes at the very foundations of the family
  • Increasing competition for scarce supply
  • A marketplace actively using the Internet to solve the problem
How to build a marketing database that generates engagement.

JobCannon for Job Search.

Add to these the fact that existing solutions were failing miserably, and you’ve got a market ready for an effective online solution.

I’m describing the unemployed job seeker marketplace. Few marketplaces have the natural alignment of trends that this marketplace does. JobCannon (formerly CardboardResume) sought to create an online job search solution that actually worked, and build a business in the bargain.

First, let me disclose that JobCannon is a client of Conversion Sciences.

You might have thought that this would be an easy sell. We knew it wouldn’t be. We needed to keep skeptical, frugal job seekers engaged and informed. Here’s how we did it.

Before you read any further…

If you’re on Twitter, please visit and play along.

Building the Battery with Informational Marketing

Since no tag line was going to help JobCannon rise above the noise, and since new job seekers needed advice as much as the software, we lead with an informational approach.

JobCannon commissioned an eBook to help break job seekers of their job board habit. It turns out that spending hours a day on Monster and CareerBuilder was the least effective way to find work, especially in a crowded job market.

I wrote the eBook for them. My primary qualification was my fundamental inability to hold a job. Get your copy of The Market for Me.

A book blog was setup to catch job seekers searching the Internet. I began speaking at job clubs on to help seed the marketplace promoting the book heavily.

Charging the Battery

To receive the book, prospects provided a name and email address, and asked the prospect why they wanted to read the book. About 10% of the attendees to a live presentation requested a free copy.

Of the people who visited the book request page 30% completed the form. This is a relatively high conversion rate.

The presentation model was not easy to scale, as I could only speak so many times. But the pipeline proved that we could engage and educate an audience with informational marketing.

The book/blog strategy was proven when one of my presentations was featured on applicant.com, an influential blog. It was subsequently picked up by Slideshare as a featured presentation. Over the space of three weeks, almost 30,000 people viewed the presentation. A link to the free eBook in the description drew viewers to our educational content.

This one presentation doubled the size of our email database. It charged our battery.

This is proof that high conversion rates amplify all of your online marketing efforts.

Tapping the Battery’s Energy

Informational posts generated for the blog became email newsletters that were sent to the book database.

This was an efficient battery. When we sent educational emails to the list, open rates were astronomical, between 77% and 98%. I’m usually ecstatic at 30% open rates. Click-through rates were as high as 22% and unsubscribe rates were near zero.

Because this market was bombarded by solutions to help them find work, we were dealing with a skeptical group. We found out it took as many as seven relevant contacts to generate a JobCannon trial: One reference from a friend, one presentation, one free eBook, and four informational emails.

Without our marketing battery, we would never have been able to generate the number of “touches” necessary to make prospects feel comfortable trying the software.

Like batteries marketing databases “lose charge” over time

As a rule of thumb, we assume that 25% of the contacts become invalid over the course of a year.

  • Prospects become customers
  • Email addresses change
  • Prospects choose to stop receiving email (opt-out)
  • Prospects choose alternative solutions
  • Prospects just stop paying attention to your emails

Many marketers drain their battery by sending promotional content. Discounts, feature-oriented posts and irrelevant information drain the battery very quickly.

In our case, many of our prospects find work, even though they’re not using JobCannon. Hopefully, they’ll continue to network and search for new opportunities even though they have found work.

Build your own battery with informational content

You may not have an eBook available, but your business generates informational content every month. Press releases, product descriptions, old blog posts, and sales presentations all can be transformed to charge your marketing batteries.

Join us on December 10 in Austin for BYOContent: The Extreme Conversion Makeover Workshop.

We’re going to transform a blog, a white paper, some video and an email newsletter into lead-generating and sales-generating tools.

Brian Massey, The Conversion Scientist

P. S. Get more conversion tips by subscribing to The Conversion Blog.

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