The Ultimate Conversion Optimization Reading List

by thegrok on January 29, 2010

If 2010 is the year of conversion rate optimization, then people are going to have to move beyond today’s simplistic tactical application (pushed mainly by tool vendors anxious to sell technology fixes) of basic landing page optimization and testing, to the strategic worldview that conversion optimization should play in an organization.

Good conversion optimization should focus on uncovering and understanding your target market’s needs, your content strategy, and on delivering your brand promise and a remarkable customer experience. Great conversions come from developing persuasive systems that allow your audience to flow naturally from awareness to evangelism.

Last week, I was with a client who asked me several months ago if he should hire a conversion rate consultant before or after doing his redesign. I explained to him that especially in cases where the sale is a bit more complex than present product, he should bring a conversion consultant in at the beginning of the process. Within an hour of an analysis it was obvious what bright spots existed in his current marketing efforts, why they occurred, and why he had such a terrific opportunity to increase market share.

As I explained, he was really good at marketing to one or two of his target market personas, but he suffered from a “curse of knowledge” and was missing the mark with most of his current marketing efforts and Web site (when in actuality his target market consisted of six personas). The rest of the day we planned out his content strategy, looked at his wireframes, which we had to redo based on the personas, and looked at his PR and marketing strategy for the next 12 months to evaluate how each persona would respond. Is that what you’re doing to improve conversions?

This is why I told my MarketMotive students that while the coursework consisted of us learning from my book, they needed to get a solid foundation in “The Sciences and Disciplines of Web Site Optimization.” Someone suggested I create a reading list of the best books and resources that a conversion optimization consultant can’t do without.

The resulting list, below, is in no particular order and is far from comprehensive. It includes books and a few other resources that I know to be unavoidable if you want to talk shop and keep up with a real conversion consultant. Most people believe a conversion consultant should start off grounded in usability, analytics, and testing, but that is the difference from the tactical tool based application of conversion optimization and a strategic one.

A good conversion consultant should know all the tactical issues but also be well grounded in buyer psychology, persuasion, social psychology and dynamics, sales (online and offline) strategy, and the nature of advertising and media.

Psychology, Human Behavior, and Persuasion

I chose to start the list with Chip and Dan Heath’s “Made to Stick,” because I referenced their concept of the “curse of knowledge” and they have a fabulous new book, “Switch” (you can see an early video review by my friend Chris Brogan).

Marketing, Branding, and Selling

No doubt this is the most difficult category because there are plenty of fine marketing, traditional advertising, and branding gurus. I wanted to identify some books that will influence a lot of the great books still to come. Every one of these books is still relevant to marketers and the challenges we face online. You simply can’t go wrong reading anything on this list:

Once you have these core human psychology fundamentals you can focus on the specifics of the medium we want to improve.

Usability and Information Architecture

Web Analytics

To learn what kind of things you should be testing and how to test you should start with the direct marketing masters who have been doing testing for longer than the Web has been around.

Direct Marketing Techniques

Copywriting

Testing

There is a lot of science and rigor in the area of testing and statistics. And while marketing is becoming more accountable, we aren’t quite ready for the amount of rigor possible in this critical area. But we will be, and when we are there will be a few more books that make this subject palatable for the average marketer and conversion analyst. Until then, these are two solid choices to devour and have more than enough information to get you started testing, and testing well:

You want to be sure your conversion consultant is constantly improving his skills in this ever-evolving medium.

SEO, SEM, E-mail Marketing, & Social Media

When it comes to search marketing and other dynamic markets, most of the treasured resources are blogs or sites like ClickZ. Here are a couple recent books worth mentioning:

Get Reading

As you can see, I definitely left a few out. But every resource listed will help you on your way to understanding the ins and outs of how to be a great conversion consultant.

Did I leave out one of your must-reads? If so, please list it in the comments section below.

P.S. Don’t forget to sign up for my two free webinars hosted by my good friends at Widerfunnel.

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Tagged as: conversion optimization, reading list

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

Valerie DiCarlo January 29, 2010 at 8:42 am

A great comprehensive reading list. Thanks for the informative post… am not sure I saw Lance Loveday & Sandra Niehaus’ “Web Design for ROI” on your list. It’s a good resource to include – as well as Jakob Nielsen & Hoa Loranger’s “Prioritizing Web Usability”.

Thanks again!
Valerie DiCarlo

Derek Monteverdi January 29, 2010 at 10:33 am

A great list, Brian. I didn’t know Jeannie Mullen wrote Email Marketing An Hour A Day. I’m not a big fan of the Hour A Day format but will have to strongly consider this one.

Ed January 29, 2010 at 11:39 am

Brain,

Your list is great but I feel a bit of overwhelmed. Can you recommend ONE MUST READ in each category so I can get started?

Cheers,
Ed

Derek Monteverdi January 29, 2010 at 12:01 pm

Ed,

For Usability, I’d recommend “Don’t Make Me Think” because it’s easy to read, short, and provides a great foundation.

For Web Analytics, “Web Analytics Demystified” is where I’d start. “Actionable Web Analytics” is also good though not on the list.

Derek

Kayden Kelly January 29, 2010 at 2:42 pm

This is a great reading list. I too would recommend “Web Design for ROI” (http://www.wd4roi.com) as well of one of my recent favorites “Content Strategy for the web” (http://www.contentstrategy.com).

@Ed

I also recommend “Don’t Make Me Think” plus these other books as the top books from the above categories; Avinash’s new “Analytics 2.0″, “Call to Action”, “Made to Stick”, and “The Copywriter’s Handbook”. Good luck getting your hands on “Persuasive Online Copywriting” since it is out of print as far as I can tell and rare copies are very expensive. Maybe Brian or Jeffrey can help us out on getting this more easily.

Marc Poirier January 30, 2010 at 12:42 am

Great list Bryan, I was going to talk to you about Paco Underhill’s book last time we saw each other, but, as you remember, the other topics were so fascinating that this slipped my mind. Clearly you already knew about it ;-)

Cheers, see you in London

Phil January 30, 2010 at 5:46 am

I’ve just finished Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk. I wouldn’t put in the hall of fame, but it still comes with a thumbs up. Gary’s energy and enthusiasm is very motivational, so if you’re having a bad week, this will get you charged!

Deb J Mull February 1, 2010 at 3:17 pm

Great list Bryan – it’s always great to get recommendations on ‘must read’ books. Reviews, recommendations, and customer testimonies are what it’s all about these days. It’s how we choose our restaurants, B&B’s, cars & most other things these days. Thank you!

Ellice March 2, 2010 at 3:29 pm

The one SEM book would be Search Engine Marketing, Inc by Mike Moran

online marketing blog June 2, 2010 at 2:34 pm

brilliant list, i would alos recommend marketing experiments and wider funnel which are pretty good. For copywriting check out Bob Bly.
online marketing blog´s last blog ..Apple Create iProblems for Mobile Marketers

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