Archives - Bryan Eisenberg & Jeffrey Eisenberg

The Hidden Structure Behind Every Story That Sells

What if I told you the difference between words that get ignored and words that change lives comes down to just two words? Not “once upon.” Not “the end.” Two little connectors that most people overlook: ‘but’ and ‘therefore’. Stay with me because this is the hinge between someone forgetting your message and someone retelling it a decade later. Timelines Don’t Persuade Most people confuse stories with timelines. “And then this happened. And then that happened.” That isn’t a story.…

What a Press Release Taught Me About the Future of Marketing

Bryan Eisenberg

Frustrated at waiting for Google to update their index, I recently ran a simple experiment. I wrote a press release, published it, and watched as AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini instantly treated it as fact. Think about that for a moment. A single piece of content became the “truth” inside systems that millions of people now rely on for answers. That experiment is just one of the stories I shared with Slobodan Manic on his No Hacks podcast. But…

Joseph Fischer founder of Playmaker Recruiting

The Underdog Advantage: Why Playmaker Recruiting Won Startup Day

Bryan Eisenberg

Five minutes. One stage. No second chances. That was the challenge at the Round Rock Chamber‘s Startup Day pitch competition. And that‘s where Joseph Fischer, founder of Playmaker Recruiting, stood out and won. Why his story connected Joseph didn‘t start with features or numbers. He started with his own story, an undersized kid from Pflugerville who saw scouts skip over talented teammates because they weren‘t at the “right” schools or tournaments.That frustration became his fuel. And the room felt it.…

Why Strong Brands Require Strong Character

Bryan Eisenberg

We are drowning in content. AI churns out torrents of words in seconds. Social feeds refresh with a flick of a thumb. Blogs, podcasts, videos, and ads blur together until they feel disposable. In all that noise, what makes a brand stand out? It isn’t a polished design. It isn’t clever copy. It isn’t having more content than the competition. The corporate or personal brands that cut through today are characters you can’t forget. Think about your favorite TV series…

From Elephants to AQ: Why Sticky Phrases Create Unstoppable Brands

Bryan Eisenberg

Most marketers underestimate just how physical persuasion really is. When you see someone smile, your mirror neurons smile. When you hear laughter, your brain laughs with them. Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran calls them “empathy neurons” because they dissolve the barrier between self and others. This is why the most memorable ads don’t just tell you something. They make you feel it. They create knee-jerk reactions, inside jokes, even little catchphrases you carry into your daily conversations. Wassup! That’s what Dr. Matt…

The Bison and The Raven: A Tale of Resilience and how to Escape adversity

The Raven and the Resilient Bison: A Fable on how to Escape Adversity

Bryan Eisenberg

A young raven falls out of its nest in the dark of night. He sees several ravens and other birds head off, soaring away to seek shelter. The sound of thunder and flashes of light warn him of the peril of an incoming storm. Watching all the other birds fly and glide gracefully, the little raven leaps into the air but barely manages to get off the ground and lands in a muddy puddle. Frustrated and confused by the seeming…

Mental Health Support Before Crisis: Bryan Eisenberg’s NAMI Central Texas Interview

Bryan Eisenberg

There were days I could barely get off the couch. I struggled to shower, and if my dog Hero had not needed a walk I might never have stepped outside. Hero’s tail, thumping against the door, became the metronome that kept me moving when nothing else would. That low season framed my conversation with Clarena Tobon, Executive Director of NAMI Central Texas, on the Rock Solid podcast. Clarena spends her days turning private battles like mine into public support through…

Round Rock, William Gravell former county judge and current SBA Advocate

A Milkman’s Deal, a Thousand Volunteers, and the County That Doubled in Six Years

Bryan Eisenberg

When former county judge William Gravell says his family landed in Williamson County because a milkman struck a bargain with a local banker, you lean in. You lean in because every great community is built on small, generous moments that compound over decades. You lean in again when you hear the punch line. The same county that once stretched pasture all the way down Main Street now carries an appraised value of 184 billion dollars, a jump from 89 billion…

K. LaFleur-Anders from CoffeeMilk Media and TedX Round Rock

You Can’t Build a Business Without Building a Story First With K. LaFleur-Anders

Bryan Eisenberg

There’s a moment in every entrepreneur’s life when the spreadsheet stops mattering. A moment when the funding pitch fades, the product launch is over, and all you’re left with is this question: “Who am I doing this for? And why should they care?” That moment is where every great story starts. And it is exactly where this episode of the Rock Solid Round Rock podcast begins. What Happens When You Bring 100 Powerful Women Into a Room and Actually Listen?…

The Stories We Sell: Why Every Click, Every Cause, and Every Conversion Begins with Connection

Bryan Eisenberg

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never believed marketing was about metrics (even as the co-founder of the Digital Analytics Association). Sure, I love a good dashboard. I built a career helping billion-dollar brands turn clicks into conversions. But at the end of the day, what moves people isn’t the metric. It’s the meaning. And that’s what this SEO Charity webinar was really about. It wasn’t a lecture on storytelling. It was a mirror. A reminder that we don’t…

Entrepreneur lessons with Kevin Koym of Tech Ranch Austin

From Campfires to Catalysts: Why Entrepreneurs Thrive When Community Comes First

Bryan Eisenberg

Not every conversation leaves an imprint. But some, like the one I recently had with Kevin Koym, stay with you. We recorded it just before Startup Day in Round Rock, where Kevin was preparing to host one of his signature Campfire Networking events. For those unfamiliar, it’s not your average mixer. There’s no pitch deck, no elevator speech. Just entrepreneurs coming together around a metaphorical fire, sharing insights instead of intentions. Kevin’s been doing this a long time. Long enough…

The Real Power Behind the Curtain: Influence Isn’t What You Think

Bryan Eisenberg

We live in a world of metrics, where follower counts pass for credibility and virality masquerades as value. It’s tempting to believe that if people see you, they’ll follow you. But here’s the uncomfortable truth. Being seen isn’t the same as being believed. And being believed? That’s what moves people. Amanda Russell nailed it in The Influencer Code: “If nobody takes action because of you, you’re not an influencer. You’re just popular.” That line cut through the noise. Because over…

Nicholle Walton-Durban From ESTEAM Academy

A Four-Year-Old Just Outsold You with Nicholle Walton Durban

Bryan Eisenberg

Last Saturday in Round Rock a preschooler sold every glitter candle on her table in ninety minutes. No ad budget, no CRM, just a marker poster and unstoppable enthusiasm. If that stings, good. Discomfort is data, and data fuels growth. The Moment My Lens Flipped Nicholle Walton Durban sat in front of the mic and dropped a single word that rewired the conversation: edupreneur. She is not an educator who dabbles in commerce. She is an entrepreneur who builds learning…

The Lie the Algorithm Wants You to Believe About Yourself

Bryan Eisenberg

We are not drowning in information. We are all being fed stories designed to keep us compliant. Every swipe, scroll, and AI-generated summary is a carefully measured drip of dopamine, fear, tribalism, and distraction. Not to inform you. To influence you. Not to empower you. To pacify you. The more overwhelmed you are, the more likely you are to drift in the sea of life. When I wrote I Think I Swallowed An Elephant, it wasn’t because I had everything…

LifeSpring’s Chiropractic Trichord Method

Feeling Burnt Out from Selling? Here’s Why

Bryan Eisenberg

Yesterday at 1 Million Cups Round Rock, our Brews and Breakthroughs table kept circling the same drain. Why does selling feel like pushing a boulder uphill? Here’s the uncomfortable answer. You’re probably attracting the wrong people. Not bad people. Just people who are not a match. And that mismatch is what drains your energy. Let me show you what alignment actually looks like. Dr. Matt Delgado at LifeSpring Chiropractic had all the right ingredients on paper. A clean website. A…

The incredible leader known as Karah Powell

From Horses and Elephants to Empathy: The Power of Showing Up

Bryan Eisenberg

“If you can lead a horse, you can learn to lead your life again.” – Karah Powell Some people show up to life. Karah Powell shows up to lead it. Not with fanfare. Not with flair. But with the kind of quiet presence that makes people feel like they belong. In our latest Rock Solid podcast episode, I sat down with Karah—veteran, nonprofit leader, and the heart behind ROCK (Ride On Center for Kids). And as we talked, I realized…

Words Create Worlds: Why Two or Three Words Still Change Everything

Bryan Eisenberg

Over 25 years ago, we wrote our first book called Persuasive Online Copywriting. It was the business card packaged as a book to help people understand the value of increasing conversions. Back then, people didn’t take words seriously. They still believed marketing was about fonts, flash intros, and button colors. I knew better. I had seen it firsthand. The right words, spoken to the right person at the right moment, could change everything. Today, as I release I Think I…

The Elephant in the Room: What Midlife Women (and Men) Aren’t Talking About but Should

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week on the Rock Solid podcast, I sat down with fitness and menopause coach Karen Cerezo. I expected a great conversation. What I didn’t expect was to feel so seen. Because as Karen talked about brain fog, fatigue, and aching joints… about the slow erosion of identity that hits so many women in midlife… I felt my own story echoing back. Let me be real. Before my transformation, I knew the weight I carried wasn’t just physical. It was…

Coffee and the 2 slit quantum experiment

How our Words Create Beliefs

Bryan Eisenberg

What if your morning coffee had commitment issues? Hot and iced, both at once. Undecided, until you decide. That’s not just today’s vibe. It’s how your brain and your universe actually behave. Your brain doesn’t passively receive reality. It predicts it. It guesses what comes next, then reshapes what you see, hear, and feel to match that expectation. Neuroscientists call this predictive coding.Marketers call it positioning.Storytellers?They call it the power behind everything. If your brain expects rejection, it filters for…

What our longing for nostalgia is telling us

Why You’re So Overwhelmed (And Why You Keep Craving the Past)

Bryan Eisenberg

I didn’t time-travel this morning. But my brain did. One second I’m scrolling news, inboxes, calendars, social media. The next, I’m a kid again, sitting on the carpet, cereal in hand, watching Saturday morning cartoons like nothing else in the world mattered. I can’t wait to meet my friends in the park and play some basketball and wiffle ball.. That wasn’t just nostalgia. That was my nervous system crying out, “Please, make things simple again.” We’re overwhelmed because we’re off-script.…

How Monica McKitterick from Impact Family Wellness Helped Me Swallow An Elephant

Bryan Eisenberg

Some stories start with inspiration. Others start with blood work. Mine started with both. In July 2024, I walked into Impact Family Wellness expecting just another check-up. Instead, I walked into the beginning of a new story. Monica McKitterick and her team didn’t just take my vitals. They ordered full blood work that uncovered the truth I had been avoiding. My blood sugar was more than triple the healthy range. My blood pressure was spiking. Other markers weren’t much better.…

The Most Powerful Part of Your Story Is the One You Don’t Tell

Bryan Eisenberg

Lately, I’ve been getting overwhelming feedback on my latest manuscript, I Think I Swallowed An Elephant (Kindle pre order is available). But the comments that stick with me most aren’t about what I wrote. They’re about what I didn’t. It’s what I chose to bury. Like an iceberg, the real weight of a story lives below the surface. The part you don’t spell out. The part the reader feels in their gut before their brain catches up. And here’s what’s…

How To Make Sure Your About Page Doesn’t Suck

Bryan Eisenberg

Ever read an “About Us” page that made you want to work with the business, or just grab a coffee with the owner? Didn’t think so. Most About pages read like they were written by someone trying to impress a bank manager. Buzzwords. Bullet points. Boring. But that’s not your story. You built something real. Maybe from your kitchen table. Maybe from pure grit. Either way, people don’t want your mission statement. They want your why. They want to feel…

Community, Startups, and Real Impact: A Conversation with YJ Lin of Dell for Startups

Bryan Eisenberg

Back when I was a 20-something social worker in New York, I had a boss named Fred. Former priest, recovering alcoholic, lived through the Bowery, and taught me more about people than any textbook ever could. He used to ask, “When are you going to write your book?” I didn’t get it back then. But I get it now. It wasn’t about putting words on paper. It was about owning your story, leading your story, and writing your next chapter…

20 Reasons Round Rock is the Best Place to Build Your Dream

Bryan Eisenberg

If you could build your business anywhere, somewhere affordable, buzzing with talent, rich with resources, and designed for your lifestyle, wouldn’t you? Welcome to Round Rock, Texas. Not just a suburb of Austin. An entrepreneur and startup launchpad where ambition meets opportunity. Here’s why founders are quietly winning here… while the rest of the world is stuck in traffic. 1. Where Data Crowns You King Round Rock doesn’t just feel great — it’s ranked great. Voted #1 place to live…

Live Like You’re Dying: The Value of Authenticity, Mortality, and Viral Storytelling

Bryan Eisenberg

You will die someday. Not a warm and fuzzy opener, I know. But stick with me. Because when you remember that truth, something strange happens. You stop performing. You stop pretending. And you start asking better questions. Like this one: What exactly do I lose by being fully, wildly, unapologetically myself? Back in 2007, a man named Randy Pausch asked that question without ever saying the words. He was dying of terminal cancer. Months to live. And he walked onto…

From the Boardroom to the Ballroom: How Selicia Sanchez-Adame Is Redefining Leadership in Round Rock

Bryan Eisenberg

What does real leadership look like in Round Rock? It looks like Selicia Sanchez-Adame. Entrepreneur. Community builder. Bold voice for the future. I had the pleasure of interviewing Selicia on the Rock Solid podcast. This conversation wasn’t your typical LinkedIn highlight reel. It was honest. It was rooted. And it revealed what makes her one of the most quietly powerful forces shaping Round Rock today. Selicia didn’t just grow up in Round Rock. She grew into herself here. From the…

Dr Mark Malone from Advanced Pain Care On Rock Solid Round Rock

What Chronic Pain Taught One Doctor About Healing: A Conversation with Dr. Mark Malone

Bryan Eisenberg

Most doctors learn about pain from textbooks. Dr. Mark Malone learned from the floor of his home, stuck there after a devastating back injury. He couldn’t walk. Couldn’t work. Could barely reach the refrigerator. And this was after years of already running a pain clinic. That kind of firsthand experience? It changes you. When I sat down with Dr. Malone on the Rock Solid podcast, we weren’t just talking about business. We were talking about what happens when purpose meets…

Most companies treat storytelling like seasoning.

Bryan Eisenberg

Sprinkle a little on the website.Add a pinch to the pitch deck.Maybe toss it in the onboarding slideshow. But here’s the truth:Story isn’t seasoning. It is the system. If your story only lives in your marketing, you’re missing 90% of its power. Because story is how humans understand the world.It is how we decide what matters.Who we trust.What we believe.And why we act. That is why your story has to show up everywhere: Great companies do not just tell stories.They…

Building Community, Feeding Purpose: A Conversation with Diana Lindsey

Bryan Eisenberg

When people ask me what makes Round Rock different, I don’t hesitate. It’s not just the growth. It’s not just the innovation. It’s the people. It’s always been the people. That’s why I launched Rock Solid: The Round Rock Business Leaders Podcast – to capture the heart of what drives this city forward. And in this episode, I got the absolute joy of sitting down with my good friend and fellow Round Rock Chamber ambassador, Diana Lindsey. If you’ve ever…

You Don’t Have to Be Right. You Just Have to Know How Fast You’re Wrong.

Bryan Eisenberg

If there’s one thing I hope you take away from my conversation with Juan Damia on the Born2Unicorn podcast, it’s this: You don’t need to be right all the time. You just need to know how fast you’re wrong. That’s it. That’s the shift. That’s what changes everything. Most entrepreneurs are stuck chasing perfection. They want the pitch to be flawless, the product to be complete, the plan to be airtight. I get it. But here’s the truth: progress beats…

businesses spend all day listening to the same tune of their business all day

Your Brand Might Be a One-Hit Wonder.

Bryan Eisenberg

Here’s why that’s killing your growth…You know that song you can’t shake?The one that hijacks your brain on repeat — “Don’t Stop Believin’”… “Happy”… Baby Shark (sorry)?That’s called an earworm. And it turns out, businesses get them too.They fall in love with their own tune.Their origin story. Their shiny product. Their 5-step proprietary process.And then? They crank it up. Over and over. Louder. Tighter. Glossier.But here’s the truth: nobody’s dancing.Because customers don’t care about your song — they’re already humming…

Pong wasn’t just a game. It was the spark.

Bryan Eisenberg

I was around six the first time I played it. Two paddles. One dot. No story, except the one you created as you played. By twelve, I had my first Atari computer. At thirteen, I launched a BBS from my bedroom and dropped $400 on a 10MB hard drive (and I got a deal). It felt like I was holding the future in my hands. Looking back, Nolan Bushnell didn’t just build Pong. He planted the seed that would grow…

Monica Ballard, Wizard of Ads partner, author, producer, ghost tour host, podcast host

When Ghosts, Ads, and Storytelling Collide: A Rock Solid Conversation with Monica Ballard

Bryan Eisenberg

What happens when you blend 20 years of creative firepower, a haunted hotel, and a glass of red wine? You get Monica Ballard. She’s written jingles. Directed shows. Led ghost tours. Voiced ads you’ve definitely heard. And if you’ve called “A Place at Home – North Austin (512) 521-3010,” you’ve already met her without knowing it. So when my friend Marion, a jingle writer himself, nudged me to invite Monica onto the Rock Solid podcast, it wasn’t even a question.…

Most brands don’t die with a bang. They die quietly. In inboxes.

Bryan Eisenberg

In 2014, Derek Sivers did something wild. He rewrote a confirmation email. That’s it. Not a campaign. Not a product launch. Just an email. Here’s what it said: “Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized gloves and placed onto a satin pillow…” It went viral. People laughed. They shared it. They remembered CD Baby. But why? Because it felt like something. Because it sounded like someone. Because it had what most brands are missing:…

Don’t Sell the Steak… Unless You’ve Got One.

Bryan Eisenberg

In the middle of the Great Depression, when wallets were thin and hope was even thinner, a young copywriter named Elmer Wheeler said something that changed everything: “Don’t sell the steak. Sell the sizzle.” That line crackled its way into the halls of marketing history. Because Wheeler saw something others didn’t. While companies pushed facts, he pulled feelings. While they talked features, he told stories. He realized that people weren’t buying what was being sold. They were buying how it…

Adriana Nunez, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Round Rock Chamber

Why Round Rock Is Quietly Building the Strongest Entrepreneurial Culture in Texas

Bryan Eisenberg

You ever walk into a room and just know you’re in the right place? That’s what talking to Adriana Nunez of the Round Rock Chamber on the Rock Solid podcast felt like. Now, if you’ve ever heard me speak or read Be Like Amazon or Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, you know I believe in systems. Repeatable processes. Measurable outcomes. But even more, I believe in people. And Adriana? She’s the kind of person who makes a community magnetic…

Storytelling is essential, but it’s not enough.

Bryan Eisenberg

It’s the spark, not the system.The amplifier, not the engine.The bow, not the gift. A great story can capture attention.It can stir emotion.It can linger in the mind long after the words are gone. But if the beliefs behind the business are shaky,if the system is broken,if the strategy is vague or misaligned,then the story becomes a trap, not a tool. Because storytelling doesn’t fix misalignment.It amplifies it.It spreads the wrong message faster.It’s lipstick on a pretty pig.It’s narrative masking…

The Product That Could Not Be Sold

Bryan Eisenberg

It was a product nobody wanted. Then one man touched it, and it became a $200 million phenomenon. No new features. No redesign. No big marketing budget. Only one thing changed and everything exploded. Here’s the story: In the 1990s, a small company created a fat-draining countertop grill. It worked. It solved a problem. But no one cared. Sales flatlined. The product sat on shelves, ignored and forgotten. They tried different strategies. Nothing moved the needle. Then came a breakthrough…

Children's Business Fair Young entrepreneurs on the Rock Solid podcast.

Why Your Kid Should Run a Business Before They Get a Job

Bryan Eisenberg

Have you ever seen a 10-year-old negotiate product margins, rethink branding strategy, and pivot to a new product based on customer feedback – all before lunch? I have. And it wasn’t in some Shark Tank fantasy camp. It happened right here in Round Rock, Texas, at the ESTEAM Academy Children’s Business Fair. This is their 8th fair. We just wrapped up a very special episode of Rock Solid, where I sat down with several of the young entrepreneurs who’ll be…

The Stories We Sell (Ourselves)

Bryan Eisenberg

You know what’s underrated? Belief. Not “hope.” Not “manifestation.” Not even “confidence.” I’m talking about conviction. The kind that gets you moving when you’ve got no traction, no approval, and no real roadmap. David J. Schwartz nailed it: “Believe you can succeed and you will.” It’s not just a nice quote – it’s a demand. Because belief changes what you attempt. And the minute you attempt, you create momentum. Action breeds confidence. Not the other way around. Most people are…

Keith Goode, technical search engine optimization expert

Keith Goode on the Evolution of Search and Why Technical SEO Still Matters

Bryan Eisenberg

Keith Goode landed in Round Rock over 20 years ago. He didn’t have a job. Just an invitation to crash with a friend. He saw potential here. Something felt right. And now? He’s helped some of the biggest brands in the world fix their most complex search challenges. But back then? Like a lot of us, he started by doing SEO before it even had a name. Back in the days of Altavista and Yahoo, ranking was about cramming keywords…

Deana Cavanaugh, Ascension Seton Foundation, Round Rock Chamber Ambassador

Deana Cavanaugh on Nonprofit Leadership and Raising Funds with Purpose

Bryan Eisenberg

Have you ever met someone and thought, “How do they manage to do it all and still care so deeply?” That’s what I felt after sitting down with Deana Cavanaugh for an episode of Rock Solid: The Round Rock Business Leaders Podcast. Deana’s journey didn’t follow a neat line. It zigged from government contracting into construction and then zagged into fundraising. That jump wasn’t random. It was intentional, driven by a need to make a difference. She wasn’t chasing a…

Pain Relief in Round Rock: The Moench Method With Ken Moench

Bryan Eisenberg

Ken Moench doesn’t manage pain. He eliminates it. For 25 years, he has helped people find real, lasting pain relief when nothing else worked. Surgeries, injections, physical therapy, none of it solved the problem. Until they tried the Moench Method. This isn’t just another deep tissue massage. It’s a proven technique that resets the body for fast, lasting recovery. And the results speak for themselves. In 2023, the average client needed just 2.5 visits. In 2024, that number dropped to…

Will Williams, first sergeant, ranger, retired

The Relentless Heart of Will Williams: A Rock Solid Conversation

Bryan Eisenberg

Some people talk about making a difference. Will Williams lives it. When I sat down with Will for Rock Solid, I expected a conversation about his service, his nonprofit work, and his impact on the Round Rock community. What I got was a masterclass in resilience, purpose, and the power of showing up. Will doesn’t just run a nonprofit. He is the nonprofit. Share the Will, the foundation he leads, is an unstoppable force in Central Texas, feeding families, providing…

Nicole Thompson, Director of Membership – Round Rock Chamber

Bryan Eisenberg

Why Business Success Starts with Showing Up There’s a secret to success that’s so simple, so obvious, that most people completely ignore it. It’s not about talent. It’s not about luck. It’s about one thing: showing up. Nicole Thompson, Director of Membership at the Round Rock Chamber, knows this firsthand. She’s seen it time and time again. The people who become key players in their community aren’t always the smartest or most experienced. They’re the ones who keep showing up,…

Leasa Neaves, executive coach for women and teams

Leasa Neaves, Leadership Coach for Women and Teams

Bryan Eisenberg

Leasa Neaves spent 23 years at Dell, moving from an entry-level job to leadership roles in marketing, sales, and as Chief of Staff. Round Rock, Texas, wasn’t her planned destination, but it shaped her career and life. Now, she’s on a mission to help women in tech take charge of theirs. At Dell, she didn’t just mentor women. She built platforms for them to lead. Now, with her own executive coaching business, she helps professionals align their careers with their…

Darwin Tanksley, Ascend Development Group

Darwin Tanksley, from Sales to Round Rock Entrepreneur of the Year

Bryan Eisenberg

Darwin Tanksley didn’t just build a business. He built a machine. Fifteen acquisitions in a year. A workforce that believes in his vision. A balance sheet that tells the truth about success. On this week’s episode of Rock Solid, I dig into the mindset that took Tanksley from sales person to Entrepreneur of the Year. It’s not just about HVAC and plumbing. It’s about knowing numbers, understanding people, and turning setbacks into stepping stones. Know your numbers. Revenue is just…

Stephanie Tyler of Round the Rock and the FIRE Foundation

Stephanie Tyler, Supporting the Round Rock Community and Entrepreneurs of All Ages

Bryan Eisenberg

In this episode of the “Rock Solid” podcast, I interview Stephanie Tyler, a prominent figure in Round Rock, Texas, known for her work with the “Round The Rock” community platform and the Fire Foundation. We discuss the recent “Best of Round Rock Awards,” which recently celebrated its 11th year and saw unprecedented participation from both the community and local businesses. Stephanie emphasizes the importance of these awards in reflecting the growth and diversity of Round Rock’s business landscape. She also…

Lee Linton from Office Evolution Round Rock

Lee Linton of Office Evolution on Why Round Rock is Perfect for Business Growth

Bryan Eisenberg

Lee Linton, owner of Office Evolution Round Rock and recently opened Office Evolution Georgetown has a clear message: Round Rock isn’t just another Texas city. It’s a place where businesses come to grow and thrive. During a recent podcast, Lee shared his perspective on why this community has become such fertile ground for entrepreneurs. For Lee, the magic lies in Round Rock’s blend of opportunity and support. With its strategic location near Austin, the city offers access to a vibrant…

Deep in the Leaky Bowels of Google Search

Bryan Eisenberg

News of a Google algorithm leak has surfaced, unveiling a wealth of documents that shed light on Google Search “signals.” These records reveal an astonishing number of over 14,000 ranking factors or signals. As the community delves into these documents, conducting their own research and testing, a flood of insights is bound to emerge in the coming days. The biggest issue with this new documentation is that for years, Google has insisted that factors such as Chrome data, clicks and…

An Apology, A New Year, A New Perspective

Bryan Eisenberg

The last couple of years have been difficult for many people. People struggled with all kinds of issues. Some publicly and some privately. I was in the later group. I tried my best to keep a happy appearance, but honestly it was easier to withdraw and focus the little energy I had on my family. I don’t regret it at all. My friend Alan Stein Jr, author of Raise Your Game & recently Sustain Your Game, shared an incredibly powerful…

A Half Dozen Business Choices

Bryan Eisenberg

Every company has to make choices when it comes to how it markets and sells and, in some cases, who it is and what it sells. In an e-mail exchange, Tom Grimes, a great and brilliant friend, shared with me what he’s thinking about in terms of business choices. Based on his list, here’s my own list of many of the high-level choices businesses typically make every day. It may help you make some more conscience choices of your own:…

Every Action is an Expression of Belief

Bryan Eisenberg

Our companies are nothing but the collection of action every one of our employees take. What beliefs do your employees have about the organizations goals and vision? In Alan Stein, Jr. new book Raise Your Game he quotes a famous Inc. magazine survey that first asked executives what percentage of their employees could name the company’s three top priorities. The executives guess 64%. When the researchers conducted the survey of the employees, the actual number was a sadly, only 2%.…

How Do You Handle Revenue Blind Spots?

Bryan Eisenberg

Companies routinely have Revenue Blind Spots that cost them 20-60% of their revenue. It is like revenue that disappears without you knowing it or seeing it. It is like heat escaping from a poorly insulated home or water leaking from an old bucket. Or like the daily death by a 1000 cuts (think Sears). There are really small ones like a paper cut and others that run much deeper. Here is an example: Don’t let your blind spots get in the way…

eCommerce Moneyball: How AI is Behind the Next Generation of Retail Success

Bryan Eisenberg

On Demand Webinar: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game is about how Oakland A’s manager, Billy Beane, used data to level the playing field. With the right insights, he fought back against teams with far more money and resources to create a winning baseball organization. This won’t be a webinar about baseball though. It will focus on how AI can change the game for retailers to fight back against digital disruptors like Amazon. You’ll learn how retail organizations…

Want Instragrammable Conversions? Leverage Context

Bryan Eisenberg

Error 403! Probably not what you want to see when you “actually” engaged with an ad , reviewed the landing page and were motivated enough to click on the call to action. What went wrong and how to prevent it? When we work with clients on the Buyer Legends process to plan their customer experience journey, we always start at the end. Let’s look at the reverse chronology of the Sudo.AI Instagram lead capture. We don’t have access to their…

Reviewing Amazon’s customer experience for their Treasure Truck offer of the day.

Bryan Eisenberg

A look at the mobile experience, landing page, call to action, etc. for the #NES release offer. BTW this is what the Treasure Truck looked like when you arrived: What other brands would you like to see execute a fun truck experience like this one?

Can I Send You an Audible Code?

Bryan Eisenberg

Jeffrey and I have a handful of Audible codes left for free audio book copies of Be Like Amazon: Even a Lemonade Stand Can Do It. If you would be interested in listening to it and possibly providing an honest review, just send us a message as soon as possible. Please help me Speak at SXSW I, along with other senior marketers, have proposed a panel called: Thrive and Win in an Amazon World These great panelists and I will…

Run a Business Like Jeff Bezos an interview with Digital Marketer

Bryan Eisenberg

I hope I get to see some of you at Digital Marketer’s Content and Commerce Summit in LA on September 18-20th. Let me know if you plan to come.

How the Washington Post applies the 4 Pillars of Success to the Newsroom

Bryan Eisenberg

This week we look at a recent NPR analysis of how the Washington Post became profitable after Jeff Bezos acquired them. It was as simple as applying the unifying principles behind the 4 pillars of Amazon success and leveraging the Be Like Amazon: Even a Lemonade Stand Can Do It flywheel. I am publishing these weekly over on my Facebook author page.

Goodreads: Be Like Amazon Giveaway

Bryan Eisenberg

We have teamed up with Goodreads to giveaway 10 copies of the hardcover edition of Be Like Amazon: Even a Lemonade Stand Can Do It. Good luck! Goodreads Book Giveaway Be Like Amazon by Jeffrey Eisenberg Giveaway ends June 08, 2017. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter Giveaway

What Might We Do For You Now?

Bryan Eisenberg

After writing Be Like Amazon: Even A Lemonade Stand Can Do It, several people have asked Jeffrey Eisenberg and me: What do you do for companies these days? We’ve created a short list: Customer Experience Planning: We conduct workshops/ projects where we plan and optimize digital and real world experiences to increase sales, retention, and satisfaction. This includes commerce redesigns, process changes, continuous optimization, etc. Align Customer Brand Expectations with Business Metrics: We conduct workshops/ projects where we plan and optimize…

Want a free book that will make you laugh?

Bryan Eisenberg

My friend Geraldine DeRuiter (@everywhereist) is about to release her first book. The book will be released May 2nd. The reviews have been amazing so far. I am sure you will love her writing like I do. Comment below why you would love a copy of her book for a chance to win. All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft

Would you like to Brand Like Amazon? Even a Lemonade Stand Can Do It

Bryan Eisenberg

Some of you might have seen through our social media channels that Jeffrey and I have been working on a new book with our friend and mentor Roy H Williams. We have been sharing a new chapter every week. This Monday we will release Chapter 11. The book has only 12 chapters. If you would like to be among the first to read the book head over to BrandLikeAmazon.com. If you subscribe you will receive by email a PDF of…

When Retailers Wreck Relationships Because Of Pricing Errors

Bryan Eisenberg

CyberMonday is becoming one of the most critical days for retailers today. According to IBM, Cyber Monday retailers saw online sales increase by 16.7 percent over last year. Retailers are using email and social offers to get the attention of their customers. In fact, according to IBM’s research: On Cyber Monday alone, IBM clients sent nearly 500M email notifications to consumers around the world – a one-day record high. Mobile push outreach continued its rapid growth and was up 47…

Conversion 101: Creating an SEM Legend for Improved PPC Campaigns

Bryan Eisenberg

In part one of this post, we took a look at the challenges a home remodeler or contractor might have at getting prospects to contact them and fill out a form from their landing pages. Before I go through the process and list all the questions our Persona might have, I want to ask you who do you think is the most successful SEM advertiser of all time? If you answer Amazon, then I would have to agree with you.…

Conversion 101: How to Create an SEM Legend Exercise

Bryan Eisenberg

Don’s Contracting is in steady demand. The local market is tight, supply is low and demand is high. Don will tell you he makes his living off of word of mouth. He doesn’t worry much about online experience. He has a personal edge over many other contractors, because of how he makes his customers feel and the quality of his work. Don doesn’t think about the experience of the people referred to him. He knows this level of demand may…

Why CEOs Don’t Care About Conversion Rate Optimization #CRO

Jeffrey Eisenberg

I recently presented (slides below) at Conversion World. Sam Hurley; Digital Marketing influencer and Founder of OPTIM-EYEZ, asked me the following eight questions. The interview is still getting regular retweets so I’m providing a link to the interview and the slideshare. Jeffrey, why do you think CRO has become relegated to junior managers as a side project? Has it always been this way? How can those with knowledge of CRO get board members to invest in the practice? Can you give…

Even Your Shopping Cart isn’t Sacred

Bryan Eisenberg

Birth of the Shopping Cart The first rolling shopping cart was created by a Piggly Wiggly owner in Oklahoma City. Once a regular basket got too heavy, customers headed straight for the check-out line. This robbed stores of incremental sales. So in 1936, that store owner introduced a rolling cart to make shopping easier. In CRO terms, he reduced the friction of shopping to increase average order size. The design went mainstream in the 50s. It has remained a retail “best practice”…

Omni-channel pricing with the connected customer

Bryan Eisenberg

Sixteen painful minutes standing there while those behind us whispered obscenities under their breath. It wasn’t our fault. Standing on line waiting to complete a simple transaction should never be so painful. Let me tell you a story about how dynamic pricing issues and lack of cross-channel awareness created a negative message for a leading retail brand. My daughter was desperate, in the way only a fourteen year old can be, to purchase the Logo board game for her best…

While I Have Been Gone…

Bryan Eisenberg

First, I would like to apologize for not blogging here and sharing with you. It isn’t because I have stopped writing or haven’t been busy with our new startup, speaking and clients but I have been writing elsewhere. A few of the things I have written lately include: Separate Pieces Lead to Poor Experiences – on the IBM Commerce Blog Mindfulness As a Conversion Rate Optimization Tool – on the SalesForce blog Keys to Success for Online Retailers: Experts Weigh In…

Are You Optimistic About SEO?

Bryan Eisenberg

Since 2012, Searchmetrics has developed a report that looks at the ranking factors that Google uses which can help content marketers, webmasters, and SEO specialists to focus on those important criteria when developing content for websites, social media platforms, articles and blogs. I’ve been keeping a close eye on this space for nearly two decades and in 2011, I summarized all of SEO into the 5 R’s of search marketing that were evergreen and constant. Focus on how content on…

Mobile Is Not The Next Big Thing – It’s Already the Big Thing

Bryan Eisenberg

In mid 2013, mobile Internet access surpassed fixed Internet access, and according to comScore the gap is only widening. Many people are not as easily frustrated with mobile as they are with desktop, because their expectations are still low. It was the same way in the late 90s and early 2000s with desktop experiences. However, that forgiveness won’t last very long. Consumers will keep expecting more and more great experiences like those they get from mobile-optimized companies like Amazon. As…

Increase the Persuasive Momentum of Your Conversion Funnels

Bryan Eisenberg

Companies that plan and optimize persuasive momentum usually convert two to four times better than their industry’s average conversion rate. If you are not properly planning the persuasive momentum of your customer’s experience, then you are leaving way too much to chance. I like to keep chance as far away from my business as possible. I hope you might feel the same way. What Is Persuasive Momentum? In Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? we defined persuasive momentum as “the…

4th Post – Recipes For Practical Customer Experience Design & Optimization # CRO #UX #CX

Jeffrey Eisenberg

Please read the just published Personas: The Key Ingredient In Design For Conversion. It is the fourth in a series of six Recipes For Practical Customer Experience Design & Optimization posts. In case you missed them, the first four posts are: I. Pre-mortem because it is the antidote to Murphy’s Law First we’ll explore the most impactful step of the process, the pre-mortem. Some of our largest conversion wins over the last two decades ever were the result of our clients going through the pre-mortem…

#CRODAY Webinar 4/9/15 – Buyer Legends for CRO with Bryan Eisenberg

Jeffrey Eisenberg

Empower your team with 10 key ingredients for generating powerful customer stories that boost conversion. Reminder: Don’t forget to register for #CRODAY on April 9. 2015 here With Buyer Legends, Your Team Will: Improve communication. Your whole team will see and understand the bigger picture and the important details Improve execution. You will turn big directives into purposeful and more effective actions Improve testing. You will understand how to plan and implement more effective and impactful tests Make more money. You will see improved…

Interview With Bryan Eisenberg – Two Episode Podcast – Buyer Legends & IdealSpot.com

Jeffrey Eisenberg

Bryan was recently interviewed by Rod Worley the host of “Inside the Jewelry Trade Radio Show” to let us know that his interview was now online. Here is what Rod had to say: Good evening Bryan, Just a quick note to say your episode(s) are live in iTunes and on our website. Why two episodes you ask? There was so much great content that we had to break it into two individual episodes. Studies have shown that once a podcast gets…

50+ Digital Marketing Tools To Grow Your Startup

Bryan Eisenberg

The one constant of Austin’s SXSW conference is the gaggle of startups trying to pitching for attention. Some deserve it, others not so much. IdealSpot.com was named one of the 50 Austin Startups You Absolutely Must Know About, I’m a co-founder and CMO of one of those startups. I thought you might be interested in some of the tools that IdealSpot and other top Austin startups in town are using. If you do a quick online search you’ll notice that…

Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) a Dead End?

Bryan Eisenberg

April 9, 2015 will be the first annual International Conversion Rate Optimization Day. April 9 is also my 45th birthday. I’ve invested almost half my life evangelizing for conversion rate optimization (CRO). I should be thrilled but instead I find myself asking: is CRO, as it is practiced today, a dead end? The good news is that there is a greater awareness that increasing sales conversion rates offers a greater ROI than what you can get from optimizing your traffic;…

Recipes For Practical Customer Experience Design & Optimization – Buyer Legends

Jeffrey Eisenberg

This is an important post that Anthony Garcia wrote on the Buyer Legends blog If I gave you a recipe some of you would be thrilled and others not so much. You can cook a gourmet meal that will have your taste buds fox trotting. I know that to be true. When it comes to food there are alternative ways to acquire a great meal. However, when cooking up great customer experiences there are no alternatives. If you want customers…

Get Buy-In From Skeptics – A Conversion Rate Optimization Case Study

Jeffrey Eisenberg

Gerald’s grandpa is a 71 year old luddite who doesn’t use email or a smartphone. So how did Gerald get his grandpa, the CEO of an old school catalog retailer, to champion a highly technical shopping cart and checkout development initiative? Gerald credits a significant part of this success, the ecommerce business was up 29.4% over budget this holiday season, to using the Buyer Legend process. This case study shows: how stories help identify the most important variables to test; how the power of…

Where do companies and entire industries go to die?

Jeffrey Eisenberg

Listen to Bryan explain how businesses that can’t seem to get into the mindset of their customers are failing and what you can do to avoid that pitfall. Mitch Joel from Six Pixels of Separation interviews Bryan Eisenberg about the Buyer Legends process. The podcast is 47 minutes long.

What A Used Car Salesman Can Teach You About Empathy

Bryan Eisenberg

He pushy pushed his way up towards the stage. I had just finished presenting the keynote at Driving Sales, an automotive dealers conference. He thrust out his hand and eagerly shook mine; saying “thanks … blah blah blah…. And then I heard him clearly “…too often I am obsessed with pushing customers through sales and I’m not helping them buy!” Really!?! That forced me to pay attention. I hope that he didn’t notice me picking my jaw up from the…

Can Your Company Deliver What Marketing Promises?

Bryan Eisenberg

As marketers are given better tools for storytelling, it may become harder for companies to deliver on the promises they are making. If I promised to give you $25,000 as a gift and then only gave you $10,000 you might be grateful, but you’d also be disappointed. Don’t bother to deny it. Once an expectation has been set, anything that falls short of that expectation is disappointing. Good marketers are paid to attract prospective customers. When attracting those prospective customers,…

How to Get Traction for your Startup Business

Bryan Eisenberg

Most business owners (who aren’t in stealth mode) want to get the word out about their new ventures in order to help build credibility, and trust. Those are critical barriers to overcome when you are a new start-up without a track record. I am no different. The past few months have been busy on this end: we published a new book, launched a new training company, and launched a new start-up. And like many start-up founders, I have to think about…

Where’s Bryan? 12 Provocative Posts You May Have Missed

Bryan Eisenberg

Things have been crazy the last couple of months since publishing our new book so I’ve been neglecting this blog a bit. Just in case you missed it here are a few things my team and I have been working on in the past few weeks: 1. Conversion Rate Optimization I wrote about the future of Conversion Rate Optimization over at the eConsultancy blog 2. Improving Collaboration and Execution With Your Marketing Team On the SalesForce.Com blog I wrote about…

The Stepford Personas: What Lies Beneath?

Bryan Eisenberg

Conferences are fun. The drinks afterward are better. Confidences get shared. Let me give you a peek into Chad’s world. Chad is the chief marketing officer (CMO) of a very successful company you’d recognize and probably admire. I changed his name to protect the innocent. Chad’s Stepford Personas Janice, Duane, Samantha, Nathan, and Ari are our personas, explained Chad, while showing me a stunning deck. We invested a great deal of time and money researching our customers and these personas…

Get Your Free Copy of Buyer Legends: The Executive Storyteller’s Guide

Bryan Eisenberg

I hope you got your copy already, if not grab it for free over the next couple of days. Please share this with your team and friends.

Jerry’s Branding Punch Line

Bryan Eisenberg

Do you know the one about Jerry and Jeff walking into a coffee shop? “I love advertising because I love lying.” Jerry Seinfeld tells the room as he accepts a Clio award for his work with American Express. He goes on to describe how people are happy in the time between seeing an ad and experiencing the disappointment of the product. He continues “I think spending your life trying to dupe innocent people out of hard-won earnings to buy useless,…

Is that a Gap in Your Brand Story?

Bryan Eisenberg

In days long gone a company’s brand story typically emanated from a single place, from the company itself. Today, technologies like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, blogs, Yelp, and (insert technology dijour here) have given customers a powerful platform to get in on the act. Too often there are two completely different brand stories being told; the story you tell yourself about your own brand, and the story your customers are spreading. Which version of those two stories is most likely…

Show Us Your Briefs

Bryan Eisenberg

When I talk to marketers about their creative briefs the responses I get are about as diverse as the undie aisle at Target. Their briefs come in all shapes, styles, and sizes and only the most brave and defiant don’t bother to use briefs at all. Some will preach on about the virtue of briefs and their necessary role in covering the company’s marketing essentials. Most complain their creative briefs offer too little support and grant their agencies too much…

How to Manage a Legendary Brand

Bryan Eisenberg

There are bad companies, good ones, great ones, and then there are legendary companies. Legendary companies that disrupt, innovate, revolutionize their space. These companies lead, not just in market share, but in the hearts and minds of their customers. They come in all shapes, sizes, and business models. Yet each one can teach us something about how our companies can become legends. In just under two decades Amazon.com has become in the digital age, what the Walmart was in the…

Developing a High Converting Landing Page {Slideshare}

Bryan Eisenberg

This presentation should help you improve your current desktop and mobile landing pages as well as how to develop new ones. How to Design a High Converting Landing Page from Bryan Eisenberg I wanted to make sure people could take the context from each of my slides so I made sure to add speakers notes to my keynote presentation. If you would like to download a version of the presentation with all the notes for each slide you can find it…

How to Design High-Converting Mobile Landing Pages {includes video}

Bryan Eisenberg

To create effective landing pages, you should understand the anatomy of a landing page and it should be part of your landing page and optimization framework. After optimizing thousands of landing pages over the years, I want to offer this framework for understanding the 10 key elements of a perfect landing page and how to use it. This same framework works for both desktop and mobile landing pages, with the caveat that mobile landing pages need to be more bite-sized. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zVOJGyuiek[/youtube] 1.…

Amazon’s Performance Secrets

Bryan Eisenberg

It was a great honor to present at the inaugural ClickZ Live in New York this week. I was asked to share some of what I presented. For years we have paid careful attention to Amazon, and I shared a few secrets we have discovered about what makes them so incredibly successful. Say what you will about them, but they are a formidable competitor to every business out there. However, what we most admire about Jeff Bezos’ approach to business…

How to Get More Leads with Persuasive Scenario Planning

Bryan Eisenberg

Take 30 minutes during your lunch break today and catch Jeffrey’s webinar with Marketo on “More Effective Lead Generation Using Persuasive Scenario Planning.” Jeffrey will show you a scenario narrative process that ensures all business decisions are made explicitly by the team that owns the results instead of implicitly by the creative and/ or technology teams. Following this process will help you drive more micro and macro-conversions, improve testing and boost the effectiveness of your marketing communications. If your bottom line…

SXSW, Not All That Keeps CMOs Up at Night

Bryan Eisenberg

It sounds like IT, not marketing! Data breach, identity protection, customer security – these are terms that never concerned marketers much. The breaches that retailers Target, Neiman Marcus, Zappos, and other brands like Evernote, Living Social, LinkedIn, and Adobe suffered have impacted the way consumers are interacting with brands. Security is now also a chief marketing officer’s (CMO) challenge – it is no longer only a worry for the chief information officer (CIO) or chief technology officer (CTO). The challenge…

Conversion Optimization 101: Opt-In Overlays

Bryan Eisenberg

Last night, at a get together hosted by Noah Kagan of AppSumo, I was with my friend Peep Laja and several other conversion optimizers, Austin being declared the Conversion Capital of the World now. 🙂 Coincidentally, I was on his ConversionXL blog earlier in the day (his content is worth reading) and I grabbed a screen shot of his Opt-In overlay. There are so many good things about this design, but there are also a few things that should be…

Can I Help Inspire Your Organization to Change in 2 Links?

Bryan Eisenberg

I want to share two links I reviewed last week that will hopefully change the way you look at digital marketing & advertising and the way you manage data in your organization. Digital marketing seems to push people to be more analytical in their approach and there is nothing wrong with that, but you need to add the creative and intuitive side to your digital storytelling and marketing analysis. Start with this video (thanks to Jeff Sexton for the share):…

Super Bowl 2014 Advertisers: Did They Win the Search Game?

Bryan Eisenberg

There were many aspects of Sunday’s game that left people quite disappointed. Forget the game. I don’t even want to comment on the persuasiveness of the Super Bowl television ads. Today, we are just going to look at how well those advertisers did at blocking and tackling the digital marketing fundamentals of capturing search and meeting the expectations of potential customers arriving at their landing pages. You may be as disappointed as I am about what marketers haven’t learned in…

Why Everything You Thought About Mobile Might be Wrong

Bryan Eisenberg

Today marks my 13th anniversary writing for ClickZ. I have seen change happen more slowly than I believed possible and more rapidly than I could notice in this evolving digital marketing space. So, is 2014 the year of mobile? Do you remember every time over the last decade, when everyone claimed the year of mobile was just about around the corner? We all know how many times the year of mobile didn’t happen. When Apple released the iPhone and Google…

Please Don’t Stereotype Your Personas

Bryan Eisenberg

In my last column, I promised to show you how to take these lists of personality mapping attributes and turn them from your typical persona stereotype (soccer mom, techno geek) into characters that ensure deep understanding and empathy. Many of the techniques we use to draft our personas come from the same techniques used by great storytellers and scriptwriters. The goal of a great character is to make you emotionally connect with them and to empathize with who they are. Without empathizing with…

Personas: The Magic behind the Mirror

Bryan Eisenberg

Did you know most persona efforts fail as soon as the personas are completed? Teams create their personas, design slick posters to put on the walls, and say “these are our personas!” Creating personas is really just the beginning. A persona is not a document — it is a clear understanding of a target customer that exists in the minds of your team. Personas evolve as your data around them evolves as well. Every test you do, every insight you…

90% of Content Marketers Suffer From ‘The Curse’ & How to Remedy It

Bryan Eisenberg

When it comes to stuff in which you have a huge personal investment (your kids, your homes, your businesses), you risk losing your objectivity. Hey, it’s a human thing. Too much knowledge about your company and what you offer leads you to answer questions nobody is asking. When you’re inside the bottle, it’s hard to read the label. But that’s also when you risk pushing your own interests at the expense of your customers’ interests. This will often lead you…

Michelle Smith & Persuading Your Potential Customers

Bryan Eisenberg

In order to plan the click-through-experience models, or persuasion scenarios, on a web site, we develop archetypical fictional characters composed from real data, called personas, who represent your buying audience. We must allow for multiple personas to reach many of the same pages or marketing entities (emails, ads, tweets, etc.), but must separately address their needs. Before designing a single pixel or writing a single word, we get a feel – using a wireframe – for the experience the personas…

10x Conversions, Complex Sales & Flipping the Funnel

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week, Jeffrey and I were in the Bay Area of California to do some client training and work. On a quieter day we decided to visit our friends over at Marketo to catch up. A few months ago, we worked with their very talented team in redesigning much of the website, but two areas were set apart as a focus point of the redesign. As co-founder and VP of Marketing, Jon Miller would tell you how important having a…

Complex Sales and the Persona Creation Process

Bryan Eisenberg

How do you define a complex sale? Is it a B2B purchase? Is it planning a family vacation for 2 adults and 3 kids ranging in age from 4-12. Can it be purchasing new pillows for your bed? How about when deciding on an enterprise testing and targeting solution? As marketers we use the term frequently but as I often find people sort of know what it is when they see it, but don’t really define it well. You’ll often…

What People Do on Your Site and Why

Bryan Eisenberg

Ever since Google Analytics was introduced in 2006 people began an obsession with “what” happened on their website. They could understand that a certain number of visitors came to the website, that so many of them used the internal search, and that so many clicked here versus there. However, in order to progress to the next level in the analytics journey, you need to begin to understand “why” these things happen. Are there particular elements that decide certain behaviors on…

What Makes a Good Online Copywriter?

Bryan Eisenberg

Good Copywriters Are … “What makes for good online copywriting?” Both marketers and copywriters have their reasons for asking this question. “Can you recommend a good online copywriter?” Ah. Unfortunately we have considerably fewer answers to that one (although we wish we were busting at the seams with them). So one day, I enlisted my colleagues in brainstorming the answer to this related question: “What qualities must a good onlne copywriter possess?” Here are 13 things that we would look…

Hidden Secrets of the Amazon Shopping Cart 2.0

Bryan Eisenberg

You may be in a test cell right this moment. Go to Amazon.com, search for a book and look at their add to cart button, ready to buy area. Is the background of the box white or blue? Amazon is doing a significant test to their add to cart button and the area surrounding it, what I call the “ready to buy” area. This is the first major test of this area I have seen in years. In 2008, I…

Google’s Search Magic Revealed

Bryan Eisenberg

The closer you look, the less you see… Caught up in the day-to-day rhythm of business we rarely take the time to zoom out and see the big picture. Google search seems like magic and it only gets more magical. Let’s take a look at magic. Your brain, mine too, tricks you. The human brain fills in gaps to make sense of our world. For example in the image below what do you see? Do you see a triangle? You…

The Smarter Data Manifesto

Bryan Eisenberg

“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” – Jack Welch Fifteen years of working with many organizations (it is an impressive list) has taught us most organizations have not yet achieved a point where marketing analytics is like financial reporting: simplified; fairly universal; with a clear line of sight to business financial statements and tied to specific goals and objectives. If everyone had a simple marketing analytics framework that made reporting simple, then everyone…

The Next Generation of Data Analysis

Bryan Eisenberg

In the near future you will use voice commands to ask for actionable stories to be related to you from raw data. It sounds like Star Trek but it’s months away, not years. Today is the start of IBM’s SmarterCommerce Global Summit 2013. As part of the program IBM invited several industry influencers to attend the event. Last night, I spent some time chatting with Sandra Zoratti, author of Precision Marketing, Stratigent‘s Bill Bruno and Triberr‘s Dino Dogan. I shared with…

Choose Not to Confuse

Bryan Eisenberg

Every company has to make choices when it comes to how it markets and sells, and, in some cases, who it is and what it sells. In an email exchange, Tom Grimes, the owner of a Culligan dealership in Amarillo, TX and a brilliant friend, shared with me what he’s thinking about in terms of business choices. I thought about it and based on his thoughts, here’s a list of the many high-level choices businesses typically make every day. It…

A 7-Point Spring Cleaning Checklist

Bryan Eisenberg

People do spend some time tidying up their websites and marketing efforts. Yet, there always seems to be a few things they forget to clean up. Since it’s spring, here is a checklist for you to start getting your site in order: 1. Clean up your lists. This is a great time to send out an email to reactivate emails that have either never purchased from you or haven’t clicked on a link in one of your emails in a while.…

Jeff Bezos’ Secret to High Conversion Rates

Bryan Eisenberg

If you do business, online or traditional business, I hope you took the time to read Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos’ 2013 shareholder letter. In it he shares this tidbit: “Our heavy investments in Prime, AWS, Kindle, digital media, and customer experience in general strike some as too generous, shareholder indifferent, or even at odds with being a for-profit company. ‘Amazon, as far as I can tell, is a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit…

Adopting a Culture of Experimentation

Bryan Eisenberg

“Almost any question can be answered cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort – buyers of your products.” “Scientific Advertising” was published in 1923 by Claude Hopkins, who began to evangelize the need for testing and experimentation in marketing and advertising. 40 years later David Ogilvy a huge disciple of Hopkins was quoted as saying that “Nobody, at any…

Leadership in the Age of Agility & Experimentation

Bryan Eisenberg

Here’s the punchline; The role of today’s leadership is to “remove the speed bumps in the experimenters’ way!” ~ Scott Cook, co-founder and Chairman of Intuit Nobody worth arguing with argues whether search, social, and mobile technologies have impacted customers’ minds and changed buying behavior over the last five years. Today while companies worry about keeping ahead of their competition; the truly critical issue is keeping pace with their customers. Technological and social advances are forcing companies to embrace authenticity…

Technology should support your goals, NOT slow you down!

Bryan Eisenberg

While the one constant in business is change, the one variable that has greatly accelerated—due to mobile and social—is the velocity of change. This is why we now hear so much about the importance of real-time marketing, agile marketing, or the need for a fast corporate metabolism. The point of good marketing technology is to enable you to do more than you could manually. Consider these two examples: 1) Web analytics vendors replaced the need to analyze log files because using Excel was…

How Can You Evaluate This Kind of Performance?

Bryan Eisenberg

I just finished reading this article about an EBay study that questions the value of Google’s main Adwords service. I’ve been really impressed with eBay’s performance as of late, especially their mobile efforts. But, I am concerned how this news will be interpreted by others. I agree with them that any investment that is sub-optimal should be questioned about the value that is being returned. However, the first question they should be asking is, if their team’s efforts are really putting…

Comparing the Anatomy of B2B Landing Pages

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week, my partner and brother, Jeffrey and I were doing an in-house training for a large B2B marketing team. At the end of our training, we had them review a bunch of landing pages across the web to see how they could apply what they learned over the two day training. One source of inspiration for the landing pages they reviewed was this list of 30 beautiful landing pages. There were a few good ones (beautiful isn’t good), but…

Use the Data

Bryan Eisenberg

When I studied the data and made an intuitive prediction that 80 percent of PPC professionals would be replaced by an algorithm in the next three years, my brother Jeffrey and I expected some resistance. We were extremely surprised at the misunderstandings that arose. We wholeheartedly agree that good marketers add value to the online advertising equation. As fellow ClickZ columnist Andrew Goodman responded: It’s certainly true that many “PPC pros” who work like (much inferior to the real thing) robots…

How to Optimize Your Mobile Landing Page for Conversions: Hulu.com Example

Bryan Eisenberg

A couple of weeks ago, I asked readers how they would optimize the following Hulu.com mobile landing page that I saw when I searched for Hulu on my iPhone’s browser. Obviously, there was an issue with the image loading, but that might not be the only problem on this mobile landing page. Techmirth, a former client and good friend suggested how they could deal with this image not loading: Don’t rely on a single image that may fail to load to…

Marketing Analyst, You Better Up Your Game

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week, I explained how 80% of PPC professionals will be replaced by an algorithm. However, deeper in to my article I also mentioned that “many of the “web analysts” who only function as data reporters without adding much business value” will also be replaced by technologies like NarrativeScience and Arria. I first came across NarrativeScience’s technology while coaching my son, Sammy’s little league team. I used an app called GameChanger.io to keep the box scores and stats for every game. At the end…

PPC Pro – You’re Being Replaced

Bryan Eisenberg

You’re fired, laid-off, downsized, terminated, made redundant, rightsized, pursuing other opportunities, discharged, dismissed, pink-slipped. Search Engine Marketing professionals are becoming redundant, replaced by technology, so they should prepare themselves to hear those words. In the next 3 years, 80% of PPC professionals will be replaced by an algorithm. Those that won’t, will be the few who already provide high value or find ways to increase their value to clients. There will simply be fewer positions and high value change. If…

Can You Optimize This? A Mobile Landing Page

Bryan Eisenberg

My cable contract just ended, so I have been thinking about how little actual cable TV my family watches. I was wondering if we could do with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. I had some time waiting to pickup my kids from school, so while I was parked in the car, I decided I would do a bit of research on Hulu. Every way I navigated (direct url, click in search engine results) to the mobile website from my…

Why You Won’t Crush It This Year!

Bryan Eisenberg

I began writing this column on marketing optimization in 2001; yet this morning, 12 years later, I find myself in LA to train a well-known company that wants to start “crushing it” by developing an optimization culture, rarer than running a few tests a month. This is the third such training I’ve done this year already, and I am willing to bet this client will be one of the most successful of the three. Why is that? “A growth team that ‘crushes…

Fanning the Flames of Big Data

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week, an article in TechCrunch offered an opinion on “Why We Need to Kill Big Data.” Perhaps it was inspired by this tweet that was embedded in the article: “I hate the term ‘big data’. Its all just data. Someday we’ll all just call it data – but for now it’s big.” -Arun Jacob of Disney at #BDBN — Dr. Martin Wells (@BigDataInsights) September 13, 2012 Perhaps big data as a buzzword is used too often and inappropriately, but…

The CMO’s Marketing Analytics Optimization Framework

Bryan Eisenberg

In my last column, I shared recent research about how CEOs have lost trust in CMOs’ ability to be focused on business performance. Hopefully, when asked how your company currently measures its digital initiatives you don’t get an answer like this (LOL, well done Adobe): [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4WmSPdFCEY&sns=em[/youtube] Seriously, the issue is that most analytics frameworks don’t tie all essential marketing metrics back to financial statements. We have been preaching about how this needs to be done since 2001. I suspect, that…

When Conversions Come Easily

Bryan Eisenberg

When you consistently deliver a great customer experience, build a great product and develop a brand people trust you don’t have to try as hard to convert your visitors. Check out an old version of the DropBox home page: Check out what their home page looks like today: What are your plans to deliver that kind of reputation in 2013?

Conversion Optimization 101: Copywriting Perspectives in Email Marketing

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week’s conversion optimization challenge was to take a look at the webinar invite sent out by WriterAccess.com with the subject line: Webinar Invite: Lessons Learned From 90,000 Content Orders. The email contained two major obstacles and a handful of smaller obstacles. The major obstacles are the copywriting perspective and the second one is the overuse of jargon. The smaller issues are related to building credibility in the host/presenter, the calls to action and point of action assurances. This is what…

70% of CEOs have lost Trust in Marketers

Bryan Eisenberg

According to the recent Fournaise 2012 Global Marketing Effectiveness Program, which has interviewed more than 1,200 CEOs across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, CEO’s have lost faith in their marketing departments with their inability to prove ROI on campaigns: Furthermore, they have: made the conscious decision not to expect more from marketing than branding, look/feel good ads and promotions… CEOs feel marketers “live too much in the brand, creative and social media bubble”. This is a frightening statistic! What can be…

Conversion Optimization 101: Email Marketing – Webinar Invites

Bryan Eisenberg

This week’s Conversion Optimization challenge is to take a look at the following email I received from WritersAccess.com with an offer to attend a webinar: The subject line was: Webinar Invite: Lessons Learned From 90,000 Content Orders What would you do to optimize this email so that more people register for the webinar? Feel free to comment on subject line, design, or copy. The landing page for the webinar is at: http://www.writeraccess.com/webinar/. Here is the text from the email from WritersAccess.com, if…

Conversion Optimization 101: Perfectly Persuasive PPC Landing Pages

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week, in our Conversion Optimization challenge we looked at the following PPC ad: and the corresponding landing page (image capture below): How would you optimize the ad and the landing page? My general guidelines for marketing with landing pages: Start your marketing with your landing page and ask yourself how it answer your personas’ questions and needs. Then choose an ad or email that would make them want to click and see that page. 7 Steps to Persuasive Landing Pages Step…

It’s Not My Job: Why Marketing is Broken

Bryan Eisenberg

I was in Moscow last week with Jeffrey, waiting in the lobby for a taxi. I passed the time taking screenshots of “promotional” emails and ads with their corresponding landing pages. After clicking through some ads and emails I needed to vent. I posted the following message on my Facebook profile: Frustrated at the state of email marketing. Decided I would look at some of the “promotional” emails whisked away from my Inbox and decided to click through to some…

Companies spend $92 on Driving Traffic Compared to $1 on Customer Experience

Bryan Eisenberg

by Column Five Media. What are you doing to optimize that spend ratio in 2013? Are you planning on investing in a/b testing, usability tests, heuristic/expert evaluations, optimization software. customer journey analysis, personas, or marketing optimization training and mentorship?

Conversion Optimization 101: PPC Landing Pages

Bryan Eisenberg

This week’s Conversion Optimization challenge is to look at a PPC ad I found on Google for the search term “SEO Management Software.” Here is the ad I clicked on: and here is the landing page (image capture below): How would you optimize the ad and the landing page? Is this the best ad and landing page based on the intent and buying stage for the key phrase? What things would you like to test here? *Update: For how we…

Conversion Optimization 101: Selling with Video

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week in our Conversion Optimization challenge I asked, how would you improve this Quick Tour demo video found on the homepage of UserTesting.com. I won’t tell you any more about them. If you don’t know them it’s because the video should do a better job of “selling” you. Watch the explainer video below and let me know in the comments if a) did this make you want to use UserTesting.com on your website b) what would you do to…

The Grok’s Not to Miss Links for the Week of November 6th, 2012

Bryan Eisenberg

Retailers, Black Friday is right around the corner. Super Storm Sandy has already impacted businesses this past week in many ways. Time is running out to make sure you are all ready for the holidays. As Andrew Goodman points out Your Holiday PPC Strategy for 2012: Yes, It’s Changed. Have you made sure the necessary changes are in place in your PPC accounts? For other last minute holiday tips you can still implement before holiday season 2012, pick up a copy of…

Conversion Rate 101: Demo or Explainer Videos – Presenting Effectively

Bryan Eisenberg

Since we just finished looking at how to optimize ecommerce product or hero images, I thought we should look at how to get the best demo or explainer video to help sell your service or product. There is no question video marketing is hot, but doing it poorly can hurt your chances at converting visitors. What proves to be true is that just like in every other media, you have to capture people in the first 8-12 seconds if you…

Halloween Special: Frightening Landing Pages

Bryan Eisenberg

Trick not treat! Most visitors clicking your promotions hope that you’ll offer them with some tasty treat. If instead you do things that shake their enthusiasm and frighten them from taking advantage of your offer, they’ll just bail on you no matter how delicious the treat you may be offering. In the spirit of Halloween, I’d like to offer you a chance to Trick or Treat with me. I just stumbled across this horrifying landing page: Booo! Can you list all the…

Confessions of an Online Marketing Tool Junkie

Bryan Eisenberg

It’s fun to play with the latest shiny new object and marketing tools, but remember marketing success rarely happens because of the tool. Success happens because of what the people and process you have in place do with the tool. Invest in your people, please.

Grab Your Free Kindle Copy of a Great Business Book This Weekend Only

Bryan Eisenberg

My friend Tim Miles has his birthday this weekend. So he decided that this weekend he will be giving away his book, Good Company – Making It, Keeping It & Being, for free on Amazon. I want you to help me give Tim a present back for giving of himself and allowing you to get this book for free this weekend. I want to help him be the #1 free Kindle Marketing book. Will you grab a free copy? No strings…

Google Adwords Conversion Rates by Industry

Bryan Eisenberg

My friend, Larry Kim just published some research his company Wordstream just released. Wordstream used the data collected by the AdWords Performance Grader, a free AdWords account audit tool which has evaluated over $1 billion dollars in annualized spending on Google in the last year (roughly 2.5% of total advertising revenues on Google!). For their report, they used metrics from accounts that were evaluated between July 1, 2012 and October 30, 2012. Here is a breakdown of conversion rates by industry for…

TheGrok’s Not to Miss Links for the Week of October 25th, 2012

Bryan Eisenberg

I know not everyone can keep up with everything Jeffrey and I read or share during the week. Here are some of those links you don’t want to miss this week: If you are doing any kind of Content Marketing, you’ll want to grab a copy of the 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Research Report. If your SEO efforts have been affected by the Penguin update you’ll want to grab a copy of the Google Penguin 3 Update –…

Conversion Optimization 101: Make Your Product Image Sell

Bryan Eisenberg

Social media and ecommerce are becoming even more visual. With apps like Pinterest, Instagram, etc., the use of the correct photograph and even well shot video is critical in selling your products effectively. So let’s take a look at a product image this week and please list your top 3-5 suggestions for optimizing it. I chose my favorite backpack for traveling when I carry my laptop; it’s the eBags TLS Workstation Laptop Backpack. There are so many reasons why I love this…

Average Conversion Rate by Industry 2012

Bryan Eisenberg

For MarketingSherpa’s 2012 Website Optimization Benchmark Report they surveyed participants and asked them to write in what their average conversion rate was. Here is a chart of the results: While this is survey data and not the most accurate, at least it is a benchmark to shoot for. We also don’t know how each organization qualifies their conversions. However, where ever you are you should also try to figure out how you can improve your conversion rate 5-10% monthly.

Conversion Optimization 101: Optimizing Complex Web Forms (w/ 10 Point Checklist)

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week, I asked you to review and comment on how you would optimize this beautifully designed, but non-optimized form: The three most common form design problems: Forms that fail to reduce fear Forms that fail to build trust and credibility Forms that fail to reinforce benefits Unfortunately, this form page suffers from all three issues. Whenever we look at optimizing forms we should review each of the 7 form factors that affect form conversion: Size – the form looks…

Just One Thing

Bryan Eisenberg

Do you remember the movie where an ad executive played by Billy Crystal takes time off to go on a cattle drive and he befriends an old cowboy, Curly, played by Jack Palance? While they are out, Billy’s character, who is in search of the secret of life, is told by Curly, as he lifts his index finger, that the secret of life is “Just one thing.” Sometimes I feel like that old cowboy. Being a pioneer in marketing optimization…

Conversion Optimization 101: Form Folly

Bryan Eisenberg

There were some excellent responses last week’s CRO challenge post on a NetFlix ad and landing page mismatch. Thank you all! Today’s challenge is to explain how you would improve and optimize the form below . While the page looks polished and professional, it is creating cognitive friction for visitors. You can be certain that where there is friction there is opportunity for optimization. Please be sure to click on the image to enlarge it and then provide a short list of your suggestions as…

The Number 1 Rule for Content Marketing

Bryan Eisenberg

…or the dog will just ignore you!

Last Minute Secrets to Boost Holiday 2012 Sales

Bryan Eisenberg

We asked a bunch of our industry expert friends: if a small to mid-sized retailer asked you for a couple of low resource, high impact & simple to execute, tips they could use before the holidays, what would you tell them to do? The tips had to be simple for them to act on with the minimal amount of resources since we are coming up on crunch time. Some of the friends we asked include: Amy Africa, @amyafrica Linda Bustos,…

Conversion Rate 101: Effective Pricing Tables

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week, I asked you to look at the pricing tables from the Dell.com website and to offer suggestions on how to improve them. There were some fabulous suggestions, let’s take a look: Graham Charlton shared: A comparison table, as used by UK site Comet, would work better. Less busy and allows for side by side feature comparison. Also has a handy ‘highlight differences’ button. http://i.imgur.com/JBilf.png As he suggests Dell is not currently doing a good job highlighting the differences between the…

Mastering Conversion Rate Optimization?

Bryan Eisenberg

We (Jeffrey Eisenberg and I) were naïve and full of ourselves; in 2005, when “Call To Action: Secret Formulas To Improve Online Results” hit the major bestselling book lists. In 2006, “Waiting For Your Cat To Bark: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing” also achieved the lists and we thought we were truly popularizing customer-centric conversion rate optimization. In accomplishing a mean goal we lost sight of the end goal. Client success and the recognition of our peers as conversion…

TheGrok’s Not to Miss Links for the Week of October 4th, 2012

Bryan Eisenberg

It’s been almost 3 years since I published one of these. However, I know not everyone can keep up with everything Jeffrey and I read or share during the week. Here are some of those links you don’t want to miss this week: First things first, if you are an online retailer do not forget to register for my free ClickZ webinar Guaranteeing Holiday Sales for Online Retailers October 9, 2012 at 1:00pm ET / 10:00am PT. I’ll be sharing tips from…

Conversion Optimization 101: Pricing Tables – Ecommerce

Bryan Eisenberg

On Twitter, I shared a link to this article from Smashing Magazine, Pricing Tables: Examples And Best Practices. When I shared it, I said that while many of these were beautiful there was still plenty of room for some conversion optimization. This won’t be as tricky as my first Conversion Optimization 101 post that you needed to pick up on the nuance that corporate culture trumps any conversion optimization tactics. Even so, we had some fabulous suggestions in the comments. For my…

What Keeps Retailers Awake at Night in 2012 [Videos]

Bryan Eisenberg

I just came back from Shop.org’s Annual Summit in Denver, where over 4,000 retailers and industry supporters came to learn more about what the industry was up to. While I was there I thought I would spend some time interviewing some of my retailer friends and bring their words to you. I asked each one the following questions: Where do you think retail is headed in the next three years? What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you see for this coming…

Just Released: The Website Testing & Optimization – Buyer’s Guide for the Enterprise: Second Edition

Bryan Eisenberg

There are several things that prompted me to update the Buyer’s Guide to Testing & Optmization: 1. Since Google replaced Website Optimizer with Content Experiments, I had to comment on it. 2. I’ve decided to add a new tool to the introductory tools section. Which one did I choose? You’ll have to check. 3. I’ve added information about a few other enterprise solutions that weren’t included in the first edition. I’m still very excited about Monetate as a leader in…

Conversion Optimization 101: Culture Trumps Strategy and Tactics

Bryan Eisenberg

Last week, I published my first Conversion Optimization 101 post and asked you if you could look at a particular screenshot and also to tell me: What’s wrong with this picture? How would you fix it? Here is the image: There were some very good suggestions on what you would do to improve this picture: Dennis Moons said: The three buttons: Previous, Process and Cancel all have the same colour and visual weight. I would change the Cancel & Previous buttons…

Content Marketing Personas

Bryan Eisenberg

It seems like only yesterday that I typed the following words into my computer: Conversion rate is a measure of your ability to persuade visitors to take the action you want them to take. It’s a reflection of your effectiveness and customer satisfaction. For you to achieve your goals, visitors must first achieve theirs. In order to help you understand what visitors need in order to achieve their goals, you need to have empathy about their journey through the buying process. Too…

Why the Stories Inside Your Company Are Your Best Customer Experience (CX) Tool

Bryan Eisenberg

When we talk about customer experience (CX), it’s easy to focus on the outward stuff: the slick interfaces, the polished training, the customer-facing slogans. But let’s zoom in a bit further. The real magic of a memorable customer experience actually starts with the stories your team believes internally. These internal narratives are the hidden engine of your CX. They’re the quiet interface that shapes how customers feel when they interact with you. The Alignment Gap: What the Research Says Here’s…

The Hidden Truth About Building a Remarkable Business With John Garrett of Community Impact

Bryan Eisenberg

What separates the businesses that last from the ones that flame out? It’s not branding. It’s not hustle. It’s not even timing. It’s conviction. That’s what I walked away with after sitting down with John Garrett, founder of Community Impact, on my Rock Solid podcast. His story isn’t just impressive. It’s instructive. Because in an era where founders obsess over funding rounds and social reach, John quietly built a print-first local newspaper company. In 2025, Community Impact is celebrating 20…