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June 23, 2007
What is the most powerful persuasive page on your website?
Holding the attention of busy advertising executives at a breakfast meeting is a difficult task, all the more so when the audience believes it knows everything there is to know about the field. And yet Richard Sedley's March 15, 2007 breakfast talk makes clear that he succeeded admirably in informing and entertaining insiders in the field.
In fifteen brief minutes Richard walked the audience through the theories of credibility and decision-making, the history of rhetoric from classical times till the postmodern period, experimental results using computers as persuasive agents, to ethics of persuasion in changing times.
Good enough for insiders, and yet accessible to all, I found Richard's talk to be a great introduction to the field. The podcast of Richard's talk is available on:
http://www.richard-sedley.com/blog/images/Persuasive-Solutions-for-Demanding-Times.mp3
with slides accompanying the talk available on:
http://www.richard-sedley.com/blog/images/cScape_Persuasive-Solutions.pdf
It is not only the impressive breadth and masterful synthesis that made Richard Seldey's talk excellent. It is his facts and anecdotes, marshaled wonderfully to keep all interested. From this talk I learned that the decision of whether to trust a website or not takes 500 milliseconds, re-discovered time (timing is everything!) as a powerful but oft reflected variable to pay attention to, and was surprised to understand that the most potent page in terms of customer conversion is the Thank You page.
Two thumbs up on Richard Sedley's podcast.
Posted by Adam at June 23, 2007 09:51 PM
Comments
It is not only the impressive breadth and masterful synthesis that made Richard Seldey's talk excellent.
Posted by: luna at October 3, 2007 01:52 PM