Kristen Doyle 0:00
Most businesses assume that customers will instinctively know what they need to do next: book an appointment, call you, walk into a location, place an order, ask a certain question. But the truth is, they don’t, and a lot of times it’s because we as the business owners are being too polite to actually tell them what to do. If you’ve ever wondered why people visit your website or they interact with your business somehow, but then they just disappear, then this episode is for you.
Kristen Doyle 0:31
Today, I am going to share how to clearly guide people to take that next step without making it awkward or adding a lot of pressure, but while taking away all the confusion that leads people not to take action. We’re talking about why ‘reach out anytime’ might actually be hurting your business, what doing one job per page actually means for your website, and how to stop accidentally creating decision paralysis for your potential customers. Let’s get to it.
Kristen Doyle 1:06
You’ve built a strong business with happy customers, but somewhere along the way, you picked up advice that says you need to be doing more, post more, sell more, hustle harder. But that’s not what you need. Welcome to Small Business Savvy. I’m Kristin Doyle, and I am so glad you’re here. On this show, we’re covering what actually works: business systems, website strategy, simplified marketing, the stuff that grows your business without burning you out. Let’s get into it.
Kristen Doyle 1:38
The biggest problem that we have is that we give people too many options, and that creates decision paralysis. So here’s the thing about giving people loads of options. I think a lot of times when we do that, when we give people tons and tons of options on our website or in our marketing, what we’re trying to do is be generous and helpful and flexible, because we care about our potential customers and clients, and we want to make it easy for them.
Kristen Doyle 2:09
So we say things like, reach out however works for you. Call, message, Instagram, DM, whatever you feel like doing, fill out this form on my site, and we think we’re making it easier because people can get in touch with us however they want. But in some ways, what that actually ends up doing is creating decision paralysis. Instead of just clicking the button that says, contact us here, now we’re making people decide, do I want to make a phone call? Do I want to send a text? Should I go to Instagram? Which way is going to get them to respond the fastest? See, now we’re making people think about things and make a decision, and that is making it harder than it needs to be for them.
Kristen Doyle 2:49
Here’s a real world example of what this can look like. Think about that restaurant that you go to that has a QR code for their menu, but they also give you a paper version, and you’re not sure. Maybe they’re different, maybe they’re the same. Is the QR code updated more frequently because they don’t have to print it? Then they have a chalkboard with today’s specials on it. Then the server comes over and rattles off four more things you didn’t know were available. By the time the server gets around to asking, What can I get you, your brain is fried and you’ve forgotten half the things that are available and you’re not sure what to pick.
Kristen Doyle 3:22
It can be the exact same way when our website is too cluttered or when we’re giving people too many choices for what to do next. They can end up feeling overwhelmed and like they just don’t know what to pick.
Kristen Doyle 3:34
One thing I think is really happening kind of behind the scenes, is actually your customers aren’t necessarily looking just for that next step to take. They’re actually looking for permission to take that next step. See, ‘reach out anytime’ sounds friendly and helpful, but it’s actually pretty vague about what reaching out means. Does that mean call you and ask all your questions on the phone? Do I need to book a consult of some sort? If I reach out, are you going to pressure me to buy something? When they don’t know what’s acceptable or what’s going to happen, they do nothing, or at the very least, they hesitate before doing anything.
Kristen Doyle 4:14
This is really big, especially for service providers to clearly tell people what is acceptable, how to reach out, what’s going to happen when they reach out, the best way to contact you, not just a ton of possible options. Just walk people right through what to do so they don’t have to think about it. They don’t have to wonder if they’re making the right choice. They just follow the clear plan that you laid out for them.
Kristen Doyle 4:41
See, there is a huge difference between availability and invitation, and a lot of us are making ourselves completely available without really being inviting. I’m gonna go back to that ‘reach out anytime’ example, because it’s so common on websites. That sounds very available, but it’s not an invitation. Having a contact form technically means, yes, people can reach you. You are available. But if the page doesn’t tell them who should contact you, or what information they should provide, or what’s going to happen next, then you’ve offered that availability with no direction, no invitation to the right person to reach out about the right thing in the right way, to get the right result that they’re looking for.
Kristen Doyle 5:30
See, being too polite about asking for the action is actually doing your customers a disservice, because it leaves them wondering, guessing, second guessing, trying to figure out what it is they’re supposed to do. And they may not even realize that that’s where they’re stuck, but that’s where they get stuck.
Kristen Doyle 5:49
So let’s talk about how to fix this and what it really looks like on your website. A lot of mistakes I see on websites, especially is having multiple calls to action that are all kind of fighting each other. You’ve got big buttons that lead to your contact page, buttons to book a call with you. Your phone number’s on your site. There’s a shop now button that goes to an online store. There are so many different options that people aren’t sure which one to take.
Kristen Doyle 6:16
And it’s not that you can’t have multiple options, but the big mistake is that when they are all weighted the same on your site, then they just start to fight each other, and you’ve buried that main, most important action, because it doesn’t stand out from any of the others. Instead of having customers guess which one of these options is the right or the best thing for them to do, what you need to do is tell them exactly what the best thing to do is.
Kristen Doyle 6:46
So think about, when you’re looking at your website’s pages, having one job per page. Every page on your site should have exactly one job. Not one job, plus a backup job, plus a ‘while you’re here, in case you didn’t like the first two options, here’s this third one.’ One single job per page. And this is where your website strategy really comes in and is so, so important.
Kristen Doyle 7:11
I would say the homepage is usually the biggest offender here. Businesses try to get everything onto that one page in case the visitors don’t go anywhere else, in case they never click anything else. And a lot of times that decision is rooted in this desire to be helpful, but it might also be rooted in some fear that if I don’t hook them on this first page, I’ll never get them. And there’s a little truth to that. As with most of our fears, there is a little truth to that. But hooking them on the first page doesn’t mean giving them a million options.
Kristen Doyle 7:43
Back to kind of my restaurant analogy, think about that restaurant that you’ve probably been to that has the 20 page long menu. You spend 10 minutes skimming through it. You probably don’t really read any of the descriptions of the dishes because there’s just too much, and you end up ordering something safe and familiar. Compare that to the restaurant that has that one page menu that’s got a dozen or 20 things on it, and you have time to actually look at each one and consider what you want.
Kristen Doyle 8:16
The psychology is that fewer choices typically leads to more action, and that is something that’s been well researched, documented and proven for years and years across all industries, and if you really think back, it’s probably something you’ve experienced in your own life, too.
Kristen Doyle 8:34
Now that said, I gave the example of 12 to 20 things on a restaurant menu, and that’s perfectly fine. If you’re not a restaurant, your homepage does not need 12 to 20 things on it. You need to narrow it down a whole lot more. In fact, even if you are a restaurant, your homepage doesn’t need your whole menu on it, just the menu page. So we need to really narrow it down to what’s most important.
Kristen Doyle 8:57
And when you’re deciding what that next step needs to be for each page on your site, it’s really important to remember who is likely looking at that page, because the next step has to match where the person is. A brand new cold visitor first time to your website, versus a warm lead who’s been there a couple of times, need totally different next steps.
Kristen Doyle 9:22
And the mistake that a lot of businesses make is designing that main call to action, the CTA, for the customer they want, that person who knows, likes, and trusts you already, who comes to your site ready to buy. And those customers are great, those visitors are great. But a lot of times, the customer we have is someone new who is maybe just curious.
Kristen Doyle 9:44
So you don’t want to put the ‘book your $4,000 project’ button right on the homepage, where a lot of people are coming for the first time who are just now meeting you. It’s like proposing on the first date. What you need to do is bring them into your site. Teach them more about you, find out what services or products they’re going to be interested in. And then once you have them on a page where they’ve had time to get to know, like, and trust you more, they’ve had time to see what you offer, then you’re ready to put that ‘book the service’ button, on that page where you’ve already built a little bit of a relationship.
Kristen Doyle 10:20
And I know it can feel a little weird to think about building a relationship through your website without actually talking to the person, but that really is what we’re doing when we guide our customers down a clear path from, here’s who I am when they first land on your homepage and you welcome them in, to here’s how I can help you, and here’s the product or service I offer that’s going to change your situation.
Kristen Doyle 10:44
All right, so let’s talk about kind of what some of those next steps might look like for different types of businesses. So if you have a service business, on your website, those next steps for you might be a booking link to book an appointment or a free consult, contact forms for people to get in touch and make an inquiry, and it needs to lay out some clear expectations for what’s going to happen when they book this call or appointment or whatever it is.
Kristen Doyle 11:17
If you’re a local business, you can show clear next steps, even in a brick and mortar business, in person, not just on your website, with things like having signs in the right place to direct people in the right direction. I don’t know if you’ve ever done this, but I have walked into so many restaurants when it’s my first time there and there’s no clear host stand and no sign that says, Please wait to be seated. So I’m just kind of standing awkwardly at the front door looking around like, okay, am I supposed to seat myself? Do I wait for someone? Am I supposed to walk over to the bar and ask them? What do I do?
Kristen Doyle 11:55
So make sure that you are giving people that information right away, whether it is signs inside your business, something on the door that says whether you take appointments or take walk ins, make those things obvious and easy for people to know and understand and put them on your website as well, as far as the things that matter on your website before people show up.
Kristen Doyle 12:20
All right, so let’s talk about what you actually need to do, some action steps that I want you to take this week. First, I want you to look at your website. Look at every page on your site, and decide what is the one thing that you want visitors to do on that page, that single most important action that you want people to take.
Kristen Doyle 12:43
Think about it for your website as a whole first. What is the biggest, most important thing people need to do from your site? But then back up and look at every individual page and decide what is the one thing visitors need to do on this page. And then whatever it is, make sure it’s obvious. It should be the biggest button on that page, the clearest language, the most prominent placement on the page. Nothing else should be competing with it.
Kristen Doyle 13:08
And that kind of brings us to our second action step for this week, and that is to remove distractions that are competing with your main call to action. This is a totally different energy from, let’s add a new call to action, add more things to our pages. What we’re doing is subtracting distractions instead of adding more things. So instead of thinking, what new CTA should I add, think what is competing with my main call to action that I need to take off of this page?
Kristen Doyle 13:40
Now I know it can feel a little scary to take things off, because what if no one finds it, and it can feel a little pushy to have that one big, obvious button where you’re telling people what to do. But remember that being clear is not the same as being pushy, and the more clear you are, the more helpful you are to the people that are coming to your website.
Kristen Doyle 14:04
As you’re doing this, make sure you are matching that call to action to where people are in their journey right now. Homepage visitors need different calls to action from your service page visitors. So think about temperature. Are they cold? Are they warm? Are they hot? And match the calls to action according to where they are. Save those big commitment calls to action like ‘book your project now’ for those pages where people have already kind of built some trust.
Kristen Doyle 14:34
The big picture I want you to take away from today’s episode is that when you give people that one clear next step instead of a dozen different options, you are actually not limiting them or yourself as the business owner, you are making it easier for people to say yes.
Kristen Doyle 14:50
If this hit home for you, I would love to help you figure out exactly what those next steps should be for your website. Head to kristindoyle.co/3seconds, that’s the number three and the word seconds, for a free homepage test you can run to find out if your most important action is clear or if it’s getting lost in the noise. I’ll talk to you soon.
