How many times have you went to a website – any website – just to be hit by multiple ads asking you to subscribe to their newsletter or offering a coupon for a purchase, etc? My guess is that it happens quite often. Ever Google something just to come across a search result that is EXACTLY what you wanted just to click on it and find yourself teased behind a paywall? Yeah, we all have.
Let me tell you a story. In the 1300’s, philosopher William of Ockham created a principle called Occam’s razor. [On an aside, this principle is still used today by detectives and others.] The entire principle gives the precedence of simplicity in two parts. First, at its basic, is that the simpler answer is probably the correct one and, second, that entities should not be multiplied by necessity.
In the business world, many companies defy these. They add widgets until there is no website left (other than widgets,) pop-ups that simply make consumers want to leave their website and/or so many calls-to-action that consumers get confused, don’t know what to do so rather than act, they don’t act at all.
Imagine looking for something specific on Amazon – let’s say a TV. There are hundreds if not thousands of TVs on Amazon. How is a consumer supposed to know which to buy? By reviews? By rankings? OR, perhaps they leave Amazon and decide to go to their local Best Buy and see them for themselves?
In my last blog, “Are You Living In a Cave,” I told a story about a man in a cave that had never seen reality but only shadows on a wall. What I didn’t include is that the man in the cave, when presented with so much reality all at once, by his own choice, chose to go back into the cave to continue staring at the wall and having those shadows as his reality. Why? Because it was simple.
In many businesses, decision makers are seduced by the latest and greatest technology so much so that they stack technology upon technology to the point that, when a customer visits their website, they don’t even see the businesses’ website, only the plethora of technology popping up here and there and are presented with so many calls-to-action that they don’t know what to do when all that they wanted was information on a toaster.
Our industry isn’t immune to this presentation or customer experience. Customers simply want information. Having a clean, well-optimized website that gives clear directions that lead a customer on a journey from the top to the bottom of the funnel will increase conversion rates, engagement, and sales.
What irritates you when you look at a website? Chances are that they are the same things that irritate your customers. That’s because there isn’t a “fork in the road” with only two directions but that there is a road that leads 20-ways with no directions so, rather than continue on, the customer chooses to go back the way they came.
Make sure that your website is clean, optimized, and offers the customer the paths that you want them to take. If you do that, you will see increased conversions… and won’t have to pay for them.
Troy Spring is the owner of Dealer World, Agency 345, and co-founder of Dealer Funnel. His roots in advertising started while he managed four automotive dealerships and the large advertising budgets for the stores. The dealerships all grew under his watch. He credits much of that growth to the advertising decisions he made to drive more business to each location. He has spent the last decade perfecting what he calls the four pillars of advertising: reach, frequency, creative, and cost. He is a strong advocate of this formula. He spends much of his time sharing these concepts as a national speaker and occasional guest on podcasts.
