In my role in digital marketing, I get to see a lot of websites and many of them break the KISS principle: Keep it Simple, Stupid.
Many sites make it difficult for people to take the action you want them to take. Let me explain what I mean. They make people jump through hoops and take specific steps, but they have no clear path to follow. It should be as simple as following a path, but web designers add links and miscellaneous design elements.
You would think by now we would have learned from the Google home page – you know what to do when you arrive on the page.
This makes everything harder: paid advertising doesn’t work, visitors to your site don’t take the action you want, get distracted, and leave (and they will never tell you why.)
Read on and discover how the KISS principle can streamline your digital marketing strategy and drive more conversions.
Conversion rate optimisation
The technical term, conversion rate optimisation, is basically a fancy word for getting more people to take the action you want by testing.
Let me give you a scenario in a retail store. When you walk into a retail store, you can purchase at any counter and take easy steps to become a customer. Imagine if you had to go to multiple counters before you could buy. The person might do it once but wouldn’t come back.
How would you feel if that happened in a retail store? You’d be disappointed.
Now, let’s look at websites. There should be a simple path. The content on the page should guide you smoothly down a simple process. However, I see people using menus across the page and down the right-hand side, which distracts visitors from the action.
I have also seen SEO people getting carried away with links in the content, which is good for ranking but poor for user experience and conversion.
You want to make it easy for them to find out what you do, learn more about you, and know what to do next if they’re interested. That’s what I mean by the KISS process.
It’s all about making the process so clean that people know where to go and appreciate you for making it easy for them.
Many designers and creative people create beautifully designed websites. Yes, this can build trust, but it can also make it difficult for a person to take action.
Data and heat map software
The next step is data. If you don’t know if this is happening, there’s heat map software. Heat mapping tracks where people go on the site and what they do. This should always be part of reviewing visitors’ actions.
If you want to improve your site, you should benchmark first:
- How many visitors come to your site:
- What do they do?
- Where do they go on the site and what do they click on?
- What do you want them to do?
- How many of them take the action you want?
I call this the discovery phase.
You need to clarify the process because many people get distracted by links.
I see people using links to other websites, which you can do, but you have to open them in a new window so they can easily return to you.
I also see content written to inform the customer, but at the bottom of that content, it doesn’t give them a place to take the next step; it leaves them hanging or having to go back up the page. Heat mapping tools will help to find out where people end up, what they do on the website, and where they go.
In a recent study, we found out that on one website, people were coming in and clicking on the blog link at the top of the page, not seeing the rest of the site.
They could see a clear path but chose to go to the blog and then they left the site. They never saw the homepage, other pages, or the benefits. This is a loss, especially if you run marketing when paying for every click.
You need to know what you want people to do and clearly show what you do and how you can help.
This is where a great copywriter can help you get the desired action from your customers. Many business owners know the product but do not always know how to sell it with good copywriting.
You are competing with everyone else for attention. One-click and your website visitors are gone, never to be seen again!
The key point is that you are competing for people’s attention. If you are getting people to your website and they decide not to do anything, you need to look at where you are losing them.
What are you asking your audience to do?
What are you asking them to do, and how much are you asking them to do? Are you asking too much?
The best part is it’s all in your hands if you can measure it. Benchmarking allows you to improve. Then, you can drive more traffic and visitors to the site, already knowing what is working.
You must be open to pivoting how things look. Sometimes, if you have the data in front of you, you’ll go against the grain of a web designer because you are thinking about it from a different point of view.
As the business owner or stakeholder, you have the data to make valuable decisions affecting your results. That’s the key point. When you test, you can explain to those above you what you want to achieve and set an expectation.
It helps you understand what to change, where to change, and which lever to pull to improve everything.
A simple question for digital marketing conversions
Can someone who knows nothing about you quickly understand what you do? Maybe ask your grandmother to look at your website 😉
Digital marketing can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. At Whippet Digital, we like to keep things simple.
We have spent almost 20 years studying search engines, social media platforms, content, and digital marketing. Our approach is more about deep analysis, developing customised strategies, and bringing together the best experts to achieve optimum results.
Discover how our marketing services can drive more conversions by contacting us today for a free consultation. Let us help you harness the full potential of digital marketing the simple way.
We’ll build a trusted brand, engage your audience, drive actions, and achieve measurable success.