How do you get people to click “BUY” on your website?
Recently I came across this fascinating book called “Convert!” by Ben Hunt and it totally transformed how I looked at websites.
I’m writing a book called “The Wild Woman’s Guide to Social Media” right now, and after I read it, I thought, “Oh geez. I have to substantially revise what I was going to say, THAT’S how valuable this book is.”
Ben Hunt talks about the ladder of engagement, AKA what people are looking for when they come to your website, and how you can make them stay and click buy. I previously thought of these steps on the ladder as circles, taking people from accident to ally, as shown in the diagram to the left.
There’s a way to do this with a blog though, so that ANYONE online can go from an accident to an ally.
It helps if you think of these steps as a series of articles that you can write on your business blog, or on Ezine articles, or on Hubpages or Squidoo. Below is a visualization of the ladder of engagement, by Ben Hunt.
Step 0 on the ladder is: “I don’t know I have a problem.” Pretty hard to reach those people. So don’t worry about them.
Step 1 is: “I know I have a problem, but I don’t know what to do about it.” This problem might be, “I have issues with disciplining my son, I need to learn more about it,” to, “I’m writing a book! How do I get published?” Whatever your business is, what’s the FIRST STEP people take when they have a problem that your business helps solve? See if you can write an article about that on your website.
Step 2 is: “I know I have a problem, and I know there are some solutions out there, but I don’t know about YOUR solution!” So you can write an article about different solutions to the problem you’re helping solve, and then mention your solution at the bottom.
Step 3 is: “I know I have a problem, I know about your solution, but what are the benefits of your solution?” Here’s where you might write an article about all of the things your business is doing and how it benefits your community.
Step 4 is: “I know I have a problem, I know about your solution, I know your benefits, but why should I click buy NOW?” This place is where you can write an article about the current sale you have going, why it’s so important to buy NOW.
Step 5 is: “Okay, I know I should give now, but how easy is it for me to buy?” And THEN! You need to make your buy button happen on the lefthand side of your website, at the top, above the fold, as well as at the bottom of your article, and in the middle of the page. When your button says “Click here to buy” it should take them directly to the buy page.
What do you think of the ladder of engagement?
How are you going to do things differently on your website?
If you haven’t yet bought Ben Hunt’s book, I WOULD! It’s so clearly written and it helps you get more conversions on your website through not just articles, but through web design too!
