This is a guest post by Jamie Marquez-Bratcher from Caffeinated Possibilities
Recently I was on a beautiful photography website for a potential new client that was requesting sales funnel help. The images were amazing, the content was great. Their DIY skills were on point! In my mind, I thought, “Wow, for once a DIY website that is ready for me, they nailed this.” Then I got to the “Work With Me” page. This page was just what I expected. Each package was laid out beautifully and the pricing was clear but then I noticed “IT” was missing, and I knew how I could provide additional value.
What was missing? A simple and commonly overlooked element. There was no “Buy Now” button. How in the heck would anyone book a package, I thought to myself?
Call Potential Clients to Take Action
No “Book Now”, “Contact Me” or “Let’s Chat” to be seen anywhere on the page. Nothing at all to help me as a consumer take action. Completely missing clear next steps to engage.
Sure, logically I know I could click over to the “Contact Me” page. Then I’d have to scroll up, find the page, ugh. I’m on my desktop and I don’t want to do that, let alone if I was on my mobile! Let’s be real, are most clients going to do that? Not unless they know you, agreed?
In my closing business brain, I’m always thinking of the best way to shorten the buying process. While the process side of my brain wonders where I want people to engage and establish next steps.
A few days later I met with the photographer for our consultation. I asked her if she realized she was missing a “buy now” button. She immediately said, “Did I miss that?”. In all her focus on picking the perfect images, fonts, and the flurry of WordPress learning required to get her site off the ground, she had overlooked this step.
Now that I’ve noticed it, I keep seeing the same thing over and over again. It’s become the first thing I check every time I audit a new client. In my experience, DIY WordPress clients are missing this about 40% of the time. They are wasting all that marketing effort to get someone to that page in the first place.
Why Is the Buy Now Button Forgotten So Often?
- They are new WordPress users, new Business Owners, and novice Web Designers.
- Traffic is being driven to a landing page instead of the actual website, so they don’t think it’s that important, and frankly it’s out of sight out of mind.
- Branding is their focus instead of strategy when building their first site.
- Mentally they are clear on what will happen once someone fills out their form…wherever that may be, but they’ve never considered it from an outside perspective.
- They have no idea what a sales process is, or how people navigate it.
Let’s face it – we’ve all been there!
Be the Hero!
Since the sites you are building are strategic, this missing button is the greatest gift your Former DIY client can give you. Think about it, this gives you the chance to ask questions you may not normally have the opportunity to ask!
Now you can have a discussion about the value of strategic web design in their business. Take this opportunity to ask them how they envisioned clients booking or inquiring on their services. This will likely open up a discussion about their business and what is important to them right now.
You can also ask “What other goals do you have long term for your website”. This will help you better understand what they are envisioning so you can manage their expectations in the future. As a designer, you are letting them speak to what they are wanting to see and getting to the heart of their passion as well.
Of course, taking this off their plates is a huge gift they give themselves. You can give them the visual elements, and the fundamental strategic elements their site is missing too.
Now that you’ve illustrated what you can do for them, you’ve built some trust, and they see you know your stuff!
How This Impacts Their Business
Don’t be afraid to wrap up this part of the conversation about the “Buy Now” button by taking it a step further. Give them a few things to consider that they may not know or understand. Their site is likely:
- Experiencing lower conversion rates and potentially higher bounce rates than normal if it is missing a call to action.
- Not able to leverage a lead follow-up workflow by capturing basic information at the moment the client is ready to engage.
- Causing a longer sales cycle due to back and forth emailing or phone calls slowing down the process.
Remind them that people are ok filling out a form, they’ve come to your website because they’ve found your client and they are more than curious. Your prospective client has done all the right things to get them to this point and now there is not a simple way to convert that traffic. Driving home the point that they need to make it as easy as possible for their future clients to engage at the time they are ready will help their business immediately!
I can almost guarantee that your former DIY Client has no idea this essential element is absent. They’ve been worried about the right images, the perfect spacing of boxes, and fighting with WordPress. Be the hero for the Former DIY clients you are proposing and educate them on how this one thing can change the dynamic of how they feel about their business.
Your Homework
Take some action before today is out and add this simple step to your checklist of things to review. The question should be “Do they have a Buy Now button?”. Yep, go add it right now!
If you have pending proposals or upcoming appointments, heck even older quotes that you’ve written off, check this. Go back through and make sure that this is there. If anything, it may give you an opportunity to go back to someone that wasn’t quite ready in the past.
Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear your excitement when you add your first Former DIY client from this one tip.
Now, remember the photographer from the beginning? Curious what happened her? She was my first prospective client that I pointed this out to in the sales process. She was so excited I added value to our sales discussion that she hired me. I added the button and built-in automation behind it. She’s seen more engagement and was blown away what a difference it made.
Set yourself up to be the hero with your next DIY client by pointing out this one small area that can make a huge difference in their strategic web design!
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