TOC #139: What's worse than 6 o'clock?
(August 22, 2023) 5 easy ways to convince your readers to take action
The worst part about being a squirrel? Six o'clock.
You'd think I'd have this time mastered by now — it happens every single day — but, no, it's still the bane of my existence.
4:20pm - shut the laptop.
4:30pm - out the door.
4:55pm - daycare pickup.
5:30pm - back home.
Sounds like a pretty easy routine, doesn't it? Yeah.
But then, somehow, between unloading the backpack, cleaning out the lunch box, making sure the Crocs didn't end up under the couch, racing Hot Wheels around the living room, and turning on Alice's Wonderland Bakery…
It's fucking six o'clock. Again.
And I have no clue what the hell we're having for dinner. Again.
Do I call my best friend Hannah on the regular, asking for her exact meal plan for the week so I can copy it? Yes.
Do I go to the grocery store with a detailed list every single Monday? Yes.
Do I strategically organize my food in the fridge so my little neurodivergent brain can't miss any hidden ingredients? Yes.
…but am I still left completely frazzled, overwhelmed, annoyed, and distraught thinking about what the frick to make for dinner every single night at six o'clock? YES. Yes, I am, and it's so annoying.
Decision fatigue plagues my life on the regular — again, hello, Sara The Squirrel here, with my raging unmedicated ADHD assigning equal priority to every single thing inside my brain — but the dinner debate is one of THE most frustrating instances.
Steak, sausage, chicken?
Rice, pasta, potato?
Pepper, carrot, cauliflower?
COOK TIMES?! PRE-HEATING?! SOMETHING MY TODDLER WILL ACTUALLY EAT?
Sorry, but no. Can't. Busy that day.
He's having chicken nuggets, and I'm having nothing.
Too many choices. Too much to think about. Too much brain power required. I give up.
5 Easy Ways To Encourage Your Readers To Actually Take Action
In last week's newsletter, we talked about the 4 reasons why you may not be getting the results you're hoping for from your website, and one of the reasons I mentioned was not being specific enough.
ICYMI, I said:
“If someone is confused about what to do next, or what you can do for them, or who your services are for, obviously they're not going to reach out. Instead, they're going to X out.”
So, today, I figured it'd be helpful if I shared a few ways to be more specific in your website copy, in an effort to earn as many conversions as possible — and to help your readers avoid six o'clock dinnertime level decision fatigue. 😇
#1 — Make it stupid-simple
Your copy should be so specific and so simple, you almost feel stupid writing it out, because it seems that obvious to you.
But I promise you: it’s not always that obvious to your reader. Err on the side of too specific as opposed to not enough information.
#2 — Use CTAs early and often
Don’t wait ’til the bottom of the page to add a call-to-action button. There’s no promise your readers will last that long.
Nudge them toward the next step (whether that’s to view your services, or learn more about you, or download your lead magnet, or book a call, or fill out your contact form…) early and often.
On a recent kickoff call, one of my clients specifically requested that I include “lots of calls to action” because, after looking at my website, she liked that she had the option to either keep reading, or not.
She told me that she appreciated that I made it apparent, through my many CTA buttons, that it would be okay for my reader to click a button early on and exit the page, even though it was only the first section above the fold.
I’d never thought about this sense of permission and empowerment having multiple CTA buttons (early and often!) on my site would give my readers, but ever since she made that comment, I’ve noticed on other sites I’ve browsed how nice it is to not have to scroll all the way to the bottom to get to the next step.
(It’s all about that user experience, baby.)
#3 — Don’t send them in a bunch of different directions
Giving your readers too many options often does more harm than good.
On important pages like Services and About — the ones that people visit when they’re considering working with you — make sure you’re including only one call-to-action.
Feel free to use the same call-to-action multiple times on the page, but make sure the CTA itself takes them to the same place.
>> Click here to read all about call-to-action best practices for your homepage!
#4 — Keep it at an 8th-grade reading level
This not only increases the readability of the site, but also the retention rate of your readers.
#5 — Use visual hierarchy
We all know that everyone skim-reads when they first land on a new site.
Make it easy for the skimmers to get all of the info they need to know by using headings, subheads, and different colors and fonts throughout your pages.
And please, for the love of all that is holy, avoid big blocks of text at all costs. You KNOW how annoying that shit is on mobile.
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