The Secrets to Growing Your Website’s Leads, Calls & Sales: Can You Have Too Many Buttons?

 

Okay, so you know you need to employ a conversion button strategy on your websites, but did you know you can have too many buttons?

You can.

It comes down to choices for your site visitor; and research shows that when consumers are presented with too many choices, they punt. They make no choice.

Some of the best information in the field of choice comes from a study conducted by psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper using jars of jam on a table presented to shoppers at an upscale supermarket.





When presented with 24 varieties of jam, only 3% of shoppers purchased some. However, when presented with just 6 varieties of jam, TEN TIMES MORE PEOPLE PURCHASED.

More is Not Better

As the researchers discovered, consumers will simply not make a choice if presented with too many options. This goes for jars of jam in the grocery store, and it goes for conversion buttons on your website.

But, how would you know if you had too many buttons on your Vehicle Details Pages (VDPs), for example? Simple: you track and you measure. You conduct A/B testing where you use, say, five buttons on each VDP for two weeks, then switch to three buttons for two weeks.

Looking at the conversion rate (valid, non-duplicated leads divided by the number of unique visitors) for each period will tell you which quantity of buttons drives the maximum number of leads per 100 visits. (Assuming the button messaging was relatively equal for both tests.)

Remember the Button Hierarchy!

As we learned in the previous post in this series, our own testing shows that if you include one low commitment button, one medium commitment button and one high commitment button everywhere that you include conversion buttons on your website (like your Search Results Pages and VDPs), you will achieve higher conversion rates than those dealers that include just one button, or just buttons from one level of the hierarchy.

However, whichever buttons you use, they must pass the DISC test. That is, Does It Sell Cars? D.I.S.C.

For example, lots of dealers used to have the “Make Offer” button their VDPs; but you rarely see it today. Why? Because the “Make Offer” button and lead form did a lousy job of selling cars. Instead, the message that this button conveyed to the online shopper was that the vehicle could be had for a steep discount… “just make us an offer!”

Next up in this series: Trade Appraisal Forms that Fail the DISC Test

(If you’re catching this series for the first time, you may want to begin with the first post: Before You Change Even One Word on Your Website…)

About TheManager:

Steve Stauning, creator of The Appointment Culture and an expert in Digital Marketing and Website. He is also an extremely popular keynote speaker, writer, and industry consultant. Learn more about Steve at SteveStauning.com.