Your business offers many services.
So it makes sense to advertise them all on your homepage. The more products or services you mention, the greater chance you’ll have of matching one with a website visitor, right? The end result is more sales, more clients and more money in your pocket. While that way of thinking sounds logical, when you sell more services, in reality you’re making it harder for prospects to see your value. Whereas you may think visitors will diligently read about each of your services and comb through every page of your website (excited to learn about what you offer) that’s just not how the human brain works. And I can prove it to you. How information overload causes blindness to your offer
We’re bombarded every day with hundreds, if not thousands, of marketing messages.
Big companies, advertisers and even political figures are fighting for the most valuable commodity around—your attention. All of these messages overload your brain to a point it doesn’t process all the incoming signals. And according to neuroscientists, this causes a phenomenon called inattentional blindness. What’s that? Inattentional blindness means that we literally don’t see all the information available to us in the world, even if it could be incredibly valuable to us. From customers’ perspectives, they don’t have the time or patience to thoroughly review every ad fired at them each day. According to the aforementioned neuroscientists, your brain typically uses about 20% of your metabolic energy. Think about that. Essentially that’s the amount of RAM your brain has. And, at least as of today, there’s no way to go to the Apple store or Microsoft and ask the geeks there to install more processing power in your brain. The point is, you need to make your offer easy for prospects to digest. Still don’t believe me? Here’s a real life example of this concept, from legendary copywriter Joe Sugarman—which explains why “less” sells better than “more.” Offering too many choices (or services) lowers conversion rates
In Joe Sugarman’s book The Adweek Copywriting Handbook, he tells the story of his marketing campaign for the Swiss Army Watch.
Sugarman’s client wanted to showcase nine different styles of watches in a single ad. The idea was that advertising all nine watches would reach the broadest market, providing a choice to every customer. But Sugarman insisted his client run just one watch in the ad: the black colored style. The two parties disagreed, the client arguing that logically more choices equals more sales. To compromise, Sugarman suggested they run a split test: two versions of the same ad are published, one advertising nine watches and the other just one. The result? Sugarman’s ad outsold his clients three to one. In other words, for every one watch the client’s ad sold, Sugarman’s sold three. Why did this happen? The human brain is only capable of processing so much information at once. Combine that fact with our short attention spans, the insane amount of advertising messages we’re bombarded with everyday and our brains’ natural inclination to work as little as possible, then I think you’ll begin to see that more choices in a single ad is just more noise. A simple ad, however, is like a lighthouse in a pitchblack night. It stands out. This is a core reason why you’ll notice that my most popular book covers have only a single, simple image. The simplicity breaks through the noise. So back to the reason why you should offer fewer services on your homepage (and even your website in general). Simply put, the more services you list, the more bandwidth and thinking required to process all the information—and the greater chance your prospect will scroll past them. If there’s few services listed, it’s easy for the visitor to quickly understand your offer. And I’m not just shelling out advice that I don’t follow.
On my own website, I showcase only three services. Do I offer more? Yes, I also offer blogging, email marketing, brochures, and most writing services you can imagine. But those don’t make me special. What makes me special are the three I highlight.
Which brings me to my final point... Do your services highlight your USP?
The services you choose to showcase should be the ones that make you unique or are your best sellers. In other words, your services should act as your USP (Unique Selling Proposition).
For me, not all freelance writers are expert copywriters or script writers. And since I invented the service Kindle Funnels, which is essentially a marketing system that captures weekly leads, my services highlight my USP by default—giving website visitors a reason to choose me. So do the same for yourself. And speaking of which... Action step—do this today
Look over your website. How many products or services are you offering? Two, five, a dozen or more?
Pick your top three services: the ones that either showcase your unique value or are your best sellers. Write the names of these products or services down, and start to make a plan to rewrite your website so it focuses on only these three. Rewriting your website copy is likely something you won’t complete in a single day. So instead, today just get the ball rolling. Pick out those three products or services and start planning your revamped website now. You can gradually rewrite your copy over the next few weeks, or hire a copywriter (ahem, like yours truly ;) to get the job done for you. Your business is special—so let your prospects know
It sounds cheesy.
But really, your business is special. There’s something that makes it unique, that clients love and will gladly pay for. So make it easy for them to see your value. Focus on just a few products or services. The ones that make you shine, that light up prospects’ eyes and that differentiate you from competitors. Remember, in marketing, less is more. Focus on fewer offerings and I bet, just like the Sugarman example above, your conversion rates will start to rise.
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10/10/2022 12:10:12 pm
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