How Many Clicks Does It Take?

I'm an entrepreneur; I love building things. My favorite part of growing a new company is sharing ideas about great products and services with potential buyers/customers. My favorite part is marketing, particularly when it works and sales follow. There are so many great ways to market, and now with digital media, a ton of new possibilities exist. Marketing is more fun today than ever. When executed properly, marketing works. But how can we make it work better?

One thing to consider when building marketing campaigns is simplicity. Often, the message is lost because of too much...too much noise, too many words, too many clicks. Smaller, precise statements, focused emails with a single intention, and most importantly, instant and easy access to exactly what is needed to move the prospect to an opportunity...like a button that says "Buy Here." Remember, your prospect's time is valuable...don't waste it. Get to the point, give them what they need, let them click or bounce, with fewer clicks and in less time.

When working with a former client, he would often send emails to prospects with all the details and then would "explain" how to sign up. I would regularly remind him that if he simply added a link to the page where they can buy, he'd make it easier for his prospect, and he'd close more deals, faster. Little things like adding the item to the shopping cart or at the very least, a link that gives them instant access to the purchasing system, will go far. We use the phrase "as few clicks as possible" often when helping our clients market their products and services. Today, a matter of seconds can be the difference between booking the consultation and having your prospect get distracted and not finish.

Another important concept is to make your website the hub of all marketing by directing traffic to landing pages, consultation links, and of course, purchase pages. Posting to social media is great, so long as there is a link back to your website, where the actual content resides. When they arrive, give them easy access to the next step. Adding your post directly on Facebook does very little for your sales process. Instead, write the post (like this one) on your website and then share it along with an excerpt on social media. This guarantees your audience will always have instant, direct access to you, via your website, where you can start a conversation in many different ways.

Finally, the key to doing business in today's world where instant response is required and "one shot or you lose" opportunities exist is to engage with your audience live. We used to answer the phone. We do that less now, but we can launch a phone call from a chat on our website in seconds. Even better, we can drop a link to a Zoom meeting within a chat. But the key here is to build in conversational marketing with chat on your website and social media so when a visitor arrives, you can respond, instantly and drive them to book a meeting, answer a phone call, or even transact business directly and immediately. When we are unavailable, our chat use AI to respond to questions and help move prospects to the next stage in our absence.

Eric Greenspan is the chief clever officer at 74 Systems. Oh, I should provide a link!