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I was in the supermarket the other day, standing in the breakfast cereal aisle. Imagine that, a whole aisle of breakfast cereals to choose from! But the sheer variety meant it took a while to find what I wanted – I’m sure I walked past the Bran Flakes more than once!
That got me thinking about choice. In our affluent western world we’ve become accustomed to having more and more choices in an increasing number of areas.
Who would be happy these days if they could only have a car in black? And how on earth did we survive with only 3 or 4 television channels?
I realise the explosion in choice is partly as a result of consumer demand, but wonder if it’s always a good thing.
If I’m in a hurry and faced with too many options, I find I either end up sticking with an old favourite (because I know what I’m getting) or walking away empty handed because I don’t want to make the ‘wrong’ choice – and I can’t work out which is the right choice.
What’s all this got to do with your business?
Well, I’m sure you’ve visited websites that have so much on the home page, you don’t know what to do next or what to click on. So you stumble around and pretty soon click away because it’s too confusing or overwhelming to try to figure it out (I find I’m less patient online too!).
- It’s better to limit the number of options you offer on any one page and make it easy for your prospects to decide. Guide, don’t confuse.
- Keep your message clear, short and to the point. This means knowing your target market and talking directly to them.
- Make it easy for visitors to your website to navigate – find their way around (and always provide a clearly visible link back to the home page).
- If you have an online shop, don’t try to cram everything you have on the same page. It’ll just end up looking like my supermarket cereal aisle.
- If you publish an Email Newsletter, and we hope you do, resist the temptation to provide too many links to interesting articles or offers. Keep it easy to read and with fewer requests to click.
- On your blog, ensure posts are relevant to a main theme and don’t let the number of ‘categories’ grow too big. This will ensure readers can easily find other articles of interest.
So remember, don’t overwhelm your prospective customers with too many choices or they will struggle to decide, and end up not buying from you at all.
What confuses or overwhelms you the most on websites, blogs – or the internet in general? We’d love to know!
About Louise
Louise Barnes-Johnston has been working in social media marketing since 2007 after realising that it was a powerful marketing tool which would enable her clients to raise the profile of their businesses on the internet, even when working to a limited budget. Her specialism is in researching social media practices; trying out the most effective online tools and then sharing the best of them with her clients.
