Local Internet Marketing - Less Is More | Tribal Clicks Digital Marketing

Regardless of whether you do local internet marketing, print marketing, or both right now, consider this if you own a local business…

As a society, it is pretty engrained in us that it is always better to have more choices. But as consumers and business owners, we need to be aware that there is a dark side to having more choices.

Is it possible that offering too many options to your customers and prospects could actually be hurting your business? Psychologist Barry Schwartz advises that having too many choices has made us more paralyzed rather than freer, more dissatisfied rather than happier.

The human brain can efficiently process up to seven pieces of new information, plus or minus two, at one time. So consider the 175 varieties of salad dressing that Barry refers to in the local store. How does one decide exactly which one is the right one without investing the time to consider all available options? If you don’t take the time to research your options, will you feel good about the choice you make? Or might you simply walk away because there are just too many possible options?

Think about your own business. How are you marketing to your own potential customers? Are you marketing to the needs of a sub-group of potential customers or are you trying to be all things to all people by offering a many many possible products or services? Alternatively, are you offering a manageable number of possible products or services which will enable prospect’s buying decisions rather than disabling them?

This is important both offline and online. But arguably it is even more important online because when online prospects get overwhelmed by choice or required decisions facing them,they can simply click away and move on to another website.

Business owners need to be absolutely clear who your ideal prospect is. One needs to understand what the conversation is in their head. Then draft copy for your website to insert yourself into that conversation. Keep your online visitor focused by directly them to exactly what you want them to do next. Give them only one or possibly two choices at one time. If you can guide your visitor’s experience on your site in this way, your local internet marketing results will be much more successful.