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Ep. 129 Why Your Offers Aren’t Working – How to Increase Website Conversions

by Torie Mathis | Smart AF Show

Why Your Offers Aren’t Working – How to Increase Website Conversions!

If you make offers on your website and no one is responding you may be missing this key piece to your sales process.

In this episode, Torie Mathis and her cohost Sean talk about how service-based businesses fail when marketing like commodity businesses and what changes can be made to boost sales, repeat business, appointment requests, and referrals. If offers are falling flat, this episode is for you.

Listen or watch the full episode below:

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION –

(transcription is auto-generated)

SAF 129

[00:00:00] Torie: We’re so used to dealing with like these commodity type businesses. Like if you’re buying a widget, you know, if you’re going to buy a shampoo, you really don’t care who you buy shampoo from, you know what shampoo you want. Right. You’ll just go buy it from, you know, whatever store. And it doesn’t matter if you bought it from the drugstore or the grocery store or from Ulta or, you know, wherever you’re going to go.

Should you just go from Amazon, then you don’t have to leave the house. Right. Because of those commodity type things, that it doesn’t matter as much, you know, but if you’re actually, like you said, going to be working with somebody or putting your hands on somebody, or you’re going to be working with somebody’s kids, or someone’s going to be coming into your house, I think in those types of instances, or if it’s a high ticket item like people want to make sure that they’re going to be taken care of.

Hey, what’s up. It’s Torie Mathis, your host, and I’m here with the one and only Sean Mathis, founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum.

[00:00:52] Sean: It’s all true.

[00:00:53] Torie: It is all true. Yeah. I’ve been a little more active on Instagram these days. Ever since the pandemic, I have gotten off of Facebook quite a bit because it was hurting my soul.

[00:01:04] Sean: It became Insta famous.

[00:01:06] Torie: No, no, definitely not. But. Going around on Instagram and making some little friends on there. So I did this post on Instagram about SEO and I got quite a few comments on it. And one of the guys that made a comment on it you know said some things about that he wasn’t very good at SEO. And so I had some time and I went and took a little look at his website. It seems like a really cool guy. I don’t know if he’s been doing what he’s been doing for a long time. However, I saw some problems on the website that I so often for people. And I think that like, especially if you’re just trying to throw up a website for like a new business or if you’re not exactly sure about like how to design a website I could see that this is a mistake that is really easy to overlook and that is that they’re trying to get people to be married without actually like getting to know each other.

[00:02:01] Sean: Which means?

[00:02:02] Torie: So on his website, he had, it was very simple website. It had the home page, it had a pricing page, and a contact page. And that was it. And so on the homepage, there was like some general information, mostly about his services, kind of talking about like what he does. And then there were various tiers with all the different payment options that were, there was just a lot of them.

They weren’t like really? I think I talked to you about this. I showed you. They were like, I couldn’t really figure out who he was, who his audience even was because there were so many different options that it was like, well, how do I figure out if you’re offering this to me? Like, how do I know you’re talking to me?

Because there was so many different payment options and these different plans. And then there was a contact page. There were no testimonials that showed that he knew what he was doing. There was no op in that gave like, so he could give some type of information. Maybe like a top 10 tips on, you know, what his industry is.

And I didn’t want to say too much about what he did. There was no case studies. There was no examples of his work. There was none of that, which I could see if you were just throwing up a site that you, you know, you just want to get so many things up. But I think these things are really, really important that you put out more than just, Hey, I’m buying this stuff, buy my shit, buy my shit because if I was looking at that like I would just probably shop him. Oh, he’s got prices on there. Let’s see. Now let me go to somebody who I can actually see more about them. Like there wasn’t even a page that said, like, why he’s doing. Or what anything about him, like what his experience was like, there really wasn’t a lot about him or why I should trust him. Like, I don’t know

[00:03:48] Sean: why, you know, he’s taking your money and outsourcing it to definitely.

[00:03:53] Torie: Absolutely. So there was no real personal type of stuff on there. And I think that that’s important and he. You know, based business. It wasn’t like, you know, he was like this huge business or is just selling some type of widget that it wouldn’t matter. You’d be working directly with him. Kind of like if somebody was doing graphic design, for example. So if you went to a website with someone doing graphic design and they didn’t have a portfolio, they didn’t have any testimonials. They had no examples of their work. They didn’t tell you where they went to school.

They didn’t tell you how long they’ve been doing this. They didn’t have some type of opt-in that maybe you could sign up for their email, like all of these, like he didn’t have any of that. And so I think in, in doing that, you are asking for people to marry you without dating them at all. I think you need to work on the date. You to move them a little bit. You need to build that know like, and trust so that people actually want to choose you because otherwise they go to these websites and I think they just shop them. Ooh, they have prices let me write down what those prices are, and then I’ll go and find somebody else and see what the prices are.

But if you’re in a business or in an industry where people do price shop you, then it’s probably a good idea to have some type of. The pop-up or something that you could grab people’s email address because when people are in that type of research phase that they are price shopping it’s probably a good idea that you can grab their email address and continue to market to them for a little while, so that once they are in the, the time to make the decision, they’ll remember who you are.

[00:05:17] Sean: And I was trying to think, like, in most cases, when you’re in. Price shop phase. You’re not ready to buy. I get ready to buy when you’re, you’re not worried about price shopping anymore, because you’ve already done that part. So yeah, only having the price there isn’t going to do you any good because they’re, I mean, they’re not ready to buy.

In most cases, none of them are going to be ready to buy at that point because of there’s nothing there other than the price it’s price here. And then switching over to the next one, see that price, and then they’re going to go, and they’re going to look at all these different prices and they’re going to go, well, I liked what this website had to offer and how they had it all laid out and I liked their examples and you know, they come to this guy’s website and it’s like, well, he had priced. Like it’s you see, and then you go on, unless it was so much less than the other ones, but then you start getting nervous. It doesn’t really fit in with the rest of them, you know, is this even a cause that’s the thing is how many of these are scams?

[00:06:19] Torie: Right. So I think it’s important. You know, people are like, I don’t want to talk about me or they don’t want to like say a lot, a bit about them, but if somebody is going to all these different companies and price shopping, And they said, for example, what if they said they were a veteran? I would be like, oh, that veteran company, or they, they had a picture of them and their dog.

And I was like, Hey, they have dogs. Like, then you start to make that personal connection. Even if it’s like small stuff, it’s something memorable. Something like, oh, well maybe that’s why I should choose them. Maybe they say where they went to college around here. Everybody’s super big on like, which college you went to. And so you pick people because they went to university of Georgia, right? Like, so putting some of those personal information, things on your end, it doesn’t have to be like all over your website. Well, I think you need to put that kind of stuff somewhere so that people that makes you memorable, it makes you connect with them so that you do do you do end up being remembered when people are finally making that decision?

[00:07:10] Sean: Right. And well, that’s where, you know, if you have that opt-in and you get their email, you’re then able to reach back out to them and, you know, give them a little bit more, explain a little bit more about what it is you offer. You know, if they’re price shopping and they’ve gotten, you know, 10 different prices from all these different companies.

And you’re the only one emailed them, you know, three times in the last, you know, two weeks now, all of a sudden they’re ready to buy you’re top of mind.

[00:07:37] Torie: Right? I’ll give you another good example. Okay. I hurt my stupid shoulder again, my shoulder, not very happy with me. And so I was looking for someplace that I could do physical therapy. I thought maybe chiropractic, maybe massage. I wasn’t really sure. I just, the last time I hurt my shoulder and it was just, it’s just overused. It’s not like I broke it or anything like that. But since it happened again, I knew I needed to do something about it. I didn’t want to call my regular doctor. I didn’t know what they would really do anyway. So I thought, okay, I will look for a place locally and see what I can find for some type of physical therapy. And so I found a couple of places and I was actually looking for massage and looking for like a physical therapy type massage, like more of like a sports massage type thing.

And I went to a couple of different websites. One of them, I ended up finding two. Two that had really good reviews. So there was that social proof. Again, that first guy I was talking about, he had no reviews, no testimonials, no. Like my mom says I’m great. Like there was nothing there. So I found these two companies, they seem pretty good.

Both of them had really great Google reviews when I clicked through to the website. One of them was a corporate site, which I don’t have any problem with corporate sites. I have no problem with using a franchise. I know sometimes that’s how people need to build their business. I am totally cool with that.

I do kind of like a mom and pop because that’s like how we are. But when I went to that site, it had no information. It was like a squeeze type funnel page where all they wanted you to do is request an appointment. And anytime I tried to click around, it just wanted me to pick my location and then make an appointment.

But I wanted to know, like, did they have chiropractic? Did they have massage? Like what kind of massages did they have? What kind of things did they offer? Like if there was no information I’m in research mode, I need information. I’m looking for information. This site would not give me any information. I don’t even know if their site had that information because it just kept trying to get me to make an appointment blindly, for real, maybe because I don’t know, maybe the name wasn’t like the name recognition, because it was like you know, team. I don’t know, I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, but, but it wouldn’t give me, I want to know how you’re going to help me with my shoulder. And so when I went to this other one, which was a smaller company, which did have multiple locations, when I clicked through, there was an option to make a, a an appointment, but there, it allowed me to go through the website.

And look up shoulder, look up massage, look up other options that they have, like other services that they had and, oh, they have this and they have this and, oh, look at all these pages about like, what’s wrong with your shoulder and Hey, make an appointment and then we’ll figure out what you need. So you remember, you said you’re going there and they’re not going to do anything.

Okay. So I was able to search for all of these things about shoulder injuries and it was here are some of the things you can do. Here’s what’s, you know, here’s some physiology about what’s going on on your shoulder. We can help you. We can help a shoulder problems rather than it was just like, here’s our packages sign up, make an appointment contact now, you know, give us your contact information. And so when I made the appointment, I actually went to. Not for chiropractic, not for a massage. I went there for them to take a look at my shoulder and see what they thought and then once I got there, they made a plan and then kind of told me I should go talk to my doctor, which I did, and, you know, made an appointment with them.

And after I heard back from my doctor, I went and talked to them and we fully developed my plan. And now I’m a customer of theirs. Why? Well, it was great that they had the reviews because that allowed me to see their social proof. People trust them already. But when I went there, they had information they had a list of all their services.

They’re all these different things that allowed me to do my research to stay on their website. They did not have any type of pop-up or any type of lead magnet other than making an appointment, which if they would have had something like that, I would have totally signed up for it. Then I would have been on their newsletter and I could have got things like that, which I have not gotten an email from them, even though I have gone to them a couple of times, I did immediately after the first appointment, get a text asking to review them, which was really nice. But again, it was, and I think I told you that it was right after the first appointment. I hadn’t, they hadn’t really seen me yet. So I thought that’s a little bit. I’m not really ready to give you a review yet. And so now I’ve gone twice and actually had a massage and had an adjustment.

They have not texted me again for review, which now that I’ve actually seen them, this would be a good time to probably do so, which they haven’t done. So, I mean, not like a perfect type thing, but if you look at the first one, Then he always had lots of different the first guy that I was talking about had lots of different packages, but none of this information definitely I can’t see why anybody would choose him, which made me really sad because I see his posts on Instagram. He does some Instagram lives seemed like a cool guy and everything, but then when people are going to check him out on his website, I don’t know if it’s going to happen.

[00:12:35] Sean: It doesn’t look like anything substantial.

[00:12:39] Torie: Hey, you know, you don’t have to have something substantial, but I think that there are these key items that if you don’t facilitate the sales process, which this is all going to be the sales process and you don’t meet people where they’re at like if they’re in research mode, you need to be able to answer those question.

If people are a little nervous about you, you need to make them feel okay if people aren’t sure if you’re the right audience, then maybe you need to segment your site for two different people. Like let’s say the, the rehab place I went to, maybe they would have a site, you know, a section like if you’re injured, you could go.

Or I know they said like, have you been in a car accident? So that way you click into there. And then they’re only talking to people that have been into car accidents because that’s a really popular, that’s a time when people go and get chiropractic work, maybe they just want to relax. Like, so there’s different ways that different people are going to go to your website.

And so knowing who these people are and trying to meet them where they’re at, for example, the IGC website that we do. We work with this company that we do their website and we do their newsletter things and they work with homeowners and with realtors. So when you go to the website, you can actually click if you’re a homeowner or click, if you’re a realtor, because the messaging and everything that you’re gonna be talking to is going to be very different, whether you’re the realtor or if you are the homeowner.

But if they would have just put all their packages and all of their services together, and that’s how that guy just, let’s just, let’s just make a list of everything we do and put our prices for everything. Like that’s not helping people choose. That’s not walking people through the process to have them make a decision because people make decisions on a lot more things than.

It’d be like, if you went to a car lot and they just handed you a list with every single car they had and then all of the prices, and they’re like here, pick a car, just pick which one you want. We’re not going to talk to you about it, you know?

[00:14:23] Sean: Yeah. Like if you didn’t know what the brand was, but any of the features were crazy. Here’s cars from price.

[00:14:30] Torie: Well, and then the joint, if you think about it, like if you were going to buy a car, it was like, it wouldn’t even let you in. They were just like, give us your contact information and then we’ll let you, where, what do you want to make an appointment? When do you want to come sign the papers, but they didn’t give you any information.

Like you have to figure out like, whatever your business is, what the sales process is like, what are they looking for when they come to your website? What do you want them to do? And I think being too forceful, like just not letting them do anything, but, you know, make an appointment. Like people need some information before they make an appointment, need to kind of meet them where they’re at.

[00:15:05] Sean: Yeah. And I think a lot of people, I mean, they, they really want to know who they’re giving their money to, you know, so it, it goes beyond just, you gotta hurt shoulder and you know, it needs to be fixed. There’s a bunch of people that can fix it, but you want to know who’s going to fix it. You know, what, who are these people?

And their hands are going to be on you, you know? So you don’t want to just go to joe Schmo that you have no idea who they are or what they’re doing. And I think it it’s across the board really for pretty much any industry, you know, even the pizza joint, you know, pizza’s pizza, but you go and you look and you’re like, oh, this pizza has got, you know, fresher ingredients. So the dough is made a certain way or, you know, they’re veteran owned or whatever the case may be. You don’t want. Give them money based off of price.

[00:15:58] Torie: Well, I think there’s also something to say that like, we’re so used to dealing with like these commodity type businesses. Like if you’re buying a widget, you know, if you’re going to buy shampoo, you really don’t care who you buy shampoo from, you know what shampoo you want. Right. You’ll just go buy it from, you know, whatever store.

And it doesn’t matter if you bought it from the drugstore or the grocery store or from Ulta or, you know, wherever you’re going to go. Should you just go from Amazon, then you don’t have to leave the house. Right. Because of those commodity type things, that it doesn’t matter as much, you know, but if you’re actually, like you said, going to be working with somebody or putting your hands on somebody, or you’re going to be working with somebody’s kids, or someone’s going to be coming into your house, I think in those types of instances or if it’s a high ticket.

Item, like people want to make sure that they’re going to be taken care of and they want to make sure that they’re not going to have buyer’s remorse. That’s a huge thing with a lot of people, people don’t want to be taken advantage of. I mean, nobody does. And so all of these different things are ways that you can just make people feel more at home.

And with the guy that I talked to in the beginning with all the services, like there was nothing that made you feel good that he was going to take care of. You guess he could make packages with some stuff that was kind of confusing. Like it sounded good. But like when I read through the packages, like, I didn’t really know who his, who his target market was.

[00:17:11] Sean: Explain buying his stuff?

[00:17:15] Torie: No, no, it was very tiny. And then, like I said, Hey, you know, I looked at your website here was just a couple of little things. And, and he said, yeah, I’m still getting it together. And you know, I’ll be working on some of these things. So hopefully like some of those things will change and stuff, because I think that, like I said, it seems like a really nice guy is very active on Instagram.

Just the website. Really. I think if somebody went to, I don’t know if they would choose him over some of the other ones that do the same type of services that. But I understand that people are beginner, but if you look at your website and you kind of take it from that point of like, when somebody lands on my website, is it set up so that if people are in research mode, They are going to be taken care of.

Am I answering all those questions? And these are our blog posts are really great to come in. People are always not sure about what to blog about. And so what kind of things do people research when they come to your website or when they’re on Google and you want them to find you like, what is that question that they’re typing into Google?

Before they find you, like, you want that you to be the answer, you know, just like the physical therapy place, mine was, you know, shoulder problems and how can you fix my shoulder and will massage fix my shoulder will chiropractic, like I was searching all of these different things. But, and they were the ones that were able to answer those questions.

So I think if you have a website and you are doing some type of service some type of service based business, you know, think about. If people are in research mode and how you can help them make that decision a little bit better. How can you put a little bit of you into your pages so that people care and maybe makes you more memorable or gives them that connection that makes them want to choose you?

Like we said, mentioning, you know, that they’re a veteran, like other veterans might think that that’s something that is more appetizing or where you went to school or things like that. Things that just give them a little bit. I think they used to always have a picture of yourself on there so that people can see that you’re a real person.

And it shows who they’re working with and testimonials or reviews. I mean, even if you get your mom on there saying that you’re awesome, at least somebody has said, I vouch for this guy. Do you think of anything else? That’s important.

[00:19:16] Sean: I was thinking I totally need a picture of my mom and stick her on the Miles Through Time website gave me a quote I’m so proud of my son. Shit would be funny.

[00:19:27] Torie: She would love it. I think that’d be awesome. My Shawnee.

[00:19:39] Sean: Maybe.

[00:19:45] Torie: So all of those things they’ll have say all those things.