Sell other things, the $300M button, tonal copy
We’re currently working with a client that knows its problems well and takes steps to solve them. I love this. It is so much nicer to work with clients who get it than to clean up disasters. Disasters may be more lucrative, but ultimately people got to such a place for a reason, and it’s more likely than not that they’ll reject the medicine and backslide quickly after.
This client won’t reject the medicine. They get it. But as you probably know, once you solve a given problem, another, larger, more interesting problem always seems to take its place. And that’s where we find ourselves now, with crunchier issues and deeper questions.
This client knows their customer behavior pretty well. Reorder rate is clearly delineated. Tropes are predictable. We can see a big fall-off after someone’s second purchase, for what amount to good, practical reasons. On a recent call, I looked at these numbers and said “okay, so people are leaving for what we think to be common-sense reasons. Yes?”
Some nods.
“What do we want?”
“We want them to come back and order new stuff.”
“Okay. The stuff we sell lasts for years, and people only really need one of them.”
Silence, more nods.
“So why don’t we sell different stuff? You know, that we can sell more frequently?”
Everyone freezes. I list some product categories we could expand into. And I just let things hang there.
The client has a lot to think about.
What if nothing is off the table?
What if the bigger question is to rethink what you actually do as a store?
And why not sell other things?
This week, for paid members
Busy week in the consultancy, so this week is a little light:
- This week’s lesson re-examines the $300 million button in the context of today’s technology, with more general conversion ramifications.
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Links
Nothing significant happened in technology last week.
- A beautiful case study of hotel chain citizenM’s excellent copy. I misted my tea at my monitor reading one of these, so clearly it has to be in here. All brands need tonal, consistent copy! Related.
- Provoking read on the marginalization that UX practitioners inadvertently practice.
- Phenomenal longform piece about longform pages, an essential read for anyone who wants to create structure for improved readability.