Nick James

You can never make it too easy.

On Wednesday last week I heading off to Earls Court 2 in London to attend the International Direct Marketing Fair and the "Internet World" Show.

There were lots of stands, booths, and companies demonstrating their wares (my personal opinion that much of it was the blind leading the blind but that's a story for another day). The show was for anyone who's anyone who is invloved with direct marketing online or offline.

One of the things I kept having to ask each company was "what is it you do...?" believe it or not there were NO descriptions, NO benefits and NO Headlines to grab attention on any of the stands (... cripes these people are meant to know what they're doing and pose to be 'experts' in direct marketing)&

In any case amongst all the other exhibitors at the trade fair one especially caught my eye.... (not for the right reasons either) The company in question specialise in 'running tests' on your website and telling you where your customers are having trouble navigating around your site and if they are having trouble making purchases from you.

Such test cost upwards of& (wait for it) £2,000+VAT. And if you also would like to upgrade to "eye movement" monitoring you can double that figure again to £4,000+VAT

I was literally gobsmacked... But it did get me thinking...

Whether it be a sales page, an order form, or a product, you'll almost never be penalised when you make it easy to use.

But if your customers feel that your sales page is difficult to read, or your order form difficult to follow, or the product difficult to use, you will almost always suffer - either a loss of sale, a loss of a customer, or a request for a refund.

To generate more sales and build happy customers, tell your staff, your developers, and your webmaster - "you can never make it too easy to use".

Then test - to find and eliminate anything that makes doing business with you or using your difficult.

And always remember, "you can never make it too easy".

A cheaper option than employing a specialist company to run a "test" for you at £2,000 a pop would be to get some one who is unfamiliar with your business, (partner, friend, parent, grand-parent, aunt, uncle, neighbour etc.) to surf your website and see how easy they find it to use.

You should resist the temptation to "help them" if they fall into difficulties making a purchase. Just make notes. Think about making the parts they had trouble with a perhaps make these steps a little clearer in future.