Make It Easy to Buy

Marketers spend enormous amounts of time trying to make people want things. We should probably spend more time making those things easy to buy.

This sounds almost too basic to deserve an article, but I have repeatedly seen organisations create unnecessary friction between customer interest and customer action. Complicated forms, unclear prices, missing links, confusing websites, difficult booking processes and the requirement to contact somebody during office hours can destroy demand that marketing has worked hard to create.

There is little point creating a brilliant campaign if the customer arrives at the next stage and gives up.

This was one of the most valuable parts of the digital transformation at Aberystwyth Town. Online ticketing was not particularly glamorous compared with a creative campaign, but it fundamentally changed the buying experience. A supporter could see a fixture, decide to attend and purchase without needing to complete another journey.

The same infrastructure enabled other things later. Events could be registered for online. Products could be sold. Packages could be created. Customer information could be captured.

Removing friction increased capability.

I have seen the same thing when working on websites for businesses. If somebody visits The Gym website because they are considering joining, the route from interest to seeing memberships, classes or booking should be obvious. If somebody lands on Mama Fay's because they are hungry, finding the menu and booking information should not require detective work.

This is sometimes described as physical availability: making sure a product is available when and where somebody wants to buy it. In digital environments, I think ease of purchase is part of the same principle.

There is also an important organisational lesson here. Marketing cannot solve every friction point with more communications. If customers repeatedly ask the same question, perhaps the process needs changing. If people abandon a form, perhaps the form is the problem. If sales depend on one member of staff responding manually, perhaps the system needs improvement.

That is why marketing needs to look beyond promotion.

Sometimes the most effective campaign optimisation is not changing the advert.

It is changing what happens after the click.