The 2 Reasons People DonÛªt Click on Your Buttons Û

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Buttons are cute, and theyÛªre charming. You canÛªt be scared of a button.

These are the words of Joanna Wiebe, whose delightful presentation on buttons at Authority Intensive resonated with data-backed usefulness.
And sheÛªs right. No one is scared of a button. Yet, people choose to not click on your call-to-action buttons all the time. Costing you conversions. Costing you money.
Why?
And what can you do about it?
I invited Joanna, Conversion Copywriter for Copy Hackers, to be the guest on this weekÛªs episode of The Lede so she can answer these two questions for you Û_
Because Joanna has the answers and the data to back them up.
In this episode, Joanna and I discuss all of the following and more:

How I misspoke right up front ÛÓ because getting a button clicked is not the same as a conversion (Luckily Joanna has your back and corrected me)
Why you need to think of your visitors as non-thinking lizards
The impact that choosing a button color outside of the brand palette can have ÛÓ and, relatedly, if clients ever balk at choosing colors outside their palette (even when they know it works)
Why you should think of your buttons as closed doors
The most common anxieties that keep people from clicking
How to phrase button copy to reduce anxiety (and why ÛÏJoinÛ is better than ÛÏSign upÛ)
Why you need to think of ÛÏcalls to actionÛ as, instead, ÛÏcalls to valueÛ

And I recommend you scroll through JoannaÛªs slides from her presentation while you listen. You will find them below, right before the transcript.
Listen to The Lede Û_
To listen, you can either hit the flash audio player below, or browse the links to find your preferred format Û_

React to The Lede Û_
As always, we appreciate your reaction to episodes of The Lede and feedback about how weÛªre doing.
Send me a tweet with your thoughts anytime: @JerodMorris.
And please tell us the most important point you took away from this latest episode. Do so by joining the discussion over at Google-Plus.
The Show Notes

Copyhackers.com ÛÓ JoannaÛªs website
@CopyHackers ÛÓ Follow Joanna on Twitter
7 Proven Secrets of High-Converting Checkouts ÛÓ by Joanna Wiebe
6 Proven Ways to Boost the Conversion Rates of Your Call-to-Action Buttons ÛÓ by Joanna Wiebe
13 Takeaways From Authority Intensity ÛÓ by Kerry Jones

The Transcript
Click here to read the transcript
Please note that this transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.
The Lede Podcast: The 2 Reasons People DonÛªt Click on Your Buttons Û_ And How to Overcome Them
Jerod Morris: Welcome back to The Lede, a podcast about content marketing by Copyblogger Media. IÛªm your host, Jerod Morris.
Last week on The Lede I interviewed Tom Martin, whose panel presentation at Authority Intensive drew rave reviews. This week my guest is Joanna Wiebe of Copy Hackers, another Authority Intensive presenter who drew nothing but praise and plaudits for her presentation, which was a power hour instructing attendees how to create better buttons.
And if JoannaÛªs name sounds familiar, it should. She has written two incredibly useful posts about conversion for Copyblogger. Each is linked up in the show notes for you.
HereÛªs my interview with Joanna. Enjoy, and learn.
There are many reasons why people donÛªt convert
Jerod: Hey, Joanna. Welcome to The Lede. IÛªve got to say it was really a pleasure getting to meet you and listen to you speak at Authority Intensive in Denver. So just thank you for coming on here today and sharing your expertise with our listeners.
Joanna Wiebe: Well, thank you. I had a great time at the Authority Intensive event, and I really liked your talk too. I thought it was fantastic. I loved the stories you told.
Jerod: Well, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.
But letÛªs talk about your presentation which, as I mentioned in our intro, was one of the absolute hits of the entire week. And I think it was just because of how you broke it down, and how simple and clear you made this idea of conversion. You told us that there are really two reasons why people donÛªt convert: friction and anxiety.
So in the 15 or so minutes we have here, letÛªs break each one of those down and give listeners one or two actual tips they can take with them to reduce friction and help their visitors overcome anxiety. WeÛªll start with friction.
Joanna: Okay. Can I just start withÛ_
Jerod: Oh yeah, go.
Joanna: Sorry, Jerod. I just wanted to say two reasons why people donÛªt click your button are friction and anxiety, but there are bigger reasons why people donÛªt convert. Why people donÛªt act on the conversion thatÛªs happening in their head is the friction and anxiety at the point of the button. I just wanted to clear that up because people will be like, ÛÏthereÛªs way more to conversion than that!Û
Jerod: Okay, good. And thatÛªs a great clarification, because youÛªre right. Your presentation was on buttons specifically.
Joanna: Right. Yeah.
Jerod: And you wrote a great column on buttons as well for Copyblogger, which we will link up in the notes.
Joanna: Cool.
Think of your visitors as non-thinking lizards
Jerod: So when we talk about friction with buttons, apparently to reduce friction we all need to start thinking like lizards?
Joanna: (Giggles) Yes. We need to think of our visitors not as thinking visitors.
When youÛªre working on the button if you think of a visitor as a visitor, then a human visitor has all sorts of intellectual capacity. They can figure things out. They are very thoughtful and rational. When we use the word ÛÏvisitor,Û theyÛªre not lacking any sort of intelligence. We give people a lot of credit, and we think of a visitor as, often times, ourselves. Human beings. WeÛªre smart. We can figure out what a gray button that says ÛÏSubmitÛ is supposed to do. Who canÛªt figure that out? Visitors can.
But we have to really speak to that lizard brain, that part of our brain that is so old. ItÛªs the thing thatÛªs really keeping us from making mistakes in life and hurting ourselves. It doesnÛªt react to words. It reacts to a stimulus, and things that will attract it or will repel it.
So thatÛªs really what weÛªre talking about. When weÛªre talking about a button, if we can design a button for a lizard brain, which means really ÛÏwould a lizard look at this? Would it touch this? Would it be scared of this? Would it know to go near this?Û That kind of thing. If we can do that instead of thinking of them as thinking, usually intelligent human beings with big, bold, wonderful brains, then we can get closer to designing the button in such a way that itÛªs more likely to get clicked. ItÛªs more likely that your lizard brain will tell your bigger brain and your actions that ÛÏItÛªs okay, we can move ahead with this button.Û Or ÛÏhey, I like this button, letÛªs touch it!Û That kind of stuff.
Jerod: So whatÛªs one way, then, one example of a way, that we can make a button thatÛªs going to attract that lizard brain?
Joanna: I gave a couple of examples in the presentation. And one of the obvious ones: People talk a lot about button color text, and people roll their eyes when you talk about them. And IÛªve done it too. Early on in my career I definitely did. Because you think a color isnÛªt persuasive ÛÓ except in certain cultural situations it can be ÛÓ but by and large, for most people, the color orange is not more persuasive than the color blue. So why would we do a button color test? What could we possibly learn?
But when youÛªre designing for a lizard, lizards are attracted to things that are out of place. Things that look like something to look at ÛÓ like the bright, shiny object kind of thing. So when youÛªre going to design a button for that lizard Û_
There was one in particular that I noted in the presentation for Acuity Scheduling, where we ran three variations of a button with the control included there. So there was a control button on a plans and pricing page for a solution called Acuity Scheduling. The control versus variation B, which was a button color that was within the brand colors for Acuity Scheduling, and variation C, which was meant to speak to that lizard brain. And we made that one outside of the brand color, so different from the palette, and that was the point with making it really stand out.
We made it orange. Not because we believe in the big orange button, necessarily, although orange does tend to do quite well. But it does well not because itÛªs orange, but rather because itÛªs different from everything around it. ItÛªs something that stands out. And a lizard, your lizard brain, can notice it and not have to think or wade through information to try to find the right button to click.
So we tested variations B and C against the control on the plans and pricing page. There were three buttons on each variation. The plans and pricing page usually has three, four, five columns where you see whatÛªs inside each plan, and then the button, and you try to get people to click the button, obviously, to get them to sign up. So in the control we had three black buttons. In variation B we had a black button, a green button, and another black button, and that was all within the color palette for Acuity Scheduling. Variation C had a black button, an orange button, and a black button.
We saw a pretty good lift. I think it was just over 80 percent on the variation B and the green button, so it was different from just all three black. ThatÛªs a good thing. Already the lizard brain can say, ÛÏOkay, somethingÛªs different here, IÛªll look at that.Û But when we made it orange we got, I think it was, 94 percent lift.
Jerod: Wow.
Joanna: And thatÛªs click-through lift. Not conversion lift. Click-through on that orange button. And so it beat the green button, and it totally beat the black button.
And really, thatÛªs what itÛªs about: designing for a brain that isnÛªt trying to think. ItÛªs just trying to do without doing the wrong thing.
Do clients balk at choosing colors outside their palette?
Jerod: So speaking of friction Û_ do you ever get friction from designers when you suggest, ÛÏHey, letÛªs choose a color thatÛªs outside of the palette?Û
Joanna: You know, there is an increasing number of designers who are focused on conversion. So we see a lot more designers who are soaking it up, ÛÏGive me more.Û But give them data too, which is what weÛªre really focused on doing. Because you canÛªt just say, ÛÏMake it different,Û and theyÛªre like, ÛÏOh, okay.Û
We see a lot of friction when it comes time to talk to a brand manager or a creative director. People who might sometimes not be that open to doing things for conversion purposes if it compromises in some way, or complicates, the brand. Which I guess we see a lot in copywriting too, right? Everybody wants to pitch a long-form sales page to sell something, and good luck getting that by the average brand manager or creative director, right? And so on, and so forth.
Jerod: Yeah. But I assume if you just show them the data, like you just said, ÛÏHey, 94 perent more clicks,Û thatÛªs typically enough, right, to get that sort of reaction? I would hope so.
Joanna: Yeah. YouÛªd think, but if you go to acuityscheduling.com ÛÓ and I wave my finger at them all the time ÛÓ he hasnÛªt actually changed the button.
Jerod: Oh my!
Joanna: The button is still in the control. I know. And IÛªm like, ÛÏBut you saw the data!Û
Jerod: Yeah.
Joanna: ItÛªs there! You saw the test happening! You looked at it! You know itÛªs all statistically significant, you know there is nothing actually wrong with the data. ItÛªs perfect. ItÛªs saying, ÛÏYou can get almost twice as many people to sign up or to get started on signing up for your solution if you just change it to orange.Û But itÛªs still black. What? I donÛªt know.
ItÛªs always going to be ÛÓ I think itÛªs a matter of repetition. People listening to this now will be like, ÛÏOh yeah, sure, fine.Û But they have to hear it 30 times from 30 different people before they actually do it.
Jerod: Okay. Maybe there is some anxiety there, why theyÛªre not changing that. Which leads us into our next idea here.
Why you should think of your buttons like closed doors
Jerod: We talk about anxiety, and you use the analogy of a button being like a closed door.
So you talked here about how you want your button to stand out. You want to appeal to that lizard brain that is going to be attracted to it, maybe even scared of it, but they see it. And then once theyÛªre there, now you have to reduce that anxiety so that they feel welcome enough, comfortable enough, to open up the door, right?
Joanna: Exactly.
Jerod: How do you do that?
Joanna: ItÛªs really addressing ÛÓ at the point of clicking to convert ÛÓ those seemingly minor obstacles that are getting in the way of moving forward.
If you think of a button as a closed door instead, you can start to see Û_ because buttons are cute, and theyÛªre charming, like the word ÛÏbutton.Û You canÛªt be scared of a button. Who would feel anxiety with a button, right? Especially where we can all go around saying, ÛÏWe all use the web. Everybody is familiar with it: you just click a button when youÛªre ready to buy. You just click the button.Û
But you donÛªt just click the button, right, or else we wouldnÛªt see the lift that we do. We would just keep seeing, ÛÏOh, weÛªre not actually affecting a change. People are having an easy time clicking the button.Û But theyÛªre not.
So if we think of it as a closed door, now you can start to put yourself in the position where youÛªre like, ÛÏHow do I feel when IÛªm about to open a closed door?Û Especially a closed door in a building that IÛªm not familiar with. So itÛªs one thing if itÛªs your house. YouÛªre likely to just open and close the door unless you know itÛªs the bathroom, or something like that. But in someone elseÛªs house, or if youÛªre in a neighborhood, a strange neighborhood, and youÛªre looking for your friendÛªs house. YouÛªre looking for a certain door but you donÛªt know which one is right. You can start to feel a bit of those anxieties, right?
ÛÏIf I open that door, whatÛªs on the other side? If I go inside will it close behind me and IÛªll get lost inside?Û I canÛªt see whatÛªs in there until I actually open the door. Do I care enough about whatÛªs inside to put myself through the potential trauma of opening this door only to find that thereÛªs a lion behind it, or other crazy things that we might ÛÓ I mean, nobody thinks thereÛªs a lion on the other side of a button or of a closed door. But the bad things that are unknown that generate this fear and risk inside of us, which of course turn the lizard brain off too. Where youÛªre like, ÛÏOkay, forget it. IÛªm not going, itÛªs not worth it.Û
But if we can anticipate those kinds of small anxieties about opening a door, and do things to knock those anxieties down a bit, just really neutralize and reduce them, then we can get people to open.
So obviously I work a lot with tech startups, like software as a service. So there is a lot of signing up for things online. And when youÛªre signing up for a free trial, what are the anxieties that a person might feel when theyÛªre about to click? They like your solution, they like everything about it. What are some anxieties that they might feel, though, about moving forward with this so-called free trial:

Is it really free?
Do I have to put my credit card information in here?
How many pages of forms am I going to have to fill out before I can actually start using this thing?
Do I have to invite other people to help me start using it somehow?
Do I have to sign in with Facebook, only to find out that itÛªs now been posted to Facebook?

What are some fears that people have? And all you have to really do is build those into the button copy, or position those neutralizer things that counter those fears and anxieties. Position those around the button. We see some pretty good lift when we do that.
How to word button copy to reduce anxiety
Jerod: And you want to use wording that suggests, too, that they have to do less work, right?
Joanna: Yeah.
Jerod: Let me give you an example. And tell me if I did this right. I was creating a button, actually, today for a post thatÛªs going to go out, and it included a call to action button for signing up for Authority. And I had JoannaÛªs voice whispering in my headÛ_.
Joanna: (Laughs)
Jerod: Û_ I did, because when I first wrote the button I said, ÛÏSign up,Û meaning ÛÏYou have to go, you have to do something.Û And I changed it to ÛÏJoin the Authority communityÛ instead. So is that better? Is the second wording better than the first, in your mind? Is that going to reduce anxiety, or do I need to go change it again?
Joanna: I would believe that would perform better in an A/B test, yes. Because the initial one, like you say, thereÛªs a sense of ÛÏWill my life get harder once I click this button?Û And we want them to believe their life will get better, right?

WeÛªre always trying to sell people a better version of themselves, and that doesnÛªt stop at the point of your button.

So ÛÏsign up.Û What does that suggest to people? To me it suggests, ÛÏOh crap, IÛªve got work to do.Û What does ÛÏsign upÛ mean? Plus thereÛªs that fear of commitment. Am I ready to sign up? I know I like it, but do I love it? Am I actually, seriously into this solution so much that IÛªm ready to ÛÏsign up?Û I mean, ÛÏsignÛ is a scary word, right? To sign is like ÛÏsign your life away.Û We have some anxieties associated with that word.
But ÛÏjoin?Û Perhaps there is a little anxiety there if youÛªre not sure if you want to join. But itÛªs reducing any anxieties about possibly being alone because youÛªre joining, of course, that community. So I think thatÛªs a good thing. Does ÛÏjoinÛ suggest work?
You might want to add a click trigger on there that says ÛÏItÛªs one click to join,Û or something to really help people understand that itÛªs actually not going to make their life harder. ItÛªs going to be really fast and easy. And a lot of people know this in their head, but they donÛªt put it on the page. You know, ÛÏOh yeah, itÛªs going to be really easy.Û So people will know to join. But if you just add a little click trigger that says what they can expect that will happen next, that can push people a little further.
And if you get another ten sign-ups a day, or people clicking a day, that really starts to build up. Just because you did a little more on the page to kind of neutralize those anxieties.
Jerod: Perfect. I like that. Thank you for the impromptu analysis there.
Joanna: Sure! I hope it helped.
Why you need to think of ÛÏcalls to actionÛ as ÛÏcalls to valueÛ
Jerod: So my final question about this idea of anxiety. Kerry Jones of CopyPress actually wrote a really terrific column, ÛÏ13 Take-Aways From Authority Intensive,Û and one of her take-aways was a quote by you, which kind of explains this idea that weÛªve just been talking about, which is:

Think of a call to action as a call to value.

Can you just elaborate on that difference, and maybe one way that listeners can put that into effect on their buttons?
Joanna: Sure.
So a call to action is like ÛÓ you tell people what they should do. What they should act on, and that they should move forward. But not why they should move forward, right? ThatÛªs a call to action. A call to value is a reminder of why it is that you want to move forward at all.
People know what a button is, right? They know to click the button to proceed. And thatÛªs not to say that you shouldnÛªt use words like ÛÏclick hereÛ and ÛÏjoinÛ or words like that. Still use an action word or a verb in there. But what is the ultimate value that theyÛªre looking for from you?
Nobody wants to do the act. They want to do the act in order to get the thing.
So if you can instead lead with the thing that they want, the great outcome, that value that theyÛªre looking for, and really amplify the value instead of the act of proceeding, then weÛªve seen at least that you can get more people to move forward. And thatÛªs really because youÛªre just reminding them of what they came here for in the first place.
We had one button test that we ran where ÛÓ IÛªm trying to remember the control. But anyway, the button that won was worded ÛÏEnd my scheduling hassles.Û I think the control was something like ÛÏSign up now.Û ItÛªs in the presentation deck, which I know is going to be shared. So ÛÏEnd my scheduling hasslesÛ was the ultimate value that people wanted to get out of this solution they were thinking of using.
And so using that kind of language, like the goal theyÛªre looking for and not the thing theyÛªre about to do right this exact second, but the thing that theyÛªre going to get out of it. If you can do that, or at least test it, weÛªve seen really good results from that call to value over the call to action.
Stress benefits in your buttons
Jerod: ThatÛªs the old idea of stress the benefits, right?
Joanna: Yeah. And do it in your button. People just donÛªt think about buttons enough, unfortunately. I know I obviously said that a lot at the presentation, but they donÛªt. So if you can, then I think you can get a lot more out of it. Everything you know about copy writing can still be applied to your button. Nothing really changes here, right? This is a critical point on your page. DonÛªt forget all your copy writing tricks when it comes time to write that button.
Jerod: Perfect. And that is a wonderful point to end on. Joanna, I feel like we could talk about this for hours because thereÛªs so much more to unpack, and so many tips. But thank you.
Joanna: Sure.
Jerod: Now, what is the best place for people to connect with you online? Obviously @copyhackers on Twitter, the site copyhackers.com. Are there any other places people can or should go to get all of your wonderful information?
Joanna: Those are really it. IÛªm quite active on Twitter, and definitely on my blog too. So come over and check that out, and everything there. We do a slide share. WeÛªll post it on the blog. You can sign up for the newsletter when youÛªre on copyhackers.com, and of course, weÛªll send you all sorts of cool stuff that way too. So thatÛªs how to get me.
Jerod: Perfect. And hopefully, hint hint, we can get another one of your posts up on Copyblogger soon, becauseÛ_
Joanna: Yes!
Jerod: Û_ the two that you posted have performed so well, and people absolutely love them because theyÛªre full of great tips.
Joanna: Cool! ThatÛªs awesome. Well, thank you! IÛªm working on it.
Jerod: Okay, good. Then we will chat about that later.
Joanna: Okay.
Jerod: Well Joanna, thank you very much. It was wonderful meeting with you, wonderful talking with you, and we will talk soon.
Joanna: Yeah! Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me, and for letting me talk at Authority Intensive.
Jerod: Anytime.
Thank you for listening to The Lede. And my thanks again to Joanna, for taking the time to join me. If youÛªre enjoying these episodes and finding them useful, please consider giving The Lede a rating and a review on ITunes. Also consider sharing it with a friend. We appreciate any way that you can help us spread the word. And donÛªt forget, The Lede is on Stitcher now. Just go to copyblogger.com/stitcher to find our page and add The Lede to your playlist.
Thanks for tuning in. WeÛªll talk to you soon, everybody.
# # #

*Credits: Both the intro (ÛÏBridge to NowhereÛ by Sam Roberts Band) and outro songs (ÛÏDown in the ValleyÛ by The Head and the Heart) are graciously provided by express written consent from the rights owners.
About the authorJerod MorrisJerod Morris is the Director of Content for Copyblogger Media. Get more from him on Twitter, Google+, or at JerodMorris.com.

The post The 2 Reasons People DonÛªt Click on Your Buttons Û_ And How to Overcome Them appeared first on Copyblogger.

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