The other day I was at the grocery store. I had to decide what to make for dinner that night, and to buy the ingredients. Sounds easy enough, right?

But for some reason, I was stuck motionless in the dairy aisle. Should I make lasagna? (My daughter’s favorite.) Or should I make steak? (My husband’s.)

Honestly, I must have stood there debating with myself for a solid minute or two.

What’s the big deal? Probably seems like a really simple decision: lasagna or steak? But it wasn’t, at least not for me, not in that moment. My daughter didn’t get the solo in chorus, and my husband needed a little TLC. I wanted to please them both.

Decisions, decisions!

Decisions can be messy

Life is made up of lots of little decisions. And that’s true when it comes to marketing, too. The people who visit your website need to decide whether you’re the one they want to hire.

And our job as business owners is to figure out how best to appeal to them, and to do that, it’s helpful to know whether to appeal to their emotions or to their reasoning.

When I faced my lasagna-versus-steak dilemma, I was caught up in the emotion of the moment—all my feelings for my daughter and my husband.

But I ended up opting for the steak. Why? Because it was on sale. Because it was premium steak, and it was on sale. In the end, in other words, I relied on logic and reasoning to make my decision.

Logic is convincing

Turns out, this is how most people make decisions in the end—with logic. We may tap into our emotions at first, but we’re highly influenced by our logic and reasoning.

Give your prospective clients a reason to stay on your website, sign up for your newsletter, and hire you.

And keep in mind that this “reason” doesn’t need to be extremely compelling or creative. It just needs to be there. This is where you tell your story, and WHY you started your business. For example, maybe you grew up constantly debating with your family (and winning these debates) and that’s why you became a lawyer. Or you loved math, and that’s why you became an accountant. Maybe you were always organizing your sister’s stuff, and that’s why you are now a professional organizer.

Most people will find these stories a satisfying rationale, thin as they might seem to you. The point is that there IS a reason of some kind, and that you add it to your website. Here are a few key ways to do this:

1. Tap into emotions. The writing and images on your site need to appeal to your prospective client’s emotions, plain and simple. Without that, they won’t stop to read for long at all. Then you’ve lost them. So the writing needs to address their emotions, whatever they are. (And you do need to know what those are, because you can’t address them otherwise.)
2. Audit the emotional appeals on your site. Does your site consistently tap into your prospects’ emotions? In other words, what do your prospects wrestle with? A messy desk? An overstuffed closet? An underlying anxiety of not having an estate plan?
3. Give your prospects reasons to know, like, and trust you. Do you ask your clients for testimonials? Do you have a personal story? Share those things with your prospective clients–this is what makes them want YOU. Add them to your website now.
4. Give your prospects reasons to buy. You’ve tapped into their emotions, now you need to give them a reason to sign up for your newsletter or contact you for an initial quote (or whatever your call to action is). What’s that reason going to be? A promotion? An almost-full client roster?

Bottom line: Your site needs to rely on both emotions and reasoning. It’s a challenge, but it’s also a promise. If you tap into both, you stand a good chance of winning over your prospect with a website that delivers for their business. And that’s the whole point, isn’t it? How well does your website tap into potential clients’ emotions? Send me a note and let me know!