Recently, I’ve been re-reading some of these books to make sure Juicy Results has the kind of remarkable touch points that I enjoy from my favorite companies.

There is a great chapter in The Invisible Touch titled “What is Satisfaction” that makes a very overlooked point: every time you delver, the client’s expectations go up just a little bit. Just as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explains, we’re only satisfied for brief moments at a time, and then our expectations rise. It’s just human nature.

I won’t try to cover the recommendations Beckwith makes to embrace and take advantage of this behavior, but it did inspire a few ideas about how this knowledge should be applied to your website marketing.

Don’t meet expectations, exceed them.
As Harry mentions in his opening argument for the section, if you’re considering hiring him as a speaker, and you call a past client to inquire about his performance and impact on their company, you’d probably expect to hear something more compelling than “I was satisfied.”

For some reason, we’ve set the bar in American business as satisfying our customers. Yet, the companies that experience the most explosive growth and profits are typically those that thrill their clients. Talk to any Netflix, Zappos, Chipotle or Geek Squad clients about their experiences and they’ll likely go on and on about how remarkable their products and services are.

Without a doubt, you have to identify the basic expectations clients will have when designing your website, such as information about your company, products and warranties. Then, once you’ve got those bases covered, ask yourself how you can present this information in a remarkable way. What other information might your client appreciate, but not expect, to find on your site? Progressive hit the jackpot when they allowed you to see quotes from other competing insurance providers on their website. Can you imagine how this went over internally when it was first proposed?

Understand where the expectation bar is—then overshoot it.

What exceeds expectations today, only meets them next week.
This is the moving target. Once you deliver this level of service or experience a couple times, it starts to become my expectation. And, a few of your competitors may start to take notice and replicate those practices. These heightened expectations now become the new bar, and you have to continue to push. This illuminates the need for a regular creative review and improvement to your website to not only expand, but just to keep up.

Ask yourself how often you are updating your website with fresh content. Do you regularly review your website and refine the way you serve or educate your current and prospective clients? Maybe you can innovate a better way to help your clients find the perfect product for their needs or connect with other similar customers who they may be able to share information with.

Some of these adjustments may be minor refinements or just new articles or blog posts. The key is that if I visit your site ninety days later and nothing has changed, then I am likely to experience some disappointment. Especially as all the other sites I visit—even your competitors’ sites—are growing and improving.

Your website may be the first experience of your brand.
You are different from your competitors, right? There are a number of reasons a client should do business with you, even pay a premium to work with you. A visit to your website may be the initial and only experience they have with your company when selecting vendors. Before the client even calls or meets with you, this can set their expectations and perception of everything going forward. Why not start with a bang?

If you offer high-touch, premium service, you can demonstrate this through your website. If you are highly valuable and sought after experts who only work with the best, I need to believe it and experience that online.

If your site seems ignored, outdated or unclear—I may feel your product or service is neglected as well (wrongly or rightly, but perception is reality).

Set the stage for their experience with you and maintain that in all your interactions—online or off.

Every day, our expectations of the service and information available to us online increases. Companies in and around your industry are raising the quality of our online interactions, and your business should not only be keeping up, but pushing them for your clients.

Once you’ve caught up, the results will make it easy to stay focused on pushing ahead.

Do you care that the average business overpays on insurance by 18%? Maybe, but you’ve probably got bigger problems on your desk today.

Now, did you know that 64% of online gamers are female? That’s slightly more interesting, because it’s unexpected, substantial and actually useful to some people (I am envisioning a lot of single guys signing up for online games right now).

OK, one more. Over 74% of Americans dream of having their own business. Less than 1% ever start one. That one might make you stop and appreciate the contrast.

Some stats are really boring while others reach out and grab you.

Marketing is a story, and numbers can be a powerful re-enforcer in persuading your prospect to take action. But, just as words have to be crafted into a compelling pitch, statistics have to be handled with precision in marketing.

Marketing Prof has a great blog post titled Three Ways to Tell a Compelling Story With Your Numbers on this subject. I think it might inspire you to look at your data a little differently.

You probably already collect valuable data on your industry that you believe makes a case for your product. Just make sure you’re filtering out the sleepers and presenting the ones with impact in a way that gets my attention. And, use stats sparingly.

Otherwise, you’re 40% less likely to succeed. OK, that one is completely made up.

What is this systemic and pervasive problem? No clear call to action.

Let me elaborate. You do so much work to get the attention of your visitors and bring them to your site. Once there, you plead your case with compelling, benefit-focused content. But then you let them flounder.

Are you hoping they’re so compelled by your message that they track you down and beg to do business with you?!

Take advantage of your efforts and close the deal! Strongly nudge them to the next step. That might be a sale, a phone call, free demo—anything that you believe advances the buying and/or qualifying process.

Photo Credit: Charles Haynes, via Flickr

Your conversion pages, all of them, should perform like a funnel, driving your prospects to your desired goal. Don’t confuse this with being deceptive or pushy. A good call to action seems obvious to the visitor. They’ve just read an interesting article, case study, product description or watched a video, and now they are sincerely interested. While they’re engaged, they’re looking to do something, maybe even make some kind of commitment. It’s your job to funnel them to the next step before their attention fades.

To make our point crystal clear, every page of your website should be examined to determine what the next logical step should be. If this is a landing page (first page they see), you might only want to prod the user to view a demo of your product. But, once that demo is complete,  you might want to offer them a free custom quote. And, if this is a simple product page, the call to action will just be a resounding “buy now.”

It took us a long time to actually realize this warranted a blog post, because it seems obvious. But, if you understand many marketing department’s resistance to appearing sales-y or cheap, it is understandable why this fundamental mindset of internet marketing is often overlooked.

Identify the mindset of your audience by page, and advance the relationship with a clear and compelling call to action. Resist trying to eat the whole elephant with in one bite, but instead know which bite to take next.