FROM THE CREW
Hey there 👋 – The Crew here!
When was the last time you got “analysis paralysis”?
For us, it was this morning when we were trying to pick a sandwich at the store.
We spent a good five minutes in front of the store fridge until we decided we didn’t want a sandwich and could make scrambled eggs for breakfast instead.
This phenomenon has a name, and it’s what we’ll dig into in today’s newsletter.
Reading Time = 4 minutes and 50 seconds
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PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT
The Paradox of Choice
It’s probably not the first time you’ve heard this term.
It grew in popularity thanks to Barry Schwartz and his book “The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less.”
Barry’s book was partially inspired by a study called “When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing” by Sheena S. Iyengar and Mark R. Lepper.
In this study, the authors described an experiment where they showed customers too many options… making the customers less likely to buy a product as a result.
They didn’t call this phenomenon “the paradox of choice,” and maybe that’s why they are not as popular as Schwartz. But their discovery was nonetheless important.
What products did they snow in the experiment? Jams.
Shoppers at a grocery store were presented with a display table with gourmet jam that was free to taste.
If shoppers tasted at least one, they were given a $1 discount they could use to buy any jam.
There were two different tables (not shown at the same time): One with 6 varieties of jam, and one with 24 varieties.
The experiment found that more people stopped to try the 24-varieties table, but more people bought jams at the 6-variety table.
So while variety got traffic, it didn’t get as many purchases.
Their conclusion? An abundance of options might cause people not to select any option at all.
How can you use this in your marketing?
Three Tactics Using The Paradox of Choice
1) Standardize options for your product or service
It’s tempting to offer customers “unlimited customization” and dozens of choices, but that makes the decision-making process harder for customers… paralyzing them as a result.
That’s why you should standardize the options for your product or service.
Whether you sell clothing or financial services, you must have one or two standard offers potential customers can choose from.
You will often hear variants of this advice like “niche down” and “have a clear value proposition” and “be a specialist, don’t be a generalist.”
And while there are other reasons why that’s good advice, The Paradox of Choice alone is an excellent reason not to offer unlimited customization and personalization.
2) Offer a limited number of plans
Subscription businesses are popular. But ever notice that the best in the business rarely offer more than 3 or 4 options?
Well, that’s also because of The Paradox of Choice.
Your typical SaaS subscription offers 3 options, with very few exceptions.
3) Use one clear call to action
Now, you’ll want to test this, but it is generally better for your website, your funnels, and your ads to have one clear call to action.
Again, if you try to be everything for everyone, or offer people too many options, they will end up choosing the always present “no action” option.
So decide the best call to action for each case, and each contact, and use just that.
Apply this concept in your website design, in your funnels, in your ads, and across customer touch points.
CLICKWORTHY
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📹 TikTok is testing a new 15-minute upload video limit on some accounts for both app and desktop uploads. This allows creators and marketers to test longer content, without the limitation of the previous 10 minutes.
🐦⬛ X will introduce two more premium tiers alongside its main subscription plan: A lower-cost option with all features but no reduction of ads and a higher-cost option with no ads. Is Elon trying to apply the Paradox of Choice effect?
🧠 In physical stores, a bigger space between products makes customers perceive them as higher quality. Apparently, this effect works even in online catalogs.
*This is a sponsored post.
ICYMI, last week we looked at The Sleeper Effect.
The “No-Choice” Crew.
