They Clicked the Link But Didn’t Buy - What Went Wrong?

It’s one of the most frustrating moments in online business: 

You send the email. 
They click the link. 

And then… nothing. 
No sale. No signup. Just silence. 

In this episode, we’re unpacking why that happens and how to fix it—so more of your clicks actually convert. 

This one’s especially for you if you’re sending traffic to sales pages, lead magnets, or product links—and getting crickets. 

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Transcript

The Click-But-No-Action Problem

Carrie Saunders 0:00

It's one of the most frustrating moments in online business. You send the email, they click the link, and then nothing. New seal, no sign-up, just silence. In this episode, we're unpacking why that happens and how to fix it. So more of your clicks actually convert. This one's especially for you if you're sending traffic to sales pages, landing pages, or product pages and getting cricket. And I'll also share one simple tweak we made to a client's landing page that helped double their signups without rewriting the entire thing. Let's dive in. Struggling to turn website traffic into real sales, you're not alone and you don't have to figure it out all yourself. Welcome to Smarter Online Business, the podcast for course creators, coaches, and e-commerce entrepreneurs who want their websites to convert visitors into buyers without the tech overwhelm. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders, a website strategist and conversion expert with over 20 years of experience. Each episode delivers simple, proven strategies to help you generate more revenue and make your website your smartest sales tool. Welcome back to the show. We're talking about why people click and then there's crickets and they don't do the thing that you want them to do, whether it's buying your product, your service, or signing up for something. So let's first talk about though what clicking does and doesn't mean, because we need to understand that. A click means they were curious, not necessarily ready. So we need to keep that in mind. They're curious, but not necessarily ready. It is a strong buying signal, which makes non-conversions more painful. So clicking is a sign of interest. What happens next has to meet or exceed expectations from your customers. This is one of the reasons using a true email service provider is super important because we can track those clicks, we can put them in buckets of groups of people who are interested, and then further nurture them and give them other offers. And we want to make sure that we're not assuming in our head that our hard work is over once they've clicked, because that's actually where the next hard work starts, is after they've clicked. So why do people click and not buy? Many of the top reasons is there's a mismatch between the email, message, and the landing page or the product page that you're taking them on. The link promises one thing, but the page delivers something else, or at least in their mind it delivers something else, even though you think it might deliver the same thing. Because even small shifts in tone, headline, or structure can lead to hesitation. It can cause them to second guess what they clicked on and whether they clicked on the right thing. And hesitation, as we know, you know, typically leads to a no. We also want to look at if there's too much friction. Many times that is what causes that next step after click to not happen. If we have a long form, a confusing layout, unclear call to actions, especially ones that don't tie back into what got them to click on your link in your email to begin with, can cause issues. And if the page isn't skimmable or doesn't feel easy to complete, then that's another sign of an issue. We also see lack of trust or clarity can also cause conversion issues here. No testimonials, no proof, or no clear benefits can cause people to stop and not do that next step. Visitors are generally asking in their brain, unconsciously, usually, is this right for me? And if they're not getting an answer to that, then they're going to leave and not do that purchase. Also, we alluded to weak or missing call to action. Learn more, for example, doesn't guide actions. So if your call to actions are very vague, not specific, not action-oriented, as it says it should be, call to action. We need to make sure it's action-oriented, but it's very easy to not quite get that right, then that's going to cause them to hesitate and not potentially click. Call to actions might need to be repeated on your page depending upon how long it is, and they need to be visually emphasized. We talk a lot on the podcast that this call to action color is usually your third or fourth color in your branding. It's not your main one or two colors, it's usually that third or fourth color, depending on how many colors you have in your branding, one that stands out. Think about Amazon, for example. That orange button stands out. Think of any other, you know, large store you might shop online, their add-to-cart button is going to stand out. It's a different color than the rest of the page. We want to make sure it stands out. And then many times people are checking their emails on their phone. So if you haven't checked the mobile design of the page you're taking them to, and it's not mobile friendly, that can cause people to stop right there and dead in their tracks, and they will forget about it by the time they get to their computer. So if your text is cut off, if it's slow, if the buttons are too small, that's going to cause issues. Mobile experience matters so much more than ever. I talk about this a lot. It's something that even I still forget to check sometimes just simply because I don't browse things on my phone as much as other people, but the typical general population shopping uses their phone so much. So then let's next talk about how to diagnose what's wrong. I want you to pull your link, click data. Where are they landing? What is going on on that page? I want you to review that landing page like you're a cold visitor, like somebody has never seen the page before, or ask somebody to do it for you. This is actually even better. And then for more advanced checking, I want you to look at the bounce rate, time on the page, and clicks on the call to action buttons. This is going to be something you're going to need to do probably with Google Analytics at that point. So it's a little bit more advanced. But you can do those click data, I don't know, have somebody double check whether it matches your wording and your email. That's going to be your first biggest step. And I want you to run a message match check. Does the page instantly confirm what they came for? Does the call to action stand out and match the intention of the click? I'm going to read those again because it's really important. Does the page instantly confirm what they came for? Does the call to action stand out and match the intent of the click? Double check that when you go to a page with somebody. So in one client's case, we changed just the subheading of the landing page to better match the language of the email. And we saw those opt-ins double in that week. So it was a subheading. It was not supporting the heading appropriately. So if your links aren't converting, your funnel isn't necessarily broken. It may just need some better alignment. You might not need to trash it. You might just need to refine it. And that's one of the things we talk about inside the converting website course. We show you how to build pages that not only attract clicks, but guide visitors toward action with trust, clarity, and intention. You can find more information about that at SmarterOnline Business.com forward slash TCW. Or if you want help identifying exactly where your landing page is leaking conversions, come drop it inside our Facebook group. Just go head on over to Smarter Online Business forward slash Facebook and you can join right there. And then that bonus tip I wanted to talk about, I want you to run the five-second test. Pull up your landing page or your product page or whatever you're sending them to from your email, and I want you to ask, can someone tell what this page is in about five seconds? Can they see who it's for and what to do next? Does it visually and verbally match the message that got them here? Let me say those again. Can someone tell what this page is in five seconds or less? Can they see who it's for and what to do next? Does it visually and verbally match the message that got them here? If not, then that's your main problem and it's something that should be pretty easy to fix. That's all we have for this week's episode of the Smarter Online Business Podcast. We hope this helped you be more confident with your landing pages or your sales pages that are after that email click to help you make sure you have great conversions there. And if this resonated with you, please share this with a business friend and rate us on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app that helps us reach more business owners just like you. Help their websites be their best sales tool. And we will see you next week.