Every business owner has stared at their website analytics and had the same thought: people are coming, so why aren’t they doing anything?
They found you. They looked at a few pages. Then they left without calling, booking, buying or filling in the form, and you’re left guessing. Too expensive? Not enough information? Wrong font??
Usually it’s none of those. There’s a disarmingly simple model from Stanford behaviour scientist BJ Fogg that explains most of what happens on your website and, once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it.
It’s also what we reach for when a client asks “why isn’t my site converting?”, so it seems only fair to share it.
The whole model in one sentence
BJ Fogg is a behavioural scientist who established the Stanford University Behaviour Lab. He found that:
A behaviour happens when three things land at the same moment: Motivation (they want to do it), Ability (they easily can) and a Prompt (something invites them to do it now).
Fogg writes it as B = MAP.
It applies to any form of action, from adopting a new habit, sticking to a diet…or whether someone makes a purchase.
Fogg’s model states that should any one of the three requirements for a behaviour be missing, that action doesn’t happen.
That’s it! No ‘neuromarketing’ or four-hundred-page book required (though to be fair, Fogg wrote one that’s worth a read).
The power of the model is that it turns a vague worry (my site isn’t working) into a diagnosis. When a visitor doesn’t act, consider one question: which of the three was missing?
Motivation
Motivation is how much the visitor wants the result: the leaking roof fixed, that gift sorted, the wedding photographed.
Mostly this walks through the door with them – someone with water coming through the ceiling doesn’t need your homepage to persuade them that a roof repair is essential. But it is possible to improve a user’s motivation: clear statements on why you should be trusted; great case studies. and showing the results rather than focussing on the process are key.
Put yourself in a customers mind (or even better, get customers to help!) and walk through your site, tuning your offer to ensure that messaging is specific, any concerns are answered and objections are overcome.
Ability
Ability is how easy the behaviour is at that moment. This can take many forms: affordability, having the necessary resources, the amount of effort required, or whether someone has the necessary knowledge to carry out the behaviour.
When it comes to websites you need to consider the ability of that user to carry out that device in that moment. We see ability killers every week: forms asking for information nobody needs yet; phone numbers that can’t be tapped; prices hidden behind “Get in touch”; sites that don’t quite work right on mobile screens. Each one quietly taxes the motivation your marketing paid good money to attract.
Fogg’s insight here is the one worth framing: when motivation and ability trade off, make it easier, rather than shouting louder. Even a mildly interested visitor will do a very easy thing.
Equally, even a motivated visitor might give up on a hard thing, feel slightly cross about it, and go to your competitor, whose form only asked for their name and number.
The Prompt: the invitation at the right moment
Even with motivation high and the action easy, B=MAP is clear that nothing happens until something says “do it now”. That’s the Prompt: the button, the line of text, the invitation that lands exactly when someone is ready to act.
(Fogg originally called this a “trigger”, but Prompt is the better word – an invitation, not an ambush.)
There are two ways websites get this wrong. Either there’s no prompt where it’s needed, so a convinced reader reaches the end of your beautifully written services page and finds…no hint as to what to do next. Or there are prompts everywhere: three buttons, a pop-up, a chat bubble and a banner, all shouting at once, which works out the same as none.
The craft is to match the prompt to the moment. Someone halfway through reading isn’t ready for BUY NOW, but might happily take “see what it costs”. One page, one job, one clear prompt.
A worked example
Take a kitchen fitter’s “Our work” page – the page prospective customers pore over before deciding to get in touch.
- Motivation: Already high. They’re planning a kitchen – that’s why they’re here. The page’s job is to sharpen it: photos of real kitchens (honest pics do more for motivation than any stock imagery); actual testimonials from customers like them.
- Ability: Simple expectations on potential pricing, an outline of next steps, and a clear prompt. But present them with a contact form demanding a full address, project description and “how did you hear about us”, ability falls off a cliff. Name, number or email, “tell us roughly what you’re after” can be completed in thirty seconds on a phone.
- Prompt: At the bottom of each project: “Like this one? Get a rough price for yours.” At the moment of peak interest, a specific, low-pressure invitation. Not a “Submit” button and not letting the page drift off into the footer.
The difference between a portfolio that gets admired and one that gets enquiries is rarely the kitchens. It’s whether all three letters of MAP show up at the same moment.
The question to ask of every page
Next time you look at any page on your website, skip “does it look nice?” and ask: for the person this page is for, what’s the one thing we’d like them to do, and is it wanted, easy and invited, right here?
If you can’t answer in a sentence, the page has homework. And if you’d like help doing the homework, that’s what we’re good at so get in touch.
