A famous experiment involving a jam tasting booth revealed a counter-intuitive lesson: while a table with dozens of options attracted more attention, the table with only six options generated ten times the sales.
This is the “Paradox of Choice.” In podcasting, we often clutter our episodes with multiple calls to action… like follow me, subscribe, download this, share that. When a listener (who is likely multitasking) is confronted with too many options, the easiest choice becomes doing nothing. To drive real results, you must reduce cognitive friction by offering one clear, specific next step.
In this micro-episode:
- The “Jam Study” and what it reveals about decision-making
- Why multiple CTAs lead to “choice paralysis” for listeners
- How to increase conversion by simplifying your requests
Resources:
Jam study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1057740814000916
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11138768/
Conversation on decision/choice: https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/choice-overload-bias
Paradox of choice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice
And more about this will be in the NEXT episode (#55).
Find more episodes and subscribe at stereoforest.com/minute.
Transcript
WEBVTT
::A couple decades ago, there was a jam tasting booth. Jam as in toast. And it had dozens of jam varieties some
days. And on other days, it just had six types of jam. On the days where there were a dozen types of jam, there
was a lot more interest in that booth than the days where there was just six on the table. But there were
substantially more, like ten times more, the sales when there were
::only six jars of jam. I'll link that study in the show notes, but the concept is now known as the paradox of
choice. And this is often discussed in resources around consumer psychology. The more options there are,
that attracts more attention. But when there's fewer options, that actually drives action. That's what
they found out. And this matters for our podcasts or videos.
::those episodes. So think about how many calls of action are included in a typical episode.
::These things are like follow me on LinkedIn or subscribe to the newsletter or check out my website, leave a
review, share this with a friend.
::I have a PDF somewhere. And every time you mention one of these things, it's going to subtract from your
episode instead of add to it.
::And this is even more important if your podcast episodes are audio only because most people listening to it
are doing something else while they're listening to your episodes. So their phone or whatever is in their
pocket. They can't go do that other thing. So the listener's brain is going to respond to all these calls of
action just like those jam jars. When they're confronted with a whole bunch of options, the easiest choice
just becomes doing nothing.
::Like at that jam table with 26 jams. They aren't doing action. They're walking away. They're interested,
but they're walking away. Now, if they're trying to remember something for later because, say, they're
commuting or they're doing gardening while they're listening to your podcast episode, they might just
give up because it's just too many things to hold on to until they're, say, at their desk or they get home.
::So our episodes should have a very clear specific next step like go to this one place because the listener
has to figure out where to go or what to do when they get there and that's cognitive work and most people just
don't do it. They know about of that. So sending your listener to that specific page to do something like
contact you or download a resource it removes a lot of that friction like searching or making some kind of
decision.
::They know the action. They know the action. They know what to do. They know what they'll get from doing that
thing. Less jam flavors, more action. Now it's my turn for that. I'm Jen DeHaan. This is a Credibility
Minute. Find more episodes and get in touch with me at stereoforest.com slash minute.