Influence Customer Behavior to Improve Conversions

The Psychology of Marketing and Persuasion

Successful sales outcomes don't just happen by accident or random reasons. In all ecommerce situations, savvy companies work diligently to put the odds in their favor. Predicting customer behavior is the most important way that marketers can improve ecommerce conversions. That's why the most successful companies put a lot of effort into understanding what people want and how to display products and content to their best advantage.

 

The Psychology of Marketing and Persuasion

One research organization found that consumer behavior has changed so drastically over the past decade that retailers no longer feel confident even in a healthy economy. [1] That can be directly attributed to the hours that people spend online browsing and shopping on various channels. It's easy to migrate away from a given website and check out other options, and few people show loyalty to companies, brands, and products. Today, most consumers and B2B buyers place more value on the customer experience than product details, including price.

Research shows that artificial intelligence in eCommerce research recently grew by 300 percent to give marketers better tools to track and predict customer behavior. The increase applies to both B2B and B2C companies. about 75 percent of Internet users expect a consistent and seamless experience when engaging with brands across multiple touch points. A good sales platform uses human psychology, efficient technology, access to ordering histories, and cross-functional transparency to deliver incredible emotional experiences to each customer.

Psychological insights from multiple consumer studies show that it's easier to say no than yes. People can fall prey to a kind of paralysis based on many factors. The more complicated a decision, the more likely people will procrastinate in making a positive decision. A study at Arizona State University by Dr. Robert Cialdini concluded that people are more likely to buy when there are fewer issues to consider. [2] Emotion sells, but bureaucratic details discourage it.

 

Psychological Triggers to Action

Psychology is important in effective marketing, and people's brains work in similar ways. That makes it easier to design creative ways to move people along the sales funnel. Recognizing "superior" customers makes them more receptive to buying. People enjoy being part of the groups that they support, so they're usually willing to buy products that members of the group like. Integrated on-page marketing techniques can identify the groups that customers are likely to support. Providing a customized display for each customer can deliver a better online experience and improve customer retention.

 

How to Meld Psychological Insights into a Cohesive Marketing Strategy

There are three important technical challenges for generating leads and sales with psychology. The first is a well-designed website that's easy to navigate and highly functional. The second challenge is to give people what they want. The third is empowering customer functions with self-service features that deliver exceptional online experiences. If a customer doesn't know what they want, make is easy to find anything (i.e. clean and simple navigation, categorization, and search functionality).

 

Functional Web Design

People prefer a website that's easy to use. It's important to have customized displays that appeal to each buyer's profile. Recognizable logos and complementary color schemes also help, but artistic aesthetics aren't as important. Clear photos, and videos--along with compelling copy--can be very persuasive. Remember that they're "shopping" for an item. Under normal circumstances, that means that they can pick it up, test drive it, whatever. Online, you've got to give them that comfort that they're making the right decision (i.e. big, clear pictures, reviews, videos, brochures, etc.).

 

Give People What They Want

Using analytics to monitor user behavior, companies can determine what people want and how they behave throughout their sales journeys. These insights allow Web design that moves people closer to a sale. This doesn't require hypnotism or unethical practices. It just involves providing a path that people have followed in previous sales--giving people what they want when they want it. Clarity ecommerce now comes with a machine learning language, so it's not just "Recently viewed" items anymore, we can tell that Bob looked at tools for 45 minutes, and of the 15 tools he browsed, he spend 90% of the time on hand tools, and much more. That type of user behavior makes it easy to know what type of coupon to serve up to Bob to get him to buy.

 

Use Psychology to Improve Customer Retention and ecommerce Conversions

The best way to turn psychological insights into favorable customer action is to use psychological triggers to convert leads and site visits into sales and higher customer retention rates. The 15 most common triggers include:

 

Human Behavior Drivers

1. Human behavior--at its simplest--involves avoiding pain and finding pleasure. Marketers can provide both options by explaining how a product solves painful problems while providing pleasure because of its low cost, beautiful design, or other attractive characteristics. Instead of "here's a pair of scissors," it could be, "try our new electric coupon clippers. Have arthritis or joint pain? Clipping coupons just became easy....."  You're solving a problem, providing a benefit, and making someone happy.  That's what will convert.

 

Offering Novelty

2. People love novelty, and something new can attract new customers and even upsell existing customers who've already bought a previous version of the product. That's why car manufacturers upgrade car models every year. Not everyone wants the exact same thing that everyone else has. We want the new model, the new color, the new upgrade. How many different cell phones have you had versus your kids?  Today's millennials always have to have the latest and greatest.

 

Explain Why Your Product Is Better

3. There are many ways to attract attention by supplying answers to searches for meaning. Everyone wants to know why, and if you can answer the question satisfactorily, you'll get sales. If every car gets 20% better gas mileage, 20% more performance, 20% more room and the price is exactly the same, then it will be very difficult for a marketer to gain any more sales than any other vendor. However, if your car comes in plum crazy, with a Hemi and a Road Runner Sticker and horn (remember the famous Dodge Superbee?), then people will flock to your product. Focus on your competitive differentiators.

 

Tell an Appealing Story

4. Appealing stories, behind-the-scenes disclosures, and human-interest tales can captivate audiences. Stories have been popular for thousands of years. Stories trigger emotions, and emotions sell products. People want to see how your product can benefit them.

 

Simplify the Options

5. People always look for the easiest way to solve a problem. When giving customers a choice of ways to solve their problems, they'll usually choose the easiest. All marketers need to do is make buying a product the easiest way to solve a problem. If you've ever been to Five Guys or In-n-Out Burgers, they only do a few things, but do them the best. But travel to a Cheese Cake Factory, and you'll spend 20 minutes fighting through the 74-page menu just trying to figure out what you're in the mood for.

 

Create a Common Enemy

6. A common enemy might be an intangible emotion, a problem, or a type of person such as a burglar, or a government policy. Companies just have to show how their products and services can foil the enemy, and make them a winner. 

 

Arouse Curiosity

7. People will buy products just to satisfy their curiosity. Genuine curiosity can inspire favorable action, increase research activity and strengthen sales conversions when combined with other action triggers.

 

Build Anticipation

8. Many companies advertise their products before they're actually available. This approach builds anticipation, and many customers will buy the product as soon as it's available. Sometimes you can create a demand before there's even a product to fulfill that demand.

 

Use Public Approval

9. Social approval encourages people to buy. That's why celebrity endorsements, testimonials, favorable reviews, and social media endorsements can be so influential.

 

Use Comparison and References Strategically

10. Comparisons can help people understand relative values and what products are really worth. A cheesy example of this is the shopping infomercials that build value by adding items to a deal such as a "super-duper knife" that includes a selection of utility knives. Now, how much would you pay? The deal only costs one-third of that amount.

 

Make Customers Feel Important

11. Feeling important is a basic human need. Marketers can position their products as something only the most intelligent or discerning people order. Everyone wants to show their boss that they solved a problem, fixed something that was broken, or came up with a great idea.....  Help them become the hero, and they'll be more likely to provide a testimonial.

 

Identify Customers as Members of a Community

12. Everyone longs to fit in a certain niche. Marketers can increase conversions by making people feel that they belong. For example, make people feel good about buying products that identify them as socially conscious people, dedicated environmentalists, or trendy sports aficionados.

 

Use Trends to Reinforce Sales

13. People can be fickle. Insurance coverage rises after a natural disaster. Creating a sense of immediacy can sell products that people never knew they needed.

 

Promote Product Scarcity

14. Thousands of marketers use this technique to encourage sales. For example, Groupon and Daily Deal websites offer discounted products in limited numbers to encourage conversions. So many products are available for a limited time, only 6 left, on sale this weekend only.  Scarcity and urgency go hand in hand in creating that sense of need to quickly make a decision to buy.

 

Create Controversy

15. Savvy marketers can win on both sides of a controversy by selling branded merchandise that supports each position. Controversial products inspire buying action. Why do you think most car companies now sell both gas and hybrid cars?  

 

Getting Help to Turn Your Website into a Psychology-Fueled Marketing Machine

Most companies need the help of a professional developer to build an integrated sales platform for ecommerce. The right development partner can analyze your needs, build a seamless platform and integrate functions that deliver routine psychological insights into buyer behavior. A/B testing can identify what actions customers take in every area of the site. That's how you learn about predicting customer behavior, increasing on-site marketing strength, and applying insights into actionable website tools to improve ecommerce conversions. Clarity ecommerce is not only a "learning" platform but provides significant analytics to help you improve your customer's experience, which in turn will increase satisfaction, loyalty, and conversions.

 

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