While the tools you use, and the design of your website, are important factors that will influence your success in online sales, not doing as well as you would like may not mean those factors are the cause. It may just be that there is another key factor that you need to implement as a part of your strategy. Your marketing strategy should include the use of the right psychological triggers that will help you experience more lead conversions.
The term ‘psychology’ tends to freak out online marketers who somehow think it is an advanced and complicated technique that is out of their league. On the contrary, the people we interact with use psychology on us every day, and we in turn use it on them. All you need to do is identify the triggers and use them in your online strategy so you get in the minds of your customers. Here are three ways you can accomplish this.
1. Appeal to Emotions
Our emotions are involved in everything we do, although to varying degrees. The dominant emotion being displayed at the time will be dependent on what is taking place, and how we feel about it. You also need to bear in mind that certain events are directly tied to certain emotions. For example, games and parties are associated with happy times and would therefore appeal to that emotion. On the other hand, death and funerals are sad occasions that would trigger feelings of fear, anger and sadness. You need to assess the product you are selling and figure out what aspect of your customers’ emotions it would appeal to the most.
Good marketing never ignores the importance of emotions, but before you begin marketing on emotions, you need to ascertain which one your product appeals to the most. Marketing on emotions will result in real responses, as the promotion will stimulate within your prospective buyers feelings of intrigue and hope along with a promise of satisfaction. Your promotion should show the customer that your product will produce results that even their family and friends will be able to see – value for money.
2. Let Them Know What’s In It for Them
Even an impulsive shopper does not buy something unless they figure there’s something in it for them. ‘Come on in and take advantage of this sale’… Yeah… What’s in it for me? How will that product or service make my life any better if I part with my money for it? These are questions that will float around in a shopper’s mind even for the briefest moment.
Self-interest ranks high on everyone’s list. Even those who do voluntary service must be sold on the idea that parting with time and energy will bring them some sort of emotional benefit and sense of accomplishment. What will your customers gain when they take home your product? To answer this and to be able to present an effective argument, you must first know what the product would do for you. Your sales copy should be developed based on this psychological principle so that it clearly shows your customers how they will benefit from the purchase. The sales message should be clear, short, hype-free and powerful so that it pushes your target audience to take action. Hyping up a product and going overboard can backfire in a lethal manner. Just show the positive side of your product and leave out the hype.
3. Do Not Overwhelm – Offer Less Options
If you had several options when buying a product what would you do? If you had too many coming at you at the same time, how would you feel? Presenting customers with too many options can send them into a state of “analysis paralysis.” This does not mean that you hide away some of your products (that wouldn’t make much marketing sense would it?), but rather that you use the method of chunking. This is where you categorize your products so that each category offers a solution to a particular need/problem.
For your customer it means that instead of visiting your website and having everything tumbling down on them as if from an overstuffed closet, they see categories from which they can immediately select the one(s) that relate to them. For you, it means a well-organized website where products are placed in categories just as they would be arranged in a walk in store. It also means that you have spared your customers a lot of browsing time. Your website would them act like your personal store attendant who greets the customer, ask if they can help and then affably directs them to the appropriate aisle so they do not have to search through the entire store.
Chunking allows you to funnel/channel people in the right direction when they visit your site. Make use of it to present a better organized and more helpful website to your customer.
Adding psychology to your online marketing strategy is possibly all the tweaking you need to effect an increase in your sales. It is really not a complicated process and not hard to implement. There is much more you can get out of your online marketing if you trigger the emotions of your customers. Apply the process and watch your customer base and sales make an upward movement.
About the Author: Guy Asher is an online marketing consultant. He enjoys consulting small businesses on the best marketing practices when it comes to promoting their websites.
References:
- http://www.howtoee.com/how-to-use-psychological-triggers-to-boost-your-online-sales/
- http://socialtriggers.com/psychology-more-sales/
- http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/3-tips-on-psychological-triggers-to-help-increase-your-sales-4794