Psychology of Online Buyers – Web Design Tricks for an Online Store to Sell More

We are constantly manipulating human consciousness as everyday life as in business. Skilled craftsmen of a psychological impact turn us into docile audience, ready to purchase each advertised product. Online commerce thrives due to numerous methods of suggestion and direct persuasion.

First of all you need to study the ways of interaction between your website and visitors. Various surveys will be really helpful; by the way you can install heat-map plugins onto your website thus track most interesting content.

These observations will help you understand wishes of your customers and using engaging techniques given below you will increase their interaction thus you’ll enlarge your sales.

Further we’ve provided numerous psychological techniques that will stimuli your sales. For the sake of your shop learn to use these approaches and soon you’ll have a positive result of your work.

Use the knowledge of the general psychology of mass consumer

It’s known that standard selling methods, which work for supermarkets are the main strategies applied by online shops. Profit and number of visitors who make a purchase can be increased using uncomplicated marketing actions, such as:

1. Place most profitable products to the best positions;
2. Combine complementary product samples (wine and cheese, slippers and pajamas) in one category;
3. Display them on a single page of search results.

And how close do complementary products coexist for you, – put them at least in a row to draw user’s attention to the fact that they may need one of those.

Start from small things

Analyze user reaction to each and every minor change in design:

1. Changes in shape/color of buttons;
2. Changes in color of content and background image in the header.

Free Google Website Optimizer is a great tool designed to help you ease website testing quality.

Promotion, variation of prices and interest rates

Have you read “Marketing Experiments” by Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, he said that most consumers perceive the price stated first in a row, as average and standard. That is, when announcing the sale “with discounts from 15 to 30%,” you need to realize that people will expect 15% discount on larger amount of products, and 30% for just a few ones. That’s why it’s really important to state in the header the phrase: “discount up to X%” and in general use the phrase “up to” not to confuse people. By the way, did you notice that “to” sounds more convincing than “over”? If you specify prices in dollars, better inform your visitors of minimum values, like starts “from $15″, which looks much more attractive than “$15 – $40.” However, using such ambiguous wording, you probably should ensure the availability of footnotes, which set out the terms of discounts, and set them out very clearly. Otherwise, you may experience some fracas with those customers, who didn’t delve into the matter, and the page where they can be addressed, will be an excellent proof of your innocence.

Buyers are susceptible to offers of free shipping, and can even prefer $15 shipping to a $20 discount. Try to benefit from these oddities of human thinking. Skillfully manipulating the figures and percentages, you will attract people with enticing banner ads, themes, messages when sending newsletters, etc.

I guess you’ve seen following price tags: $99.95 or $49.95. The trick is in subconscious perception of these numbers, they are closer to $90 or $40 thus against all logic, they do not distort the real value of this amount. A series of experiments showed that the goods price at $9.99, were sold twice as much as $10.00 ones! Incredible, isn’t it? This method is more suitable for consumer-Americans. Moreover, it works much better with certain product groups.

Use the principle of reciprocity

This principle is clearly described in Robert Cialdini’s “Psychology of Persuasion. In short, you wish to provide a service in respond to any courtesy. This behavioral norm has been instilled to all of us since early childhood. Our parents teach us to be polite and show appreciation for any favor, thus making us susceptible to psychological influence. They make us believe that people will not like us if we deny giving a back favor. Sale – is an analogue of the favor, to some extent it requires you reciprocal actions. Online stores offer additional bonuses, discount coupons, more expensive analogues of an exact product, in order for the customers to answer with a courtesy and buy those products. The principle is simple, as breath-in breath-out. And it’s not even the price: if raise it before Sale, anyway visitors will not come and buy.

Beautiful design web store

It’s been proved that nice-looking shop assistants sell more, and the court is more favorable to attractive people. Online store visitors are driven with same approach as judges with lacking opportunity to meet you closer, they rely on the first impression. Human subconscious ingrained an idea that beautifully decorated shops are much better that all other ones.

Use pictures that “have a character”.

Use photos that appeal to your senses, don’t forget that users “find interesting” photos with attractive individuals of both sexes. Allow your viewer to “smell the smoke”, “feel the sweat”, taste the wine and experience the embrace simply looking at those photos.

To make pictures come alive look for moments with beautiful light, pleasing back-round and most importantly, make sure that your pictures convey some kind of emotion: be it sadness, fear or happiness. It is said that eyes are the mirror of the soul so capture what you see in your subject’s eyes. Keep in mind, hands are also very expressive.

First person information presentation

According to the statistics, people are attracted to texts bearing personality imprint.

Imagine this: you open the page of a computer store, you see a bunch of products offered to you in an indifferent and detached manner, it makes you feel isolated all those buttons, images, and registry items. Wouldn’t it be more pleasant to interact with a “cart” that addresses you personally as if it’s human. You need to make your customers feel as if you want to get to know them, or show the human-like face of your brand. Positive feedback scores and chat with the audience in first person adds credibility to you as a professional, outlining your brand identity.

Simplicity and accessibility of “shorthands”

People trust only those things and notions they understand. That’s why; try to present instructions and call-to-actions clearly. Visual clues and pointers to the page of your store should be clearly visible and understandable so that users could easily find what they came for. “Interconnections” between navigation symbols of your website should give a convincing image of your company.

Upselling Offers

What’s an upselling offer? These products are usually placed on the checkout page or directly on the page with description of a goodie. You can offer additional services, facilities, advantages in terms of warranty or delivery to buyers of certain goods. What you need to do? Make an additional premium offers that will sound as real “baits”, in a good sense! For example, upselling products are usually the best choices to meet customer requirements.

Binding of prices

This technique gives you an possibility to vary various values. Prices and package are distributed the way that customers choose more expensive products, thus the difference between these products is not that high. For ex., Amazon.com offers a free “super-economy” delivery of any order worth over $25.

This is how this technique works.

If you offer a choice from three variants of designs: “web version”, “print version only” and “web + print” at prices $59, $125 and $135, respectively, you’ll notice that most customers prefer the third one. However, if you remove “print version only”, you’ll reduce your profits, since most people will choose cheaper “web version.”

Psychology of color perception as a marketing tool

Everyone knows that certain colors naturally affect emotions and human physiology, you always have to consider the characteristics of the environments that belong to your potential visitors. Colors are perceived differently on all continents and almost in all cultures. Therefore, it would be good to find out something about color theory, before you start building the layout of your future store. Competently composed color combinations will help you attract more loyal users.

Some more interesting stuff: Neuro-Marketing tips and tricks

Decision-making Process

Now let’s talk about one more interesting thing, i.e. the decision making. Do you know how humanz make decisions? If you’re not a psychologist-behaviorist, or if you are not studying psychology/behavior of primates, than this part of article will be very interesting for you.

How it works?

Human brain can be divided into numerous parts, ancient ones – that developed millions and millions of years ago and more recent ones – those we’ve obtained when got on two feet. If we did not evolve, we would still look like those proto-primates resembling squirrel from the “Ice-age”.

Decisions we make come from that ancient part of our brain, and it’s called – the Reptilian part. It responds for the basic necessities of survival: sleeping, breathing, reproduction, response to external stimuli and it controls decision-making action. That’s why it’s really important to make some actions that will appear to this part, and use the language that it understands the best. Two other brain sections, the “New Brain” and the “Middle Brain” have a supporting role.

1. The New Brain is a pure logics, it makes deductions based on facts and data, later sharing it with other two parts.
2. The Middle Brain produces emotions. It processes intuitions and feelings, and then shares its discoveries.
3. The Reptilian part is a decision-maker.

Luckily you can always figure out some ways on how to influence even the most stubborn person.

Basically, there are four dead-simple tricks!

• Diagnose the pain – reptilian part “wants” to avoid pain at any cost. Here you need to show how your product will “cure the pain” and “relieve the frustrations”;
• Differentiate your claims – you need a hook that shows how your product stands apart from others, create a real contrast to help the Reptilian part see you as special and decide in your favor;
• Show benefits – show it the gain it will get from choosing your product, you need to demonstrate concrete evidence of your benefits using simple and easy to understand messages;
• Deliver your message – to complete your effective sales technique, your messages and presentations should be filled with visual stimuli and emotions that grab the attention of the Reptilian part and cause it make a buying decision in your favor.

Neuro-marketing Concept

Neuro-marketing is the latest form of marketing study aimed at studying brain’s responses to advertising including messages and images. It assumes that human brain has discrete functional areas that manage consumer behavior which is mostly driven by the subconscious. This advanced technique allows to influence our subconscious. With Neuro-marketing you can develop effective marketing mix that will satisfy consumers better (what is the main objective of marketing). Eventually Neuro-marketing study will be used to customize products and marketing communications according to the brain type of potential customers.

Neuro-marketing study provided marketers with a secret weapon that is focused on making websites more engaging. Some of these tips can be familiar to most of us, but when used together, these tips will be your weapon of mass attraction.

1. Too many choices – if people have too many choices they will not choose at all, that is strange but it’s the fact, the wider the range of products is, the more time user needs to choose the one (you can try to reduce the amount of similar products);
2. Social validation – reviews and testimonials, users consider reviews of other customers more important than those submitted by the experts, or provided by the website specialists (try to engage your customers in submitting reviews considering the products they’ve acquired);
3. Scarcity principle – if something is unavailable it is considered to be more valuable;
4. Food, sex and danger – powerful triggers for action (feel free to use but not overuse);
5. Power of faces – fusiform facial area, part of a brain that makes us focus on the faces of people, when using pictures of people make sure they look right;
6. Story – information that is presented in a form of a story is processed better, you can personalize your fact presentation with your own thoughts if it is appropriate (this will be effective when presenting video reviews of the products you offer);
7. Commitment – by asking small commitments you will get more loyal customers after some time, similar to social validation.

Conclusion

Tips provided in this article will help you increase website usability and user response, when used right they will help you achieve sky-high conversion rate and you’ll get a handle on the best way to present design and content that entices visitors and helps generate business to your company. One thing needs to be pointed out these tips won’t be helpful if you don’t have a solid product or service to begin with, so get that down first. The rest will only serve to deliver it to the consumers successfully.

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11 Marketing Psychology Tips to Tap Into Buyers’ Minds

Perhaps unsurprisingly, psychology has emerged as one of the most useful tools used by marketers. It gives us a glimpse into workings of the human mind, along with some useful techniques for subtly influencing it. Below are 11 useful tips that you can use to improve your customer engagement and your conversion rate.

1. Engage the Senses

Buying anything online can be a tricky proposition; people don’t necessarily have a chance to really see or touch the product before they commit to buying it. As a result, you’ll want to help your customers feel as though they know the product intimately. This can include high-quality product shots or testimonials from other customers. In other words: make them feel as though they already own it.

2. Use Emotion to Your Advantage

Humans are emotional creatures, and our range of feelings can be easily played to. The most effective marketing techniques have nothing to do with spewing product specs or shouting about how low prices are; instead, they’ve become about telling a story, about making the audience feel a deep and personal connection with the brands they interact with.

Related Resources from B2C
» Free Webcast: How to Craft the Ideal Content Strategy for Your Facebook Page

3. Assuage Suspicions

Most of us are naturally suspicious; after all, the Internet is full of people who are only too willing to take advantage of overly trusting people. To that end, guiding customers along toward conversion involves no small amount of reassurance. Try to anticipate potential doubts or suspicions, and then do your best to reassure your customers. There are many ways to do this, such as backing up your claims with authoritative sources and providing reviews from existing customers.

4. Offer Exclusivity

There’s no getting around the fact that online retailers and “big box” brick-and-mortar stores can be both cheaper and more convenient than buying direct. The solution to that problem lies in exclusivity; offer something that they can’t get anywhere else, and you’ll tap into customers’ love of owning something uncommon.

5. Provide Flexibility

If there’s one thing online shoppers hate, it’s a lack of flexibility. This can include everything from the checkout process itself to shipping and payment options. Don’t force customers to register; allow them to check out as a guest if they wish. In addition, offer a variety of payment options to make sure that nobody is left out.

6. Offer Fewer Choices

This one might seem just a little bit strange, but it definitely plays to a well-established phenomenon in psychology. People tend to get overwhelmed when presented with more than one or two choices, which is why it makes sense to simplify your product offerings. By offering just a few very clear-cut choices to customers, you’re helping to ensure that they don’t lose their momentum in the face of an array of potentially confusing options.

7. Draw Comparisons

Customers want to know that you stand behind your product. One way to demonstrate that confidence is to compare your offerings to those of your competitors. Show them in black and white why your products stand out from the crowd.

8. Take Advantage of Crowd Mentality

The reason why social media marketing is so effective is because people love “belonging” – that is, they love being a part of emerging trends. If you can, find a way to tie social media into your product offerings; reveal just how many people have clicked that “Buy” button, or how many people in their networks have subscribed.

9. Explain the Benefits to Your Customers

Whether online or offline, impulse buying is an important thing to capitalize on, and tends to be fairly effective in the eCommerce world. That said, more expensive or involved purchases need to play the game of reciprocity. If you’re expecting your customers to commit to making a big decision, whether it’s parting with their money or simply giving up their personal information, they need to have a very clear idea about what’s in it for them. Don’t by shy about explaining, clearly and concisely, in a way that will provide a feeling of self worth, precisely what they’ll be getting out of the arrangement.

10. Don’t “Sell” – “Impress” Instead

People staple their wallets shut and it takes a crowbar to get them open. The crowbar is, in this sense, direct advertising and propaganda. Show people the same ad enough times (20+) and they might finally cave in, at least once. However, there are other less intrusive and arguably more commendable paths to get wallets open without even showing them a product. This is content marketing psychology working at its finest. For example:

This infographic showcases, as you would guess, the world’s fastest roads. It’s filled with beautiful visuals and insightful statistics. This is content marketing. But, at a more subtle level, there is a psychological process going on. We are engaging the brand by sharing the infographic on social media with our friends and peerswhich is a type of referral. We comment about it which is a type of rating. By creating referrals and ratings in a setting free of “get your wallets out folks!” we soften the staple and remove the need for crowbar marketing.

11. Stop Forcing the Issue

It’s only too easy to start thinking that you have control over somebody’s behavior. The truth is that all we can do is attempt to influence, guide, and inform; when it comes to clicking the “Buy” or “Subscribe” button, only the customer can make that decision. Anything that attempts to push them more forcibly is only going to come across as off-putting or desperate. What you have to do is state your case clearly; what they do with that information is ultimately up to them.

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The psychology of impulse purchase

Here's a new entrepreneur guest blog on the psychology of impulse purchase and what it has to do with entrepreneurs...

Retailers have been cashing in on impulse buying for decades. Theres probably no better example of this than supermarkets, where customers preferences are boiled down to a science: candy is placed at kids eye level, marked-down items all but jump off the shelves, and essentials like milk are shoved to the back so that shelf upon tempting shelf lies between them and the customer.


Youd think the recession would have curbed that, but no: a 2010 survey, Harris Interactive', commissioned by the National Endowment for Financial Education, shows that no less than 80% of Americans made an impulse buy in the past year. Its bad news for consumers - more than two out of three impulse buyers in the survey admit they regretted their purchases shortly after - but the implications for business owners are promising.


First, what drives impulse purchases? There are different views on this. According to Engel and Blackwell in 1982, an impulse purchase is anything you didnt have the intention of buying when you first entered the store, but bought anyway. Phillips and Bradshaw, in 1993, narrowed it down to the point of sale, saying a buyer can constantly change her mind about an item all the way to checkout. But Dennis Rook, in his 1987 paper The buying impulse, provided todays generally accepted definition: a sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buy something immediately.


How impulse buys happen


An impulse purchase starts with exposure according to Specialty Retail Report. Its all about seeing the product - thats why supermarkets are paid a premium to put certain products on the front line. The next step is problem recognition: the product will remind the customer of a problem that the product in question can solve. Take, for example, the lumping together of chips, popcorn, and soda. A buyer may only come for a bag of chips, but the whole arrangement reminds him of his last movie night. So he grabs a 2-litre orange soda, and since hes already there, figures he might as well pick up some popcorn.


Entrepreneur Virgil Klunder pares it down further to just two things: pain and pleasure. Every customer buys to avoid pain or heighten pleasure, and the easier it is for them, the more likely the product will sell. It sounds simple enough, but millions of dollars are poured into market research every year in search of the straightest line to customer satisfaction.


Online, it happens a little differently. The general belief used to be that price was the main driving force in impulse purchases, an idea brought forward by consultancy firm Ernst & Young in 2000. But a study by User Interface Engineering found that only around 8% of impulse buys arise from special prices or promotions. Rather, it appears, people simply think of buying one item while shopping for another. Users who surf the website using category links were around three times more likely to make an impulse purchase than those who found the item through search engines. The latter takes them directly to the product they need, so theres little to no exposure to the rest of the store. By contrast, navigating the site is the online equivalent of zigzagging through the whole store.


The Costco effect and other case studies


Costco, the largest warehouse club in the US, uses a unique business model to maximize impulse buying. In an interview with The New York Times, the companys chief financial officer Richard Galanti said they work out what customers really want and stock a small number of popular items, say the top 4,000. This contrasts with the business models of Wal-Mart, which stocks up to 100,000 different items, or a typical grocery, which can stock around 40,000.


This promotes impulse purchases by limiting peoples options to trendy, popular items, which include anything from consumer electronics to packed lunches. They cater equally to bargain-seekers and the brand-conscious. They also create a sense of urgency by rotating items on a seasonal basis, urging people to buy on impulse because the item may be gone when they come back.


Apple exploits impulse buying using another model, that of associated buys. The company makes only a fraction of its fortune from hardware sales; the bulk comes from selling content for these gadgets for as low as $1, according to marketing consultant Jeff Bullas, apps for the iPhone and iPad are made by third-party providers, eliminating development costs for Apple while allowing them to charge a 30% commission on sales. Impulse purchase fits in nicely with this setup because $1.99 for a cute little game doesnt usually call for a lot of introspection. People just go ahead and buy it because its just two bucks - but when there are 200 million of them, the money gets serious.


Online retailers such as Amazon have combined impulse buying psychology with targeted marketing, recommending products based on a specific users purchase history. While supermarkets take a slight gamble at the checkout counter - not every customer will want breath mints - e-commerce sites make it so that the checkout is lined with things a buyer will most likely be interested in. A perennial book buyer will be bombarded with books from the same author or genre; one who has recently purchased a camera may be offered lenses, filters, and bags. And by eliminating the physical task of walking to the counter, these sites make impulse buying all the more effortless, according to Main Street, an online financial magazine.


Promoting impulse buys


Rook outlined five characteristics that define an impulse purchase:


An overwhelming attraction to the product

An intense need to buy the product at once

Ignoring negative consequences that may arise from the purchase

A feeling of excitement at buying the product

Conflicting feelings of indulgence and self-control

Obviously, when one makes an impulse buy the first four urges win over, and the self-control factor is brushed aside. To take advantage of impulse buying psychology, businesses must cater to these urges. Chintan Bharwada, marketing expert and contributor at focus.com advises businesses to relieve the negative feelings tied to impulse (e.g. guilt over unplanned spending) and highlight the non-economic rewards (e.g. contentment over a new gadget). Basically, their advertising should say, So its $500 you never meant to spend, but hey, youve got a nice new home theater! A complex environment that gets in the way of rational thinking, and thus makes impulses seem stronger, can also go a long way.

This also means eliminating the risk of an impulse purchase, according to Bharwada. This can be done through straightforward return policies and readily available credit. Knowing that they can change their mind, or at least not have to pay up in full if they do, makes an impulse buy seem less of a bad thing.


The new consumer


More recent research suggests that the old idea - that impulse buys should be displayed at the checkout counter - may be out-dated. For example, according to an Inc.com article, the cashier may not always be the best spot to put last-minute items because impulsiveness tend to die down the longer a customer stays in the store, and the more options they are presented with. However, they say, the urge can be rekindled through properly placed signs and promotions.


Most of our examples have obviously been industry-specific. Some demographics are simply more inclined to buy on a whim - women are more impulsive than men, for example - so businesses catering to this market will rely more impulse than rational thought. Also, more and more consumers are shopping online, and as weve explained above, this will require a whole new approach to marketing last-minute buys. At the end of the day it seems to come down to the age-old tenet of knowing your customers, and subsequently knowing how to trigger their impulses.

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5 Tips to Sell More Online

When it comes to online shopping, the single biggest barrier we face in persuading people to buy, is lack of trust [1].
In the ‘real’ world, we rely on non-verbal trust cues from face-to-face interactions to inform our decisions, and it’s thesesubconscious signals that help us make the choice as to whether or not to trust a vendor. Online, stripped of such cues, this process becomes much trickier.

Can I trust you?

If you want to persuade people to buy from you rather than from your competitors, you have to make a good first impression and build some initial trust before you can secure their custom. 

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In a study using Taiwanese online bookstores, two researchers devised an experiment to examine how initial trust is formed online, and how it affects intention to purchase [2]. To measure initial trust, they used four major categories of determinants: perceived risk, perceived technology, trust propensity and company competency.
Here’s what they found.

5 tips to boost your online sales:

1. Be useful

It may sound obvious, but the customers that perceived the website to be useful were more likely to trust the vendor and subsequently buy from them. A great example of a ‘useful’ site is Amazon – with its user ratings and reviews, recommendations and deals, it’s generally perceived as informative and useful, which is why it now dominates a huge corner of the online market.

2. Show that your site is secure

If you want to build trust, it’s important you show your customers that their payments will be secure. You can do this by using a secure prefix for your domain (https://), offering an established, reputable and familiar payment method (PayPal, Visa, Maestro, etc.), and providing the emotional security of a money-back guarantee.

3. Respect their privacy 

Privacy and the protection of our data have always been major concerns online, and it is an area that is attracting growing media coverage and concern – not least because the behavioural advertising and the tracking of user behaviours now mean that it’s easier than ever for companies to track each click, swipe or purchase we make. If you want to alleviate this pain, show your customers that their information is safe with you – disclose your cookie policy, reassure them that you won’t share their data with any third parties, and request the minimal amount of information necessary for them to successfully complete the purchase.

4. Maintain a good reputation

Research shows that over 90% of us say we trust ‘earned media’ (such as tweets, likes, ratings and personal recommendations from our friends) more than any other kind of advertising [2]. Since social media now plays such a huge role in making and breaking reputations, it’s important that you invest in yours by monitoring social media channels for chatter around your brand, maintaining good customer relationships, and creating positive, happy customer experiences from start to finish.

5. Be willing to customise 

Not only is personalization one of the hottest buzzwords du jour, it’s also what we’ve come to expect from our online shopping experiences. If you can show your customers that you’re willing to customize your service to meet their needs, it will show that you care enough about their experience and satisfaction to go the extra mile, which in turn will boost trust.

A closing note

Since online initial trust and familiarity with online purchasing both increase our intention to buy, it’s important that you build these steps into the design and functionality of your online platform.


When it comes to boosting your sales, it really is a question of trust.

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How to Integrate Psychology Into Your Marketing

How do you market your company? You probably try to optimize your site for search engines, try some content and social media marketing, test out a few paid ad sources, and maybe even focus on conversion optimization.

Although those tactics can help you boost your sales, you shouldn’t focus all of your time on traffic generating strategies. One of the most effective ways you can boost your sales is to integrate psychology into your marketing.

But before I get into how you can leverage psychology, lets first define it:

Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.

Now that we are all on the same page, here is how you can integrate psychology within your marketing:

Tactic #1: Get people to commit before committing

Let me explain what I mean here. There are two ways to think about a commitment within your online business. The obvious one is a customer buying your product or service. The less obvious one is to get the customer to be mentally prepared to buy from you.

If you get your visitors mentally prepared to make a purchase on your site, they are much more likely to complete the purchase. And the easiest way to do this is through your website copy.

A good example of this is Unleash Your Thin. Dr. Jonny Bowden uses this copy on his checkout page to get you to commit to the purchase:

Jonny is really smart because not only is he getting you into the mindset of buying, he is also getting you to grasp that there is little to no risk committing because he will refund you your money if you are unhappy. Plus, he added a “check box” to give you the feeling that you’ve already checked the box and approved buying the product.

Unleash Your Thin isn’t the only company that is doing this. Gym Junkies used similar messaging with their software application and were able to increase sales by 16%.

Tactic #2: Future pace

The real estate industry is well known for future pacing their customers. Real estate agents will constantly drop lines like “when you have a BBQ in your new home, make sure you invite me”… even before you make an offer on a home.

What they are trying to do is to have you focus on the future outcome and not the purchase. Once you get hooked on all of the things that will happen if you go through with the purchase, you will be more likely to make the purchase.

You can also do this online with your marketing copy. Here’s a good example of how we do this at Crazy Egg:

By using the word “when”, we are assuming that you are already going to use Crazy Egg. If we didn’t want to future pace, we would have used the phrase“what do you get if you use Crazy Egg”. But by using future pacing within your copy we’ve found that it increases sales by 5% to 10%.

Tactic #3: Make people work for it

Just because you are selling something, it doesn’t mean anyone can have it. You can choose which customers you want to sell your products or services to by putting up roadblocks. Although this may seem counter-intuitive, in many cases it makes people work harder to buy your product or service.

If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll notice that Six Pack Shortcutsmakes you go through a mini quiz to qualify you. What a lot of companies have learned is that if they make you work to buy their product, instead of just driving you to a page where you can add the product to your shopping cart, you are more likely to convert into a customer. Why? Because they made you feel that you are one of the lucky few who made it through.

The funny thing about this method is that I’ve seen it increase and drop conversions drastically. When I tested it out on sophisticated audiences like Quick Sprout, I saw an 18% drop in conversions.

But when I tested it out in non-sophisticated markets, I’ve seen an increase in conversion rates by up to 31%.

Tactic #4: The Power of Why

What’s the one thing that all kids do? They ask a ton of questions, right? And if you don’t answer their question with a sufficient answer, what happens? They keep asking it, right?

Your visitors are the same way. The difference is, if you don’t answer their questions, they don’t ask them again. They just leave.

Psychology is about understanding your customers and how they think. If you can survey them, you can figure out the concerns and questions they have. Some of these questions may be as basic as:

• Why is your product or service so great?
• Why should I buy from you?
• Why should I stay on your site?

Within your copy, you should focus on answering all of these “whys” your visitors have. But the responses you give them have to be really good because if they suck, people will just leave your site.

Let me give you an extreme example…

“Stop taking two and three plates of food,” my mother said to me angrily.

I was at a wedding and seven years old. Back then, at a lot of the weddings we used to go to, the food would be pre-served on a plate. I could never get enough of those calorie-ridden platters. Waylaying different waiters, (so I would not be recognized), I’d polish 3-4 plates without blinking an eye.

Mom wasn’t impressed, and told me to stop and desist.

“Why?” I’d ask. Her stock reply was always, “It’s bad manners to do that.” This Dustbin Hoffman (yes, I do mean Dustbin and not Dustin) act obviously got her goat, but it left me unfazed. It must have bugged her more than I expected though, because in a short while Dad was peering down at my food-stuffed face.

My question remained unchanged. “WHY?”

“If you invite a hundred people to a wedding, how many would you cater for?” he asked. “A hundred,” I answered, proud of my analytical genius. “If you ate four plates,” he continued, “how many would remain?” He prompted quickly, “Ninety-six right?” I nodded vigorously. “That means some people don’t eat. If you’re so hungry, we can go out after the wedding and get something to eat, but don’t deprive others.”

In that example, the dad made sense. He made so much sense that the seven-year-old boy listened and didn’t have an issue with the answer.

If you don’t give a good explanation every time your customers ask “why”, they’ll just leave.

If you are looking for a good web-based example, check out how we answer the question of “why should I use Crazy Egg instead of Clicktale”.

The response is so thorough that potential customers don’t ask us the question anymore.

Tactic #5: Build up anticipation

Would you rather go to a club that doesn’t have a line or one that has a line? The one with the line, right? Because if a club doesn’t have a long line, it can’t be that great.

Making people wait before you let them buy doesn’t just increase your chances of getting a sale, but it also lets you charge a premium for whatever you are selling. Just look at Apple: not only are their products expensive, but people wait in lines over night to buy their products.

There are a few strategies you can use to build up anticipation:

• Time delay – don’t give people what they want right away. Make them wait days, weeks or months to buy from you. A good example of this is I Will Teach You To Be Rich site. Their subscribers are told about offers but typically don’t have access to buy them until the 30-day mark.
• Applications – usually you are the one who is doing the selling, which, as you already know, doesn’t work too well. You can switch things around and build up anticipation by making people apply to buy your product or service. You’ll find that people will try to convince you to sell your product to them with this tactic.
• Drop hints – Apple uses this strategy really well because you’ll see hints of what their products will look like or the features they will have, but you don’t know everything about the products until they want you to know about it.

Conclusion

You don’t have to make big changes to get big results. Making small adjustments to how you do your marketing, or how you portray your message, can have a positive effect on your sales.

As you learned above, replacing simple words like “if” with “when” can increase the number of sales you’re making from your site.

So, what do you think about integrating psychology into your marketing? Are their any other psychological tactics that we all should be using?

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What makes people buy? Understanding the psychology of the online shopping process

Helping shoppers go from browsing to buying is the name of the game in ecommerce. But it’s not as easy as it looks. Did you know?

• 57% of shoppers abandon a site if they have to wait more than three seconds for something to load. 
• 85% of shoppers read online reviews before using local businesses.
• 41% abandon an online shopping cart because of hidden charges.

 Find out more on this excellent infographic courtesy of Vouchercloud

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10 ways to use psychology to lure web customers

I’ve been researching and thinking about the psychology of the social web and our Internet relationships. There are many common psychological techniques you can use in your every day Internet marketing.  Here are a few ideas to “psych” your visitors into spending more time on your website and your blog.

1) Social proof is king

In real life, “social proof” is the trappings of society that impart influence.  A person’s height, a fancy car, a diploma … all help determine influence, subconsciously.  Since we don’t have those physical clues in the online world, we look to “badges” like Twitter followers and Klout scores to provide a shortcut assessment.

With the density of information in today’s world, these badges are more important than ever.  In fact they may be even more important than your real knowledge, experience and accomplishments.  Strange but true. Think about your favorite blogger. I’ll bet you notice some of their badges like followers, AdAge rank, or tweets on a blog post, before you investigate their education or level of professional experience.

We make the same assessments about websites and blogs.  If you see a lot of tweets and comments, testimonies and awards, you assume something good is going on there.

Another way to accomplish this on a website is product reviews and ratings. Make sure ratings and reviews are clearly displayed on your site or product pages. Allow users to include information about themselves such as their gender, name, location and occupation. This makes the reviews even more compelling since it can create a connection to the demographics of your site visitors.

2) Give web tourists a reason to become residents

In the first few seconds you have a visitor on your site, are you giving them a reason to stay a little longer to learn about you?  This is commonly called a “call to action.” On my website, you can click to see free materials, download an eBook, watch videos, read case studies, listen to a podcast, read my blog … basically I give people lots of reasons to hang around by providing valuable material that would interest my target customer.

On my blog one of the most effective devices I have to help people stick around is the “Linked Within” app at the bottom of each post suggesting further reading.  This dramatically increases time on the site and increases page views on my blog by about 8 percent.

3) Put the most important action at the top

When you’re plotting out your call to actions, put your most important one first. The idea behind this is simple: what comes first is unconsciously regarded as the best.  I’ve been experimenting with this myself. One other consideration — if you’re stacking your calls to action down the right side of your page, keep in mind that the top right corner of your website is a blind spot. This is spooky but it really is true.

One time I was offering a free download at the upper right corner of my site. I was in a meeting with a web designer and was talking about the problem in front of a huge display screen of my website. I said “Without looking at the screen, can you tell me if I have a free download offer on my landing page?” Although we had been looking at the page all morning, he completely missed this element.  So, highlight your best offers first, but watch where you place them!

4) Provide instant gratification

When deciding to make a purchase, we are often influenced by how fast we can have the product.  Reduce or eliminate fields required to purchase or engage.  The other day I was required to register to comment on a blog. FAIL!

In a famous experiment participants were asked to choose between getting $5 now or $40 at a later date. MRI scans showed that when people thought about getting the money right away, the mid brain, or emotional center of the brain fired up. Even if you’re not selling something, use words like “instantly” or immediately in your content and headlines.

5) Illusion of scarcity

When something has a limited amount to it, its assumed value increases. We will want it even more. Make your product/offering limited by showing a limited stock quantity or limited time frame. This is a common tactic that most Internet marketers and offline/online retailers use. And it works. Because we feel good when we gain objects of value.

6) Build reciprocity 

Reciprocity is a big deal on the social web. I’m not sure it created influence, but adding up all these little low-impact “likes” and “tweets” can certainly create leverage over time. This is one of the oldest sales tricks in the book.  When you give something away on your web site, it triggers a sensation of indebtedness in your visitor’s mind. You can give away things like free product add-ons, guidebooks, content, downloads, free shipping etc.

Studies show visitors are twice as likely to complete a survey form after they were given access to free useful information.

7. Be sexy

Sex sells.  Always has.  Always will.  Even Zappos the online shoe store is using pictures of naked people in their ads.  This is a powerful human motivator but I haven’t quite mastered this on my website! I’m not sure sex is what comes to mind when you read my blog.  If it does, please let me know.  I’d like to hear about that!

8. Speak to your visitor by using the word ‘You’

Let’s compare this simple website copy:

“This new web service has many built-in features that allow for photos to be uploaded, organized, and stored. Photos can be searched for with only a few steps.”

“You can upload your photos quickly, organize them any way you want to, and then store them so that they are easy to share with your friends. You can find any photo with only a few steps.”

Write as if you’re talking to a person sitting right next to you. She is your prospective customer. She is your blog reader. And she is your friend. Don’t be afraid to use slang or community lingo to connect to their thought processes. Communicate about what she needs, not what you sell. There’s a difference.

9) Get your visitors to make a commitment

 Your goal is to drive people to take some action: buy, download, register, etc.  And to do that, you need to convert visitors from lurkers to engaged participants.  Even the simple act of writing, typing or signing something strengthens commitment to your website/company/brand. The more public the commitment, the stronger it will be.

Getting your visitors to commit to your website can be as easy as getting them to comment on your blog.  Polls and surveys work equally well too because they make your visitors interact with you.

10) Use images that demonstrate similarity and attractiveness

Use images of attractive people who are similar to your target market’s demographic profile. People are most influenced by people they deem to be both attractive and similar to them. The brain is unconsciously sizing up people you see and their attractiveness can rub off on your website itself, much like how an attractive person in a cellphone ad makes the cellphone look more enticing.

This doesn’t just apply to images. Most Internet marketers know that in order to appeal to a certain group of people, you need a human face that will be the focal point of their empathy and connection. Hence, the widespread use of marketing personas.

I hope you’ve benefited from these ideas.  If the article made you think, please consider sharing it with others and commenting below. Thanks!

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