It doesn’t really matter who you are, or what you do – you’re in the business of making more sales for you or your employer! Sales was, is, and forever will be the foundation of every living and breathing business. It’s the no.1 goal of every single profitable enterprise out there. And why shouldn’t it be? – If you fail to generate new customers, then it’s only a matter of time when you’ll be forced to close up shop, and move on to your next best idea.
Without new sales, there’s no business. Period. Yes, it’s simple as that. That’s why every serious brand out there is going out of its way to charm their possible buyers into purchasing some of their services or products. They are doing everything in their power to get people to acknowledge their efforts and motivate them to eventually purchase something on their website.
Even though this sounds pretty straightforward, creating sales isn’t really that easy. We live in a day and age where almost every business has the chance to work globally. Everyone who has at least some knowledge of how the Internet works, has the power to reach out to his or her targeted customers. Thanks to that, it doesn’t matter in which niche you operate – if it’s profitable, you’ll gonna have some competition.
Like that wasn’t enough, these days, no one really just randomly walks into the store, takes a lot around, and buys something. Nope. Especially in the B2B world. Today’s shoppers are insanely smart and well-educated. All their decisions are fueled by data and the information that they find online.
Knowing this, most digital marketers, myself included, understand that we cannot make people buy our stuff, just because we asked them to. No. In order to get our targeted crowd to make any sort of a conversion on our site, we need to give them something of true value. We need to become something more than just salesmen. We need to figure out how to charm our customers and influence their decisions, instead of just force annoying advertisements in front of their eyes.
How come? – Well, because, ads don’t really sell products these days – content does. And not just content, but all those other little things that govern human behavior and help us influence our targeted crowd for the better.
Today, I want to write about that. I want to write about all those things that help us charm our customers into creating more conversions on our site:
The Gain Game
It doesn’t really matter what you do, or if you run a big or small business – conversion optimization is never something that comes easy to anyone. Even though your mission is pretty clear here, influencing your site visitors to take action on your site is never really that simple as it might seem.
If you try to push something their way, 9 out 10 people will rebel against your ads, CTAs and proposals. They will leave your site and never come back. How come? – Well, because, they’ll see you as desperate. Your targeted users will immediately picture you as someone who has only one thing on his mind – to rob them out of their money!
You don’t want that. You never want to make your visitors feel like you’re only interested in their cash, even though you really are. That’s why, when coming up with a successful conversion generating strategy, you need to have in mind that your main objective here is to empower your visitors decisions, and not force your will on them.
Loss Aversion
One my favorite conversion generating tactics is the so-called “loss aversion” approach. It’s quite simple and logical, really. Research has shown that people derive more satisfaction from avoiding loss, than gaining something. Most successful marketers know that, and that’s why they’re always trying to approach their customers with messages that guarantee success or a certain value for them.
If people feel like there’s even the slightest chance they could be seen as losers in a certain deal – they won’t bite. That’s why you need to do everything in your power to feed your customers with knowledge that ensures them that they’re making the right decision by doing business with you.
Always list the benefits, and make sure that your users feel like they’re constantly gaining new value from your products and services. Also, make sure that your audience sees exactly how much loss they are avoiding. Groupon has done a great job here. The people behind this brand are extremely good in utilizing loss for their clients. They actually show you just how much money will you save, if you decide to act now. Brilliant!
In my experience, people are actually willing to spend money, in order to avoid a perceived loss. That’s why it’s of crucial importance that you focus on the benefits of your deal, instead of just pushing your products and services on your shoppers.
Free Trials
I cannot stress enough the importance of giving free trials to your customers. Being a natural extension of the above-mentioned approach, free trials work extremely well in the B2B world. Why? – Well, because most people tend to overvalue things, and usually, in that process, get complete off track. They start to develop all sorts of doubts, which usually result in the creation of an additional layer of risk.
But, with free trials, all this goes away. Apart from demonstrating confidence in your products and services to your targeted crowd, you’re also utilizing loss in the best way possible. You’re giving something for free, without the necessity of receiving something back.
This is great!
Why? – Well, because you’re engaging your users. Next to that, you’re giving them a chance to see what’s behind the curtain, before they even leave their digits on your site. That’s why, once I get people to sample my goods, I do everything in my power to feed them with additional content that teaches them how to successfully use my products or services in order to win big in business. This sort of thing has usually worked well for me in the past. Once people see the value behind your offerings and how to utilize them, they’ll get attached and usually end up becoming your long term customers.
The “You Can Do It” Method
One of the reasons people don’t actually purchase something is because they don’t really understand it. Most of them don’t really go forward and pay for something that interests them because they don’t think that they’ll know how to use it right. It looks hard. This is especially common with tool/software world. Sure, price also plays a major factor here, but not big enough to actually turn real customers away.
Knowing this, it’s your job to reassure your targeted audience that they’ll get their money’s worth if they go ahead and purchase your products. They need to know that there’s no chance in Hell that they’ll end up wasting hours and hours on learning how your software works, only to see themselves fail at making it worth their while.
That’s why most big brands, like SEMRush, for example, write all sorts of content that demonstrates to their users how to get the most out of their subscription. This is how you optimize your conversions – you educate your users and feed them with all sorts of easy tips and tricks on how to win big in business.
Reassure, Reward
You need to constantly reassure your crowd that they’re making the right choice by doing business with you, and that their success is something that’s unavoidable, as long as they stick with you.
That’s why it’s important to reward success, and write all sorts of use cases, case studies that demonstrate how certain individuals have made the most out of their investment with you.
People learn by example. It’s good for them to see that someone similar to them is winning on all fronts. This sort of thing makes success relatable. That’s why content marketing should always be on top of your marketing priority list. It really does work, if you know how to use it right. It will help you triple your conversion percentage, if you just invest a little brain power into it and start to think as your users and potential targeted customers do.
Apart from that, it’s also highly advisable to constantly motivate your users, provide feedback, and reward them when they complete a certain action correctly or reach a specific milestone.
It’s important to keep your long-term users satisfied. It’s not that hard to satisfy those clients that already love your brand, but it’s a huge waste if you don’t make an actual effort to them feel special. How come? – Well, because, these people are usually the ones that already trust your brand and services, and they are probably willing to upgrade their package if you give them enough reasons to do so. That why you need to plan ahead, and focus on the future. You need to take extra good care of them and feed them with great new deals and discounts, because these are the people that are most likely to convert again on what it is that you’re selling.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you have anything to add or ask – feel free to write your thoughts in the comments section below!
That’s it for now,
See you soon again,
Goran @ AltusHost B.V.
The author is highly qualified and writes blog posts weekly.
