Improving Conversion Rates of New Visitors: Three Key Strategies
The obsess over improving conversion rate of new visitors because one a visitor leaves I have no idea if they’ll return. I have one shot.
How to Convert Site Visits to Sales
Boosting traffic is good for business—converting is better. How can you convert site visits to sales? There’s the regular way, and there’s us.
Crafting Your Sales Letter for Maximum Conversions
Sales letters can help you cut through the noise and really speak to your audience. How can you make the most of this powerful tool?
DTC CRO: How to Optimize Your Direct-to-Consumer Conversion Rates
With the DTC model, you’re in control of your customer’s experience. But with great power comes great responsibilty. How can DTC CRO help?
Understand Marketing Psychology to Multiply Conversions
How can you use marketing psychology get amazing conversions? What specific insights will help you convert like crazy? Start here!
Unknown Marketing Tricks for Boosting Conversions
Here’s all the marketing edge you’ll ever need. And no, it’s not countdown timers and social proof.
Unlocking Website Conversion Hack Secrets for Maximum Impact
Explore ‘Website Conversion Hack’ methods to boost your site’s effectiveness with practical tips and proven, psychology-based strategies.
The Endowment Effect And Your Product Page
How can you use this powerful psychological tool to supercharge your product page for massive conversions?
Storytelling and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Storytelling and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) are connected in ways that most marketers—even CROs—don’t realize.
Fact-Checking — How Many Ads Do We See in a Day?
I’m a marketer so I’ve been hunting “How Many Ads Do We See in a Day?” for years. Google’s top result is problematic so I did my own math.
eCommerce Marketing Strategies
eCommerce Marketing Strategies help you convert more site visitors, more efficiently. It’s the difference between struggling and winning.
Marketing Secrets
We didn’t learn marketing secrets in some Facebook course. We spent day and night at the marketing lab 🧑🔬 🧪. And then …. we cracked it.
Copywriting Secret: Minimize Anxiety
As a marketer, if we can’t minimize anxiety we have zero chance of converting the shopper. To minimize anxiety we must anticipate questions.
Copywriting Secret: Amplify Desire
Amplifying desire is the marketing practice of systematically increasing the motivation level of the potential buyer.
Buyer Psychology Terms
In this article we’ll share our favorite buyer psychology terms. Why these matter? Because this will help you improve conversion rates.
CHAPTER 2: Buyer Psychology
Buyer psychology is the modern marketer’s best tool. It helps you uncover why shoppers on your site often don’t behave as we expect them to.
Shopping Cart Abandonment
You spend all this money to get people to your site. Then 70% start checkout and don’t buy. We have a shopping cart abandonment solution.
Conversion Psychology
Conversion psychology is the science of understanding the buyers’s decision making process. Crack that see conversions soar.
Buyer Psychology Copywriting
Buyer psychology copywriting is the highly precise science of writing copy that connects with the buyer and convinces them to buy.
CHAPTER 1: Conversion Rate Optimization Secrets
There is a lot of conversion rate optimization misinformation out there. We know because over the last 13 years we’ve read every article.
What Are the Steps of Conversion Optimization?
What Are the Steps of Conversion Optimization? I’m so glad you searched for this topic. I’ve spent the last 13 years exploring it. We have done hundreds of experiments to unlock the mind of the shopper and what we’ve learned is startling.
Shopify Product Description
Your Shopify Product Description really matters. In this article, we’ll show you why that is how you can $$$ by nailing your description.
Conversion Rate Optimization: A Visual Explanation
Buyer psychology is a complicated topic. We’ve created simple visuals to explain how we use buyer psychology for conversion copywriting.
The Art of The Start
The opening of the sales pitch really matters. The art of the start is how marketers can ensure new visitors stay.
Product Story Angle Examples
Killer product stories have killer product story angles. Here are 3 examples that will help you optimize conversion rates.
Boost Conversions With Surprising Details
If you can sprinkle in interesting tid bits into your sales copy not only will it make your content more engaging it’ll boost conversions.
Optimize Conversion Rates By Understanding How Shoppers Behave Online
As an eCommerce operator, you want to increase sales and optimize conversion rates. This article answers all your questions.
CRO Without User Research: Making Guesses About Your Buyer
Making guesses about your buyer might seem impossible without user research. In this article, we’ll reveal an alternate path.
Too Good to Be True
If the reader perceives something to be too good to be true you can be sure they will not buy. This article shares the solution.
Conversion Tip: Questions Before Conversions
The ultimate goal is to convert the shopper. But before you do that you need to become an expert at anticipating their questions. Simple math, marketers who do a better job anticipating key questions, convert more.
Your Satisfaction Guarantee Matters: How to Write One That Increases Conversions
You may not know it yet, but your satisfaction guarantee page has a lot of untapped potential. Improving it will increase conversions. See how.
My Favorite Buyer Psychology Stories
Marketers who understand the power of buyer psychology will win. After 12 years of looking, here are my favorite buyer psychology stories.
Paradox of Choice for First-time Buyers
For 98% of sites, first-time buyers are the most important demographic. But if these first-time buyers are overwhelmed with options (paradox of choice) it will kill your ecommerce conversions.
My Review of TryNow
I’ve seen a lot of ecommerce innovations in the last 11 years. Here’s what I think about TryNow, a service that allows you to try items for free.
Psychology of Ecommerce Sales: Priming
Priming is an eCom marketer’s superpower. Marketers who understand how priming works dramatically improve results.
Price Insensitivity Priming
If you sell a premium product and want to help shoppers invest in premium you need to look into Priming.
Product Page “Add to Favorites” Button. Why It Matters for Your Online Sales.
We’ve all seen “Add to Favorites” type buttons on product pages (PDP). There is a reason why they exist. They are designed to improve conversions.
Review Count & Buyer Psychology
No one has the time to read through 19,000+ reviews. And this is why having a filter mechanism has such a big influence on buyer psychology.
Buyer Psychology of Email Popups
According to Sumo.com research email opt-in rates are 1.05%. In this article we show how you can double your signup rate by tapping into buyer psychology.
Deep Discounting & Buyer Psychology
Deep discounting is good, right? Actually, if the massive discount you are offering isn’t backed by a story the shopper will not buy.
Legacy Brands Vs. COVID
COVID hasn’t only impacted the average American, it’s also impacted the average American shopper.
Do Long Videos Convert?
You want me to watch a 30-minute video? Are you nuts?
The Psychology of $1 Samples and Why They Work
We’ve been looking at $1 samples one way. There is a whole different buyer psychology angle to them. $1 samples stop users from checking your competitors.
Visualization
Visualization definition: Reinforcing a point using a visual device.
Buyer Psychology of Visuals
Do visuals help drive conversions?
Shopper Psychology: System 1 Versus System 2
Can shopper intent be influenced by a marketer? Great marketing is all about influencing System 1 thinking. Got a great example for you.
One Way to Address Price Sensitivity
Sometimes, shoppers need a little bit of help to become more comfortable with the price. If we can do that, then they’ll buy more often.
Academic vs. Reality
Creepy Facebook blinking ad. It might look unconventional but could be very effective. Online user behavior isn’t rational. How shoppers respond to ads in the private is very different from what marketers were taught in school.
Exit-Intent Discount (A.K.A. Digital Begging)
Exit-intent discount popup are everywhere. But are they really good for us? Short answer, no. Read to find out why.
Want to Increase Conversions? Learn 3 CRO Tactics Inspired by Consumer Psychology
This is the most in depth analysis of the 3 pillars of our conversion optimization strategy.
Increase Conversions with Visual Content
Online shoppers move around really fast, blink and you’ve lost their attention. But there is a proven strategy to get their attention.
Narrative Control
No one likes popups. But if you’re clever you can get people to NOT exit yours.
How Emotions Impact Subscription Conversion Rates
Our instincts travel faster than our rational brain. This can be a conversion killer.
Increase Sales With Price Justification
The best way to develop ideas is to think about the naysayers. See this great example of price justification.
Coupon or Discount Pop-up Not Boosting Conversions? Try Gamification
It’s hard to get shoppers to convert. Have you considered gamification?
Helping Shoppers Choose Between Similar Products
When shoppers are met with very similar products, it’s often difficult for them to figure out which product will meet their needs the best. We can help them.
Private: LinkedIn Post
How to improve click through (CTR) for Google PLAs (Product Listing Ads).
Category Page Idea
eCommerce marketing strategy: clever strategy by Felixandiris.com.
Clever Discount Tactic for 2019 (that None of Your Competitors Know About)
What’s better than giving a bigger discount? Not giving a bigger discount and making shoppers play a fun game.
Your Most Important Conversion Goal
Clever tactic to increasing conversions by driving up time on site metrics. Users that spend more time on your site convert a higher rate.
Black Friday Sale
Black Friday is a great time to go treasure hunting online. But I wasn’t looking for deals this past Black Friday. Instead, I was searching for the new or unique ways websites were trying to get us to stick around for a bit longer. Prettylittercats.com did something pretty interesting. I went to their site, searched around for a bit, then …
Psychology of Ecommerce Sales: Increasing Time on Site
If you can’t slow your users down, you’ve already lost. Use priming to increase time on site. Increased time on site = higher conversion rates.
The Power of Visualization
Visualization is a powerful conversion strategy. Here are 5 examples.
Getting More Email Signups
Using buyer psychology to get more newsletter signups.
Improve Product Listing Page Conversions
If you are driving paid search traffic to a product listing page I have a simple conversion idea:
Think Closely About the Choices You Present
One wrong word (or phrase) can injure conversions. Dyson is an amazing company. They KNOW how to market their engineering story. They also have beautiful products and a beautiful website. But no one is perfect. Before I go on, let me ask a question: do you prefer reading text or watching a video? “I prefer watching a video”: “I prefer …
How Powerful is the POWER Trigger?
Very. But first, let’s run down the definition of Power trigger: This is when we let the shopper know they are in the driver seat. It works because when shoppers feel the experience is about them, and not you, they’re much more likely to take action. Now, watch my video:
Reconsidering the Phrase Coupon Code
Video: If you hate watching videos read this: The Zeitgeist affects the emotions phrases evoke. One such phase is “coupon code”. 10 years ago (to me) it meant “use if you have one”. Today (to me) it means “leave this site and Google site.com + coupon code“. But it doesn’t have to be. If the phrase coupon code has been …
How Do You Feel?
Power is one of the most important tactics in marketing. Anytime the user feels that they are in control of the experience they are 3 times more likely to convert. We’ll take an example right here from WordPress. Let’s say you are submitting a ticket to the support team and you are greeted with this page: Nothing out of the …
Be Aware of Adoption/Defection Latency
What is adoption latency? In this article, we explain what it is and how knowing what it is can generate better business outcomes.
Play on Magicmurals.com
Play is a tactic where you employ an interactive element to subliminally communicate your marketing message. Why go through the trouble of constructing an interactive element to pitch your marketing message? Because we’re living in a world saturated with marketing messages. I’m going to use a made up example to show how a dash of Play can boost conversions (especially …
Do You Know What Decoy Effect Is?
Decoy Effect has been around for a long time. Marketers use it to test pricing options. It goes to a whole new level with eCommerce where we can now A/B test.
Always Let the Shopper Drive the Experience
Ana Ono Intimates is a store in Philadelphia that sells bras for women who’ve had breast reconstruction, breast surgery, or mastectomy. On their site you’re greeted with this popup … … where you can select your treatment stage: This dropdown does something powerful: it changes the dynamics of the ask. Now the customer feels they are being heard because the …
How is POWER a conversion trigger?
Definition: The idea behind Power trigger is giving the buyer the feeling that they (and not you) are driving the process. And even if the buyer doesn’t actually have full control, what matters is that they believe they do. Watch this video to see how wd40.com uses the Power trigger: The default state of the homepage: Dropdown selected: Once the …
Can Price Sensitivity Be Influenced? Yes
Written form of the video above: Price sensitivity buckets As marketers, we tend to want to put the consumer into price buckets. I’ve had conversations where the marketer would say: our target audience are retired people, or our target audience are people who make over $130k. This implies an affluent shopper who is price insensitive is price insensitive for ALL …
How “Play” Drives Conversions
There are 2 types of readers of my blog, people who prefer video and those who prefer the written format (I’m looking at you, Lars). Written format: There are 7 levers (that I know of at this point in time) to influence potential shoppers. One of them is PLAY. Play is a tactic where you employ an interactive element to …
Customer Journey
Nice animated graphic by McKinsey to describe customer journey: Key takeaway: More than half of customers- 58 percent– change brands from one purchase cycle to the next. This means, as marketers, we have plenty of opportunities to acquire new customers.
Is Loss Aversion a Real Thing?
Sure it is. Do I (the reader) suffer from it? Yes, you do. Let me prove it. Which option would you pick between 1 and 2 below? Option 1: Get $900 Option 2: Take a 90% chance of winning $1,000 (and a 10% chance of winning 0)? If you picked option 1 you have a full blown case of loss …
Asymmetric Dominance Effect
Is a tactic where an option that is inferior is added to the comparison set. The lesser alternative makes the option that is dominated look more appealing. Experiment 1: Students are presented with 2 annual subscription plans: Option 1: $59 for online access.Option 2: $125 for print and online access. In this experiment, 68% chose print option, while only 32% …
If Done Properly Bad News is Also a Marketing Opportunity
A marketing lesson from Comcast:
Stories Matter
If you have the ability to tell an amazing story you can mark-up some things 1,200%, even candy floss. And story isn’t just words, it’s also the packaging. Check out Bag of Unicorn Farts: Sells on Amazon for $10.95: And people who buy it aren’t enraged that they could by the same quantity of cotton candy for 20 cents. No, …
Signup Message
One of the most underutilized parts of Serendipity is targeting during holidays. Even something as simple as your email signup can be transformed into a big psychological persuader for the customer. Take this example of an email signup: As you can see, it’s just a normal signup that promises the user 10% off their purchase. The thing is though, a …
Customized Product Comparison Table
There is one really important aspect of improved conversions: when you let the user drive their own experience they convert at a higher rate. Drip.com understands this. When you go to their comparison page instead of showing a table with 3 pre-selected competitors Drip allows users to select the competitors they want to compare Drip against, thus improving the relevancy …
Email Signup Trick
Every site shows an email signup popup, and 98% of users click the close button. Why? Because the signup request doesn’t have the right context. The user has just landed on the site, they don’t even know what makes your business unique. Tacklewarehouse.com also needs email sign-ups but they use a clever context tool to present their request. On each …
First-Time Experiences Matter
Caesar’s Entertainment (the casino) noticed something peculiar: The majority of first-time visitors to their properties didn’t return. There are a number of reasons why a customer may not return but a big one is their first visit experience. If the customer has an experience they like, it greatly increases their chances of becoming a regular (thus making Caesar’s Entertainment a …
Why I Love eCommerce …
… because it allows for an infinite number of interesting business models. My friend Mike Johnson pointed me to something new. Scott Keyes is the Scott behind scottscheapflights.com. Scott’s Cheap Flights is a subscription service that sends out email alerts to subscribers on international flight deals. It’s basically a human-powered flight price alert system. But what makes it stand out …
Quizzes Can Be Irresistible
The human brain is wired to notice questions. The ? symbol has a magnetic appeal. Sunflowercamo.net manufactures a hunting camo designed for sunflower fields. Apparently, dove hunters need it. In order to advertise the effectiveness of their invention they ask this simple question … … and when you give up (which you will) they reveal the answer. Scroll down to …
Stop Being Boring
Mirrormate is in the business selling mirror frames. Their tagline is FRAME THAT BARE MIRROR: Nothing remarkable about that. What is remarkable is that they use the spirit of their tagline to introduce their team: Your customers have a sense of humor. Don’t be scared to show them your playful side.
Timing
While listening to a song I really love I was shown this Spotify review request popup: How cool would it be if Spotify knew I liked this song (I’ve played it multiple times) and timed the review request popup to the very moment when my endorphins were kicking in listening to the song?
Divide and Conquer
Supermeat.com is a startup that sells cultured meat. Cultured meat is made from animal cells, without the use of the animals themselves. It is biologically the same as the meat that comes from animals, but way better for the environment. Their homepage is genius. They show one question with 2 choices: 2 noteworthy observations: 1: Our brain is designed to solve problems, …
Difficult Choices Kill Conversion Rates
We think choices are good, but if you don’t clearly describe the differences between choices you are most definitely hurting conversion rates. Consider this: A shopper is looking to buy a wireless temperature sensor for their grill. They land on https://store.weber.com/accessories/category/igrill-products/1640 product page: The item sounds impressive and within their price range. But now the shopper notices a second option …
Customize Your Welcome Message
Thecoverguy.com is based out of New York. I live in Michigan. When I visit their homepage this is the welcome message that greets me: Despite being a business based in New York, the first line of copy says “Made to handle Michigan’s Harsh Winter Climate.” This uses the Serendipity tactic to create a feeling in the user that this product …
Cinco de Mayo Discount
Last Thursday (May 5th) was Cinco de Mayo. In your estimation which of these 2 coupon codes got more usage? Option 1: Option 2 (ignore my terrible image editing skills):
Jerry’s Bloopers
Jeromes.com is a furniture site. On their homepage they have a link to a page called Jerry’s Bloopers (pointed by the red arrow in the screenshot below): First of all, this is a super clever page name and the link begs to be clicked. Then, when you do click it you’re greeted by this banner– Very clever. I love it. If you …
Free Shipping for Everyone
I predict that in 5 years free shipping will be the norm. Let me paint a picture. E-commerce started to take off 8 years ago because manufacturers who were paying slotting fees (definition) to stores like Macy’s and Sears realized they could use Google AdWords to directly establish 1:1 relationships with their customers, and save a crap load of money. …
Starting the Process
The most important step in driving conversion rates is to get the shopper to take an action that clearly demonstrates interest. It doesn’t have to be a big action, the smallest of actions will do. Something magical happens once an action is taken. When a visitor first lands on the site their personal investment is 0, and with 0 investment you have no …
Compare and Contrast
Few facts about online shoppers— 1: They are impatient and unexcited about reading your 2,000 word product description. 2: They hate making a bad purchase decision, but the alternative of comparing multiple products on multiple sites isn’t ideal either. To solve for 1 and 2 consider adding an infographic like this on your product page—
What’s Better Than Customer Reviews? …
… reviews of customers who live near you. Lifesourcewater.com understands this and that’s why they have a cool feature called “Search For Reviews In Your Zip Code:”— The shopper can enter their zip code and see listing of reviews of shoppers near them— Basically lifesourcewater.com re-sorts reviews starting from the searcher’s zip code. This is a good tactic for sites …
Price Valid From [08/21/2014] to [09/10/2014]
To minimize cart abandon rates homedepot.com shows shoppers how much they’re saving (in this case 33%) and also reminds them that the saving they’re about to enjoy is only valid few more days— Great way to incentivize on-the-fence shoppers to take action today. Homedepot.com knows shoppers who leave thinking ‘they’ll be back real soon’ tend not to return.
Commercials Don’t Have to Be Expensive
Debspecs.com is an online retailer of reading glasses. They wanted to make a web commercial for new site visitors. This is what they created— Sure it isn’t anywhere close to the polished product they would have got working with an advertising agency, but it also probably took 1/15th the time to complete and cost 99% less. And it still fulfills the …
Powerful About Us Page
About Us pages on most sites read like a forced assignment, there is no soul in them. And then I stumbled on this About Us page on bigbellybanks.com— Thank you for checking out my Big Belly Banks. I get up every morning and thank God for the small business that I have. I’m proud to design and make a unique, …
US Based Customer Service
Clever chat popup messaging on barstoolsandchairs.com. Letting shoppers know they have US based customer service–
Coupon Codes Page
Shari’s Berries (berries.com) knows shoppers are trained to hunt for coupon codes. Instead of having shoppers visit sites like retailmenot.com or coupons.com Shari’s Berries wants to keep coupon searchers on their site. So they’ve created a page that lists their current coupons. This is a win-win for both the shopper (convenience) and retailer (saving on affiliate fees, plus preventing a site like …
Effective Free Shipping Messaging
Most sites promote free shipping offer on cart page like this (red arrow in screenshot below)– This is a 6, on a scale of 10. This is how Amazon.com promotes their free shipping– In both cases the effective shipping price is $0. But Amazon’s approach is more effective because they have an action element. Amazon first shows the $6.98 shipping …
Personalized Offers Always Perform Better
I was on zazzle.com on a Wednesday and saw this– Spotting a banner message (Happy Hump Day!) and promo code (MIDWEEKPROMO) personalized for middle of the week caught my attention. What’s stopping you from applying this idea on your site?
Chat Popup
Shoppers hate annoying popups. This chat invitation on moosejaw.com wasn’t annoying–
1 of 400
I added an item to cart and saw this popup (observe underlined section) — The line, “Be one of just 400 Genvara visitors this month … ” made the offer 2X more attention grabbing. Shoppers love the feeling of being part of a select, exclusive group. Lesson: If you’re trying to generate audience participation make them feel special first.
Enter Email, Get Price
Compostumbler.com doesn’t reveal “Sale Price” of their composter immediately. They ask visitors to enter their offer code (blue arrow below)– If you don’t have the offer code you can get one by clicking “Get one here” link (yellow arrow above). This reveals a form– When I filled the form and hit Process Request button the “Sale Price” turned out to …
Wonderful Ad
The picture below was taken from a POM advertisement in Money magazine. Lighting wasn’t great so below the ad photograph, I’ve added bigger screenshots of every important ad section. Section by section analysis (screenshot followed by explanation)– 1: Relevant headline– I saw this ad in Money magazine so the headline LIFETIME RETURNS is particularly relevant and has been used intentionally. 2: …
Daily Special
Sometimes one finds great ideas from the least expected places. The iPhone app world is highly competitive; in order to generate mass appeal app developers are forced to keep prices low (mostly free) but in order to make a living they must generate profits. So they have to think outside the box. Here is a great example. Last Friday I …
Fake Scarcity
At my local grocery store today I noticed they were out of pie crusts. My first thought was “don’t these idiots know they need to stock-up for last-minute Thanksgiving shoppers?” And then, a few minutes later, as I noticed 5 different display tables showing off prepared Thanksgiving pumpkin pies it struck me- these guys aren’t idiots at all. This pie crust …
Coupon Codes Gone Wild
For pretty much every etailer name I type into Google’s search box I get a prompt with a variation of “coupon code” in it. Screenshots- These are literally the first five companies I ran the test for. Start typing the name of your favorite etailer into Google and see what happens. So, what is the solution? Is there a SEO …
Desirable Difficulty Example: McDonald’s
Sometimes making things easy for the buyer is the right idea. But there are times when you want to make things a little hard. And it has everything to do with buyer psychology.
Tale Of Two Barber Shops
For years I’ve been going to the same barber shop and getting my hair cut by the same person, Dana. Their service has never been complaint worthy but I’ve always found them a little expensive. The accountant looking over my transaction history has no way to knowing I am dissatisfied, all he sees are monthly transactions of $25 through a …
Chirstmas Gift Finder
Alfred Dunhill started playing with their eCommerce environment last year and they have already unearthed a pretty neat and engaging interface. Click on the image below to see the ‘live’ tool: Not everything about the gift predictor is perfect though: the interface is heavy, they don’t mention price and matches are a little weak but all in all, it’s a …
Is There A Thing Known As Too Many SKUs?
OfficeMax discovered that by keeping too many products in their store they started losing margins because associates were spending inordinate amounts of time helping customers find products. More choice was causing lower satisfaction levels (an idea eloquently described in ‘The Paradox of Choice’). Does this apply online too?
What Heinz Discovered
Marketers who understand buyer psychology can dramatically improve conversion rates. This is possibly my favorite buyer psychology story and it comes from Heinz, the ketchup brand.
