6 Conversion-enhancing Techniques

The products in your webshop need to be sold, and besides hard sales, there are many other reasons to focus on conversion. Last week, we explained exactly what conversion is and why it's essential for the success of any webshop:

Conversion can be defined in different ways, but it is usually described as converting website visitors into paying customers. Optimizing conversion means that the webshop is tinkered with in order to convince the potential customer of a purchase.

The importance of conversion-oriented thinking is clear. We now deal with the question of how the potential customer is convinced and how the conversion can best be optimized.

Temptation

There are many tricks for optimizing conversion, but in an age when companies like Coolblue and Bol.com are flourishing, it's wise to only adopt the "working" ones. This way, you avoid investing in questionable techniques that might even be penalized by Google or, ultimately, the user. A guru in the field of persuasion techniques is Robert Cialdini. Cialdini taught psychology and marketing. This proved to be a winning combination, as he wrote the book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" in 1984, and he's still reaping the financial benefits of it today. He's frequently cited in the online marketing world for his six persuasion techniques. We'll discuss them and provide practical examples.

1. Reciprocity

Give away something of value, such as an informative blog post or a white paper. This makes the buyer feel they owe something in return. Ideally, a purchase from the webshop. This technique relies on the "quid pro quo" principle. Our customer Fondo is a prime example. In collaboration with them, we developed the mobile security quick scan. By giving away a free white paper at the end of the scan, reciprocity is established.

2. Commitment & Consistency

When someone subscribes to the newsletter, the step towards a purchase is smaller because there is already commitment with the company and people like to be consistent in their behavior. There are plenty of examples of this, but sometimes this also works indirectly. Consider the example of Virgin. After a while, when you visit the website, a pop-up appears asking you to subscribe to the newsletter with the necessary reasons (free knowledge, tips from Richard Branson himself, and so on). Is this direct conversion oriented? Probably not, but it does ensure that as a visitor you create commitment with the Virgin brand. In the future, this ideally plays a role in the choice of an airline or one of the many other services and products that Virgin offers.

3. Social Confirmation

If multiple people recommend a product/service/company, someone is more likely to follow the group's example. Don't confuse social validation with authority. Social validation works more with numbers. Consider the example of a health check. This example indicates that a whopping 9.000 people have completed the health check before you. We don't yet know whether 9.000 is a relatively high number or whether the turnout is perhaps disappointing compared to the number of potential participants. The fact is that social validation is one of the persuasive techniques that, whether unconsciously or not, influences decision-making. An A/B test should reveal whether mentioning the 9.000 previous participants is beneficial.

4. Sympathy

A potential customer likes to identify with the product that is being purchased. It therefore works to show individuals using the product, exuding sympathy, and being similar to the target audience. This technique is especially effective if these people are celebrities or authorities. There are countless examples to be found here and celebrity endorsement fits in well with this. Nike knows how to respond well to this by not only arousing sympathy with celebrity endorsement, but also by attaching a story to it that evokes sentiment.

5. Authority

This is used in several ways and Coolblue is a star in this. They show how many people are enthusiastic about a certain product for as many products as possible. This ensures social proof and trust. It also helps to show achieved 'awards' and certificates because this promotes authority and trust. It helps with the recently released Battlefield 1 for MediaMarkt that 24 out of 24 reviewers are positive.

Product comparison websites such as Tweakers and Beslist.nl benefit from products being reviewed. This ensures that the potential customer can make a good choice. While there is always discussion about buying reasons (ratio versus feeling), it works to increase conversions to both provide factual information and to let others tell you how good the purchased product is.

6. Scarcity

It mainly works for consumers to indicate that the stock is limited for webshop products. Think of the well-known slogan: gone = gone! But a counter on the website also emphasizes the urgency to purchase. Scarcity ensures that consumers are encouraged to make a choice quickly. Bart Smit is a party that makes frequent use of this.

We've gained considerable experience optimizing online stores and can practically emulate Cialdini's seduction techniques. Interested in a brainstorming session or some concrete solutions? Get in touch!