11 February 2022

6 Conversion-enhancing Techniques

Steven
️ Blog
21 min. reading time

The products in your webshop have to be sold and in addition to hard sales there are still many more reasons to send for conversion. Last week we determined what conversion is exactly and why conversion is essential for the success of every 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 when parties such as Coolblue and Bol.com are flourishing, it is helpful in only adopting the 'working' tricks. This way, you don't put effort into questionable techniques that Google or the user might even be penalised. Guru in the field of seduction techniques is Robert Cialdini† Cialdini taught psychology and marketing. That turned out to be a golden combination, because he wrote the book in 1984 Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and he is still reaping the financial benefits of that today. He is widely quoted in the online marketing world with his six seduction techniques. We discuss them and give examples from practice.

1. Reciprocity

Give away something of value, such as a knowledge blog or white paper. The result is that the customer has the feeling that he has to give something in return. In the ideal case: purchase on the webshop. This technique lays claim to the ' good enough' principle. An example of this is our customer Fondo. In collaboration with this party, we have the mobile security quick scan developed. By giving away a free white paper at the end of the scan, reciprocity kicks in.

fondo quick scan
virgin email popup

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 several people recommend a product/service/company, someone is more likely to follow the group's lead. Don't confuse social affirmation with authority. Social affirmation works more with numbers. Consider the example of the health check. In this example it is indicated that no fewer than 9.000 people preceded you with doing the health check. We do not yet know whether 9.000 is relatively much or whether the turnout might be disappointing in addition to the number of potential participants. The fact is that social affirmation is one of the seduction techniques that may or may not help in making a decision. An A/B test should show whether naming the 9.000 previous participants is beneficial.

Example health monitor

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.

Media Markt Battlefield 1 example
Bart Smit AdWords example

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 have now gained the necessary experience in optimizing web shops and can only dream of Cialdini's seduction techniques. Are you interested in a brainstorming session or concrete solutions? Contact us!

Steven Founder[email protected]06-20413957
I practiceWhatsapp

Inspired? The following topics have been offered

Online Marketing
Show all inspiration