Improving your conversion rate basically means convincing a great number of people to buy your product, and convincing people to buy your product depends on how good you are at persuading them that they need what you are selling. Robert Cialdini, the best selling author of the book Influence, has identified the six elements that will help you in influencing a potential customer. Let’s go over them one by one.
Social Proof
As social beings, we are highly influenced by our peers. We want their endorsement before we consider trying a product. This, in essence, is social proof. In a row of restaurants, we would pick out the one that has a waiting line over those that don’t have any customers. This principle applies to online retail. If you don’t have it yet, include the following social proof elements in your page, and see how it immediately affects your conversion rate:
- Testimonials from people who represent your target market,
- Reviews and ratings,
- Social media proof such as Facebook likes, Twitter followers, Instagram followers.
There are apps that can help you with social proof. One such app is “Fomo” – it pulls in recent sales figures from your store and displays them in your storefront. You may use this data as validation if you don’t have testimonials and reviews yet. Note though that people generally looks for testimonials, reviews and social media likes because they relate to it better. Work on getting those set up as soon as possible.
You can see an example of this on our reputation management case study >
Reciprocity
It is human nature to return favours. Whenever something good is done for us, we want to spread the good vibes. This is the reason why giving freebies is effective in increasing conversions, such as giving away a free e-book or coupon to those who visit your site. To those who sign up for your email list, consider giving a gift to them. If an existing customer gives you a referral, give him store credit. These favours you give out to people will positively impact your conversion rate.
Commitment and Consistency
The “foot in the door technique presupposes that when a person commits to do something, he will follow through with said commitment. Pop-ups that say, “Do you want to have a bikini body in 60 days? Yes or No?” gets people to commit once they choose “Yes”. If you have this on your site, ask your potentials to make public their commitment. This way, their friends can know that your product is the one instrumental in reaching their goal. Encourage your customers to post their journey on social media as this will help promote your product further.
Authority
We always trust the opinions of those we look up to, such as doctors, politicians, celebrities, famous bloggers, etc. Try to get testimonials from your famous customers or influencers and engage them in your social media conversations. Attach the logos of media sites that have covered you on your site. If you cannot get quotes about your actual product, get quotes from authority figures about your industry in general.
Liking
Make your site likeable and friendly to your target market. If you want to attract the young adults, make sure your “look” appeals to them and that they can connect with you in the way they want. Do not use formal structures and language that they will find boring. Inject the appropriate personality in your website so that will appeal to your market.
Scarcity
“Limited time only” appeals to us because we don’t want to miss out on something good. This is scarcity in action. To use this on your site, you may:
- Have “limited time only” sales where they can see a countdown timer.
- Have a 24-hour real time clock beside a discount that you’re showcasing.
- Tell people how many units of a product are still left in stock. Alert them when you’re close to running out.
These six principles can help you improve your conversion rate. Do several tests to see which of these principles work best for you. Test different headlines, offers, images, webpage looks and testimonials etc. Do one or two tests per week and you will see radical improvement in your conversion rate.
