This is a big one. It is the key into why you are or aren’t being successful. How do you motivate or influence customer buying? It has to do with how they interact with your product.
User Experience Design
This is where user experience design comes in and WHY it is so important! A large part of the customer experience as it applies to your site is how they are navigating it. If you are blindly climbing a mountain and you never see a sign for a path, you are never going to find it and take it. You might even get frustrated and go home.
The job of your website is to present to the viewer a problem that they relate to, introduce them to your product, and highlight all the wonderful things it will do to solve that problem that they have. Maybe even a few that they didn’t know they had. If you are just pointing out a problem and not providing an easy “Lets solve that problem” button, they will not be streamlined into the buying process. If you never say “Hey! This is how this thing will solve this pain point,” they will not see the point of buying your product. Good website design will do this so subtly that the customer will be receiving email confirmation of their purchase before they even realize what hit them!
The Role of Website Design
The natural flow through your site, the choice of words, the mood of the photography that tells the story of your product and your customers; it all is vital to your site! Each of these has a crucial job in influencing the user behavior. Everything should be helping the customer to invest themselves into your product, believing you hold the answer, and creating the “I need this now!” attitude. If its not…you’re not there yet. You aren’t harnessing the full power of your website.
Always have a call to action and an offer to solve that problem quickly followed by a button to get them started.
Question: What is a website you aren’t allowed to visit anymore because you can’t stop buying from them? Take a closer look. Why is that??
Science of Behavior
What makes a behavior? A behavior is born out of three parts: Motivation, Ability, and a Prompt. Each can be varied based on how motivated your buyer typically is, and the intricacy of the path to their purchase. Is there a difficult road ahead or a a “smooth sailing” option? Are they a high or low motivated person?
Create motivation for a person wanting the product.
“This will solve your back pain forever!”
“You will have a brighter smile in less than a week!”
“The most comfortable bra, you will forget you are wearing it” (Yeah right!)
Then the ability of how easy it is to get started.
“Easy to sign up, just need an email”
“One-click ordering”
“30 Day Trial”
Next, prompt them to make a move.
“Enter your email to get started today!”
“Start making healthier choices by signing up for our newsletter!”
“Subscribe and save!”
Depending on your ideal customer and what you are selling, your prompts and selling points will need to be adjusted. Will you need a more enticing prompt to call them to action? Maybe.
So what do you need in order to influence
the buying behavior?
Create Consistency
People love predictability. They want to feel like they have an inkling on what is coming next and have that sense of everything fitting nicely together or clicking into place. It’s like creating that feeling that you get when you plug in your USB the right direction on the first try. “YES!”
Don’t give them a chance to second-guess or get side tracked. Consistency provides a sense of trust, and familiarity. The very idea of UX/UI design is that you are creating a space that people enter into already understanding how it functions.Offer a “Happy Medium”
People love to be given the option to customize and pick for themselves. They also love a package deal and a bit of a discount. What meets all of these points: Packaged services! Always offer 3 options.Small, Medium, Large.
Silver, Gold, Platinum.
Beginner, Advanced, Elite.
Generally speaking, they will always pick the happy medium. The place where they feel they are investing enough but not going overboard. They are getting what fits them; its not too big for their feet, but they can grow! And finally, it’s as non-commital and low risk as a buying situation can feel.
Create a feeling of urgency
I’ll bet you know exactly what I’m talking about…
“Only 3 left!”
“Offer ends in 72 hours”
“Promo code for the next week is…”
If you feel pressured into making a decision because you can see the door closing on an opportunity, you will probably make that leap sooner than if you had time to stop and thing “Hey wait…I don’t actually need a 5 piece set of bar-b-q tools. I only wanted a spatula!” When you see that deal, that offer, you are immediately triggered into that “WOW! What a deal!” mentality. They will buy what you are selling because they want the scarcity, and they want that deal.
Getting Started?
When influencing your visitor to buy, it’s important to avoid offering extremes. Make it WAY too easy for them to try it out only to be sucked in. No long term contracts or super elaborate sign ups. You might even make that happy medium choice more inviting by labeling it as “Buyers favorite.” Mention how it has all the bells and whistles that the smaller option doesn’t without the price tag of the bigger.
In order to streamline these all into a nice functional website, the design has to be on point. It has to be inviting and intuitive. If you have the feeling your website isn’t doing its job, it might be worth it to take a step back and get some professional feedback. Even some feedback from your customers!
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