Tag: EN

Article

Jun 14, 2019

9min read

What Is Retargeting and How Can It Increase Conversion Rates?

AB Tasty

Picture this: You’re moving into a new home in a month and have started online shopping for furniture. You see a coffee table from Birch & Oak that you like, add to your shopping cart, but don’t buy—yet. You have time to evaluate other options.

A few days later you notice an online ad for the exact Birch & Oak coffee table you were considering. In fact, you see an ad for this coffee table across various websites and social media platforms.

Finally, you decide to buy it.

This is retargeting in action, which (when done well) can be an effective tool for increasing conversion rates.

Consider the following:

Retargeted customers are 3x more likely to click on your ad than those that haven’t interacted with your business before.
30% of users respond positively to online ads.
Retargeted ads get a 10x higher click rate than typical display ads.
Traffic retargeted with ads is 70% more likely to convert on a retailer’s website.

Retargeting Definition

Retargeting is when you use ads to recapture the interest of a website visitor that left without buying or responding favorably to your calls-to-action. It gives you a chance to stay top of mind and encourage them to come back and complete a purchase.

Just the other day I realized I was being retargeted: I was looking to buy Indian wear for a friend on Kilol’s website and later saw this ad on Facebook:

Kilol displayed a retargeted ad on Facebook

How Retargeting Works

Businesses add Javascript code or a pixel to website pages, typically in the footer. The browser then places a cookie on a visitor’s computer when they land on the website. This cookie stores information about the consumer’s online behavior like the products they view, web searches, and social media use. Based on this data, retargeting vendors deliver personalized ads they think will most appeal to the individual consumer.

Note: To ensure that you’re not violating any privacy laws with retargeting, you must clearly state how you collect and use visitor data. (Remember, cookies only track users, not computers.)

notification of cookie use — BBC alerts website visitors about the use of cookies

Is Retargeting Annoying for Internet Users?

Some people don’t mind being tracked and willingly share their personal data to see relevant ads.

why consumers prefer certain retailers — Consumers on why they purchase more from certain retailers

Others can find frequent retargeted ads annoying. This can happen when they see a retargeted ad from visits that didn’t reflect a serious interest.

To avoid ad fatigue among visitors, apply the marketing rule of 7. This is when you use multiple marketing channels (not just ads) to stay fresh in customers’ minds. As it turns out, the more visible and relevant you are to consumers, through multiple channels, the better the conversion chances. In fact, you sell 50% more than you would otherwise!

Are Retargeting and Remarketing the Same?

While retargeting and remarketing have the same purpose, the approach is entirely different.

Retargeting uses ads to re-engage potential customers that visited your website but left without converting (for various reasons).

retargeted ads — Example of a retargeted ad

Remarketing uses personalized email campaigns to re-engage visitors, a tactic that can also be quite useful in reducing customer churn rate. In fact, eMarketer data states that 80% of retail professionals find email marketing as their greatest driver of customer retention.

Amazon sends remarketing emails to users with abandoned carts

Static vs. Dynamic Retargeting

Static retargeting creates several versions of the same ad as a part of a broader campaign. With static retargeting, you can set parameters for which ads display to visitors based on the pages they view on the site.

Dynamic retargeting, on the other hand, is more specific: it creates personalized ads for visitors based on how they’ve interacted with your site (and often incorporates machine learning to help analyze behavior and optimize the campaign).

Tip: For some prospects, retargeting just won’t work. Once you identify these “no-go” visitors, it’s best to delete them from your list and focus on prospects that will be more receptive.

Setting the Stage For Retargeting

While there are various different targeting platforms to choose from, the two most popular ones are Google AdWords and Facebook ads. (You don’t necessarily need both, but you need to know which would be more effective in reaching your prospective clients.)

Then, you have retargeting vendors like AdRoll, Retargeter and Perfect Audience that cover various platforms (including Google).

Here are a few resources to provide a more in-depth view of getting started with these tools:

Best Practices for Retargeting Success

Segment Your Audience

Different visitors have different goals and interests; meaning retargeting won’t work with a “one-size-fits-all approach.”

For someone that visited a product page, a way to retarget could be by displaying a carousel advertisement to encourage new product discovery. For the person that abandoned their shopping cart, a retargeted ad that offers a discount or free shipping could be more effective.

Also, consider segmenting visitors on the basis of how long it’s been since they were on your site. A person who visited a week ago shouldn’t see the same ad as the person who visited a month ago.

Optimize Ads

In a HubSpot survey, 63% of people surveyed said they felt most online ads don’t look professional and insult their intelligence.

To avoid this, try to incorporate the following into your advertisements:

Eye-catching visuals: Images must complement the ad copy. A common observation is that ads with photos of people outperform those without them.
Crisp headline: Set user expectations in as few words as possible.
Clean copy: Without being boring, address user’s hesitation and spark curiosity.
Clear call-to-action: Use an action-oriented catchphrase to draw readers in. Replace overused verbs with compelling ones, such as claim, reserve, activate, etc. Use urgency if it fits the context.
Post-click landing page: Be sure you’re delivering what users expect to find!

Set Frequency Cap

Showing an ad 100 times a day is not a strategic way to pique interest. In fact, more often than not, users will develop a “banner blindness” and ignore the ad completely.

Set a frequency cap to control how many times an ad appears to the same user. While there isn’t one ideal frequency rate, the best way to find the optimal number is to run A/B tests for your campaigns. This will help to reduce campaign costs, improve ad CTR, and increase conversions.

(It’s also worth considering a “recency cap” or how much time passes between when users see the same ad.)

Rotate Ads

A ReTargeter study revealed that running the same set of ads for about five months decreases the CTR by almost 50%. One of the common culprits is the fact that the more people see the same ad, the more easily it blends in the background. It becomes invisible, no matter how compelling the CTA is.

To overcome this hurdle draft versions of the same ad with different visuals and CTAs. Another benefit of doing this is that you’ll learn what kind of messaging visitors are more inclined to respond to.

Use Burn Pixel

Retargeting the wrong audience is a waste of time and your marketing budget. To prevent this from happening try using a burn pixel: a snippet code that’s placed on a post-transaction page to remove users who complete a purchase.

The goal is to not retarget these customers with the same item they already purchased, but move them to campaigns that focus on upselling and cross-selling based on their purchase history.

Conclusion

Retargeting can boost your ROI, create brand awareness and drive conversions. But, when it comes across as pushy to users, it can actually cause prospects to turn away for good. It’s important to segment audiences, establish the right cadence, and to keep testing to stay relevant and incentivize users to return to your site.

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Jun 13, 2019

9min read

Opt-In vs. Opt-Out: A Guide to Email Marketing

AB Tasty

Opt-in email marketing is the process of gaining contact information from a ‘sign up’ or ‘register’ call-to-action on a website, which will be subsequently used to send newsletters or for general advertising.

Whilst they may not have directly agreed to hear from the company, they have registered interest and willingly given contact information.

Opt-in vs Opt-out; the guide to email marketing

Opt-out email marketing is when contact details are automatically added to a marketing list that a subscriber may be unaware of until they receive communications. Whilst this can be a bit of a nuisance for the person receiving the email, it can be another great way of gaining quality leads.

Despite a growing rumbling that email marketing is in decline, between 2014 and 2018, it was estimated that the average office worker in the US sent around 90 emails, with 40 emails being about business in particular. This strongly indicates that reaching people by electronic mail is still by far the preferred method for most people around the world.

The new approach of using opt-in call-to-actions on websites to obtain email addresses has become an increasingly successful way to gather high-quality contact lists to target with marketing campaigns. With open rates for marketing emails remaining around 85% and click-through rates at around 25% for most industries, email marketing is far from dwindling as a successful marketing tool.

When utilized properly, both opt-in and opt-out emails are a great use of your marketing budget and time, with significant click-through rates and growth in new subscribers credited to opt-in techniques.

We explore the difference between executing these tactics and offer some guidance when it comes to running a successful opt-in email marketing campaign.

Opt-in vs. Opt-out; Which is Best?

So, what is the difference between opting in to receive marketing emails and opting out of communications – and where does the term ‘unsubscribe’ fit into email marketing tactics?

The concept of opt-in emails is a straightforward marketing approach; you reach out to people who have given their contact details via a website sign-up. The opt-in method is rapidly becoming a popular option, as companies build a solid list of contacts directly from users on their website, instead of relying on the more traditional approach of buying a list of potentially relevant contacts.

Opt-out email marketing is slightly more tricky when it comes to maintaining interest, particularly for timely offers, as many recipients lose interest on receiving initial communications and this can sometimes lead to people hitting the dreaded ‘unsubscribe’ button – not ideal.

Using opt-in email marketing is the perfect opportunity to captivate and nurture initial leads, as someone has shown an interest in your company or product. It is then up to your excellent marketing campaign to be compelling, well-written and generally engaging enough that those potential customers become fully-fledged revenue for your business.

The Advantages of Using Opt-In Email Marketing

Compared to opt-out marketing, opt-in offers additional confidence to many brands, as the people receiving email marketing have expressed interest in the company or products. Building a strong, quality marketing list via ‘opt-in’ has become a more secure way for businesses to visibly see a return on investment, via their e-marketing.

Another advantage of using opt-in marketing is the years of consistently high open rates for companies all over the world, compared to it’s ‘younger cousin’, social media marketing. Brands try alternative methods of directly reaching potential new customers on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, by sending direct messages about discounts and offers that they assume their followers would be interested in. The results, however, indicate people simply are not ready to be contacted directly on their personal social accounts, with a measly 0.58% open rate for direct messaging.

A slightly less interesting but sensible advantage for opt-in emails is that they are also regulated, in a bid to protect people’s data when it comes to how companies store and use it. Which leads us on to the topic of regulation…

What is GDPR?

Ah, legal regulations. They may have all the appeal of a soggy sandwich, but they have recently become an important guideline for companies operating in the EU when it comes to storing and using people’s contact information. May 2018 saw the rollout of GDPR, which stands for General Data Protection Regulation, and was put in place to protect personal data, particularly when companies build marketing lists with the intention to reach out. Similar to the GDPR roll out, companies operating in the United States have to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act, brought in by George Bush in 2003, to protect individuals from receiving marketing communications they didn’t opt-in for.

GDPR and email marketing

Whilst they may be rather dull, regulations have been introduced to protect both companies and recipients from having their details misused. As previously touched upon, when sending any type of communication to someone, there is a certain level of consent that the recipient will exercise. They will either choose to opt-in to hearing from you (via a sign-up), or they can be unknowingly added to a list and contacted because they have shown an interest in a third-party or related company. Ultimately, all of these methods involve storing and using someone’s personal contact details.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with building an email list via opt-in or opt-out marketing methods, email consent has come under scrutiny in the last few years. Regulation has become an even bigger requirement to prevent the misuse of data, since many a company have recently suffered security breaches, with customer details being stolen.

Double Opt-In and Nurturing Leads

The double opt-in option requires a further ‘click’ via a link sent in another communication, such as an email or text message. This additional click-through confirms their interest in your company and that they want to hear from you, making them far more likely to convert and respond to your communications. The double opt-in is not necessarily right for every email campaign, but rather offers extra security for companies looking for a great-quality contact list.

By sending a confirmation message, you begin to nurture a lead, reassuring both yourself and the email recipient that they are interested in receiving information and offers from your company. Once they have gone through the effort of re-confirming, it is down to the quality of the marketing material to reach the ultimate goal of converting them to becoming a customer.

The double opt-in method is great for companies who offer coupons and other discounts that may be exclusive to subscribers, and it also avoids any emails being sent to spam folders. If an email list is not primarily focused on offers etc, the single opt-in option is fine. As long as your business offers some kind of opt-in email marketing, your correspondence list will stay clean and secure.

From a regulation point of view, the double opt-in is the ‘belt and braces’ approach – it ensures the contact is compliant and willing to be contacted.

Timing is Everything When Sending Emails

As with many things in life, timing is everything when it comes to sending campaign emails – and reaping the reward. Depending on whether you target B2B or B2C audiences, the day of the week will affect the open rate success. Tuesday is widely known as being the best day to send B2B newsletters and general marketing communications, whereas B2C companies find Saturday morning a great time to achieve excellent open rates. Then there’s the actual time of day your email is received. Avoid any time that is widely considered busy, for example, 9am is a big no, but anything between 12-2pm is highly likely to be seen.

timing is everything in email marketing

Avoid the Spam Folder

Email providers such as Gmail and Microsoft have spent many years developing algorithms when it comes to spotting ‘spammy’ words in an email, making sure to automatically file any potential spam emails away, without the user even knowing they are there. The key to avoiding this ‘automatic filing’ is to send good, well-written content. Inform your reader of the topic straight away, avoid using words such as ‘buy’, ‘spam’ or ‘free’ in your subject header and try not to overwhelm them with lots of imagery, once they have opened your email.

Avoiding the 'spam' folder

Takeaway

Ultimately, the level of success from your email marketing campaign is going to depend on many factors, such as quality of content, the time of day it’s sent as well as the quality of contacts it is sent to. Despite the pesky rumors stating email marketing is dead or on the way out, the stats simply prove otherwise. Above the noise of social advertising, clever cookie options and other tried-and-tested digital methods, opt-in email marketing remains the most successful campaign tactic, with the Independent Department of Marketing Bureau, or IMDB fully endorsing it as the most successful way to communicate with potential customers, in 2019.

Feature Image Credit from HostReviews.

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Jun 3, 2019

13min read

How to Use Psychographics in Digital Marketing

AB Tasty

Buyer personas matter. Who can contest that? They bring you tête-à-tête with consumers. You get to know who they are and their preferences, resulting in marketing more efficiently to them. Simply put, you get bang for your buck! A Demand Gen report states that having buyer personas in place contributed to a 175% increase in Thomson Reuters’ revenue, a 10% increase in leads sent to sales, and a 72% reduction in lead conversion time. Incredible, you’d agree!

Want to ape their success? Start by making your customers feel you’re addressing them and them alone. For that to happen though, you’ll need more than demographic data. Simply put, you’ll need to start recording your customer’s psychographics.

What is Psychographics?

It’s the study of a consumer’s not-so-visible characteristics, such as their interests, activities, opinions, lifestyle, and attitude.

Qualitative data is highly valuable. You discover the real motivation behind why people love, as well as advocate for, a few brands. Keeping that in mind, you can alter your messaging to bridge the gap between you and them. You’ll forge a much deeper connection and hear your audience say: “This brand totally gets me!”

Why does this happen though? Because you treat them as individuals with a distinct personality, not as a number. By focusing on their inner drives, their problems and what will actually help them, you become relevant, increasing chances of conversion.

The Key Difference Between Psychographics and Demographics

Unlike psychographics, that concerns itself with the ‘why’ and ‘personal’ aspect of customers, demographics is about ‘who’ this person is, with a focus on quantifiable details like age, gender, ethnicity, employment status, marital status, income, etc.

Both are equally important to refine buyer personas, and when coupled with behavioral stats, can result in a better understanding of your audience.

Difference between psychographics and demographics (1) — Source

With a bit of ground covered, let’s shift focus to what psychographics deals with.

Types of Psychographics to Keep Your Eye On

Going back to the definition, psychographic profiling is done on what is known as the IAO variables, namely interests, activities, and opinions.

Interests

Interests center on a person’s curiosity about something and what they care about. For example, wildlife, theater, economics, climate change, etc. So target people based on what intrigues and fascinates them. They’ll respond much better to your calls-to-action.

Activities

This includes everything that people busy themselves with, such as gardening, hiking, bird watching, or reading, among a gazillion other things. With that knowledge, you can write content and use vocabulary that resonates with them.

Opinions

People form opinions as a result of their interaction with people around them, their socioeconomic status, personal experiences, etc. Clearly, you’ll need to keep their perspective in mind to influence them in your favor.

How Do You Gather Psychographic Data?

You go where you can find it!

Google Analytics

Click on Audience > Interests. Depending on variables already set as ‘secondary dimensions,’ you will know more about your audience. If not, click ‘add segment’ and track them.

Google Analytics Audience Interests

Surveys and Questionnaires

Asking questions makes you stand out; you come across as a brand that’s concerned about its customers. What’s more, you get suggestions from people who’ve experienced your services/products. Who knows, you might come across common denominators you had no idea existed before. For example, if 10% of your customers follow a certain influencer, you can collaborate with them.

Personal Interviews

Have a conversation with your favorite client and in an effort to ‘get-to-know-them-even-better’, ask questions that’ll help you collect psychographic data. Not possible? Speak to people (from your social circle) who are somewhat ‘similar’ to your target audience.

Social Media Analytics

Head to the audience insights section to discover a wealth of information that people share. From their life events, hobbies, political opinions to interests and pages they like/follow, there’s a lot that can make a world of a difference in your next marketing campaign.

Psychographic data you can gather from Facebook — Some common Facebook Ad targeting options. Source

Additionally, social media listening can tell you how your competitors’ followers feel about them, which you can use to your advantage to differentiate yourself.

Difference between social media listening and social media monitoring — Source

Sales and Customer Support Teams

Why talk to these teams? For the simple reason that they interact with your customers on an everyday basis. That alone makes them a perfect data source to help you get to know your prospects much better. Dig out the FAQs, the key phrases and words that customers use in reference to your brand or industry. This could be pretty useful in brainstorming ideas for your sales page, for example. Make their words yours.

How to Use Psychographics in Digital Marketing

#1: On Your Website

David Ogilvy famously said: ‘What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.’ You’ll agree it makes a huge difference in how your audience perceives you. So to hit the nail on the head with your copy, you need to take the words right out of your customers’ mouths!

Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers dug up reviews of six best-selling rehab and alcohol recovery books while researching how to write website copy for a rehab center. She picked phrases that gave her a peek into the minds of a recovering/recovered addict. This helped her understand their trajectory of thoughts, wants, and pains.

Collecting phrases to mine psychographic data of customers — Source

She then went on to use one direct quote from a reviewer as the headline. The payoff? 400% more CTA clicks and 20% more lead form submissions. Talk about the power of psychographics! Related: 10 Techniques To Build Lead Capture Forms.

Joanna Wiebe implements psychographic data on website copy — Source

#2: On Sales Pages

The purpose of a sales page is to convince people to take the offer on the table. But it won’t happen unless you know the actual problems your audience is facing.

Check out the sales copy by the Girl Gone Strong team. They use their target customer’s psychographics to create perfect sales copy. You’ll notice they’ve used the PAS framework. For those who don’t know, it stands for ‘Problem’, ‘Agitate’ and ‘Solution’ and here’s how it’s applied on their page:

Problem: Create a context with video on the first scroll.

Agitate: Go specific, highlighting ‘real’ problems: ‘seeing little to no results’, ‘restrictive dieting’, ‘body image issues’.

Solution: Overcome doubts with the guide created by women for women, backed by the recent finishers of the training program as well as fitness experts.

Psychographic data used on Girl Gone Strong's Sales page — Source

No matter the industry, you can implement the framework and make your audience’s challenges clear to them. Make them see the negative implication of being stuck in the rut before plugging your solution.

#3: On Your Blog

You know what they say about the benefits of having a business blog? All of it is true.

Today, 47% of buyers view 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. Yes, it’s a zig-zag path, but one that leads inevitably to you. Meaning, if you want them to come knocking on your door, your content must center around their interests.

A perfect example is Neil Patel’s marketing blog. He understands his readers’ psychographics and addresses their burning points in the most simple, conversational and comprehensive manner possible. In fact, there’s content for people at all stages in the funnel, which makes him everyone’s go-to resource. His readers love him:

Psychographic data use success seen on Neil PAtel's blog comments — Source

You, too, can generate this kind of admiration with your posts. Follow Brian Dean’s Skyscraper technique 2.0 which puts the user right in the center.

Figure out user intent: Google the keyword you want to rank on and analyze the content of top-ranking posts.

Satisfy user intent: Write a long blog post if that’s the pattern you noticed in top results. Indeed, BuzzSumo partnered with Noah Kagan of OKDork.com to analyze 100 million blog posts and found that ‘people are more likely to share longer articles’.

Long blog post appeals to people across different funnel stages — Source

Optimize for UX: Prime your readers for an excellent experience on your blog. It begins with adjusting to the information-foraging audience and making your content skimmable. Nielsen’s research states that 79% of people scan web pages.

Additionally, read comments of your competitor’s top performing content. You’ll get a fair idea about what your audience thinks and worries the most about. Perhaps you will even get new content ideas that people are interested in!

Mining psychographic data from blog comments — Source

#4: Create Hyper-Targeted Landing Pages

With psychographic data by your side, you can design and write conversion-optimized landing page copy. You’ll no longer rely on guesswork – rather, you’ll be sure of who this person is, and you’ll impress them with your on-point message. If you really hit your mark, you’ll even strike an emotional cord.

Check out the landing page below by TransferWise. With psychographic segmentation in place, they promptly address their customers’ biggest pain point in the headline. Then there’s an interactive calculator for convenience, plus real-time exchange rates for people to track. They also add social proof for reassurance’s sake because this is monetary transaction we’re talking about, after all!

Addressing customer pain points example on TransferWise website — Source

#5: Write Better Ads

You’ve reached a point where you know psychographics works, so don’t let that data go to waste. Use it to write targeted, appealing ads. However, first, make sure you’re channeling your money and effort where your audience spends time. That way, you’ll be present at the right place and in front of the people who’ll actually ‘get’ and respond to your message.

Let’s say you’re an eco-friendly, sustainable fashion label. You know your audience demographics is females between the ages of 25 and 40 in the US. Now, throw psychographic variables into the mix and your target audience will look like this:

Demographic:

Female
Age between 25 and 40
Single/married
Household income $60k-$100k

Psychographic:

Interested in environmental issues and climate change
Striving for a zero-waste lifestyle
Shops from farmer’s markets
Follows environmental activists and influencers
Volunteers

See what a difference psychographic profiling makes? There’s no way this core audience won’t connect with you and help you achieve your ad (read: brand) goals!

#6: Email Marketing

Understanding the psychographics of your customers plays an important role in building an email list. That’s because the inbox is a sacred space and people won’t subscribe to you unless you promise to send them stuff that really interests them. Perhaps it’s time for you to become that brand people can’t wait to hear from, eh? Remember: The more people on your list, the more conversions you make.

If you already have an incredible list of subscribers, then the challenge is in continuing to stay relevant to them – otherwise, you’ll see many leave. Psychographics can lead the way, telling you your audience’s needs, fears and expectations. This, in turn, will prep you to create highly personalized emails. A report states that marketers who used segmented campaigns noted as much as a 760% increase in revenue.

Personalization stats to consider — Source

So go back to your past campaigns to learn why the messaging resonated with your audience. Then – repeat it. It’s likely going to lift open rates and engagement. Also, keep up with current trends to boost your email CTRs. Interactive emails, for example, are quite engaging. So think along those lines.

HubSpot follows current trends to appeal to customer psychographics — HubSpot regularly sends interactive quizzes in their emails.

That’ll Be All For Now

Psychographics allows you to get into the head of your customers. And that alone makes it an important piece of data for marketers that want to create passionate brand subscribers. When used in combination with demographics, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities to stay relevant and interesting to your target audience and customers alike.

And while it’s true that mining psychographic insights is hard work, it’s the gains that make the whole process worth it. Once you have your hard-won data, apply it to your website, sales page, landing pages, ads and emails to create an in-sync omnichannel experience for your audience.

Over to you now. How else do you use psychographics?

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May 27, 2019

11min read

What is Personalization in Digital Marketing?

AB Tasty

Personalization is the process of keeping in mind the needs and preferences of your audience so that you market the right product and experience to the right person at the right time. By doing this, you stand a better chance of making customers feel heard, having more meaningful interaction and nudging them to convert.

Some businesses, however, have been unruly and rightly punished for their ignorance or disinterest in their customers. Need proof? Here you go: In 2017, Accenture reported that due to poor personalization and lack of trust, 41% of consumers switched companies, which cost U.S. organizations a staggering $756bn.

Suffice it to say that people demand personalization. Their appetite for personalized products is stronger today – so much so that they’re willing to pay for products unique to them. They also don’t mind sharing personal data in exchange for receiving personalized recommendations and offers.

Stats on customer's preference to receive personalized recommendations — Source

How Personalization is Different from Customization

It’s quite painful to see people use personalization and customization interchangeably. Yes, it’s true that both keep users at the center and want to engage them with exciting, contextually relevant experiences, but their ways are completely different.

So how are the two not the same?

Personalization, as you know by now, is about creating a one-to-one marketing experience for customers. It begins with collecting ample, qualitative data about your audience. Amazon is a brilliant example of personalization done right, and so are Netflix and YouTube. Recommendations rain down depending on users’ on-site activities.

Here’s Lancôme’s product recommendation engine telling me what else I should consider buying, based on the product I’ve added to my cart:

Powerful product recommendation for personalization - Lancome

Customization, on the contrary, is about giving people the liberty to be able to custom-make a product or service, based on their particular taste. Put simply, it puts them in the center, having complete control over everything they’d like to keep or lose.

For example, Canva, a free online graphs and chart maker, has plenty of customizable templates. Users can make changes in fonts, color, layout etc. and also add/delete elements in an existing design or start from scratch.

Customization option on Canva — Canva houses several customizable templates

In e-commerce, the most commonly used customization technique is product customization. Shoppers feel empowered as they can design their own clothes and accessories, unique to their sense of style. It goes without saying, customizing their own product boosts their satisfaction levels, for the outcome is the fruit of their own labor!

Nike uses customization to great effect, letting shoppers edit the shoe design and even sharing the customized design on their social networks. Of course, flaunting on social media is an additional way to give shoppers’ ego a boost, because someone out their may praise ’em! For Nike, it could translate to more people dropping by their website and buying their products.

Example of customization - Nike — Source

What is Web Personalization?

Website personalization is the practice of tailoring relevant and unique experiences to every website visitor. It dumps the one size fits all approach and works to make customers feel special.

Extending this definition to our everyday life, there’s a reason why we prefer going to cafés where the staff knows us not only by our face, but our names and mood. There’s nothing greater than that warm, mushy feeling of being recognized!

In marketing though, personalization is more than just addressing customers by their names. Aware of this, according to The SoDA Report, 83% of marketers and C-level executives plan to increase their personalization efforts for 2019, with 32% pointing to a ‘significant budget increase’.

Sounds promising? Hang on, there’s more.

The report further states that of the 67% of global leaders that rate their organizations as ‘Masters’ or ‘Experts’ with robust and advanced levels of personalization capabilities, only 40% are utilizing even the most basic targeting personalization tactics.

Bizarre, but true. Tom Beck, Executive Director at SoDA, says that the reasons for the majority of the organizations are:

Constrained budgets, limitations with their technology platform, and challenges with their data as some of the biggest barriers hindering their progress. It’s also worth noting that more than half of all organizations lack an adequate strategic roadmap and investment plan for their personalization capabilities.

See yourself citing the same issues? Probably the next section will convince you to buckle up and stop finding excuses or reasons to not prioritize your customers’ wants and expectations.

Why Create Personalized Digital Experiences?

Because personalization affects consumers’ perceptions of your brand and also how they shop:

74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized. (Business 2 Community)
Nearly three-fourths (74%) of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content (e.g., offers, ads, promotions) appears that has nothing to do with their interests. (HubSpot)
77% of consumers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides a personalized service or experience. (Forrester)
Over 78% of consumers will only engage offers if they have been personalized to their previous engagements with the brand. (Marketo)
Personalized home page promotions influenced 85% of consumers to buy while personalized shopping cart recommendations influenced 92% of shoppers online. (Business 2 Community)

What do you say now? Guess I hear you’re more than willing to learn some personalization tactics. So let’s get ready and wrap our heads around how some brands play on human psychology and create some of the most holistic and pleasant website experiences for their customers.

Examples and Strategies to Optimize Personalization

#1 Allure First-Time Visitors With an Exclusive Offer

To start with, I’m going to happily plug one of our client success stories! Best Western® Hotels & Resorts triggered a pop-in to visitors who weren’t logged in to their membership account and were specifically looking for at least a two-night stay, with an offer that was especially for Rewards account holders. And guess what followed? A 12% jump in account creations.

Best western mock up personalization

Meanwhile, here’s another example from the Steve Madden website:

Offer personalized, unique offers for first-time visitors - Steve Madden

#2 Personalized Recommendation During Checkout

Showing products that compliment ‘in-the-basket’ products as well as others that might catch a customer’s fancy works to your advantage. First, because people discover new products, without having to look for them, served on a platter. And second, they feel they’re being attended to exclusively! Final result? Increased average order value. Who’s the winner? You. Of course!

Personalization with the help of recommendation engine on Ebay — Ebay lures shoppers with ‘frequently bought together’ products.

Here’s how Amazon makes recommendations in three different ways by taking into account users’ browsing and shopping history.

Power of Amazons personalization tool (1)

#3 Go for Geo-Location Based Targeting

Identifying your visitor’s location is a great way to serve content they can readily connect with. So redirect them to their country-specific stores. It inspires confidence in you when they read a language familiar to them, plus see content and offers that are geographically more relevant to them.

Let’s say the website visitor is from a country expected to experience winter, you can suggest winter wear. It’s going to keep them interested and prepare them to buy what seems to be a perfect purchase at that moment in time.

Using geolocation for personalization - ASOS — On the Asos website users are redirected to their country-specific stores.

What also cuts down on their anxiety is seeing multi-currency and preferred payment options. Apparently, inMusic decreased cart abandonment by 30% with localized payment processing.

#4 Embrace Interactive Content

With interactive quizzes, you can make shopping a joy by eliminating the paradox of choice. How? Because this format is an online version of the sales fella from a brick-and-mortar store that helps you find what you’re looking for from a mountain of options! But for it to work, you must have compelling copy and equally interesting questions. Much like the charm and gift of gab of the sales chap!

Below is the welcome page of ‘The Original Fit’ quiz. The copy is conversational, there’s data backing their claims and a promise to make the shopping experience pleasant. Now how could you not take this quiz?

Use interactive quiz for better personalization of digital experiences — Source

If you’re worried about not having enough time to design interactive quizzes, then you’ll be happy to know about platforms like Outgrow, SnapApp and LeadQuizzes. They have templates you can easily customize without knowing how to code.

#5 Lure Customers to Finalize a Purchase With Exit Intent Pop-Ups

So if someone’s been lurking on a particular product page, interested in a product but not quite ready to buy, you can sweeten the deal with a discount on an exit intent pop-up. Perhaps even add a testimonial. Or based on the items in their cart, you can offer them free shipping if they buy in the next couple of hours (think scarcity).

Personalization example - Special offer to reduce cart abandonment

#6 Give Them Ease of Access

From showing a homepage that reflects your customer’s browsing history to making it easy for them to find their past orders and wish list, the key is to keep the user bang in the center. It shortens their path to purchase and increases conversion opportunities. Take a page from Amazon’s book. Everything under one drop down = many problems solved!

Personalization example on dashboard - Amazon (1)

#8 Take Away the Pain to Find Recently Searched for Products

Online shopping is overwhelming. No doubt. People jump from one product to another, unsure if it’s ‘the one’. But while they’re still on your site, for their sake, display previously viewed products. It increases the site engagement time and makes them feel confident about you being on their side, helping keep track of past searches.

E-commerce platforms such as Shopify, WooComerce and others already have created apps that make this possible. So go for it!

Shopify personalization app - Show past viewed products (1) — Source

Going Forward

People demand you create highly personalized experiences. So it’s safe to say that the time has come to be awesome and become a brand that’s empathetic to its customers’ needs. You’ve already seen how some of your peers are raising the bar. Plus, you’re already in the know about which strings to pull to magically surprise whoever drops by on your website. So you better get going!

The key is to know your audience. Next thing you know, your customer is thanking your for reading their mind! And that’s when you’ll know you’ve arrived!

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Apr 25, 2019

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You’ve Been Framed: How The Framing Effect Impacts UX Testing & Design Choices

AB Tasty

Did you know that it takes about 50 milliseconds for users to form an opinion about your website? Or that 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a website after a bad experience?

Well, now you do. And what these statistics imply is that you can no longer push user experience design to the back burner. Rather, know who your target audience is and involve them in the design process. Ask them questions to understand their struggles and desires. Eventually, you’ll begin to notice patterns in their answers that you can then use to identify design solutions.

But it isn’t as easy or straightforward a process as it seems.

When you test your website with users, a cognitive bias called the Framing Effect can interfere. If you remember, we’d talked about it at length with respect to loss aversion. If not, give it a read. In the meantime, let’s go over its Wikipedia definition:

Framing Effect is where people decide on options based on if the options are presented with positive or negative semantics; e.g. as a loss or as a gain.

Put simply, people’s responses are influenced by the way a piece of information is presented to them. In your case, as a UX researcher and designer, it means that led by your own biases, you may frame questions that confirm your hypothesis instead of finding the objective truth. And that’s a major fail because if you don’t recognize it early on, you’ll end up with a website designed for yourself.

With that in mind, let’s figure out how you can you keep this bias in check.

Don’t Ask Leading/Manipulative Questions

…for the simple reason that they can prime users and influence their answers. They will say what you want to hear instead of giving you honest responses.

To understand this better, read the following questions out loud. Which of them, according to you, will provide more reliable feedback:

I saw that you were confused when navigating the website. What was the issue?

What was easy or difficult about navigating the website?

You were having difficulty navigating the website. Why so?

My guess is that you’re going to pick #2 because #1 and #3 are leading questions. They encourage a certain type of answer that can result in inaccurate feedback and bad decisions. Wondering how? Let’s break down all three questions.

I saw that you were confused when browsing the website. What was the issue?

The problem: First, the interviewer assumes the user was confused. What if they were not? But now that they’ve said it, the user may believe they were having trouble browsing the website. Second, they use the word issue, which seems to imply that there must be an issue. What if there was none?

What was easy or difficult about browsing the website?

This is a good question because there’s no pressure to answer a particular way. Left to their own devices, the user will stay true to their experience. In fact, the interviewer may even get surprising insights that enable them to see problems and solutions from a completely different point of view.

You were having difficulty browsing the website. Why so?

The problem: Like in the first question, here too, the interviewer assumes that the user was having troubles navigating. This leads them to believe that they were indeed browsing with great difficulty. The outcome? A biased and unhelpful response that may not necessarily truly reflect their actual experience and thought process.

But how do you get around to not writing leading questions?

You purge them out of your system and out on the paper. Forget about whether they serve your confirmation bias or not. #NoFilter
Leave them on the table for a day or two.
Next, edit and re-frame questions until they are neutral and don’t stick out like a sore thumb.
Run the list past your peers because two pairs of eyes are better than one.

Et voilà! You have successfully made it to the other side of the fence. That being said, you may still make mistakes because the Framing Effect isn’t easy to overcome. So let’s move on to know what more you can do to stop it from messing with your efforts.

Watch Your Words

When a user asks a question, Kara Pernice, Senior Vice President at Nielsen Norman Group recommends you try the Echo, Boomerang, or Columbo techniques. Here’s a summary of what she says in the article:

Echo

Repeat the last phrase or word the user said in a slight interrogatory tone. This will naturally put the user in the mindset of answering the question by elaborating on what he meant by those exact words. For example:

User: This table is weird, well, hmmm, not sure what, uh…
Facilitator: Not sure what? Or, Table is weird?

Boomerang

Bounce user’s questions and comments right back at them to make them solve the issue by imagining they aren’t in a research environment. For example:

User: Do I buy without creating an account?
Facilitator: What would you do if you were doing this on your own?

Colombo

Ask only a part of the question so that the user helps you by answering their question. It’s effective because fewer words mean that you’re less likely to influence their answer. For example:

User: If I close here will I lose my work?
Facilitator: Uhm, you are wondering if [pause] you might [pause.]
User: I am just not really sure if I should pick “close” or “cancel” or “ok.” I guess I don’t know the difference between these buttons.

Kara concludes the article by saying that these techniques aren’t a ‘license to interrupt the user any time he makes a sound’. Determine:

Whether the user was thinking out loud or if it really was a question that must be answered.
Whether the comment made was audible to you to get talking with them.
Whether there’s any real benefit from probing them, or you have enough information.

Bonus advice: Record usability sessions to analyze your non-verbal behavior because that can be leading, too. Check if you were you smiling and nodding to get a response, or were you poker-faced?

When all is said and done, let’s not completely discredit framing. It can be useful, especially when you want to elicit a user’s true behavior. Let me illustrate this with an example.

Imagine you want to know a user’s path on your website. Frame your question in a manner that introduces context and focus without being suggestive at all. How do you do that? Instead of saying, ‘You are here to buy a bookcase. Now find one, add it to your shopping cart and checkout’, you say:

‘You have 50 books lying stray in your house. Please look for a suitable product to stack them, add it to your cart and complete the checkout process.’

Doing this, you’ll have your hands on rich insights because neither did you instruct nor prime users to search for a bookcase. Had you done that, they would have straightaway used the search functionality on your website instead of acting on their own.

In short, framing allows you to establish boundaries. You become more focused to form research questions that support your research goals. Everything else gets excluded.

Moving on, let’s talk about how design decisions are vulnerable before the framing effect.

How the Framing Effect Affects Design Choices

The way test findings are framed can heavily influence how it’s interpreted. NN Group tested this and found out that decision frames do affect design choices.

About 1037 UX practitioners participated in a quiz and were randomly shown a version of a hypothetical study’s findings: Half of them saw the negative frame and the other half saw the positive frame. In the end, both groups were asked the same question: ‘Should the search function be redesigned?’ Practitioners that saw the findings expressed as a failure rate were 31% more likely to believe the design needed an overhaul.

Then, there were a few of them who said they weren’t sure or that the design needed no change at all. And, that’s quite interesting because whether a website needs to be redesigned depends on a range of factors, such as the type of website, the overall importance of the search function and implementation costs to the participants. Since none of this was mentioned in the quiz, it’s clear that these participants were more critical of their choice and didn’t want to make snap judgments.

Much like these practitioners, you, too, can make reason-backed decisions. Here’s how:

Critically analyze decision frames rather than jumping to conclusions. Refuse to pick one frame over another in case there isn’t enough data. Find out what’s amiss to support your argument.
Re-frame the findings and look at it from a success/failure or gain/loss perspective. You should then have a fair idea if you were being framed.

Connecting The Dots

We can all agree that the Framing Effect is like mercury that can slip through the tiniest crack. You can’t pull a trick from under your hat to banish this deep-seated bias, but you can definitely become more mindful of the trap.

Ask if the question is framed to yield a response you want, or will it motivate the user to be unbiased. What if you word the question differently? Will it change the answer? Point being, once you are more critical you will have more confidence in your choices that will reflect in your research practice as well as your website and products.

Remember, you can use this bias to work for you, especially to support research goals and help boost e-commerce conversions through loss aversion tactics.

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Mar 6, 2019

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Loss Aversion Strategies to Dial-Up Your Ecommerce Conversion

AB Tasty

Let’s get straight to the point: Losses are intimidating. They trigger negative, unpleasant emotions of pain, fear, and regret. No one in their right mind would ever admit they get a kick out of losing!

That said, a few of you who are brave at heart might be willing to take risks. You spontaneously weigh outcomes—as gains or losses—based on your vantage or reference point. What you also like to do is consider what and how much is at stake, something which behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky discussed in their work, The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice.

They conducted a study to measure loss aversion in relation to how a problem is framed. In their experiment, two groups of participants were asked to imagine that the U.S. is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual disease that is expected to wipe out 600 people. The first group was then proposed two alternative programs to combat the disease:

If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved.
If Program B is adopted, there is a 1/3 probability that 600 people will be saved, and 2/3 probability that no people will be saved.

Result: About 72% of participants voted for program A because they were risk-averse. To them, saving 200 lives is much better than a risky prospect of equal expected value (⅓ of 600 =200).

For the second group, the programs were framed in a different way:

If Program C is adopted, 400 people will die.
If Program D is adopted, there is a 1/3 probability that nobody will die, and 2/3 probability that 600 people will die.

Result: A majority 78% of respondents voted for program D. They were more risk-taking as 400 people dying was scary and less acceptable than the two-in-three chance that 600 will die.

Kahneman and Tversky noticed a pattern:

Framing the option in terms of saving lives made people risk-averse and losing lives turned them into risk takers.

Why, though? It’s because losses loom larger than gains which also perfectly sums up the loss aversion theory. The pain of losing something is much more intense than the happiness of gaining something, even if it’s of equivalent value!

And while this was loss aversion in the context of health, the same is applicable in marketing, too.

Loss Aversion Strategies in Marketing

We now have a fair idea that people can do anything to dodge losses. So frame your marketing messages to introduce/highlight imminent loss. A word of caution: Don’t make your customers nervous by focussing only on what they’re about to lose.

Think about being subtle and direct at the same time. But is that even possible, you ask? It is if you apply the following power moves.

Create Urgency

Play upon people’s fear of missing out (FOMO). Brands of all stripes make use of FOMO, and there’s a good chance it will work for you, too. The best part is that although people are aware of this marketing tactic, they aren’t completely immune to it. In short, it works! Every. Single. Time. Just a week ago I impulsively bought something because I noticed a message saying ‘only 1 left in stock’!

Anyway, here’s what you can do:

Display stock level: When your customers realize the product they want may soon go out of stock, they will put their misery to an end by buying it right away! After all, they know the aftertaste of losing what they’ve been eyeing up for so long will be too much to deal with later!

But that’s not enough because a lot of people—even when they are ready to buy—abandon their carts. In 2018, for instance, the average cart abandonment rate was 78.65%. Now although the reasons to drop out vary, you can still recover your customers by mentioning the stock of each product in the shopping cart. Here’s an example from the Esprit (France) website where they clearly state that stocks are limited:

limited stock esprit

Pro tip: 10 Techniques to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

Limited time offer: This gives you the chance to limit the time your customer takes to make a decision, meaning you get them to convert faster!

reduce cart abandonment

Others are also looking: When you prompt a customer with how many other people are looking at the same product/offer, it automatically creates a sense of competition. And along comes the fear of losing to this anonymous person, which they don’t like. Result? They cave in and buy.

Create urgency

A fair warning: If you overuse these scarcity tactics people will catch up to you and may even feel cheated. So practice restraint for maximum, positive impact.

Discounts

For anyone who’s looking to save money, discounts work as a huge motivation to buy something. So work it to your advantage and make your offers more noticeable and appealing.

Check out how Yves Rocher lure their website visitors with a perfectly framed discount. The strategy is fairly simple: Highlight the new discounted price + display the referent, original price for comparison’s sake. It makes people think of buying now rather than paying much more for the same product later on.

Yves Rocher Discounts

Coupons

Another brilliant conversion practice is coupons. A coupon creates a sense of loss for two reasons. First, it’s something people earn without having done anything – and yet they feel the fear of losing it if they don’t use it. Second, the offer seems too good to let go.

However, these two factors alone don’t convince people to buy anything. A lot depends on how you frame the offer. If it doesn’t inspire fear of loss and gain in equal amount, it will never convert.

Here’s what I found on RetailMeNot’s homepage – a Forever 21 deal evokes as much fear (limited time offer) as it makes the visitor happy (Make My Monday). Then there’s World Market where free shipping seems like a good bargain which not a lot of people would like to lose out on.

retailmenot discount

Social Proof

Online reviews are the most popular and persuasive type of social proof to encourage purchasing behavior. According to BrightLocal, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. And that’s largely because people find safety in numbers. But what most of us don’t realize is that solid social proof works because it also triggers FOMO.

Upon seeing solid, unbiased reviews a lot of people change their perception of your brand. They assign more value to your brand, begin to trust you and consider it as their loss if they don’t buy from you. Plus, they also love to keep up with trends. Seems like Figleaves, a UK clothing retailer, understood this and added customer reviews to their product pages. What was the outcome? A 12.5% spike in conversion rate as compared to those pages with no social proof.

You can do the same. Puravida uses a phenomenal number of glowing reviews to highlight what the visitors are missing out on.

Social proof example Puravida

Cart Abandonment Emails

This one’s a classic cart recovery strategy and requires you to create a sense of urgency so that people complete their purchase. Depending on whether the stock’s running low or the discount is time-bound, you can write a personalized email copy. For those who still don’t budge after the first nudge, you can offer an additional discount + free shipping.

Now let’s take a look at an email sent by Ghurka. It’s a reminder that the product has been ‘saved’ for them, but there’s no guarantee the stock’s going to last forever! They also mention the exclusivity of their products, which makes the saved item even more valuable.

Ghurka

Coming to when you should send these emails, folks at Email Monks say you should send three emails, with the first one sent within an hour of abandoning the cart. Nevertheless, that’s not the rule of thumb. A/B test to see how your customers respond. Also, find out where your customers exit so that you can fix why they’re leaving in the first place.

Use the Endowed Progress Effect

According to Changing Minds, Endowed Progress Effect is based on the idea that when people feel they’ve made some progress towards their goal they feel more committed to continue and achieve it. But what’s it got to do with loss aversion? Good question. Well, what happens is that when some progress is made, it creates a fear in people’s mind that if they abandon mid-way (or earlier on), they will lose out on whatever’s at the other end.

Now over to how and when to use the endowed progress effect.

#1: In interactive content: Let’s consider the Which Iconic Handbag Are You quiz by Try Interact. They show progress made by the customer by showing the progress bar + the number of questions left to answer. If they would love to get a personalized recommendation, they better keep going!

endowment example

#2: Reward and Loyalty Programs

Your customers should be able to see the progress they’ve made so far in the loyalty tier. For first-timers you can make the program more interesting: Positively reinforce them by gifting them ‘welcome points’. Seeing those accumulated points in their panel will motivate them to shop and collect more reward points to advance to the next level.

Rewards example

But with all the hard-earned points collected comes the fear of losing them if they aren’t redeemed on time. So send a reminder asking them to use their points before they expire. It will create urgency and trigger them to become repeat customers. Remember to send personalized recommendations to make your message more appealing and relevant.

Closing Thoughts

By now you know that your go-to power move is to highlight what’s at stake. At the same time, since you’re walking a tightrope, make sure you don’t paralyze your customers with fear so much that they completely shut you out. The key is to find the balance and make the offer compelling enough for them to take action. Unless you do that none of your discounts, coupons, reward programs, and cart recovery emails are going to move the conversion needle.

Next, practice restraint when applying the principle of scarcity and urgency, otherwise it could backfire.

Signing off with the hope that this catalog of loss aversion strategies brings you results!

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Feb 5, 2019

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Halo Effect: What it is, Why it Works and How to Use it

AB Tasty

What is the Halo Effect?

The Halo Effect is our tendency to make an overall impression of a person based on a single trait. If X is good-looking, X is also a duty-bound citizen and will follow the law to the letter. Illogical, but that’s how it works.

Let’s go back in time and surprise ourselves a bit.

A 1974 study found that when it came to sentencing defendants in the court of law, jurors showed leniency towards physically attractive individuals over unattractive ones, even though they had committed exactly the same crime. Another study revealed that social workers found it hard to digest that a beautiful person can commit a crime.

Can you believe it? A more important question: Do people continue to take good looks this seriously?

Very much so. Even when there’s enough information available to make accurate judgments, our brain prefers taking shortcuts. The short cut, in this case, is a cognitive bias called the Halo Effect.

To an extent, the Halo Effect is a type of confirmation bias, since we judge people in a manner that confirms our first impression of them or what we already believe about them. We turn to it to fill the gaps in our understanding of a person, who we don’t know yet. In that sense, it can also backfire because if we don’t like them then it will lead to negative biases. X criticizes, X is arrogant.

Tracing Its Origins

It was Edward Thorndike who first introduced the term ‘Halo Effect’ in a 1920 paper, A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings. In his research, military commanding officers were asked to assess a series of traits, including intellect, leadership skills, personal qualities (intelligence, loyalty, responsibility, selflessness, and cooperation), and physical qualities (voice, neatness, physique, etc.) of their subordinate soldiers. The researchers found that high ratings of one quality correlated with high ratings of other traits, whereas negative ratings of one quality pulled down other trait scores.

Although this theory was proposed in reference to people, the metaphor extends to brands, website design, marketing strategies, and advertising.

In each case, it reiterates one fact: We are not always as objective as we believe we are. Even our most rational decisions are sometimes flawed and misguided.

We are not always as objective as we believe we are. Even our most rational decisions are sometimes flawed and misguided.

How to Create a Halo Effect

Marketers have actually been benefiting from creating a Halo Effect on their websites and brands for a long time. To get ahead of the game, the key is to know where the limit is – consumers aren’t blind to these efforts, and overdoing it can backfire.

Now, if you’re ready, here’s how to pull all the right strings to create a positive, first impression.

Put Attractiveness to Good Use

When someone good-looking becomes the face of your brand, the perceived value of your product increases. It’s called the attractiveness halo effect. And marketers dig this strategy because it pays off. What really transpires? Scientists claim that, when seeing an attractive man or a woman in an advertisement, people bypass their rational faculty and buy on impulse. They assume ‘what is beautiful is good’ and transfer the model’s attractiveness (easily observed characteristic) to the product. Though, what’s interesting is that this phenomenon is mostly restricted to products related to beauty.

Halo Effect attractiveness — Gucci Bloom campaign

Now if you’re a beauty brand, it’s worth noting that some researchers have recorded negative responses (pg.22) toward attractive models, especially among female consumers. This, in turn, had a negative impact on the ad’s effectiveness. One likely explanation is social comparison with models. That said, even men’s self-esteem takes a blow seeing stereotypical male models.

Other studies demonstrate positive consumer responses to less stereotypical depictions, like the Dove “Real Women” campaign. This has encouraged many brands to feature real, un-photoshopped photos of models to keep it as real as possible. Needless to say, the Halo Effect in such cases is phenomenal!

Bottom line: Use attractive models if they are relevant to the products and services you offer.

Pleasing Website Design

From people to websites, we do prefer anything that is remotely good-looking. The logic goes: Beautiful = Trustworthy.

Findings published by ConversionXL Institute confirm: People look at design-related elements to determine whether they should trust a website or not.

See for yourself. Of the two screenshots below, which website do you think you trust more?

The second one, because it looks better design-wise? Correct. It’s less cluttered and more purpose-driven.

This brings us to the next point: Creating an eye-candy of a website is a job half-done. Unless it is easy for users to find what they are looking and carry out necessary functions, they won’t care to stop by later.

The question to now ask is: What do you do?

You identify user experience issues because even one bad experience can hurt your company’s reputation and no amount of cosmetic changes can fix that. Marks & Spencer tried and failed. Their redesigned website had several usability and performance issues, which caused an 8.1% of drop in sales.

Bottom line: Aesthetic web design and usability go hand-in-hand.

Borrow Celebrity Influence

Signing-up celebrities to endorse you is the fastest way to amplify trustworthiness of your brand. How does it work? Well, fans admire their favorite celeb and by extension, they trust the brands they represent.

celebrities in ads — Tommy Hilfiger x Gigi Hadid Spring 2018 RTW Collection

That said, getting a celeb onboard is a complicated process. There are a few things to take care of:

Celeb’s public image and your existing and intended brand image should be a natural fit.
Their celebrated status shouldn’t overshadow your brand and products.
They shouldn’t endorse multiple or your competitor’s products. It dilutes your ad’s recall value.

But even when all the necessary safety precautions are taken, companies face backlash when a celeb goofs up. This can, of course, never be predicted, which is why it’s always better to monitor what the celebrity has been up to.

Nike severed its ties with cyclist Lance Armstrong when he was found guilty of using illicit drugs

Bottom line: Celebs are a means to an end; use their popularity such that they don’t overshadow your brand.

Create A Solid Brand Equity

Moving on from your website to your brand.

Your brand equity or value hinges on your customer’s perception of + preference and experience with your brand. If you want them to think highly of your brand, focus on the quality and innovation of your products and services. In the end, both must exceed their expectations.

Once you become a household name, your products will start selling owing to the Halo Effect. This happens since people positively associate with the rest of your product line-up. A classic example is when in 2003, Nike used its brand recognition to enter a competitive golf equipment market.

The opposite is also true: One negative experience and your sales figures will plummet. Back in 2017, for example, Samsung’s brand equity declined when Galaxy Note 7 was recalled. Surprisingly, though, it maintained a strong emotional connection with consumers at the master brand level over Apple. Would you be as fortunate as them? Honestly, there’s a one in a billion chance!

Bottom Line: Working your way up the popularity charts is an ongoing process.

Cash In On The Popularity Of A Star Product

A lot of companies benefit from a Halo Effect that stems from the popularity of one of their products. Not only do their other, old products start selling like hot cakes, but even the future products are expected to be well-received.

Here’s how iPod became a halo for the rest of Apple products:

In 2004, Apple focused solely on bombarding the public with ‘TV advertising, print ads and billboards touting its iPod’. The iPod brand took over the world by storm and ‘Apple computer and related businesses were up 27% in fiscal 2005 over the previous year. And, according to industry reports, Apple increased its share of the personal computer market from 3% to 4%.’

Bottom Line: Create a star product and let it work its magic on your catalog.

Ready With A Plan?

Obviously, you are!

Go on and use the Halo Effect to make a genuine connection with your target audience. Get them to like you right from the start, because you never really get a second chance to create an incredible, first impression!

At the same time, remember to conduct usability tests to gather enough data. You’ll ultimately learn what’s working, identify new opportunities to optimize conversion and know where the leaks need repairing.

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The Barnum Effect: How it Affects Marketing and Conversions

AB Tasty

Have you ever checked your horoscope in the newspaper and thought it was surprisingly accurate? Or maybe you once went for a Tarot card reading and found the interpretation really relevant? This is the Barnum Effect at work.

The Barnum Effect, also called the Forer Effect, can be described as the psychological phenomenon, “that occurs when individuals believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them (more so than to other people), despite the fact that the description is actually filled with information that applies to everyone.” [Vohs, Kathleen D. “Barnum Effect,” Encyclopædia Britannica 2016].

Rooted in people’s susceptibility to flattery and tendency to believe seemingly authoritative sources, the Barnum Effect means that, if delivered the right way, people will accept generalities as being directly relevant to them.

Origins of the Barnum Effect

The Barnum Effect got its name from the 19th century American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum, who many think coined the phrase, ‘a sucker is born every minute.’ However, it was perhaps the work of psychology professor Bertram Forer in the late 1940s that best illustrates the phenomenon.

Interested in studying personality, Professor Forer decided to conduct a personality test (in the form of a questionnaire) on his class of Introduction to Psychology students. The survey was written in such a way as to make the students believe that each of their unique set of answers would be analyzed and used to give them an individual personality assessment. However, Professor Forer instead gave each student an identical assessment – a paragraph full of generalities that could be true for nearly anyone, such as, ‘You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself.’ [Wiseman, Richard, Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives (London: Macmillan, 2007), chap. 1, Google books]

Surprisingly, on a scale of 1 to 5, 87% of students rated their personality assessment as being very accurate – giving it a score of 4 or 5. Various explanations exist for why the students were so willing to accept the bogus assessment, including human gullibility regarding positive feedback and perceived authority figures.

The Barnum Effect Applied to Conversion Optimization

Though most applicable for activities like fortune-telling or horoscopes, elements of the Barnum Effect can be useful in online CRO strategies. Personalization campaigns, for example, can use ‘generalities’ (messaging to audience segments) to make individual customers feel like they’re being interacted with on a one-to-one basis. Think about product recommendations made ‘just for you,’ or personalization campaigns that rely on user behavioral triggers or in-depth demographic data.

At AB Tasty, we ran a campaign with our client Sephora that involved displaying a promotional banner personalized for loyalty card holders. Loyalty card programs already play on the attraction of exclusivity, and though the personalized banner was shown to all loyalty card holders, people have a tendency to feel these kinds of messages are being directed specifically to them. Incidentally, this banner lead to a 16% increase in transactions on Sephora’s site.

Use of the Barnum effect to increase conversions
AB Tasty client Sephora displayed a personalized discount banner just to loyalty card holders,exploiting the Barnum Effect.

In a similar vein, you can also personalize promotional banners, pop-ins, or any other part of your site with personalized promo codes or messages that, although generic in nature, nonetheless make consumers feel as if they’re being considered as individuals.

Similarly, another AB Tasty client, fashion retailer Karen Millen, set up a personalization campaign (seen below) to promote discounted items only to customers who had a history of buying items on sale.

Barnum effect for ecommerce website

Lastly, using a client’s first name, birth date, or other personal information is another way of using generic information in the spirit of the Barnum Effect, to make browsers feel interacted with on a one-to-one level.

How to use the Barnum effect for better conversions — Personalized emailings are a particularly effective way of harnessing the Barnum Effect to make clients feel special.

Discover more cognitive biais and CRO Applications by downloading our dedicated Psychology Hacks for Website Optimization Ebook !

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Jan 24, 2019

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Cognitive Dissonance: How You Can Resolve It And Drive More Conversions

AB Tasty

Cognitive dissonance is the psychological discomfort we experience when our belief clashes with contradictory information. This unsettling state of anguish, in turn, motivates us to reconcile the difference, either by changing our behavior or altering the importance of conflicting/dissonant beliefs.

Let’s take an example.

A smoker enjoys smoking, but also knows it’s detrimental to health. To minimize dissonance, they can give up smoking (change behavior) or rationalize their habit saying everyone has to die one day, or it isn’t as harmful as drinking. The latter sounds bizarre, but shows the extent to which people are willing to go to reclaim their peace of mind!

So what’s it got to do in an ecommerce setup? A lot.

As more and more people are shopping online, they’re also becoming increasingly skeptical. They notice every tiny detail before they hand over their hard-earned money to you! This means there’s even more of a chance that if they come across any conflicting information on your website, they will experience cognitive dissonance.

You, therefore, must identify loopholes and create a plan that solidifies their trust in you.

Wondering what can trigger cognitive dissonance and how to deal with it? Keep reading to find out.

Display Trust Signals On Your Website

As a safety measure, one of the first things online shoppers do to lower the perceived risk of transaction is look for trust signals, some of which are discussed below.

#1: Multiple, Reputable Payment Options

According to a survey published on HubSpot, 59% of buyers abandon a transaction if their preferred payment option isn’t available. Why? Because people have a varying degree of loyalty towards different payment methods. So bear that in mind and tailor your payment process accordingly. You’ll be leaving a lot of money on the table if you don’t!

Think about your target audience demographics and payment behavior in specific countries and regions. After all, the mode of payment popular in the US may not necessarily be as popular in Asia.

online payment methods

#2: Trust Logos

With fraud cases on the rise, people are wary about sharing their private information, fearing it will be misused. The good news though is that with trust logos (privacy seals, SSLs, or brand association badges) in place you can tell your customers they are in safe hands.

So, which ones are recommended to use on your website? Well, there’s no one straightforward answer. A famous Baymard’s trust study from 2013 states that people don’t have a preference between trust seals and SSL seals, but they definitely show a preference for antivirus companies, possibly because they are familiar with them. This perceived sense of security based on familiarity implies that people simply want to see a trust seal because it makes them feel safe.

To dig a little deeper, CXL Institute conducted a study to expand on the above-stated Baymard Institute’s findings. They found out that familiar brands like Norton, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Google are the most trusted seals when paying online. What they also discovered was gender and generational differences in ‘perceived’ security. Clearly, this means you must optimize for your audience and not randomly choose a trust logo.

Payment logos — Verified by Visa Program and MasterCard Secure Code on the Victoria’s Secret checkout page.

#3: Reviews and Testimonials

By showcasing social proof on the homepage, product or the pricing page, and near the shopping cart, you will:

Reassure your customers of their choice.
Counter any objection/contradictory thought that surfaces in their mind.
Stop them from unnecessarily overthinking the consequences.

Social proof example — LeadQuizzes uses ‘wisdom of the crowd’ on the pricing page to positively influence their website visitors.

If you run a platform like Etsy, it’s a good idea to add seller ratings to put your customers at ease, as shown below.

Etsy social proof

#4: Money Back Guarantee

Giving a money back guarantee is a surefire way to keep post-purchase dissonance at bay. There’ll be no room for regret because the stakes are low. Customers can return the product if they are even slightly dissatisfied with it!

But simply ensuring a money back guarantee isn’t sufficient. You’ve got to have a simple and transparent return and refunds process explained on your website. There’s every chance these customers will buy from you again. Here’s proof: 95% of shoppers prefer buying again from the same platform if they had a positive and convenient exchange or return experience.

Zappos money back — Step-by-step explanation of return procedure on Zappos

Order Confirmation Transaction Emails

If you didn’t know, an order confirmation email has the highest average open rates at 70%! Two reasons why:

First, it casts away a customer’s apprehension and informs them that their order has been received. Second, it gives them a sense of security; these emails function as receipts required at the time of reimbursement and returns.

order confirmation email graph

If you haven’t been sending order confirmation emails, you’re breaching their trust. The only way to right this wrong is to start sending them and make sure they include:

A personalized thank you note to extend the excitement of their purchase.
Purchase details, like the order number, purchased item (with images), payment details, delivery address etc.
Shipment tracking and an estimated delivery time frame.
Customer services’ contact information and a link back to the website.

Amazon example for shipping — Amazon’s email containing relevant shipping and order details

Leverage the Choice-Supportive Bias

Have you ever bought something and immediately regretted it, but also defended your decision because you believe you don’t make bad decisions? That’s choice-supportive bias in action.

During this decision-rationalizing process, we tend to ‘ascribe positive attributes’ to our choice and amplify the negative features of the rejected option. Think of it as a way to reduce cognitive dissonance.

When it comes to your customers, you can reinforce the bias by sending positive and reassuring messages during key stages of their journey. They will end up feeling terrific about themselves!

‘Great choice, there’ or ‘Your cart has some of our bestsellers’ is a perfect way to flatter someone adding a product to their cart. It validates their choice and motivates them to keep shopping. You can also recover abandoned carts by featuring testimonials in your emails. It triggers the choice-supportive bias and before you know it, your customer’s back on the purchase path!

In fact, once they checkout, pep them up with a congratulatory, ‘What fine taste’ message!

choice support bias example

Another way to activate choice-supportive bias is by pitting free and premium features against each other. The free trial user will immediately be more confident about their choice and might even become a paying customer!

LinkedIn example

Create a Sense of Closure

Customers love having choices but also find it overwhelming. Even when they do zero down on one and buy it, they agonize over all the other still available options and begin to regret their decision! This is why it’s important you offer some kind of choice closure to your customers and shut their minds off from alternate choices!

An effective choice closure strategy is asking for product reviews. Make sure you time your request and ensure they’ve used your product long enough to write a review that’s closer to their actual experience.

Sephora reviews — This Sephora email includes a sample review and rating to motivate customers to write their own!

Provide Exceptional Customer Service and Support

There’s nothing more dreadful than dealing with a customer who’s having second thoughts about their purchase! It may seem like all your efforts of building a customer-client relationship have gone to waste. One way you can rectify this situation is by providing an excellent customer service. And it starts with being there for them at every stage of their buyer’s journey.

7 out of 10 U.S. consumers say they’ve spent more money to do business with a company that delivers great service. Plus, when it comes to making a purchase, 64% of people find customer experience more important than price.

What’s interesting is that even businesses have realized it:

Econsultancy’s 2018 DIgital Trends Report

Speaking of which, here’s how you can follow suit and prioritize customer satisfaction:

Ensure your customer services and support team knows the business inside-out.
Have a contact page easily accessible from anywhere on the website.
Mention how long it takes you to respond to queries. It’s called expectations management.
Do away with canned responses; become more human.
Use a live chat tool for faster customer support and better customer experience. A study revealed that as many as 77% of customers won’t make a purchase on a website if there’s no live chat option available!

Once a customer has a stellar experience with your brand, they will stick with you for longer and become repeat customers. Furthermore, their word-of-mouth marketing will grow your existing customer base!

Send Feedback Surveys to Feel Your Customer’s Pulse

Listening to your customers is the quickest way to learn what causes buyer’s remorse. But getting actionable insights means asking the right questions. Have a look on what to ask:

What made you buy the product?
How is it helping you?
What doubts did you have before buying it?
What was the biggest challenge in finding the right product?
What made you nearly abandon our website?
Was there any particular information you couldn’t find an answer to on the website?
Any other comments or remarks?

Meanwhile, it also helps to follow some of the best practices when creating a survey:

Use simple, jargon-free language.
Throw in a variety of questions, e.g.: multiple choice, likert scale, ranking, rating etc.
Ask neutral questions like ‘How helpful was our customer services team today?’.
Avoid double-barrelled questions, which means address only one topic per question.
Show a progress bar to keep them going.
Ask open-ended questions towards the end.
Test on multiple devices.
Always A/B test.

survey

With that taken care of comes the timing of the survey. Ideally, send it when you’re still fresh in their minds. Their answers will be closer to their actual experience and you’ll be on your way to fixing bad experiences in no time!

Connect With Them Over Your Blog

The more invested a customer is in you, the stronger the chances they will slip into a state of cognitive dissonance. It’s especially true for B2B buyers.

To tackle this, develop an ongoing stream of content in the form of a blog. Apparently, 71% of B2B buyers engage with blogs during the purchasing process. Your customers are no different. A Content Preferences Survey Report says, 47% of buyers consume three to five pieces of content before contacting a sales rep.

Content survey

Once you consistently create valuable and relevant content, you’ll be viewed as an expert. Combine that with your interest in interacting with your readers in comments, and you’ll create massive opportunities for your sales team. Prospects will walk straight into your marketing funnel because you seem trustworthy, interested in helping first and clinching a sale later.

You can learn a great deal about getting blogging right from Zapier. They write detailed, informative posts and are able to impress their website visitors.

zapier example

Wrap Up

By now you know the strategies you can use to reduce the chances of your customers experiencing cognitive dissonance.

Remember that all that your customer expects is a smooth experience from the beginning to end. They should be able to locate trust signals, know you’ve received their order, and that you are there when they need your help. Even returning the product shouldn’t be a hassle.

Also, shut them off from available options to reduce post-choice regret and analyze survey feedback to learn about the source of their buyer’s remorse.

Over to you now: How ready are you to take the bull by the horns?!

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Dec 21, 2018

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7 Ways To Make Your Testimonials More Persuasive

AB Tasty

Social proof is pivotal in establishing your company’s credibility. Recommendations from current customers cultivates trust in your brand, and prospective clients value the “tried-and-true” insight your testimonials provide.

Here are some quick stats on the positive impact of testimonials:

- 91% of 18– 34-year-olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

Customers are likely to spend 31% more with a business that has “excellent” reviews.
Nearly 70% of consumers rely on online reviews before making a purchase.
90% of respondents who read online reviews said positive ones impact their buying decisions.

Trust of online reviews vs. personal recommendations

But just adding a few testimonials to your website isn’t enough. Brands that inspire higher emotional intensity receive 3x as much word-of-mouth as opposed to less emotionally-connected brands.

Unless your customer testimonials tell a convincing story that resonates with people, they will never sell. So, how do you curate testimonials that have a positive impact?

Showcase Reverse Testimonials

A reverse testimonial is a positive review that begins with skepticism. It homes in on the uncertainty your customer had before making a purchase, what swayed them to choose you, and why that was the right decision. (This is something Copyblogger has made popular.)

Reverse testimonials feel more genuine than praise-only pull quotes, which can come across as saccharine and insincere. By acknowledging that your customer initially had doubts about your product, you create an immediate connection with a prospect that’s weighing your brand against your competitors.

Check out the Bony to Beastly review below. Adam begins by talking about how overwhelmed he was searching for a workout program when most of them seemed like shams.

Adam echoes a universal doubt that people feel when evaluating a product: Will I be satisfied with my purchase? Is this the best choice?

Testimonial explains why this brand was unique

Adam then notes what the deciding factor was for selecting Bony to Beastly, and why this workout program is unique compared to all the others (making it the top choice).

Feature Your High-Profile, Influential Customers

People with a strong reputation—whether they be celebrities or esteemed professionals—are often admired for their success, skillset, and expertise. When your company has a high-profile ambassador recommending your product, your perceived value automatically increases.

This, in part, is the result of a cognitive bias called the Halo Effect. According to this theory, an impression someone has of one thing will influence their idea of another, unrelated, thing.

How does the Halo Effect relate to conversions? The logic is, “I admire X, and X recommends this product, so the product must be worth buying.”

Look at how BuzzSumo features the Rolling Stones, HubSpot, and Moz.com.

BuzzSumo features testimonials from high-profile clients

This “influencer” strategy isn’t new—it’s been used by marketers and advertisers for a long time.

Check out this article, if you are interested in learning more about the evolution of this tactic.

Create a Case Study Page

A case study allows you to chronicle your success story in detail and demonstrate the true value of your product/service. Here’s how to get started:

Ask the right questions. Show where your customer was before you came into the picture and how things turned out for them.
Include data to legitimize claims.
List your case studies on a dedicated section of your website.

At AB Tasty, we named our page “Client Stories.” These stories validate our claims and give readers a sense of security, both in terms of the number of clients we’ve worked with and the quality of our service.

If you’re looking for design inspiration for your page or testimonial, check out Hubspot. You can filter results by industry, location, company size, challenges, and so on. Hootsuite’s archive is also worth a look.

Experiment with the video format

HubSpot research says that 45% of people watch an hour or more of video per day.

Another study noted that 79% of people would rather watch a video about a product than read about it, and roughly 84% of consumers have bought something after watching a video.

The bottom line? Videos are a fantastic way to engage with customers, especially with video testimonials.

Producing these videos can be costly, but the ROI is worth it. Aberdeen Group says that video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year and achieve a 54% increase in brand awareness.

Let’s look at the video testimonial on the Codeacademy website:

The focus is on three former students—not the brand—who talk about their experience before and after the coding course. This is a video testimonial done right. It’s long enough to hold a viewer’s attention and features relatable anecdotes.

Include Quotes That Provide Insight

Quotes are relatively easy to get but tricky to get right. Potential clients usually aren’t impressed by a generic compliment like, “the product is user-friendly!”

So how do you get a quote that’s crisp, substantial, and believable?

For one, ask your clients to be specific. What feature do they love using and why? Do they have any data that highlights their successes?

Featured quote that backs up claims with data

Then, give context. Add a photograph of the person giving the quote, along with their credentials, to humanize the testimonial and give it a greater sense of “truthiness.”

Including photos of customers help make their quotes more relatable

One A/B test and found that including the face of a happy customer increases conversion rates by 102.5%.

Photos of happy customers help increase conversions

Interview Your Customers

A great example of using an interview for a testimonial is from Squarespace. They conducted an interview with Keanu Reeves (a high-profile ambassador) and interspersed his answers throughout the page, highlighting not-to-be-missed quotes.

Squarespace features Keanu Reeves on their site

The content is informative, interesting, and feels organic—it never comes across like a sales pitch.

Keanu Reeves’ interview serves as a testimonial

Look For Unsolicited Testimonials

…and use them wherever you can.

Deadline Funnel used unsolicited testimonials on their website and plans to use them in their email sequences as well.

Deadline Funnel uses unsolicited testimonials on their site

Unsolicited praise is genuine, unscripted, and without an ulterior motive: it’s just from customers sincerely happy with your brand. These sorts of testimonials cement your company’s credibility and increase your conversions.

So don’t let public praise for your company go to waste! It’s a great way to show the positive impact you’ve had on customers, and the appreciation you have for them in return.

Bizzabo showcased customer tweets on their website

Getting Started

Now that you’ve stockpiled some useful tips on using testimonials to increase conversions, it’s time to start curating! Run an A/B test to see what sort of testimonials work best for you, and don’t limit yourself when it comes to formatting, style, and placement.

And now we turn it to you: How do you make customer testimonials stand out?

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