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In the ecommerce, the sales strategies they are as diverse as brands are, we can find all kinds of offers and activities to attract customers, being the Behavioral Science or behavioral science, an important tool for achieving conversion. Do you know what it is and how you can apply it to your ecommerce? Don't miss this article!
Have you asked yourself: What factors influence your customers' purchase decision? Have you taken into account aspects such as their emotions, frustrations or aspirations within your sales strategies? Doing so will allow you to focus more efficiently on your business actions. Let's see how, entering the interesting world of Behavioral Science.
Why do we buy? Consider it part of your sales strategies
Human beings respond rationally or emotionally to certain stimuli in our environment, which affects the decisions we make and the way we act, consider this aspect within your sales tactics. For example, how you react when you find a traffic light whose color indicates the stop, you will surely stop immediately, is your rational response to a traffic signal, which for your safety and that of others, you know you must abide by.
Something similar happens with the emotional response, those sensations that we develop when faced with certain stimuli. What does it make you see or interact with a baby or a puppy? Tenderness, joy, love?
As we can see, the rational or emotional response determines our actions. Bringing this to the world of ecommerce, will result in those sales strategies that allow the user to encourage certain behaviors such as making a purchase or developing an affinity for the brand, or at least, increasing the chances of these actions taking place.
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Sales strategy for ecommerce No. 1: Communicate to sell
The way in which the message is presented, what it transmits and its visual aspect (how they see the product in your ecommerce or in your advertising), are stimuli that generate emotional or rational responses. When they see your product: does the customer feel interested, like it, and can they perceive it as a relief from their (emotional) frustration or need? Do you consider it the best option because of its features, price, benefits and guarantees on the (rational) purchase?
How do your customers react to a brand communication or a sales strategy? Each click or conversion is a response to the stimulus you are giving them, they are behaviors that must be studied and measured to determine their impact and improve their results.
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The process generated in the Behavioral Science is summarized in the following graph:
Where:
· Encouragement refers to anything that generates behavior, such as an advertisement or a call to action.
· The response refers to the behavior generated by the stimulus, such as responding to the call to action or opening the advertisement.
· The consequence is what is achieved after the behavior, such as accessing an offer or receiving more information.
On the basis of the above, consider the Behavioral Science In your online sales strategies. Before deploying each of your campaigns, ask yourself:
· What emotions does it generate in your current and future customers?
· Does it meet or help solve a user need?
· Do you present your product as a simple and cost-effective alternative?
· Do you offer sufficient guarantees to the customer about their purchase?
· Do you take into account testimonials or good recommendations for your product?
Many of our purchasing decisions are conditioned by the above factors. This is where you should ask yourself: are you communicating to sell or are you simply publishing?
Ecommerce sales strategy No. 2: Enchant them with the content
Have you ever heard of the conversion funnel? It's a sales strategy used in digital marketing, where content leads to a customer prospect through the different stages of the funnel, ranging from capturing their interest to achieving conversion and retention. This process also involves the Behavioral Science, let's see how he does it.
Sales strategies focused on content marketing are a powerful tool for ecommerce, these take into account the needs and emotions of the user to get their attention and make them know our brand in a non-commercial way, but rather as generators of valuable content that provides, educates and is useful for the reader, becoming valuable information that increases the customer base and enhances the positive perception of the brand.
To deploy this sales strategy, you must first of all be clear about your customer or buyer persona profiles, that is, to know who and how you are going to speak to through your content, then you must identify what stage of the funnel the prospect or lead is in and guide them in the buying process, generating content for each phase.
Content for each stage of the funnel
Learning and problem recognition. During these first two stages, offer them content that is so interesting that it captures their attention and addresses their frustration or need. The user is looking for solutions to problems or consulting information (at this stage many people discover needs they didn't know they had), provide them with the valuable content they want to find to resolve their issue and subtly present your product as a solution, invite them to learn more.
Consideration of the solution. At this stage, the user is more aware of the problem and of the possible solutions that you have shared with them in the content, this is where they can become a lead; if the content was valuable, they will surely be willing to leave their data to continue receiving related information that is of interest to them.
Take advantage of his e-mail to send him support material on the subject such as e-books, tutorials or infographics, invite him to webinars or podcasts. Keep nurturing the lead through valuable content that will be to their liking and let them know much more about the solutions offered by your product.
Purchase decision. The customer is already considering the purchase, it's time to highlight more than ever the differentials of your product, its benefits, how it has helped other users to solve their needs, success stories, etc., strong content that will increase the chances of conversion.
If you have done it right, after going through the different stages of the funnel, where you had positive emotional and rational responses to the content, you will surely be in your top of mind, you will be achieving one of the objectives of your online sales strategy.
Let's look at it with an example
Did you have any doubts about the previous one? Sales Strategy? We are going to put it into practice with a simple example, in this case, we will take as a basis a customer profile of a ecommerce which sells products for pets such as food, toys, clothes, among others:
María is a young professional, she lives in an apartment in the country's capital with her 2 cats, she likes to read and share her free time with her pets, and when she can, she goes out with her friends. Every day he goes to work where he works as an assistant in the area of risk prevention, leaves home in the morning and returns in the evening.
While not at home, cats have different behaviors: they tear the sofa, carpet or curtains, throw things on the floor and break objects, which have become quite a concern for María, because, although she loves her pets, their damage causes stress, distress and additional expenses.
Looking online for a possible solution, find an article on the blog of your ecommerce called: “How to prevent your cats from making disasters in the home”. At that moment you captured his attention, generated curiosity, joy and emotion, by publishing just what he was looking for to solve his problem.
When you access the content, you will find statistics on these behaviors in cats, what they are due to and what actions can be implemented to avoid them, including buying certain toys, sharing play spaces for a certain time, implementing a home gym for pets, etc., proven alternatives with a high probability of solving María's need.
After providing this valuable information, you can invite her to leave her details to continue receiving content related to cat care and to introduce her to the products of your ecommerce that can help in this case.
At this stage of the process, you already have María's information, you discovered that she is a qualified lead and that she is considering your product as a solution to her problem; she felt identified, she knows that you understand her need and provide her with solutions, she feels a certain affinity for the brand (emotional reaction). Now, Maria is evaluating how much your product can help her, how beneficial and safe it will be for her pets and how affordable its value is for her (rational reaction).
It's time to continue the lead nurturing process and encourage the purchase decision! Use testimonials from people who had the same problem as María and highlight how they solved it thanks to your product. Send him tutorials on how easy it is to use, let him know different alternatives for his budget, share content backed by a professional showing the benefits of toys for the physical and emotional health of cats, etc., these actions will increase the chances of conversion.
Every day, users pay less attention to ads and more to what brands offer them; seduce them through content and attract them to your ecommerce, seeks to gain a prominent place in their mind and preference.
Ecommerce Sales Strategy No. 3: Behavioral Design
Inside the interesting world of Behavioral Science, there is a branch called Behavioral Design, focused on how certain aspects of the structure and design of your ecommerce, your ads or communications, can generate higher levels of response from users to generate conversion.
Aspects such as images, content distribution, spacing, presentation of titles or call-to-action buttons, among others, influence audience response levels. Small changes can lead to important results, In this regard, we spoke with Miguel Verduzco, an expert in this field, who shared some simple tips that you can implement within your Sales Strategies.
Listen to the full interview with Miguel, by clicking Here
* Perform small tests on your ecommerce placing the text in different ways, changing the color of the CTAs or the prices; analyze and measure how this impacts your conversion rate.
* In your email marketing templates, test with different designs, images, colors and subjects; measure which ones are best received by users, recording the best open and click through rates.
* Place at the beginning of each blog article, the time it will take for the user to read it, people tend to avoid activities, whose perception of effort is very high. If they enter your blog and don't know how long it will take them to read it, they may think it's too long and they don't have the time or interest to do it. It has been proven that placing time improves the percentage of consumption and permanence in these contents.
* Make a diagnosis of the flow your users go through to the purchase and identify if there are barriers during the process. If you found logistical frictions, that is, steps that make the procedure difficult or longer, find a way to remove them or reduce the number of clicks as much as possible.
If the barriers found are cognitive, that is, it is not clear how to carry out the purchase process or consume the content, run tests with different people, ask them to try to buy X product in your ecommerce or that they interact with your site; notice how easy it is for them or what steps need to be restructured, where they click, what catches their attention, what doesn't make a good impression, etc. This will allow you to make improvements to the store to make it more attractive and usable. The user must be able to buy or find what they are looking for quickly and easily.
* Place within each product, how many people have purchased it, as a social rule, we are more interested in buying something that other users have already purchased.
* Research the Behavioral Design, carry out tests and find out how you can improve your ecommerce and other communications you have with the customer; consider expert advice.
Remember that all the elements found in a Online store, advertisement or communication, should help the user to make decisions in an agile and intuitive way, guiding them in their decision-making and action process, this factor cannot be ignored within your Online Sales Strategies.
You know how the Behavioral Science is an important tool that can help you achieve the conversion. Now, after generating the sale, you should consider enlistment and distribution, if you are looking for an ally to help you improve your delivery process, enhance your compliance and the satisfaction of your customers, do not hesitate to contact us, we are the best fulfillment center for ecommerce in Mexico and Colombia, you just have to click Here.
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