Understanding The Buying Process And Influencing Consumer Buying Decisions
When your goal is to make money on the Internet, you probably focus on what you can create or promote, how to price your products, how often to create content, and so on. But most marketers ignore one of the most crucial elements of their success: consumer buying behavior.
This is especially important if you’re going to create your own info products, and will be writing your own sales copy. When you aren’t aware of what makes up someone’s buying decisions, you can’t craft the words or engage in the right behavior to make that happen.
Below, you’ll discover the psychology behind a consumer’s purchasing decisions so that you can take your marketing campaigns to the next level. You’ll be able to appeal to your target audience and help them overcome any objections to spending money with you.
This not only impacts that one purchase, but if you’re able to meet their needs consistently, it will help you forge a more loyal bond with these buyers so that you can remain competitive in the future.
Understand the Perceived Value of Your Product or Service
There are many elements that can impact a buyer’s perception of the value of your product. Many marketers (especially desperate newbies) fail to realize that a low price point doesn’t translate into a great launch.
Not in every case, at least. In fact, a price point that’s too low can actually backfire. It makes the prospective customer think your product or service isn’t worth top dollar. People are selective about how they spend their money, and they’re usually willing to spend a bit more for better quality.
If you think about it, you’re no different as a consumer. If you were car shopping and found a newer used car priced extremely low, you’d immediately wonder what was wrong with it.
You wouldn’t be thinking about what a good deal you were getting. So start by pricing your product in a way that reflects true value – not pricing people out of being able to buy it, either.
Sometimes, the length of amount of your product or service can impact perceived value. There are some consumers who buy info products based on quantity of pages or videos rather than reputation and quality.
The presentation as a whole of your offer needs to be professional. Invest in good graphics and don’t slap up a sales page that looks like it’s stuck in the 1990s. It needs to load quickly, be responsive and work on all digital gadgets, and reflect your brand correctly.
Another thing that might influence perceived value is when consumers see who all is promoting it. If you can recruit top, influential and reputable affiliates, it will work in your favor.
Demographics Can Play a Role in Whether or Not Someone Buys from You
Sometimes, the demographics that a consumer can be described by is what will ultimately play a role in whether or not they want to purchase a product or service from you.
Demographics include all of the characteristic data such as their gender, age, financial situation, geographical location, occupation, and even their level of education. you want to keep this in mind whenever you are creating your marketing and sales material because it can heavily sway people into making a decision one way or the other.
Even with the same product, such as a piece of luggage or a purse, an age difference might factor into the purchasing decision for different age groups. While older and wiser consumers might be looking at the durability and value of these pieces, a younger person might be more interested in what is trending or fashionable.
When crafting your content, gender might be what affects a marketing decision. In fact, there’s a top selling ClickBank weight loss product that has visitors click on their gender before entering the sales page that will cater to their needs.
When you’re targeting lower income audiences, your message of savings might be more prominent than if you’re targeting people whose income isn’t a factor because they will spend top dollar on their needs.
Even with education, you might use a more sophisticated message or language with college graduates than if you’re targeting someone who dropped out of high school – just as a white collar marketing message will differ from a blue collar message in some cases.
How the Past Can Impact Present (and Future) Buying Decisions
When it comes to a consumer’s past purchases, a couple of things can impact whether or not they’ll buy from you now or in the future. If they had bad experiences, it will make them more hesitant to spend money.
If the bad experience was with you, chances are they won’t get bitten twice. But even if it was with someone else, like another online marketer, that experience can taint their outlook about all marketers and their intentions.
Likewise, positive experiences can be a blessing in helping you get the conversion, so you want to make sure that you keep that streak going and help them maintain a positive outlook with your brand and the industry as a whole.
Be Blunt About the Pain Points and Benefits
If you gloss over a consumer’s pain points, they will feel as if you may not get their needs. Pain points can be physical, emotional, strategic or something else. It’s a challenge the person has that they’re trying to overcome.
The worse the pain point, the more eager they are to buy a solution from you. Your task, then, would be to connect the relief and satisfaction they’ll get when and if they buy your product and apply it to overcome that obstacle.
You can also touch on the benefits of your product or service. Sometimes, people don’t realize that their quality of life can be greatly improved. They might think it’s going just fine.
So you’ll have t pain a picture for them that shows them where they are now versus the elevated life they can enjoy once they’re the owner of the product you’re selling. Show them the benefits in terms of how it impacts their life.
Evaluate Your Product or Service for an Emotional Impact
You don’t know what emotional state someone is in when they absorb your content online or land on your sales page. They may have just gotten fired or received bad news.
They might be on top of cloud 9, or reeling from the pain of some sort of loss. You have to anticipate the emotional state your prospective customer is in based off of the product or service they’re seeking to buy.
Keep in mind that when people are in a good mood, the bar is lower because they might shop impulsively. When they’re in a sour mood, they might be skeptical of everyone and everything, making you work harder for the sale.
The way you present your product or service might be able to change that for them. If your product is offered as a way to gain more enjoyment in life, and that person is already suffering, it can sway them to make the purchase.
You want to think of the most common emotions your audience might be experiencing, and address is in your content and sales materials. Stress is a big factor for many people.
They feel stressed and they look for solutions. Some people feel sadness, fear, embarrassment, or anger and it causes them to seek out some sort of solution that will turn things around.
Hope and happiness are other emotions people can be feeling when they consume your content. It’s not always negative. But usually, we focus on a problem-solution strategy, wisely so.
Does Your Product Promote a Specific Core Value that Aligns with the Consumer’s?
When you think about the core values people have, it can sometimes have an impact on how well (or how poorly) they respond to your marketing campaigns. Sometimes, consumers will look to see if what you sell is in any way related to something they’re passionate about.
Core values are the fundamental beliefs a person holds dear to them. Many consumers today shop based on those principles and whether or not a brand aligns with their own beliefs.
For example, if you sell digital download products, the customer might absolutely love that you’re mentioning the environmental health of the planet as opposed to people using print versions of products, which are derived from trees being cut down.
Any time something has a societal, economic, or even an environmental benefit, it might be worth mentioning at some point to bring the people who it matters to most onboard as buyers.
Transparency is another big issue that consumers feel is a core value of theirs. They want you to be honest and genuine about things. This is a big issue in the Internet marketing industry, specifically.
Is Social Proof a Factor in Influencing Your Consumer’s Decision?
Social proof is when prospective consumers look around to see who else has purchased from you, what experience they had, and whether or not they recommend the product or service.
Not only do they look for this proof, which can be found in the form of a testimonial or social post, but they also analyze whether or not the person making the post or comment is similar to themselves.
This may not be a conscious decision, but it can have an impact on whether the social proof matters to them. If an influencer endorses something and they’re also a twenty-something individual, it can have a bigger impact than if a baby boomer endorsed it to a young man or woman.
You want to encourage social proof to be generated about your brand, your products or your services. You can solicit the testimonials for a sales letter, but it’s always a good idea to foster the growth of organic sharing, too.
Whenever people give an endorsement or review of a product where there’s no monetary incentive for them to do that, it holds more weight than if an affiliate is linking to your sales page in exchange for a commission.
You can ask people to leave a review. You can invite them to comment on your social media posts so that others considering your product see it. Some marketers incentivize the reviews, giving the reviewer some sort of extra perk for taking time to leave one.
Once you have social proof, you want to shine a spotlight on it. You can create an image of a review and put it on your sales page. You can use it on your blog or on social media posts, too.
If you can get people to record a video review of your product, that’s even better. This lends credence that it’s more than a stock photo of someone with a made up quote because they can see and hear the individual.
See If Timing Has an Impact on Your Consumer’s Purchases
Time is a powerful influencer when it comes to getting people to make a buying decision. In the Internet marketing industry, many people have abused the scarcity angle.
This makes people distrust online marketers. So if you use urgency and scarcity (such as a countdown timer or limited number of product available), mean it. If you’re launching a webinar, for example, make sure you might close the door to access in 48 hours.
If you’re launching a coaching program, you might only have room for a certain number of buyers, like 15. This type of urgency helps people make the decision to act fast so they don’t miss out.
Sometimes, you might use time in terms of special discount deals or coupon codes that will expire. And of course, sometimes it’s not even an issue of timing that’s within your control.
Someone might have to wait until they get paid to buy your product, or they may look for different options to help them save based on time. For example, there are many marketers who say you can pay a higher price if you go monthly.
But if you buy a quarter or annual membership, which is a longer amount of time, you save money by paying for it all upfront. Of course, there may also be some seasonable time-based factors, depending on your business model and what you’re selling or promoting.
Media Options Might Help or Hurt Your Sales Conversions
Media formats are another possible influencer in terms of whether or not someone buys your product or service. This can unfold in a couple of ways. First, the media format that you are using on your sales page can play a role in whether or not it converts for you.
Some people like to skim a sales letter and read the headlines and bullet points, and others prefer a video sales message. You can even create a hybrid option that caters to people’s preferences.
There are many marketers who will start with a video option, and there will be a hyperlink below the video with the anchor text that says, “Prefer to read the message? Click here.”
Another determining factor in whether or not a visitor converts into a buyer for you is based on the media format that your product is delivered in. You may have some people who will purchase something quickly if it comes in video, but hesitate to buy something if it is delivered as a PDF they have to read.
Of course, the opposite is also true in some cases. It’s not always about your sales letter, either. Sometimes the media format can factor into whether or not your marketing campaigns and general online content get the reach and traction you are aiming for.
For example, you may find that you have content that performs better on Facebook when you create a hybrid post that includes text and images or video. You may even be able to zero in on whether or not longer videos on YouTube perform better or worse than short form videos on a platform like TikTok or Instagram.
By studying the behaviors of consumers, you’ll be able to tailor your message better to your target audience. Your words will have a stronger impact and your strategy will improve with every tweak you make based on the factors above.