As a human, you may think yourself to be a rational, conscious person. And yet, almost all the decisions you make are driven by your emotions, at least in part.
When people make decisions, they do, of course, process information about their options rationally. But in order to actually take action and make a choice, most people also need to gain a sense of how they feel about each option.
Therefore, when it comes to increasing your conversions, you’ll likely achieve significantly better results if you appeal to your customers’ emotions rather than relying on logic alone.
To learn more about how to do this, keep reading below.
Ditch Your Product Descriptions; Start Telling Product Stories
You absolutely still want to communicate all of the important bits of technical information about your products. But instead of being dry and bland about it, paint a literary picture; make your customers feel something by relating to their needs or desires.
Check out the product description from Zady below:
Instead of saying, “The shirt is good quality and highly durable,” the description whisks customers off to a region of Turkey “where the climate has nurtured the highest quality cotton since ancient times.” The description conveys everything customers need to know about the shirt but in a way that’s more enticing.
Leverage The Halo Effect
According to Alex Birkett, “The Halo Effect is a cognitive bias where one trait of someone/something influences how you feel about other, unrelated traits.”
When applied to business, this means when you associate your products or services with certain things, like attractive models, celebrities, or a beautiful design, you can raise the perceived value or desirability of your products. You can also achieve this by eliciting and amplifying positive emotions, especially through your images.
ModCloth is one company that’s a master of visual storytelling and using the Halo Effect. Through the images on its site, ModCloth creates positive associations between its products and customers by linking the company to things and experiences customers enjoy.
For example, one of the themes conveyed on the current homepage is “Spring Fling.” And the subsequent images set an incredibly positive emotional tone. They are brightly colored. There are flowers and sunshine and bicycles in the park. All of the models seem like they’re having fun.
And as evinced by the gallery of photos customers submit, the result is that ModCloth’s customers feel a genuine bond with the company because they can relate to and feel inspired by what they see.
Tap Into Customers’ Fear Of Missing Out
Also known as FOMO, the fear of missing out is the feeling people get when they believe not getting to experience something—whether it’s a product, activity, or an event—will cause them regret or pain in some way.
And so, tapping into this fear can be a powerful way to motivate customers to take action. You need to be delicate about this, however, as you don’t want to threaten or make people feel defensive.
Here are two quick tips on how you can do this:
- Through your copy and visual elements, turn your products or services into experiences. For example, if you sell soap, don’t make your marketing about the soap per se. Make it about the experience of unwinding after a long, hard day by taking a relaxing bubble bath.
- Find ways of telling your potential customers that the opportunity to enjoy these experiences is finite so they need to act quickly. You need to be truthful about this, though. If you say a deal is going to end in 24 hours, you need to follow through. To learn more about how to create a sense of urgency with your offers, click here.
What do you think of these tips for increasing your conversions by way of emotional triggers? How “emotionally charged” would you say your business currently is?