In the previous article Vol.11 – How to Successfully Drive Web Users to Web Contents?, generating web traffic to drive as many online buyers/customers to web content/page was discussed. Keeping web users/online buyers/customers in the website/web content and successfully persuading them to “buy”, i.e. take action(s) as expected is the next challenge, which is the focus of this article.
1. Why making sure that online buyers/customer stay and walk around website/web pages inevitable in web/Internet marketing?
It is because in the online world, if dissatisfied, buyers/customer can walk away from website (which can be thought as a store in the online world) with just a single click, unlike in the offline world. In the brick and mortar offline world, buyers/customer would need to physically walk to the door and go out of the building to say goodbye. Also, if a staff had been serving the buyer, serving appropriately, the staff could persuade the buyer not to walk away and even contribute to changing the buyer’s mind. However, in online world, whether it is by intention or accidental, web user can walk away with a single click. For this reason, it is inevitable to design website/web content so that web users would not click goodbye but stay and enjoy the web content.
Moreover, it is inevitable to persuade and navigate them to buy = take actions as expected by web owner to achieve the objective of the web content. Buying is exchange of tangible or intangible value, from which, as Eisenberg & Eisenberg (2006, p61) says, sales is “all about persuading people to take action you want them to take, and persuasion is a transactional process resulting in a change in belief, attitudes and behaviours”. This is why the word “buyers” is mainly used throughout this blog.
Sales in the online world (i.e. buying for web users) can be many things as below, as Eisenberg & Eisenberg (2006, p60-61) list.
- The exchange of currency for products or services.
- The exchange of personal information for entry into a sweepstakes.
- Subscribing to a newsletter.
- Opting in to an e-mail list.
- Registering oneself to something.
- Agreeing to provide a referral.
- Converting someone to one’s opinion about something.
- Inspiring someone to get as enthusiastic about something as one is.
And in order to create and sustain persuasive momentum, 3 questions advocated by Eisenberg & Eisenberg (2006, p58) must be answered and executed.
(1) Who are the website owners trying to persuade to take the action?
The answer should be targeted buyers/customers (represented by the persona defined).
(2) What is the action the website owner wants the targeted buyers/customers to take?
The answer should be what is already discussed in the previous article Vol.9 – How to Reach Buyers Directly in Web/Internet Marketing?
(3) What does that person need in order to feel confident taking that action?
This may well be different from person to person and might be difficult to answer.
Factors that make person confident to take action are investigated by carefully identifying possible obstacles and motivations for the person to take that particular action. This can be something tangible such as money, something intangible such as time and authority, and/or something that is mental such as safety, empathy, rapport, trust, confidence, esteem and so forth. Although research and survey result is helpful, possible obstacles and motivations is best identified by conversation with the person and making the person confident is also often effectively done by interactive conversation to provide information around the brand for experience. How companies are having interactive conversation and providing information around the brand for experience have been evolving as web technologies have evolved from web 1.0 to web 2.0 by leveraging social media, and are expected to evolve further in web 3.0 online world.
2. How companies can design and develop website/web content so that web users finally “buy” (take actions as expected)?
Below are the main KFS (Key Factors for Success) for companies to design and develop website/web content so that web users would stay in the website and finally buy.
1) Define appropriate buyer/customer persona, correctly define their needs and motivation to buy and develop web contents answering their needs and motivation.
This KFS has already been discussed in the previous articles Vol.9 – How to Reach Buyers Directly in Web/Internet Marketing? and Vol.10 – How to Successfully Develop Web Content to Directly Reach Buyers. What the author would like to add is about people’s needs and motivation based on a well known Abraham Maslow’s ascending levels of human needs in the form of pyramid. Deficit needs represented at the bottom and being needs at the top, and the hierarchy is physiological needs, safety needs, belonging needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs.
In general, “being” needs provokes stronger motivation than “deficit” needs, and as society advances and people have less deficiencies, website owner really needs to meet “being” needs and the essence of people’s motivation. This will be interpreted to WIIFM (What’s in it for me?).
2) Define and deliver appropriately value proposition and offering to buyers as their WIIFM (What’s in it for me?).
WIIFM is mentioned by Eisenberg & Eisenberg (2006) and Safko, Lon and Brake (2009), and this is all about value proposition and offering mentioned by many marketers. Website and its content all about buyers so WIIFM, the benefit for buyers needs to be present and presented well so that buyers would recognize and value it.
WIIFM should be something that solves buyer’s problem and/or meets needs (whether deficit or being”, and when seen from the company side, this is to be “5) Why” explained in the previous article Vol.9 – How to Reach Buyers Directly in Web/Internet Marketing?, which is what the company what buyers/customers to believe such as “this product/service solves the problem” and “it is worth signing up this” so that they would take the action the company wants. This would lead to win-win for both the website/web content owner and the buyers, thus an ideal relationship.
Delivering WIIFM is most effectively performed by focusing on packaging appropriate information and shaping the experience around the brand. As Eisenberg & Eisenberg (2006, p20) state, experience is entirely about “value in content”.
The author feels that this topic also deserves further discussion and she would like to discuss in one of the upcoming articles.
3) Design the total website/web content based on five steps of basic buying
The five steps presented by Eisenberg & Eisenberg (2006, p61) are:-
(1) Initiate the relationship by building rapport and confidence.
(2) Investigating needs, wants and problems.
(3) Suggesting a course of action.
(4) Obtaining agreement for decision.
(5) Closing, or taking action.
These steps are based on the two concepts. One is the classic concept of AID(M)A(S) model: attention, interest, desire, (memory), action and (satisfaction). The other is the 5 buying decision process of search, evaluate, decide, purchase and reevaluate mentioned by Eisenberg & Eisenberg (2006, p46).
4) Optimize the landing page.
Even if all the above KFI are successful, if this fails, web users would click to walk away. This deserves much discussion and will be the topic for the next article.
5) Design total website/web content so that online web users take series of micro actions to finally take macro actions.
When web users go through buying steps, they take many micro actions before finally taking macro action, the conversion goal of the website/web content. Micro actions are, as explained by Eisenberg & Eisenberg (2006, p53), series of clicks each of which represents a questions the web user is asking, representing his/her willingness to stay engaged with the website and a unique point of conversion and continued persuasive momentum.
The total flow of micro actions are of aligned with buying steps, and each web page needs to be designed appropriately, similarly to landing page.
6) Locate “call to action”.
Although the degree may vary according to the action expected by the online buyers/customers, but in many cases this is not clear even if it should be. This is one reason for low conversion rate. This also deserves further discussion preferably linking with #5 about series of micro actions, and the author hopes to discuss in one of upcoming articles.
Understanding buyers’ psychology and behaviour is vital in persuading online buyers/customers to “buy”. This is because unlike in the old economy in which simply providing hardware and functional benefits to meet deficiency needs was sufficient, in the new economy of web 2.0 online world, providing solution and answering to mental needs through experience is the key to persuading them to buy.
Such trend is the background for emergence and increasing popularity of experiential/emotional marketing and customer behaviour/psychology. The author believes that this trend is expected to become stronger in web 3.0 online world and marketers need to keep up with the trend. This kind of topic can be regarded as “soft” factors vs. “hard” factors of quantitative and qualitative information/data and framework, and marketers need to be well balanced between the two to successfully develop and execute web/Internet marketing strategy and plan.
References:-
Eisenberg, Bryan & Jeffrey with Davis, Lisa T. (2006), Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Nelson Business
Safko, Lon and Brake, David K (2009), The Social Media Bible – Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Scott, David Meerman (2007), The New Rules of Marketing & PR. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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