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Choice Paralysis — How It Affects Your Conversion Rate

Choice paralysis; it is one of the most common mistakes businesses can make in the development of their marketing.

What Studies Have Shown.

Have you ever gone to a shoe store and been unsure which sneakers to buy? Have you ever debated with co-workers what you should eat for lunch? If so, you’ve experienced one of the most common and understudied phenomena impacting a consumer’s pathway to purchase: Choice Paralysis.

“Back in 2000, psychologists Mark Lepper and Sheena Iyengar were involved in a study where two tables of jam were presented to grocery-store customers. One had 24 choices; people who sampled from this table got a $1-off coupon. The other table only had six choices, yet people ended up buying more from the table with fewer choices!” ~ Mark Schenker

Choice Paralysis and the Jam-Study Results

Are More Choices Creating Choice Paralysis?

Needless to say, helping client’s fix choice paralysis is one of the cornerstone needs of almost every business I work with. From Landing Pages to Email Campaigns, you will always get a higher conversion rate the less you distract your target form doing what you want them to do.

“Choice can no longer be used to justify a marketing strategy in and of itself. More isn’t always better, either for the customer or for the retailer. Discovering how much assortment is warranted is a considerable empirical challenge. But companies that get the balance right will be amply rewarded.” ~ Harvard Business Review

While choice paralysis does not affect all brands or all types of people in the same way, based on an analysis of more than 200 social media conversations, the data showed:

  • A majority of consumer indecision is around products consumers use every day.
  • 78% of choice paralysis conversations center around products consumers spend a moderate to a considerable amount of time within their everyday lives.
  • Fashion, gaming and mobile device purchase decisions showed the highest levels of choice paralysis, likely because they are directly tied to self-identity.
  • Nearly 1/3 of choice paralysis conversations were about products within the same brand.
  • Over 60 percent of choice paralysis occurs when a consumer must make a decision between one or two items. Most people know what they want, but have trouble pulling the trigger on a purchase.

The Choice Paralysis Analysis

Lastly, one concept that is often discussed when seeking solutions for overcoming the risk of choice paralysis is the concept of removing fuzzy messaging. Fuzzy Messaging tends to not speak to a clear choice adding to the paralysis. Read more about Conversion Rates and Scientific Marketing, and how we can now use methods and metrics to help us market more effectively!

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Technology and the Customer Experience

Technology and the customer experience is ever expanding and 2018 is being called the transition year.

Technology in 2018

“2018 looks to be a year of change for technology, and customer service will need to evolve with the advancements it brings. 86% of customers will pay more for a better customer experience, so there’s no question about the benefits of using the smart technology that 2018 will offer you.” ~ Roxanne Abercrombie

That is an amazing prediction as we have made amazing discoveries over the past 10-years. We discovered that technology alone is cold — and since about 2008, we tech-driven marketers have been wrapping our heads around how we can bridge the gap between human and computer interaction.

Technology and Artificial intelligence — in its many forms — has in itself, opened up many doors of opportunity.

Within the expanded ability to develop and implement seamless technology is moving faster than anyone can keep up with and the biggest benefactor (and also the biggest need) is customer service. I am surely not saying that customer service will not still be “human”, it is just that the interface will get smoother in all capacities.

The Ubiquitous Use Of Technology

Did you know that 88% of website visitors are unlikely to return if they have a bad experience? These things get updated all the time, and candidly, I didn’t know that it was being measured at 88%. My point is that stats like these are cold, and they only tell half the picture. The other half is about the engagement… invisible engagement.

Ubiquitous Technology

But, how do you get that invisible engagement?

That is the challenge. We don’t think about the interface with humans, but we still think about every encounter with the A.I. we engage with. Is it getting better? Of course, it is and at a startlingly fast pace. (Are you interested in Artificial Intelligence?)

So, bottom line, if you want repeat traffic and return customers, you need to optimize your website for customer service — and today’s A.I. technology can help.

Some of the Technology to Engage and Optimize

Tools are available to help mitigate the “immediate engagement needs” of today’s visitor to your main online hub — your website.

Many third-party systems offer engagement options and, for the most part, can all be fine-tuned to fit your typical visitor’s profile. Options include; Time to engage with a pop-up message; overlay, engagements; exit engagements; and much more.

One that I like is Sumo® for site engagement layers/popups. Right out of the box, it is pretty powerful. I also like Olark® for a professional chat.

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Explainer Videos — Easily Tell Your Story

So how do you easily tell your story? One of the best ways is to develop explainer videos!

YumYum Videos Banner

The video is often cited as a tool that helps drive various areas of business performance, and the numbers back up those claims:

97% of marketers say the video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.

76% say it helped them increase sales.

47% say it helped them reduce support queries.

76% say it helped them increase traffic.

80% of marketers say the video has increased dwell time on their website.

95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.

81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.

69% of people have been convinced to buy a piece of software or application by watching a video.

85% of people say they’d like to see more video from brands in 2018.

Thie following is more about explainer videos, whiteboarding, and marketing videos in general!

“Did you know that using explainer videos on your landing pages can increase conversion rates by as much as 80%? Explainer videos keep customers on your page longer giving your marketing message more time to sink in and ultimately creates the emotional relevance that converts clients.

Not all videos are created equal.

Let me put it this way, a marketing video is like the type of clothes you wear. You can’t wear the same outfit to go to a rock concert, a job interview, and your cousin’s wedding, right? Likewise, animated explainer videos come in all sorts of styles each tailored to different audiences.

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular a screencast video is a simple low-budget type of video that showcases how your product or service works — they’re more about education than branding but these work well for prospects who like to try before they buy.

Cartoon-style explainer videos are all about storytelling.

Your company is the hero who saves the day by solving your customers’ problem. They’re usually pretty funny and are great for humanizing your brand and building trust. The characters represent your various brand personas, so it’s important to know the gender age and interests of your target market. If you’re targeting end users, small businesses or startups, cartoon style videos are a great choice.

Whiteboard animation is a super engaging technique because the content is created in front of the viewer’s eyes. These videos are great for explaining complex information in a straightforward way and ideal if your marketing IT solutions or computer software motion graphics offer an elegant and engaging style for businesses with a more serious profile like financial institutions. You can even add some 3d animation to make the video more impressive.

Now you have a better idea of what kind of video could work for your landing page to convert like crazy! As for what to wear to your next pitch sorry, YumYum can’t help you there.” ~ YumYumVideos

Let’s get your marketing actually working for you soon!

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Accelerate Your Social Media – 5-Key Things That You Should Be Doing

Social media has confused many businesses and organizations over the past few years. Most get that they have to provide meaty, relevant content, but too many are not using proven engagement strategies that could significantly raise the success level of organically hitting a wider audience.

Social Media Marketing

Discover the 5-key things you should be doing within your social media posts:

1) ENGAGEMENT AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY

Engagement (not numbers/views) is the #1 goal on Social Media.

Without engagement, you are yelling into a vacuum. Features do not create engagement, so be sure that you are using “relevant benefits” and focused on the perspective/viewpoint of the audience.

This life-changing video — regarding how you operate in your marketing world — takes 17-minutes out of your day to view “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” by New York Times® Best Selling Author of ‘The Power of Why’, Simon Sinek

Social Media Posting2) KEEP POSTING, POSTING, POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

This is a key component in your overall strategy. The frequency makes people always see something new, and that means it is “fresh” in the eyes of a like-minded spirit.

“When it comes to posting on Facebook and LinkedIn, remember that you may only have between two and five posts per week that will get distribution by the networks’ news feeds. With that in mind, focus on the quality of each post (and the content preferences of your audience), and aim to get more likes, comments, and shares as your metrics of success to build up your audience and to make the news feed algorithms work for you. And when it comes to Twitter, post freely — the timeline updates so frequently that you’re at an advantage posting more often to reach more people.” ~ Daria Marmer at Hubspot 

3) PROVOKE, RESPOND, AND THEN RESPOND AGAIN

Research shows that to boost your engagement and response rate, keep your posts between 50 and 125 words. Response rates declined slowly, from 50% for 125-word messages, to about 44% for 500-word messages. After that, it stayed flat until about 2,000 words. This applies to email marketing too.

Social Media Pool Party4) SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT ABOUT THE PITCH

Stay away from the pitches of ideology. Use your content-real-estate to connect with the audience, rather than just sharing what you find interesting.

With the advent of the influencer and the often paid promotion of “lifestyles” via social media, one would think that people would be accepting of sales pitches infiltrating their social media feed, however, that’s just not the case.

Your social media strategy should be about influencing and speaking to the people that already believe what you believe — your CTA should be about them sharing for themselves, not for you. It is this type of social media strategy that is what gets the most shares and engagement, grows your audience and potentially goes viral.

5) MEASURE, ANALYZE, AND ADJUST

All social media platforms have analytics. You should be watching those numbers and using the data to fine-tune your approach as defined in your strategy.

Adjustments along the way are common, if not crucial. We have a distinct advantage — more than any other time in history — to see exactly how our organic and paid marketing is doing. Incremental changes over time can make a big difference!

Don’t get too caught up in the numbers. I say this as there is so much data, that it is easy to get hung up in the marshlands of analytics. 80% action; 20% analytics is how I operate!

LASTLY, DISCOVER HOW CORTEX MARKETING  CAN HELP

Did you know that there are several facets of social media management? Get a free assessment of your social media strategy and which management plan may be right for you!

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Your Best Asset Is Your Ability To Sell Yourself

“Sell yourself” is such a ubiquitous term. Even as I say it, at least one of you is saying: “I don’t get it.”.

That is because I believe that the ‘end goal’ is selling, not selling yourself.

The approach on how to sell yourself should be more marketing methodology than in the sales methodology in the development. To successfully sell yourself, you’ll need to do these Top-4 things:

  1. Know your “brand”;
  2. Be a storyteller;
  3. Know your audience; and
  4. Show don’t tell.

power of why circleAs I covered in my “The Power Of Why” blog post, a huge part of inspiring others to take action, is to clearly state ‘why’ you do what you do. Within that, you must first know yourself i.e. what drives you, what gets you up in the morning.

Someone who exemplifies this is Alan L. Sklover. He writes a weekly blog about employer and employee legal issues — and this quote was offered to Alan by one of his followers and he shared it.:

“Want a new client or customer? First, you must “sell” the value of your product or service to them. Want a raise or promotion? First, you must “sell” your value to your employer. Want a new job? First, you must “sell” yourself to the new employer. An effort is the “horse” that pulls the “cart” of opportunity. Always been that way; always will be. It’s a challenge if you accept it; a continual disappointment if you don’t.” ~ Patrice of Santa Rosa, New Mexico

So how do YOU start the process of how to “sell yourself”?

Schedule 30-minutes with me and I will buy you coffee and walk you through the process. —Yes, I just said I will buy you coffee!! Ask me how.

 

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