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There is a very good chance that only a small percent of customers that stumble across your landing page are actually interested in buying your products or services.

Depending on where you are getting your traffic from and the quality of your landing pages, sometimes this traffic can be close to well, 0%.

In fact, it is very rare that a customer visiting your page is going to be in “ready to buy mode.”

Often they need convincing, information and reassurance that your business is going to be able to give them what they need.

This is where having a good landing page is crucial.

If you want to turn your casual visitors, which will be majority of the people coming to your website, into high paying customers, you need to have an epically crafted landing page that guides them all the way to the checkout.

There are many techniques out there about landing pages and what not to do or do, however when it comes to your business, it is important to remember that not one size fits all.

Landing Page optimisation seems easy enough when you see it on paper, but when you get to the actual nitty gritty of it, things can seem downright overwhelming.

What should your landing page include?

What do your customers really want to know?

All of these are great places to start when it comes to turning your landing pages into high converting sales machines.

In fact, some of the key questions that you need to ask yourself before you even begin include-

  • Who are your customers?
  • What are your customers most likely thinking or feeling when they first come to your page?
  • What is going to grab their attention the most?
  • What device are your customers using to access your content?
  • What problems do your customers have?
  • What is going to turn a browsing visitor into one that takes action?

There are so many questions that you need to consider before you even get to crafting your landing page, and many businesses forget this.

They simply choose a layout or design that looks decent to them, optimise it a little with some traditional rules and then send a bunch of traffic to it hoping to get a bite.

While a strategy like this seems common enough, chances are it is not going to earn you the conversions that you have been dreaming out.

In one recent poll, it was discovered that only 22 percent of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates.

If that is you, there is no need to keep reading, but if you want to boost your conversion rates and turn your visitors into customers, then this is for you.

How to Turn Your Browsing Visitors into Paying Customers:

1. Discover What Drives Your Customers

There are really only two driving forces when it comes to the psychology of sales- pleasure and pain.

More often than not, a customer is going to come to your business to either ease their pain or for their pleasure.

On a basic, fundamental level all human behaviour is driven to avoid pain and gain pleasure, so your marketing strategy and landing pages should be rooted in the same philosophy.

In order to influence the customers that are coming to your page, you first need to work out what is going to influence them.

This requires you to have a solid understanding of your audience and who they really are. This has to go beyond their age and gender, and into deeper territory such as, what they desire, love, hate, think and feel.

From there, you will be able to work out their pleasure and pain points.

You also need to work out the pleasure and pain points of your own business model.

For example, you may offer the best pair of jeans in the world, but if they take 30 days to ship, that right there could be a huge point of pain for most customers.

Similarly, if you offer a great landscaping service but charge thousands of dollars to make it happen, that may also be a point of pain for the average customer.

To start making sense of all this, make a clear list about the pleasure and pain points for your ideal customer and then do the same for your business.

What aspects of your business are going to cause the most pain and the most pleasure?

Once you have all of this chalked out, you can then begin to focus on amplifying your pleasure points and smoothing out the painful ones.

This should then feature front and centre of your landing pages, so your customers are instantly aware of how much pleasure you can give them and how easily you are going to take away their pains.

2.) Special, Limited and New

Have you ever wondered why car manufacturers bring out a new version of the same model every year?

Have you ever wondered why Apple launches a new iPhone every year?

This is not by mistake or a desperate attempt to make more money, this is a cleverly crafted psychology hack that can earn your business thousands.

People love things that are new, limited and special. We all want to get our hands on the latest and greatest.

Research also backs this up as neurologically, it has been shown that when we are exposed to something new or unfamiliar, the levels of dopamine rise in our brain, which makes us feel good.

In essence, new and updated make us feel excited and curious. It also makes us more likely to buy.

The same goes for “limited supply” or “special edition”, when we hear these words, our pleasure centre is also activated in the brain.

There are many ways to take advantage of this technique when it comes to converting more of your visitors into customers.

This includes offering an updated version of your software, offering new services, updating product specs and offering new product colours or features.

As you can see, none of these changes are drastic, but they should help to stir enough curiosity.

Using the example of Apple, often the changes made to the newest iPhone are small and even somewhat insignificant. But, even small changes like this still spark inspiration and the desire to acquire.

One thing to be mindful of however, when using this tactic is that you don’t want to scare away your existing customers by constantly changing what you offer.

Remember, when it comes to updating and making your products appealing, often just a few small changes that are based on what your customers want can go a long way.

3.) Remove Doubt By Explaining Why 

 When it comes to your products and services, it’s not good enough to just list the specifications and leave it at that. You have to also communicate the “why”.

Humans are by nature, curious creatures. Whether you offer something for free or for a million dollars, your customers will want to know why.

Using the example above, by explaining why your product or service is a million dollars or free, lets your customers know exactly where they stand and what they are actually going to gain.

Humans are suspicious, and especially with many scams online most consumers want to make 100% sure that they are getting what they paid for and are not going to be ripped off.

By communicating the “why” and answering common questions within your marketing copy, these doubts can be easily erased.

This in turn, builds more security and confidence in their minds and leads to an increased conversion rate.

To put this into effect, your landing pages need to contain relevant and to the point information about why your customers need, want and will benefit from your business.

For example, one brand that was selling a “Startup Weekend Event” included reasons why people should attend. These reasons included education, networking, learning how to launch a business, working with thought leaders and so on.

By clearly explaining why, it helps to also take any guess work or doubt out of the buying process.

4.) Please, Tell Me A Story

Telling a story is far more interesting than simply just stating the facts.

Humankind have been telling stories for years and one of the most powerful marketing methods is to also convey a story to your customers and visitors.

Why?

Stories invite emotion and emotions invite action. If you can stir your audience’s emotions they are more likely to purchase from your brand and become a loyal follower.

Even though the story idea is not new, many brands shy away from it because they think it’s difficult to do. The reality is however, telling a story is easy and doesn’t require a huge creative process.

Take Red Bull for example.

As an energy drink company you may wonder how they could possibly tell an interesting story, but in reality they have one of the best.

Their energy drink has been built on the story that by consuming the beverage, you can acquire superhuman powers, achieve the impossible, climb to new heights and have the energy you need to make a mark on the world.

They have built up their brand image using this story and sharing with their audience how they too can achieve great things with the help of Red Bull.

Another great example comes from an experiment conducted by Rob Walker, who found that when customers wrote a fictional story along with their eBay listing, they were more likely to sell at a higher price compared to when they didn’t share a story.

How creative you get with your story is up to you and your brand’s mission, but having a story can be extremely powerful and can help your visitors feel an emotional connection to your brand.

5.) Keep Everything Simple 

Humans are simple creatures. In numerous psychological studies it has been proven that humans will often take the easiest road in order to achieve their desires.

This has been determined as the “law of least effort” and applies to both cognitive and physical exertion as well.

Does this prove that laziness is built into our DNA?

Maybe. But, laziness aside, it is important to keep this in mind when it comes to every aspect of your business. Why?

Because the simpler you can make things, the more likely you are to turn your visitors into customers.

Especially in this modern age when we are so used to having everything at our fingertips, being able to quickly and simply move your customers through the sales funnel from start to finish in a matter of minutes is paramount.

This means that you need to ensure your website loads fast, is easy to read and understand, has simple and effective call to actions and has a smooth checkout process.

You also want to ensure that your landing page design is clean and simple and doesn’t offer any distractions that are going to take your visitors away from the main objective.

Essentially, you need to ensure that your landing page gives your customers exactly what they want with the least amount of effort required to get it.

It may also help to use language such as “step by step”, “fast” and “quick” on your landing page to assure your customers that the process will be as pain free as possible.

6.) Make Your Brand One of the Good Guys

There is only one way to make your brand look like the ‘good guy’- create a common enemy.

While we would never suggest you should hate on other brands or businesses, creating a common enemy in a tasteful and tactful way can help your customers to side with your company.

An excellent example of this was achieved by Apple.

In their early marketing campaigns they made PC the enemy and Mac the hero, which was able to topple the hugely successful and powerful empire that was Microsoft.

By creating a common enemy, Apple was able to get customers on their side and create one of the most loyal followings in history.

The best and cleanest way to create a common enemy is to suggest to your customers why you are better than the others.

For example, without naming other brands you could elude to the fact that other brands in the industry only offer “abc” whereas your brand offers “abcdef”.

Another good example of this comes from the job search site, Career Builder. Instead of creating an enemy out of a competing brand, they instead created an enemy out of the “boring 9-5 job”.

By making this the common enemy, they were able to run an effective ad campaign and win customers over who were perhaps one of those people bored with their current position.

By conveying how your brand stands out from the rest, and why your brand is the ‘good guy’ and the rest are ‘bad’, can go a long way in helping you to earn some loyal customers.

It can also help to separate your brand from the competition and can sway customers to choose your company over another one.

Be careful when using this tactic however, as you definitely do not want to get into legal trouble or cause your customers to lose respect for your brand.

7.) Give People A Little Taste

Restaurants found that when they brought a tray of desserts over to the table, rather than a menu customers were more likely to order.

The reason for this is obvious; when we see or get a little taste of what is to come, we suddenly end up wanting more.

Psychologists have also found that when curiosity is triggered in the brain, humans are more likely to want to take action.

Using the restaurant example, there may not be much curiosity seeing the words “Chocolate Cake” on the menu, but actually seeing a real chocolate cake sitting in front of you will peak your curiosity even more.

Triggering curiosity is really a marketers dream and what gets everything from your emails opened to the clicks on your landing page.

The trick when it comes to curiosity  however, it to give your audience enough of a taste that they will want to go in for more.

This could include offering a free trial, a free consult, a free gift, or perhaps even a first time customer coupon code.

You can also peak curiosity through the language that you use on your landing page. There are several ways to do this, but some of the most effective include-

  • Being controversial
  • Giving them a preview of what to expect
  • Telling your customers to not do something for example, “DO NOT open this email” (we all want to do something when we are told not to)
  • Using catchy headings or page titles

Get creative as you want when it comes to inspiring curiosity and see how it can help you to boost conversion rates.

8.) Build Up the Excitement and Anticipation 

If you are doing your job right, your customers should be super excited to work with your brand or receive your brand’s products and services.

Excitement and anticipation are huge when it comes to turning your visitors into customers and can help you to also create a loyal following.

Just look at the way Apple customers line up in anticipation for the next iPhone or iPad. They are always excited and always keen to get their hands on the latest product.

They will also debate for months about any rumours or potential upgrades or specs that the new product is expected to have.

Sporting events are also very clever at building anticipation. Weeks before the AFL Grand Final, Australians are bombarded with media and advertising, which aims to prepare them for the big day.

Christmas is also an excellent example of this. Months before the big day the decorations are up and the carols are playing, which helps you to get excited and in the mood of spending.

When you focus on building the anticipation behind your event, products or services, it can be extremely powerful when it comes to achieving sales.

You can also add more fuel to the fire by reaching out to influencers to help promote your products or services and sharing 5-star reviews that highlight the results your previous customers have experienced.

9.) Using Social Proof 

Social proof is a big one, especially right now as social media is such a huge part of people’s lives.

Psychologists also agree that social proof can be extremely powerful. According to Robert Cialdini, a professor of psychology-

“If you can get people who are similar to the person you are trying to persuade to speak on your behalf, it is a lot easier for you than if you have to try to hammer your message one more time into a reticent mind.”

Essentially, this means that when someone hears about your brand, products or services from someone who is close to them or similar to them, they are more likely to take action.

In order to use this effectively, consider sharing testimonials and social media stats on your landing page to help support your brand.

You can also highlight brands you have worked with that have clout or a strong reputation in your industry.

10. Make Your Audience Feel Significant 

According to self-help guru and motivational speaker Tony Robbins, feeling significant is one of the most basic human needs.

Humans need to feel significant and that what they want, need and do has some purpose behind it.

Making your potential customers feel significant is therefore, a powerful tactic that can help your browsing customers to turn into instant buyers.

There are so many ways to adopt this strategy, but essentially it comes down to letting your customers know that you care about them.

Customers want to feel like they matter, they want to be heard and they want to ensure that your business is going to offer them something personal.

Ways that you can instantly convey this on your landing page is offering a FAQ section, a contact section or live chat feature, customer service promises, money back guarantees and a personalised approach.

Even after you get the sale it is also important to maintain this mentality by sending a thank you email, a follow up email and information about their purchase.

By adopting these 10 techniques, you are guaranteed to increase your conversion rates and turn more of your visitors into customers.

Why not give it a try today?