In a world where consumer attention is a rapidly depleting resource, the gut reaction of many marketers is to bump up their engagement efforts online, after all, your social media followers are there to interact with your brand, right? Well, no.
According to IBM’s Institute for Business Value (via Forbes), 60-65% of business leaders who believe that consumers follow their brands on social media sites because they want to be a part of a community. Only 25-30% of consumers agree. The top reason consumers follow a brand? To get discounts – not exactly ideal for a company’s bottom line.
The top reason consumers follow a brand? To get discounts – not exactly ideal for a company’s bottom line.
How over-sharing is costing you business.
So what’s the harm in over-sharing? Simply put, an over-abundance of information can cause potential buyers to re-think their purchase decision, leading to less purchases and a weakened confidence in your product and brand.
The 3 Keys to Decision Simplicity
By simplifying the decision-making process, purchasers actually think less about the decision, leading to increased conversions and confidence in your brand. How does this work? Here’s the 3 tenants to simplifying the decision-making process:
- Create Trustworthy Information. Provide reviews and testimonials by consumer advisors and customers themselves, and write supporting copy that plainly and elegantly states why and what your product is.
- Create a Research Narrative. Consumers are not always ready to make a purchase decision as soon as they land on your site: present them with clearly-worded brand-specific product information on your site, and place your call to action at the end, allowing them to quickly learn about your product without distraction.
- Weigh Purchase Decisions Confidently. Make pricing, purchase options, and product information easily accessible on your site. Due to lax regulations during the hay-day of online marketing, consumers are used to be lied to online. How do you combat this perception? By being overly transparent. Nothing turns off customers faster than shady pricing and buying practices. Pro-tip: “When in doubt, opt-out.”
Due to lax regulations during the hay-day of online marketing, consumers are used to be lied to online. How do you combat this perception? By being overly transparent.
Decision Simplicity = customer loyalty = conversions.
According to CEB, a 20% increase in decision simplicity will result in 96% increased customer loyalty. It also results in brands being 86% more likely to be purchased and 115% more likely to be recommended to others.
So how do you increase decision simplicity? Through design.
An effectively designed marketing strategy should result in balanced website, social media, and customer loyalty presence that educates your customers without overdoing it. An effective marketer will take away as many things from a campaign as they add in order to create a maximally-effective strategy.
Be sure to check out my next post about the 3 secrets to design simplicity.