How to Boost Your Sales with Neuromarketing

• How can price options increase sales?
• How do you help customers see a good value?

For newly-introduced products, customers often don’t have a price in mind. Williams-Sonoma discovered that when it brought the first bread-making machine to the market. Priced at $275, sales were slow. Customers were unsure of its value.

Williams-Sonoma did something very clever, but counterintuitive. It introduced a larger model, with a price of $429. When shown side-by-side, customers rushed to buy the original, cheaper model. The more expensive model gave customers a reference point when evaluating the price.

7 Neuromarketing Techniques for More Profits

The ultimate goal of every marketing campaign is to convince potential customers to make buying decisions.

Neuroscientists, using brain imaging, have observed brain activity as people are presented with decision points and make choices. The understanding gained through this research can be put to the test in carefully controlled experiments. With an increasing number of studies, researchers have discovered the following 7 most effective Neuromarketing techniques in persuading potential customers to buy.

• Make It Easier for Customers to Buy – In your shopping cart system or on your lead acquisition page, there’s a risk of potential customers backing out at the last minute. A leading home-products website has adopted a neuro web design method to keep its customers on track in the shopping cart.
  Instead of a Next button that leads to the next step in checking out, the button reads “You’re Almost Done!”
  That change reduced the drop-out rate dramatically. Then, at the last step, the button reads “You’re Done!” It’s subtle, but effective. Retail giant, Amazon, takes it one step further. Customers with established accounts can click a “One Click Checkout” button on any product. This makes it easy to buy, taking the customer directly to the purchase confirmation page. That page also offers instantly available add-on items. Amazon understands how to apply Neuromarketing to boost its sales. Lead generation web pages should collect only essential data for quick completion and conversion. If a potential customer has to fill out a long form, a large percentage of them will abandon the form and leave for another website. Keep things simple and easy and watch your conversion rate climb.
• Neuroscience Proves that FREE Offers Boost Sales – The word “Free” has long been used to market products and services. It works. Only recently, though, have we understood exactly why.
  Neuroscientists have discovered that the word “FREE” triggers strong activity in the brain’s pleasure centers, which are closely associated with fast subconscious thinking.
  Behavioral Economic studies have shown that the word “FREE” can make consumers make more emotional, irrational decisions. Promoting immediate responses, a free offer can increase the number of clicks on Add to Cart buttons on an eCommerce website. For maximum effectiveness, though, the offer must provide recognizable value to the future customers. If what is free is perceived to have no value, it can even inhibit positive action. The same principle applies to related power words like discount, save and sale. Value must be obvious and tangible to get results.
• What Is the Optimal Number of Choices? – Most customers want to make comparisons before buying. However, researchers have discovered that comparison shopping can be very confusing.
  For example, if too many items are presented, shoppers are most likely to select the first item shown or to abandon the purchase altogether.
  Also, if there are only two items from which to choose, a high percentage of shoppers will pick the cheaper one. With three items being compared, the most frequent choice is the middle-priced item. Further, choices are almost always made based on just two or three prioritized points of comparison. You can put the product you most want to sell in the appropriate position in any comparison. Take advantage of this insight to promote conversion.
• Negative Concepts Trigger Quick Decisions – The brain structure amygdala constantly monitors the environment for signs of danger. Activation of this amygdala triggers very strong emotional responses, like fear and aggression. Those strong emotions lead to fast action. Studies revealed that avoidance of danger has the highest priority and provokes immediate, decisive action.
  When people are presented with images or words that evoke danger or risk, they react strongly and immediately.
  Words like protect, avoid, danger and lose get immediate attention. Such negative concepts are very effective in capturing attention and increasing memory retention. People instinctively act to avoid those risks and look for solutions.
• Neuro Web Design Increases Visitor Retention – One of the first technological tools used by Neuroscience researchers investigating computer marketing was eye-tracking. As early as 2006, Jakob Nielsen used eye-tracking technology to examine how test subjects viewed web pages. He discovered that people tend to look at pages in a crude F-shaped pattern. They scan quickly down the left side of the page and to the right as their eyes move down. Other eye-tracking experiments showed a similar, but triangular pattern, widest at the top, with the narrow tip at the bottom left of the screen. The resulting images from those scans are called heat maps and show where viewers’ eyes linger.
  These eye-tracking studies tell neuro web designers where important content, links and buttons should be placed for maximum attention.
  Websites designed by following eye-movement patterns have much longer visitor stay time. However, most template-based, generic web designs fail to take advantage of the insights into where visitors’ attention is directed.
• Use Price Anchors to Help Customers Make Choices – “How much will this cost?” Pricing is often the deal breaker. Neuroscientists have studied how people react to cost information.
  One key finding is that customers establish persistent mental price anchors. When they reach out to your company or plan to buy online, they often have a price anchor that is too low.
  That low anchor price can be replaced if you provide a new one. However, if the new anchor is too high, you may lose customers immediately. If it is too low, higher product prices may kill potential sales. Try presenting an anchor price that is higher than the actual product price in a negative way. For example, reading “Don’t pay $3,000 for your new computer” can make a $1,900 computer seem like a bargain.
• What Incentives Motivate Shoppers Best – At the point of sale or lead generation, Neuromarketing research demonstrates that subtle incentives are highly effective in triggering decision-making.
  A discount or free add-on can boost conversion rates significantly. Free shipping or a free accessory strongly motivates customers.
  Multiple five-star reviews or an individual glowing review helps shoppers pull the trigger. Warnings about low stock and time constraints can evoke the fear of losing out and rush them to buy. Beyond those, Amazon consistently gets add-on sales by invoking social confirmation. They point out how many people also purchased a related product. At the point of conversion, you have many opportunities to close the deal.

Neuromarketing Techniques for Better Conversions

Neuroscience marketing is not a one-shot solution. Each technique can contribute to higher conversion rates, but they work best when combined in an overall Neuromarketing strategy. An integrated approach that involves every aspect of your marketing gives you the best outcome. If that sounds complicated, that’s because it is. If you believe Neuromarketing helps you outsmart your competition, look for a research-based, data-driven Neuromarketing company that can expertly integrate Neuroscience principles throughout your marketing efforts.