eCommerce advertisers know that “smart” data analysis tools are one of the best ways to understand your target audience, optimize product pages, and profit. LinkedIn’s State of Sales Report 2021 also highlighted that 77% of sales professionals plan on investing more in sales intelligence tools to build trust.
With the ever-growing competition and shifting consumer behavior on platforms like Amazon, the need for sales persuasion is only compounding. Pacvue recently hosted a webinar with FordeBaker, an Amazon marketing and operational agency, to understand this better and get some actionable insights. Together, Tom Baker and Anne Harrell covered current advertising trends, the basics of a high-converting product page, and 8 fundamental principles of sales persuasion.
Let’s look at the key takeaways:
So, Why Sales Persuasion?
Shoppers’ attention spans are only going down, with Wyzowl research showing sellers have less than 8 seconds to push a sale. According to FordeBaker’s Founder Tom Baker, sales persuasion is “the communication methods used to educate, inform, and ultimately inspire a shopper to purchase your product and not a competitor’s product.”
The primary goal of sales persuasion is increased conversation rates. Amazon sellers are all too familiar with CROs, and Pacvue statistics show a growing imbalance between click-through rates and conversion rates. From both an advertising and a retail perspective, conversion rate optimization (or CRO) is the most important metric.
Creating a high converting product page is the key to optimizing your sales funnel and ensuring that of the people who click your ads to visit your page, more and more end up making the purchase.
Going Beyond the Basics of Profit Maximization
As an Amazon advertiser, the basic elements of page optimization are pretty standard, irrespective of your product or industry. They include:
- Clear content that’s inviting, sets the tone and establishes a brand image
- Descriptive visuals, photos and videos, that show the shopper your product’s features and benefits
- Social proof, in terms of reviews and ratings as well as on social media
These elements ensure you grow organic visibility and help you reach the 2 billion global visitors on Amazon every month. Recently, Amazon has also increased the amount of ad inventory in search results and verified a lot more sellers on the platform. Combine this with the fact that you see bigger brands with better budgets enter the market every day, and you understand why advertising costs are increasing astronomically.
8 Fundamental Principles of Sales Persuasion
Looking at it plainly, long-term profit maximization is based on a mathematical formula. The number of visitors, your conversation rate, and the lifetime customer spend all determine your revenue. Your profit is nothing but revenue minus the investment cost. By increasing your conversion rates, you not only improve your sales but your overall business performance.
1. Know Your Audience
Amazon customer reviews are the easiest way to research genuine opinions for your as well as your competitors’ products. Actively seeking feedback from buyers gives you the power to craft a high converting product page, target pain points, and make selective changes.
2. Product Demo Not Catalogue
Your Amazon product page should show the customer what they will gain by choosing to spend their money on it. Video content that depicts benefits is more persuasive than bullet points that list features.
3. Promise for Health, Wealth, & Happiness
Your product isn’t just a purchase, it’s a promise to solve a problem that the customer is facing. Future pacing is a clever tactic that lets you help the customer dream of how their life will improve as a direct result of their purchase from you.
4. Emphasize Comparative Advantages
Despite having an unlimited choice, buyers on Amazon are looking for tangible evidence that supports the claims you make. Do competitor research to pinpoint your USP and make sure to highlight and prove it on the product page.
5. Counter Objections
The goal of a good product page is to make the customer feel understood. So, address their hesitation and then show them how your product overcame them to make their decision much easier.
6. Shoppers Scan, Be Visual
Shoppers don’t read a product page from top to bottom, they have a non-linear journey instead. By being visually stimulating, you help them get lost in everything you have to offer. The more time they spend on the page, the more likely they are to buy.
7. Less is More
Your product has many advantages, sure, but altogether they can easily overwhelm and confuse a buyer. Instead, focus on one or two key things your target audience is looking for and highlight only those.
8. When Features Sell
Benefits usually take the promotional cake, but some features are too important to skip. They can make or break the decision so you have to give that information to the customer with clarity so they can come to a decision quickly.
By the time they are done going through your product page, the decision to buy should feel like a no-brainer. This power-packed webinar also included brand case studies, content templates, and deeper insights into what it takes to create a high converting product page that maximizes profits. You can access it for free here.
