With much of marketing getting tied to analytics, it should come as no shock that you’ve felt like a psychologist at times. Marketing has become more about psychoanalyzing your customer’s habits. Knowing those habits is key in successfully catering to their needs.

In the last website conversion article, I talked about some of the reasons why conversions are low. Many of them dealt with aspects that negatively affected a website visitor’s perception.

Marketing has become more about psychoanalyzing your customer’s habits.

Though perception is everything (as they say, whoever ‘they’ is), it’s more than likely that perception is anything. By that, I mean anything in direct effect of a person’s perception. Let’s look at a couple of examples, divided into four categories courtesy of Unbounce and Abraham Maslow.

Physiological
Basic needs. Food, water, air. Things needed for survival. In the virtual world, survival takes on a slightly technical aspect. Will your website visitor survive the processes that you intentionally (or unintentionally) put them through?

Survival is an instinct that kicks in whenever a threat is presented. Any perceived threat felt at anytime throughout the process will cause an abandoned shopping cart, signup form or download.

To alleviate the perception of threat, offer no risk trials and guarantees, similar to what BannerView.com provides for users to try BannerOS. That first step in getting someone to part with their information is a major hurdle.

In addition to free trials or guarantees, be upfront and clear about what’s required and what it costs. Don’t deviate from their expectations.

Safety
Similar to survival we next have safety. It’s unfortunate that, with all the innovations in technology, we still can’t guarantee a person’s safety. Recent hacking events with Home Depot, Target and Sony influences a person’s perception, even though it’s been proven much safer to make purchases online.

A recent survey highlighted “mobile security worries are still an issue for 28% of those polled. That percentage of respondents says that privacy and security concerns will deter them from using a phone to shop.”

Trust is a crucial factor in gaining a sale. How you go about gaining it can vary, but time isn’t on your side. In an age where audience fragmentation reigns, the window of opportunity continues to shrink. Testimonials are a good first step, but reviews from satisfied customers take that a step further. This is a strength of social media and sites like Yelp.

Belonging
The connective nature of social media and the Internet fosters a sense of belonging. Sometimes, it’s a false sense, popularized by the notion that a thousand or more followers or friends equals success. More often than not, social media success doesn’t translate into sales.

Where you should concentrate your social empathy is within your loyal customer base. We know that customers need to buy into a brand or company before they buy an actual product or service. Because of this, that sense of belonging should be created and managed within a membership program.

A ‘welcome to the family’ gift, exclusive offers and a personalized experience; these are just a few of the initiatives that you, as a business owner can use to create a sense of belonging.

Esteem
Though a little tarnished as of late, Apple provides a great example as a company built around esteem. Much like owning a BMW or Porsche, Apple created their rabid fanboy (and girl) base around luxury.

A device once thought of only making calls now is expected to do much more. Thus, began the smartphone wars. How do you feel when you use a particular product or service? Can you translate that feeling to the web? Does your company make your customers feel a part of the elite?

Making your customers feel special remains an elusive goal of many companies. Hightlight benefits to them not offered by your competitors. Tied back into that sense of belonging, you can create that same rabid fan base like Apple.

Making your customers feel special remains an elusive goal of many companies.

Not mentioned in the slideshow is Maslow’s top need of Self-Actualization. It’s here that we hope that the customer realizes exactly what they can do with your product or service. Once all four of the previous needs are met, this should come automatically.

In the next article, we’ll examine the research process of creating better conversions.