Behavioural Patterns: Increase Sales By Implementing This Into Your Products
“Behavioural economics shows that humans aren’t the rational creatures we imagined… it’s revolutionized everything from big data to medicine, from how we govern to how we spend from high finance to football.”
— Michael Lewis, Bestselling Author
You still don’t know what we’re talking about? Behavioural Patterns is the trend word for this post.
As a Product Manager, you are interested that your products going to be purchase and also, this is a complete guide on how you can win friends in Sales when you implement these patterns properly.
As human beings, we think more than 6'000 thoughts and take around 35'000 decisions per day. The brain is constantly working at full speed to be able to process all those decisions and thoughts.
Imagine if these 6'000 thoughts and 35'000 decisions would happen in a conscious state of mind. Your brain would be exhausted as this is an imposing amount of data to process.
That’s where Behavioural Patterns come into play.
From science, we know hundreds of those patterns.
Make your customers love your business and buy your product by applying one or more of the following Behavioural Patterns.
Authority
Impact
Since childhood, we get taught that we have to be respectful to our parents, teachers and police officers. Therefore, the pattern Authority has been build for many years, and it says that humans naturally trust authorities.
But how do we make use of this pattern in Digital Business?
Labels and certifications are a great way to show that your customers can trust this product. Take AllBirds as an example.
They present their Forest Stewardship Council® certification on their website to prove to their customers that they’re trustworthy.
With such a certificate on your product, you’re not only winning the customers trust but also confirming his value about sustainability. Certification and selling sustainable products is an ideal combination.
Besides the fact that it sells very well, having a sustainable product that doesn’t harm the environment should be mandatory in every case.
Another example of how to use certificates is Marucci Sports.
In the image below, you can see that the landing page shows that the bats they sell have won several awards from a well-known award named Bat Digest.
Honestly, I can tell from myself how I react to such certificates: These certificates, awards, or anything else make me think instantly that this product is of good quality.
Decoy Effect
Impact
You can have a hard time deciding between two products, which one you should buy now.
That’s where the Decoy Effect can accelerate your decision-making by adding a third option.
The third option should have asymmetric information and need to be a wrong decision compared to the other two options. Therefore, you are more likely to decide and take the more expensive option as it seems to be the best choice.
When comparing the product, Apple makes good use of the Decoy Effect. When comparing the different options on the left side, the iPhone 12 Pro Max seems like the best decision. The Decoy in the middle, the iPhone 12 Pro, makes the Max-version looks much more appealing. As a customer, I think about buying the Pro, but as there is only 100£ difference to the Pro Max, I would take the Pro Max as I then also get a bigger screen.
In the newspaper, the Decoy Effect is also often used. Take The Australian as an example.
Why would you want to go for the Digital-only option, if you could have the Weekend Paper as well for the same price?
As you might already have noticed, the Digital-only version is the Decoy.
By the way, did you notice the use of Authority they also make or how does it make you feel when you’re just about to subscribe to award-winning journalism?
I can highly recommend to you the book “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely. You will find so many examples of how to implement Decoy Effects and other great insights that you can also use to set deadlines, for example.
Hobson’s +1 Choice Effect
Impact
When you only have one choice, you still need to decide whether you want to take it or leave it.
This decision is depleting mental energy. Therefore, customers are more likely not to do anything as it is an easy way out.
However, Hobson’s +1 Choice Effect has much in common with the Paradox Of Choice. People tend not to decide if too many options are available.
Amazon is doing pretty well in not forcing the customer to make a decision too fast. With “See All Buying Options” and “Add to List”, the customer has two different choices that lead to the same outcome at the end: Buying.
The big advantage for the customer: He doesn’t have to make a decision too fast.
Let’s do another one.
Samsung not only gives its customers the choice to “Buy Now”. They also have the opportunity to “Learn More” about the product. However, the penultimate goal is to make the customer buy; the “Learn More” page acts just as an in-between.
Loss Aversion
Impact
Losses loom larger than gains.
Losses loom larger than gains.
From a psychological point of view, the Loss is twice as consequential as the pleasure of gaining. The mentioned fact is also why it is more effective to punish people than to reward them when doing something good.
Udemy is an absolute genius in applying the Loss Aversion principle.
I mean, look at the price difference on the screenshot down below.
When I took this screenshot, I was lucky to have one of my cheap days. I call them cheap days because, when times up, you should pay the ridiculously high amount.
However, the trick with Udemy is to wait a few days, and prices go back to “normal” again.
Paradox Of Choice
Impact
From my point of view, this is the effect that I’m most familiar with, I’d say.
Have you ever scrolled through Netflix and were overwhelmed by the high number of movies? I assume it also happened when you couldn’t decide what to watch and just went to bed without watching a movie.
If you can relate to this scenario, the Paradox Of Choice has hit you.
For the moment, we stick to Netflix as it is, for me, the number one situation when this paradox pops up.
However, Netflix makes good use of its data that the users provide.
So when you’re watching the series “Behind her Eyes” without even taking one break, it is highly likely that you must have enjoyed the show.
“Behind her Eyes” was one of those series that I could decide on very quickly and it is definitely worth watching it. The plot twist is amazing!
Netflix then starts recommending you series that is similar to the one you binge-watched. Simple as that. This behaviour is one kind of implicit data that Netflix uses.
Other data would be your scrolling behaviour, the device you’ve watched it on when you pause, rewind and fast forward movies or series and some more.
To mark that point, recommending is one possible solution to help the customer overcome the Paradox Of Choice, and many e-commerce stores are taking advantage of that.
Scarcity
If there is only a limited amount available for some goods, people get scared. As there is not much left, we have to decide fast and as we don’t want to miss something, we tend to buy the goods.
When I think of Scarcity, booking.com is the one page that pops up. Down below you can find the offer about a room and, classic scarcity, they mention that only 1 room is left at this price.
Social Proof
Impact
This pattern might be an obvious one. But:
If we don’t know how to decide, we look around what others are doing and choose accordingly.
We think that people who already took the decision we are trying to make are more knowledgeable than we are. They know more specific knowledge about the situation.
Social Proof is the pattern that makes influencer marketing so powerful!
Josh Donaldson is a famous baseball player. As for Marucci sports, he is the perfect face to show with their products.
When you buy equipment, it is easy to decide when you know that such experts are using it. It gives you security — precisely this kind of protection you need to close the deal.
WYSIATI (What You See Is All There Is)
Impact
As the name says, you only consider the information available when making a decision. Obviously, everything you don’t know is not there. So you have no chance of considering this information.
Your product is constantly evolving, you make new versions of it or you release new software. Make regularly sure, that the product description contains all the necessary information for the customers.
Write for your targeted audience and as yourself regularly, if your customers know all about the positive aspects of your product.
There are so many patterns that can be used in Digital Business to make your customers buy.
These were only a few.
Sources
- Hobson’s +1 Choice Effect — Wheel of Persuasion
- How Many Decisions Do We Make Each Day? — Psychology Today
- Using product certification to win consumers’ hearts and minds — Greenbiz
All other non-mentioned information is from the book PsyConversion by Philip Spreer (only in German).
