THE ECOMMERCE SUCCESS EQUATION (HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO BUY YOUR PRODUCT)
Want to know the secret behind the success of the best ecommerce brands out there? It’s simple: They create raving fans out of their customers. That’s great, but how do you do that?
In this article, we’re going to share our secret for how to get people to buy your product. This equation works every time. And we don’t stop there — the sale is where it starts, but true business success is all about creating the long-term fan base of your dreams.
How to Get People to Buy Your Product and Become Lifelong Fans
When most people think of fans, they think of sports. Sports fans are passionate to the point of being irrational. They talk excessively about their team and do insane things like sporting full-body paint for a game in the middle of winter. Fans go to great lengths for the team they love.
When figuring out how to get people to buy your product, the principle is the same: If you create fans out of your customers, they’ll be loyal to you, advocate for you, and champion your brand.
To start, we need to know: How do you build a brand worthy of fans?
Things That All Fan-Worthy Brands Have in Common
1. An Amazing Product
The prerequisite to building a great business is having an amazing product — a product that delivers on its promises that you can stand behind. There are lots of ways to make money, but building a brand takes time, intentionality, and investment. This starts by developing an amazing product that people will love.
2. A Great Story
People buy from you for a reason. For most ecommerce brands, customers could get similar products from a slew of different brands. How do you get people to buy your product? This happens when they connect to your story better than the others. Take the time to develop your brand story and tell it in a compelling way.
3. Outstanding Customer Service
Brands that are fan-worthy not only stand behind their product — they also deliver generously to their customers. They offer promises like lifetime guarantees and go out of their way to surprise and delight their customers.
Note: To do this, you need to have amazing margins on your products.
4. A Strong Purpose That Resonates With Their Audience
This doesn’t have to be a give-back component necessarily, although it could be. It may look like a mission to get outdoors and live a more active and healthy lifestyle (our client Groove Life is a great example of this).
Turning your customers into fans takes time and effort. The journey starts with their first interaction with your brand and that first sale. When you’re at the beginning of determining how to get people to start that journey and buy your product, what are the ingredients you need to make fans out of your customers?
The Ecommerce Success Equation
Now that we understand what creates true long-term success, how do we get people in the door, buying your product, and on their way to becoming your brand fans? Here’s the basic equation we use for selling any product:
Great Product (With a Great Story) + Amazing Offer + Urgency
With this equation, you can get any targeted customer to buy from you right now. Beyond buying, you’ll also leave this customer loving the product and their experience with your brand, and they’ll be more likely to come back again and again.
1. Great Product (With a Great Story)
For starters, if you don’t have a great product, you won’t create raving fans out of your customers. Having a product that fulfills (and exceeds) your customers’ expectations is the first step to gaining fans.
Having a great story gives your customers an emotion to relate to — and as we know, people buy emotion, not features and benefits. This story can’t be fake or disingenuous. Figuring this out may require you and your company to do some soul-searching, but it’s worth it.
When presenting your product, start with the why behind your brand. People don’t buy what you do — they buy why you do it. Your product itself won’t be enough to win over customers and turn them into fans. A brand that does this extremely well is Wanderer Bracelets.
2. Amazing Offer
People want to feel like they’re getting a great deal. This urges them to act.
This doesn’t mean that you need to discount your product. For most brands, the secret is making the customer feel like what they’re paying is outweighed by the value your product will bring. This creates gratitude in your customers and makes them more likely to become fans of your brand.
Don’t shy away from discounting, though. Many brands think this devalues their brand, but that isn’t true. Your brand is what defines you, and it’s based on your emotional connection with your customers, your messaging, and your product.
Your offer may come in a variety of forms. Your retail price might be a great deal if messaged correctly, or you can offer discounts on the first purchase, free shipping, BOGO deals, free gifts, or even access to exclusive products or content.
Margins come into play again here. Make sure the retail price of your product has enough margin built in to be able to offer discounts. Take a look at this example of a great offer from Anthropologie — a brand with a great story that rarely discounts.
3. Urgency
This is the key to making everything above work. Humans are expert procrastinators. If there’s no urgency to your offer, customers will usually take more time making their decision and will likely forget about you. If there’s no urgency, people won’t act. And if you have a great product that you believe will make your customers’ lives better, then you want to figure out how to get people to buy your product so they can have what they want and need.
Creating real urgency isn’t easy to do. Potential customers can easily sense false urgency, so make sure you’re being authentic.
Sometimes urgency is created for us through holiday-based promotions. Many companies also offer new visitor discounts or abandon cart offers with a limited timeframe.
Another way to create urgency is to limit a product offering to a certain number of sales. This is a great way to get people who are interested but haven’t taken the leap yet to buy your product. If there are only a few left, they’re more likely to act immediately. Groove Life does a great job of creating urgency, and they even do it in ways that make you laugh (bonus!).
The Ecommerce Success Equation (How to Get People to Buy Your Product): Final Thoughts
Our three-step equation really is that simple. It’s all about learning how to get people to buy your product and creating fans. Once you make that first sale, the journey of turning your customer into a raving fan of your brand begins.
So what are you waiting for? Figuring out how to get people to buy your product is just the first leg of a fantastic journey with your customers. Take the steps needed to become a fan-worthy brand, and then move through the ecommerce success equation.
Unsure what to do first? Our award-winning team can help you untangle the details and get you steered in the right direction. Reach out today for all the support you need.
