Persuading Site Visitors to Buy Through Personas

As a general rule, visitors to your web site are unpredictable: they might abandon a shopping cart right before they get to the checkout; change the nature of their search queries, or arrive and leave at unexpected points. The phrase “herding a flock of cats” comes to mind. How can you get these visitors to do what you want them to i.e. buy?

Although visitor behaviour on the whole is unpredictable, certain patterns can emerge when you monitor it, which will help you to identify a number of customer personas. These personas can give you the key to creating persuasive messaging on your web site.

For instance, knowing that there is a segment of web traffic arriving at your web site because of an online magazine feature about your products will help you map the path they should be taking from arrival to checkout along these lines:

Online Article - - > Search Engine - - > Landing Page - - > Shopping Basket - - > Checkout - - > Sale Conversion

Using this model, relevant links and calls to action should be placed strategically throughout the site to nudge visitors from one stage to the next. The landing page should make mention of the article (‘As featured in...’); the shopping basket icon should be placed prominently on the landing page with more emphatic calls-to-action (‘Buy Today: Save 20% On Shipping’) and the shopping basket should also be optimised for convenience.

Learning about who your customers are and where they're coming from requires time for research and planning, but will help you write copy that speaks directly to their needs e.g. security, quality, fashion etc. making you more likely to persuade them to buy.

If you’re wondering what makes this effort worthwhile, consider the financial returns of getting just 5% more of visitors to make a purchase. Targeting and designing your site towards customers in this way can lead to significant increase in sales volume. The long-term benefits of knowing who your customers are and how they are navigating your site will help you design and run a much more profitable e-commerce venture.

Photo credit: The Jimmer at Flickr