Why Do Visitors Convert into Buyers?

Conversion simply means transformation – in this case, turning a visitor into a customer. Optimizing an app, a website, or a landing page for conversions is called conversion rate optimization (CRO).

In online marketing, the most important factor is the conversion and what’s known as the conversion rate. In other words: how many completed goals do I get relative to the number of visitors on the page? We define these goals right at the start. Typical goals are a product purchase, a newsletter signup, or a contact request.

Why is conversion optimization so incredibly important? Simple: it makes us money. A product sale puts more money in our pockets, and a newsletter signup or a contact request does too, just indirectly. We pay for clicks to our landing page via AdWords or Facebook ads and then hope the user converts. Because if they don’t, we’ve spent that money for nothing.

How can we increase conversions?

There are all sorts of ways to increase the conversions of a landing page. We’ll cover them in detail in a later article. In this article, we’ll focus on the psychological side. For conversion optimization, we turn to the American researcher Dr. BJ Fogg and his “Behavior Model.” BJ Fogg is the founder of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University in California.

BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model

In his Behavior Model, BJ Fogg looks at three elements: motivation, ability (simplicity), and triggers. These elements can also be deliberately built into a website using gamification. According to Fogg, a person only performs a specific behavior when, at that moment, they are sufficiently motivated, have the necessary ability, and receive a trigger. We can only rarely control a visitor’s motivation. But we can significantly lower the bar for the required ability with an optimized user interface and really good usability.

Three steps to the desired behavior: motivation, simplicity, and trigger.

Motivation

Motivation describes a person’s will to complete a specific goal. There are six different motivators, arranged in opposing pairs:

• Pleasure — Pain
• Hope — Fear
• Acceptance — Rejection

The opposing sides of each pair are equally strong motivators.

Every person is unique, and so are their motivations.

Simplicity

Simplicity describes how much ability it takes to perform a specific behavior. The focus here isn’t on the person’s specific skills, but on general factors such as:

• Time — The more time the user needs, the harder the desired behavior
• Money — The more money it takes, the harder the desired behavior
• Physical effort — The more physical effort it takes, the harder the desired behavior
• Brain cycles — The more the user has to think, the harder the desired behavior
• Social deviance — The more the user’s behavior deviates from the social norm, the harder the desired behavior
• Routine — The more often the user has already performed a certain behavior, the easier the desired behavior.

Triggers

Triggers are elements that prompt a specific behavior. They can be divided into sparks, facilitators, and signals.

If a user is able to perform a behavior but lacks the necessary motivation, a spark can still trigger exactly that behavior. To make a spark more effective, you usually pair it with a motivating element.

If, on the other hand, a user is highly motivated but lacks the ability to perform a behavior, a facilitator can make that behavior easier or support the abilities the user already has. Facilitators are often used for software updates: the user is shown that just one click is needed to install the update.

But what about users who have both high motivation and high ability? These users tend to find sparks and facilitators annoying. Instead, they’re waiting for a signal. In this case, the signal serves as a reminder and points them to the right behavior.

Conclusion: Conversion Optimization with the Behavior Model

For a user to convert, they need to be sufficiently motivated and also have a high level of ability. When both are in place, you need to choose the right trigger. When the user is in the green zone, a conversion is possible. In the red zone, a conversion is all but impossible.