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How to Motivate Customers to Make a Purchase

How to motivate purchasing through Branding

Branding a business is much more complicated than just picking a few colors and fonts. If your business has a flashy website with matching colors, cool graphics, and consistent fonts, but your visual identity and content strategy are not leading customers to buy from you… then what was the point of all that branding?

 

In order to scale your company and entice customers to make a purchase, your company’s branding activities must align with strategic brand goals. There are a variety of brand goals that your company can focus on, and motivating customers to make a purchase is a common brand goal. (I explain each of the five major brand goals and how to choose which goal is right for your business in my book BrandFix.)

 

Motivate purchasing is an important brand goal for businesses that have existed for some time and already have a high level of brand awareness. If your business is ready to complement the power of your visual brand with actions that encourage customers to make a purchase, here are three reliable strategies.

 

 

Offer a discount or sample.

It’s hard to pass up a great deal, especially on something a customer was already thinking of buying. Many businesses install a pop-up form on their websites that advertises a discount: if a customer signs up for your email list, they receive a coupon code for a certain amount off their first order.

 

Your business can leverage this strategy for long-term brand awareness and growth because even if the customer opts not to use the coupon, they will continue to receive email updates from your business. Over time, the content and visuals you send these potential customers will help them to know, like, and trust your brand.

 

Here is an example of how the natural hair and beauty brand Aveda offers a discount to its new customers via a pop-up form:

Wellness Brand

The health and wellness brand Aveda uses a discount code to encourage website visitors to join its email list. Source: www.aveda.com

 

Some brands may want to go a step further by giving away a free sample of their product to potential customers. Free samples can be an especially effective strategy for food, beauty, and wellness products as it helps customers experience the benefits of your product firsthand.

 

Provide social proof.

Let’s say a potential customer is intrigued by your product. Your company’s colors, logo, and website appeal to them, your social media content speaks to them, and this person thinks your business can solve their problem — but they’re not 100% sure yet.

 

Instead of trying to single-handedly force the sale into place, why not let your happy customers do the talking? No matter what industry your business operates in, it’s critical to share reviews and testimonials as social proof to develop trust with future customers.

 

A real-life customer speaking about their positive experience with your brand will always be more trustworthy than the marketing talking points which come from the brand itself. If someone is teetering on the edge of making a purchase, and they see a social media post where they feel connected to a customer’s story and can relate to that person’s journey, they will be able to visualize themselves interacting with your brand.

 

 

Create urgency.

When we don’t set deadlines on projects, they tend to drag on and on. And when you don’t give your potential customers a reason to buy from your business right now, they tend to say things like “That sounds amazing, I’ll have to check that out that sometime!” only to disappear from sight forever.

 

Take a moment to answer this question: Why should your customer buy now instead of later? If you were in their shoes, what would compel you to act immediately?

 

One way to create urgency is to connect the dots between what your customer’s most pressing problem is and how exactly your product solves that problem.  A strong visual brand that resonates with your target, when paired with magnetic content that clearly explains the value of your product, will lay the groundwork for your customers to fall in love with your brand.

 

Your company can also run limited-time offers to nudge customers into making a purchase immediately. Examples of this strategy include phrases such as:

  • “Only 5 spots left!”
  • “Act fast – this discount expires at midnight.”
  • “We won’t be running the program again until next year!”
  • “20 people have this item in their cart right now.”

Look to your brand strategy before deciding whether to promote these types of limited-time offers. In some cases (for example: luxury brands), these phrases may not be aligned with your brand voice and could confuse or disappoint your customers.

 


 

Aventive Studio helps companies craft powerful brands through our full suite of brand strategy consulting, website design, logo design, brand board creation, and more.

Schedule a call with our Creative Director to discuss how Aventive Studio can help scale your business and motivate purchasing through a strategic and stunning visual brand.

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