How Human Psychology Contributes Towards Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

It’s not arguable that setting up a website nowadays can be done just in a matter of days. Does every website have a chance to stand out from the competition though? The key to success is not how professionally your website is designed and put up, but how well it can trigger the emotional factors of the target audience. That’s when social psychology comes into play in shaping up human decisions.

Use Cognitive Biases and Psychological Theories to Give You Competitive Advantage

Psychology is all about how human behavior is shaped in different conditions. There are six key psychological principles of persuasion that can be embedded into your website towards Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) which we are going to discuss in a little while.

Think about it. There are plenty of cool websites out there to fulfill our requirement just perfectly. But why do so many of us flock into the same website? Is it just because the site is beautifully designed and developed with splendid levels of services or splendid products? I highly doubt that because almost all companies do offer them.

The key importance lies in the understanding that you are dealing with other human beings of different needs and natures but almost all of them react just similarly for right mental stimuli and cognitive biases. So if you are capable of hitting the right spot of mental stimulation for persuasion,   then the buck is yours! A good psychological research can unfold all the secrets for you. If you’re too busy to do that yourself, you can simply go through our articles on the matter, which are solely based on psychological research.

Haven’t you experienced it yourself?

Can you recall a moment of landing on a web page to buy something that you definitely didn’t have in mind or disliking a webpage at the first glance without having a valid reason? If so, you know what we are talking about here. Human psychology works in such a mysterious way that trying to sell your stuff online without having a solid understanding on psychology may do no good in Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

Even though you may argue on the point that you have a good gut feeling as a customer on what you like or dislike in a website, you shouldn’t solely depend on it unless you’re well versed with the key persuasion principles of psychology discussed by the psychologist, Dr. Cialdini (1984) in his book ‘Influence’ as stated below.

• Principle of Reciprocity: We tend to give something good in return for something good received. That’s why we are asked to fill up a quick online survey after having free services from a website.
• Principle of Commitment and Consistency: We tend to justify our choices by choosing the same option again and again. That’s why you see a cross selling strategy (selling additional items to go with what you already have in hand) used by the Apple brand in their website.
• Principle of Authority – This principle implies that we tend to accept things that are acknowledged by an expert of the interest. That is why you see social influencer endorsements in websites.
• Principle of Social Proof: We tend to do things which are done by the majority believing that it’s the right thing to do. That’s why most good websites have the success story and review features.
• Principle of Liking: Here, we tend to act positively towards what we already know and like. That’s why good websites are enriched with strong ‘about us’ pages.
• Principle of Scarcity: If we see that a product is running out of stock or limited offers, we tend to buy the one without giving much thought. That’s why you see time countdowns next to limited offers on the websites.

Conclusion

Now you know that understanding the psychological principles is absolutely vital to influence the consumer behavior towards Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). Guess what, there are more different types of principles of human psychology that you can embed into your web design to make the most out of what you invest. This is just the beginning! Keep digging through all our subsequent articles in the series to drive your website towards Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). We would love to hear about your experience on the matter.