Online buyer psychology is a huge topic. This article is about personalized experiences.

But in the last 11 years that we’ve been A/B testing we’ve seen glimpses of elements that make up buyer psychology. So far we know 9 secrets about the minds of shoppers (overview of those 9 secrets here).

This article is about:

1. People are skeptical of “too good to be true”
2. They find expertise sexy
3. They root for people who beat the odds
4. They are fascinated by surprising details
5. They are visual animals
6. They need motivation to break habits
7. They love personalized experiences
8. They like knowing they’ve stumbled onto something rare
9. We must resolve their negative thoughts

The philosophy behind personalized experiences

As a buyer is reading your sales copy there’s one question constantly playing in their head, “Is this the right product for me?“

No one wants to buy a product that’s everything to everyone. We want to buy things that feel like they were uniquely made for us.

As a marketer, if I can get into the head of the buyer and understand their preferences, motivations, and psychology then I’m able to write copy that reflects those points of views.

There are 2 types of personalization:

1: Prediction based
2: User action based

1: Prediction based

Here the writer is so good they are able to guess aspects of the buyer and their psychology that the buyer has not even revealed. For the reader, it feels like magic.

Great copy should feel a little eerie. Like the writer is reading your mind.

Rishi Rawat

Let’s look at an example

Handicappedpets.com is a site that sells dog wheelchairs:

What can we guess about someone who is buying a dog wheelchair, which is a relatively expensive item?

Obvious guesses

— Their dog is having difficulty moving about.

— While they are buying with their credit card, they are being it on behalf of someone who can’t voice his/her opinion so that adds extra pressure to think about all the details that may matter to their pet.

— Because measurement is involved there will be some degree of anxiety around getting the measurement right. They would also have anxiety around dealing with returns if the measurement isn’t right and the dog isn’t comfortable.

— Dogs typically are taken for a walk a few times in a day. People are used to adding a leash and being on their way. How much of a pain would it be to add and remove the wheelchair multiple times a day?

— “How is my dog doing to pee and poop when they are inside the wheelchair?” at some point this has got to be a question that pops in their mind.

Creative guesses

— This is likely their first time buying a dog wheelchair. I can guess this because in the last 10 years I’ve only seen dogs in a wheelchair two times. I may be in the minority but it’s fair to say dog wheelchairs aren’t super common.

— Extending on the first creative guess; because this is the first time they are buying such a product, and because they will need to assemble it when they receive it, they will likely wonder “damn, I hope the assembly process isn’t a nightmare.”

— That they care deeply about their 4 legged best friend. Wheelchairs are expensive.

2: User action based

Instead of making guesses about the buyer why not just let the buyer tell us what kind of information they care about the most? To see what we mean read this article: Using Active Participation on Product Pages.

A little about us

Thank you for reading this article about personalized experiences. To get a broader perspective on personalized experiences listen to this talk.

We are Frictionless Commerce and over the last 11 years, we’ve thought about just one thing: how do we get online shoppers to convert? We’re fascinated by buyer psychology. And once we understand how your site visitor thinks we use our 9 point copywriting process to convince and convert them.

If you’re on LinkedIn much you can should definitely connect with me. On LinkedIn, I post ecommerce conversion ideas every day, multiple times a day.