Hello my nerdy friends,
Here’s an easy way to get more people to buy your highest priced plan.
The research:
Researchers built 2 simple shopping websites for sofas and cars and asked people to choose between two options.
One option was cheaper but lower quality. The other was more expensive but higher quality.
Before seeing the products, people landed on a short intro page with a background image. Some saw backgrounds linked to comfort, like clouds and soft colors. Others saw backgrounds linked to money, like coins and green colors.
After that, everyone saw the exact same product pages. The researchers tracked which product people chose, how many details they clicked, and how long they spent reading each feature. The study included both beginners and experts in the category (Mandel & Johnson, 2002).
Findings:
The background changed what people bought, even though people denied it.
For sofas, the cheaper option was chosen by about 56 percent of people who saw money backgrounds, but only about 39 percent of people who saw comfort backgrounds.
For cars, the cheaper option reached about 66 percent share under money backgrounds, compared to about 50 percent under safety or quality backgrounds.
Beginners also changed how they searched. Under money backgrounds, they clicked more price details and spent several more seconds reading price information.
Under comfort or safety backgrounds, they spent more time on comfort or safety details.
Category experts did not click more links or spend more time searching, but the background still changed their choices.
Why?
Priming. Priming happens when a cue(like an image, word, number, etc.) makes certain ideas easier for our brains to access.
A background linked to money or comfort makes related attributes more available during the decision. Once an attribute is more available, our brains rely on it more when comparing options.
Caveats
The study used simple choices with two options and fictional brands. The effect may be smaller when people have strict budgets or long buying cycles with repeated visits.
Takeaway
Put some careful thought into the background images on your landing pages. They should prime people to be more likely to take the action you want them to.
And even if you have good deals on your website, if you want people to pick the higher-priced options, avoid visuals that can associate in the visitors brain with saving or deals. Instead, use images that signal comfort or luxury.
See you next week,
Ksenia, the chief nerd
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