According to an important advertising theory and our own research here at Online Image®, a consumer will make a decision about whether or not to interact with your website within the first ten seconds of coming to your landing pageAlso known as an entry page, this is the first page a user visits on a site. Often, these are built specifically for ad campaigns.. This is why it is so important to create a unique, concise, and most importantly, relevant presentation of your goods and services in the form of your website.
The basic principle comes from Victor Gruen, the founder of the modern storefront. Gruen was responsible for formulating the Gruen Effect, which is the moment in which a consumer responds to a designed layout or architecture that is specifically constructed to elicit a response from the consumer. This response should result in the consumer purchasing the intended goods or services from the company, or at the very least, investigating the products or services further.
Taking Brick and Mortar Strategy Online
Although the traditional implication of this principle applies to a physical store, this exact phenomenon is also present in the online world. Typically, a consumer will make a decision about whether or not to interact with your website within the first ten seconds of coming to your landing page. This is why it is so important to create a unique, concise, and most importantly, relevant presentation of your goods and services in the form of your website.
There is no greater epitome of consumerism than the modern shopping mall. For years we have made our way into indoor and outdoor shopping malls and plazas to fulfill a variety of our consumer needs, from a wonderful dining experience, to getting that special gift for a special person in our life. Just like the commercial space of the Internet did not start out as a vast source for purchases, the modern mall did not start out the way it is now. The present-day storefront has evolved from a simple door and sign to a broad display of products and an enticing design luring customers in to purchase goods they would have otherwise passed up.
Learn to Encourage Purchases
Victor Gruen began designing retail spaces and storefronts during the Great Depression. Even during this time of economical decline and stagnation, Gruen was still able to improve companies’ profits and sales. This illustrates the principle of how despite the circumstance, consumers are still subject to innate psychological nature and conditioning.
Think back to your last experience at a store inside a mall or even at your neighborhood grocery store. If you are like many other consumers, you probably walked out of the store with more than you intended on purchasing. Even with a concrete shopping list, it can be next to impossible to only buy the things we had in mind. This phenomenon is not an accident.
The marketing departments of retail stores have worked tediously to design almost every square inch of their stores with the objective of enticing consumers to purchase more and more. They also have the goal of encouraging customers to make compulsive buying decisions. Although working with an informed consumer reduces the risk of buyer’s remorse, consumers that express symptoms of compulsive buying make up approximately 5.5%[1] of the US population. This makes up a relatively large percentage of potential customers, which provides an incentive to marketers to produce specific marketing strategies to cater to this type of consumer.
Your Website is Your Digital Storefront
This buying behavior is prevalent in online shopping as well. It is now more important than ever to invest in internet marketing efforts to acquire a market share of online consumers.
Websites are the modern storefront and retail space. With this in mind, the design of your online presence and website requires the same meticulous coordination that retail space marketers put into creating an effective blueprint for purchase-driven store designs. The Internet is comparable to a mall in that it is a one-stop shop for many of our consumer needs. Instead of driving to the nearest mall, though, consumers now turn on their computers or pull out their phones and perform a Google search.
Just like someone does not want to park far away from your place of business, consumers do not want to spend unnecessary time searching for your business or products. This also applies to ease of access to what they are searching for once they arrive onto your website. Here at Online Image® we perform a variety of internet marketing efforts, including enhancing your Google listing, website content, PPC ads*, and landing pages on your website.
What solutions have you discovered that entice your potential customers to visit your webpage, and more importantly, result in conversions that result in revenue? Visit our Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and let’s start the conversation.
*PPC marketing & integration requires a customized PPC marketing package.
[1] Estimated Prevalence of Compulsive Buying Behavior in the United States
1The American Journal of Psychiatry