The economical crisis affects the buying behavior of consumers. Marketing strategies need to take this in consideration by adapting the promotional offers and messages to the preferences of the customers. The question How does your customer want to be approached? became more relevant than ever.
Is the answer to the new economic climate to bombard consumers with reductions and free gadgets? Several companies are testing different approaches and need to conclude that this is a very subtle matter where testing is key.
Overtoom, a B2B distant seller of warehouse and office equipment, tested whether the recipients of their email campaign would be interested in saving money or if they would rather prefer to be invited, free of obligations, to have a look at the brochure.
Translation: leaf through the brochure and click here and save money online
Apparently the recipients of this email campaign were more inclined to click through when they received an invitation to have a look at the brochure. The savings didn’t appeal to the recipients. Perhaps customers prefer to have a look at the products, without having the feeling that they need to buy something. This would explain the important increase of CTR:
Sunparks, a Belgian holiday park, tested this as well. They wondered if the recipients would be tempted by an early booking reduction or if they would prefer an invitation to have a look at the brochure.
Also in this case the invitation to discover the new brochure was the winning header image:
Another company tested two different buttons, also in this case the winning button was the one that invited the recipient to have a look at the collection, instead of the button that offered a reduction of 35% of. The increase in click-through was 72%.
An online shop tested two buttons: an “order now” button that was used in all previous campaigns and a button that invited the recipient to have a look at the products. Also in this case, the second button was the winning one, increasing conversion by even 420%.
All these optimization campaigns show that there is a trend in the current customer behavior. Apparently, the recipients of the email campaigns were mostly interested in having a look at the products. They don’t want to have the feeling that they need to buy something. Referring to savings, does remind people of the fact that they will spend money anyway. Could this be the influence of the crisis?
I think all female readers will agree that these days we first want to have a look at the cloths in the shop, and then decide whether we would like to buy the products. We do not enter a shop, simply because of the fact that there is a 30% OFF sign in front of the shop.
So yes, I believe that the crisis learns us to be more gently and subtle with consumers, both in the street and in the inbox.
Jenn
Your study validates what most of us feel – we want to know what's "new" without feeling the pressure to buy. I believe today's economic climate has forced people to become price conscious which doesn't eliminate their desire to be current and "in the know."
The price (and discount) influences if the item or service is affordable.
Thanks for sharing.