Successful companies have access to detailed customer insights that they use to generate a high number of loyal clients.
There is no surprise then if they are so well known and manage to achieve higher results.
They use psychological techniques to empower their marketing and generate the right emotional impact in their audience.
In this article, I am going to show you 3 techniques Amazon uses to stimulate users’ emotional decision system, getting one of the highest online conversion rates as a result.
But first, let’s quickly see why emotions influence so much buyers’ decision-making.
More than 90% of human decisions are driven by emotions.
Ok, let’s make it simpler.
There are two ways that we all process and filter information to then make our decisions.
The first one is the Rational System that is less instinctive but requires a large amount of energy to be activated.
The second one is the Emotional System which is more instinctive so requires much less energy to be activated.
The human brain works like a perfect machine trying to save energy and use it for the most important tasks.
It is intuitive to see how much easier is to trigger the Emotional system than the Rational. Plus, psychology science, behavioral science, neuroscience, etc, now clearly show and demonstrate the predominance of the emotional system.
This means that depending on the situation we face, we most likely react driven by the way we feel regarding that situation.
So, depending on who your ideal customer is, your product or service, and where you sell it, the driving emotions are different.
If you want to learn more about how emotions influence buyers’ purchase decision-making, click here to see our emotions and purchase behavior guide.
So, now that you know how much influence emotions have on the purchase decision-making process, let’s see how Amazon uses it to be the biggest online retailer.
Amazon Leverages Emotional Marketing Techniques to Increase Sales
Let's now see 3 of the most powerful emotional marketing techniques Amazon use for high engagement and conversion rate.
1. Visual and Personalised Layout for a Special Feeling
When you visit Amazon’s website, you can immediately see product images everywhere. This extremely visual layout is designed to make things as easy as possible, optimizing any user experience.
When everything looks clear and easy, people predominantly use the emotional system for decision making as for easy things there is no need to use the energy consuming rational system.
This makes the users even more receptive to neuropsychological stimulations used through the pages.
If then you have used the Amazon website previously, you will also notice something else. Amazon tracks every visitor’s searches and purchases on its website, so that they can create a personalized profile for each customer.
Each customer has unique layout, products, and design. Depending on what they searched or purchased previously, Amazon will show you specific recommendations. Just for you. Just because you needed those items in the past.
Plus, if you purchased an item previously, Amazon create a unique account with your name. They are basically adapting the whole website to your needs, making you feel very special.
And that’s exactly the feeling of being special and having all so clear and easy that positively impact their audience, making them spend time on their page despite the large amount of products that, if presented differently, might instead overwhelm users.
2. Highly Recommended Options for a Security Feeling
When you search for items on Amazon website you can either search for items by typing their names, check the multiple categories, or follow specific suggestions.
No matter the way you decide to shop, Amazon will show you curated lists of products, specifically presented to match your previous choices and needs.
Also, after hitting the search button, Amazon shows you results listed in a specific order. Yes, the order is not casual.
On the top part of the list, you can usually find products with the highest number of reviews and the ones classified as “the most sold on Amazon” or “Amazon Choice”.
Why do they do this?
All the three classifications have the ability to make users feel more comfortable and secure with the choice of those products, driving their decision-making towards them.
This feeling of security is crucial when there are so many options available.
Users may feel like “All these options are similar, I don’t know what to choose! What is the best choice for me?”
And this feeling might trigger insecurity and uncertainty leading them away.
So, as Amazon list so many similar products, they use techniques to stimulate security to keep people on the page and drive sales.
It basically goes like this:
- If the product has lots of reviews and more than 4 stars means that lots of others tried it and are happy with it – feeling of security – so it will be good for me as well.
- If it is the most sold on Amazon, it means that is the one that everyone else is getting – feeling of security – so I am going to get it as well.
- If it is the Amazon choice, it means that it is good, otherwise they wouldn’t recommend it – feeling of security – so I am going to get this one.
This psychological principle is called Dragging Effect or Social Proof.
The Dragging Effect is the tendency that most people have to feel more secure by choosing things that other people have already done.
Learn +50 Powerful Neuromarketing Principles to Boost Your Engagement and Your Conversions
3. Highly Stimulating Purchase Box for Victory and Scarcity Feelings
As an online retailer, Amazon has the goal to convert and make it possible through a click to add a product to the shopping cart or 1-click check out.
Their product detail pages achieve this goal brilliantly with the help of Emotional Marketing techniques.
The image below shows a typical purchase box on a product detail page.
Here we can notice multiple techniques that have the goal to stimulate precise feelings to drive users to convert.
Probably the most evident one is the use of the words “Top Deal” that gets empowered by showing the crossed initial price and the amount and percentage saved.
This technique stimulates a feeling of victory, generated by the sense of making a great deal that the users feel by seeing it.
The second technique they use to stimulate users to press the purchase button is the “end in 13 days” which stimulates a scarcity feeling and fear of missing out.
These feelings generate a sort of anxiety in the users as they know that the deal is going to be available for a limited time and feel like “If I don’t get it now, I might lose the opportunity to get it so cheap”.
Finally, they offer purchase choices to their shoppers. They can order immediately or add the product to the shopping cart and continue shopping. Either way, the visitor is driven toward a purchase decision, using indirect suggestions designed specifically to promote their conversion.
Marketing becomes Emotional Marketing at Amazon
As you learn these 3 emotional marketing techniques Amazon use, you can surely see how marketing and psychology meet at Amazon and make it the biggest retailer in the world.
Amazon’s website is optimized for the highest product sales by applying the right Psychological Techniques for Positive Emotional Impact.
With professional psychologists and neuro-marketers on its staff, Amazon constantly tests and implements brain-aware strategies in its digital marketing.
How can you implement emotional marketing techniques in your business for higher sales?
SM Agency, is consedered a leading full-service digital agency London brands can benefit the most from by using emotional marketing techniques to empower digital marketing strategies.
We rely on the latest tech innovations and partner with cutting-edge data providers like AeMotion to precisely uncover audiences' emotional drivers and motivators along the sales journey. AeMotion offer the only neuroscience-based, tech-enabled data analytics service that enriches campaigns with non-verbal patterns for precise subconscious understanding and higher customers' value growth.
Getting such reliable data about audiences' behaviours and psychological profiles allows us to build more effective strategies and use the best neuromarketing techniques to get the most positive impact and create strong connections with customers - allowing us to be considered one of the leading digital agency London ventures use for emotional marketing informed strategies and marketing services.
Thanks to our unique approach, SM Agency services are requested by businesses of any industry looking for an expert London-based digital marketing agency with international exprience to provide services in English, Spanish, and Italian and market their brands in the UK, Euripe, and US, delivering profits growth.
