Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Psychological Triggers.
In this article, I’ll outline the foundations of building a high growth eCommerce
sales funnel and the highest leverage points for optimization. So you can turn
Stage 1: Awareness
Stage 2: Consideration
Stage 3: Decision
Stage 4: Loyalty
be done in the space of a few minutes, days, or even months and years.
Look at the likes of Squatty Potty, Poo-Pourri, or Dollar Shave Club. They
created awesome video ads that took people all the way through the first three
The fact is, if you can make people aware of your product, sell them on the
benefits, show social proof, and make an irresistible offer, then right there and
But most companies aren’t on this level. And you’d have to have an impressive
However, in most cases and for most eCommerce stores, you’ll move people
through your funnel with multiple touchpoints from Ads, YouTube videos,
The latest data on global conversion rates for eCommerce stores is around
have a good conversion funnel in place scooping these people up, you’re
All that ad spend, organic traffic, and hard work on content marketing — all
So let’s dive into the four stages and see how you can optimize and build each
1. Awareness Stage
This is the very top of your eCommerce funnel. And it’s where your goal should
It’s at this stage where people are aware of their problem and they’re looking for
solutions. So it’s your job to put your brand in front of these people and make
them aware of who you are, what your product is, and how it can benefit their
life.
If your brand can be top-of-mind for a specific category or solution to a problem,
Stage one all comes down to eyeballs and messaging. Getting the right
message in front of the right pocket of people. We don’t want everyone, that
media.
2. Paid traffic: Google search and shopping ads, social ads, Youtube ads,
native ads.
people who serve your target demographic, even outside your industry.
and customers and incentivize them to refer friends. This already has a
ton of built-in social proof and can rapidly grow your brand.
Think about how you want to position your brand, what you want to stand for,
and what makes your brand attractive. If you’re vanilla, you’re going to have a
nowadays. But being different… that’s how you stand out and get noticed.
That’s when you can own a category in the mind of your audience. And once
you’re top of mind, and given the right situation, it’s only a matter of time before
In recent years, brand transparency became big. People are moving away from
the large faceless brands and movings towards the micro-brands, the trusted
influencers, and the brands and people who stand for something.
So plant your flag, stand for something, and educate people about your product
and values.
There’s something to be said for showing up and becoming top of mind. It puts
you and your brand in a position of power and cuts through the noise.
Recency and frequency. Remember these two, pair them with the right
messaging, and you’ll always have customers and be bringing new people into
your world.
The next stage in our funnel is ‘Consideration’. This comes after people know
your brand, they know your values, and they’ve seen the benefits.
2. Consideration Stage
People don’t know whether to buy from you or a competitor, or whether they
Because you’re not just competing with other companies, you’re also competing
So how do you move people to action? That’s what this stage is all about.
If we dive into the mind of our audience, we know they’re looking at other
competitors (if they’re our competitors are doing their jobs right).
And we know that right now, we’re not in a position of power… The prospect
holds all the cards and they’re holding them close to their chest.
We just have to guess what they’re thinking and try to push them, remove all
objections to the sale, remove risk, and allow them to make a decision — all in
How do we do this?
The best way is with retargeting ads, product page copy, and social proof.
At this stage, if you can get User Generated Content (UGC) of unboxing videos,
influencer videos, and testimonials, then you’re way ahead of your competitors.
Side note: Influencer marketing seems difficult and doesn’t really pay off when
you pay someone to make a video for you and it goes out once to their
audience. However, use that content and those video assets in your own
marketing, with your own ads that you can run again and again… That’s how
There are usually not many objections a person can have. So it can be easy to
The tricky thing is finding these objections and truly understanding what people
need to see before they buy from you. That’s why here at GrowthHit, we do a lot
of research for all our clients to dive deep into the psyche of their audience.
There are lots of research methods available, it’s just a case of diving deep and
analyzing the data to figure out how best to move people to become a buyer.
These insights will help you create your product pages, your messaging, and
even help better position your brand in your ads and emails.
And speaking of messaging, if you can get people on your email list, do it.
The ROI of email is incredible if you do it the right way, creating follow up
sequences and using compelling copy, handling objections, and showing social
proof.
The GrowthHit team has been running eCommerce email and SMS campaigns
for years and have had amazing results. So if you’re only using ads for
3. Decision Stage
When you’ve done everything you can do to get your visitors to take action, add
something to their cart, and nearly reach the end of the journey.
micro-commitment with them clicking the ‘Add to Cart’ CTA, but you’re not out
At this stage, we still have to nudge them forward and reduce any and all
distractions.
If you’re using Shopify, there are some things you can do to better help push
Even when people click on your cart, they could still have objections around the
security of your brand. You can reinforce feelings of safety and security with
credit card badges, customer service phone numbers, and objection handling
removed, clear pricing, and objection handling copy around quality and refund
guarantee.
Offering multiple ways to pay can also lead to a significant amount of revenue
increase. And if you’re down with using something like Afterpay for multi-
payment terms, then you might find you can save even more sales.
But if you can’t save the sale at the checkout and they abandon, then you’ve
Having an abandon cart email sequence, written with compelling copy and
social proof can be a game-changer for your business if it’s set up the right way.
Pair this with retargeting ads on social media to keep you top of mind and subtly
nudge the person back to the checkout… Well, you’re going to be rescuing a
whole bunch of sales and wondering why you never optimized your retargeting
4. Loyalty Stage
Now we want them to come back and buy again and again.
But that’s not all… We also want them to recommend you to their friends and
So how do we do this?
One of the best ways of doing this is getting people to buy something from you
This is when email marketing really shines, to carry on the relationship and
If you can dramatically increase both your AOV and your LTV, then you’re in a
really great position to spend money on traffic and dominate your competitors
And don’t treat all your customers the same. You have whales, salmon, and
minnows among your customer base. Each segment will have different
spending habits. And when you look at your data, you’ll soon find the most
profitable bunch.
campaigns to win back customers and drive revenue with highly segmented
There are many ways to engage your customers and get them to either spend
It’s just a case of choosing a couple of methods that fit with your brand and
going all-in on them. And if one doesn’t work, pivot to another until you find one
that does. Because the truth is, they all work. It’s more about the execution than
tactics.