What do you sell?

Shoes?

SaaS?

Cloths?

Insurance?

Your answer could be any product. But these answers are terribly wrong.

Let me tell you how.

Our emotions impact the decisions we make and the products we buy. It means any product we buy has an emotional reason attached to it. So, we don’t buy products; we buy a better version of ourselves.

For example, if you’re selling clothing and shoes, you are selling self-esteem and confidence. In the case of insurance, you are selling peace of mind.

Every conversion has its roots in human behavior. Hence, fulfilling customers’ emotional needs on your landing pages can motivate them and lead to more conversions.

Now, how can you create landing pages that fulfill the emotional needs of your prospects? Luckily, some frameworks can guide us in making your landing pages more powerful by using emotional triggers.

One of them is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Let’s look at it in detail.

Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs

Abraham Maslow was an advocate of humanistic psychology. He presented his theory of human psychological and emotional needs in 1943 in the paper, “The Theory Of Human Motivation.”

The theory gives us an understanding of what motivates us as humans.  But this theory can also be a powerful tool for landing page optimization.

Physiological Needs

These are the most basic human needs. They are important for human survival—for example, food, water, sex, excretion, homeostasis.

See how Nestle uses its bottled water campaign to target its customers’ mortality and healthy living.

You must be wondering how the heck it can relate to your SaaS business. There are certain cases where this level is highly relevant—for example, services where customers are physically involved, such as Airbnb and FoodPanda.

House Trip is a service that helps visitors find cheaper places to stay in London. Look at how they address their prospects’ physiological needs by highlighting safety guarantees on their landing page.

Some of the key terms targeting physiological needs are:

•  “Book with peace of mind” tells prospects that their apartments are appraised, and customer service is available 24/7.
• “7 million nights booked so far” shows that millions have reliably used the service before.
• The use of trust icons ensures they are a secure platform that will not abandon their customers in London.

To cut it short, whatever you’re selling, this level of needs is all about comforting your customer’s anxiety.

Sooth Your Prospect Anxieties

People want to know what they’re getting into and if there’s any way of going back if they aren’t satisfied with your product. You can address these concerns and put your customer at ease by highlighting product features and corresponding benefits.

For instance, satisfaction guarantees, the ability to cancel anytime and no monthly commitment. By doing so, you reassure prospects that they are safe and aren’t making any risky or irretrievable decisions.

In short, your landing page should address anxieties and concerns that could demotivate people from converting.

Safety Needs

At the second level of Maslow’s hierarchy, people want to fulfill their safety needs. To fulfill this, you need to boost your prospects’ confidence on your landing page so they can trust you.

One way to do this is to show social proof because customers need to know that they’re making the right decision and selecting the best company.

Use Social Proof

Social proof is an important persuasion principle. It says that people copy others’ actions in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation. It is also known as informational social influence.

According to Cialdini, “We consider an action or a behavior more righteous and correct when we see other people doing it.” We generally assume that people around us are more knowledgeable about the things that are going around us. 

You will find many examples of social proof in action, both online and offline.  Would you prefer to eat out in a café or restaurant that is empty or full to bursting with people? I bet it is the latter. 

Generally, there are six types of social proofs that work like magic.

Experts

Expert social proof is when an expert in your industry recommends your product. A very common example that I’m sure you’ve all seen time and time again is the Sensodyne ad where a dentist recommends toothpaste to cure a problem.

Celebrities

Celebrity social proof is when a celebrity endorses your products. It is not a new concept. People have been using famous figures for their products’ endorsements to convince the customer about their quality and value. According to a report, the history of celebrity endorsement of products dates back to the 1760s.

It can be used for a variety of products. For example:

Emma Stone for Revlon – the beauty brand

Taylor Swift for Coke – the soda company

David Beckham for Biotherm Homme – a skincare brand for men

Users

A user social proof is when your current and loyal customer recommends your products and services based on their experience. Examples are positive ratings, reviews, and praises on social media. 

The Wisdom Of The Crowd

This type of social proof is when many people are seen to be endorsing your brand or product. For example, having thousands of customers or users or social media following.

See how Oral-B did it with Australians by stating that over a million Australians have switched to Oral-B.

The Wisdom Of Your Friends

This type of social proof is when people see their friends recommending, liking, and using your product. For example, seeing their friends use your product or follow you on social media. Facebook does that quite effectively. It suggests pages and articles to people based on how their friends interact on social media platforms.

Certification

This type of social proof is when you are given a hallmark of approval by an authoritative figure in your niche or industry. A common example is a blue checkmark on Facebook or Twitter. It can also be in the form of badges and seals from authority figures or brands to prove your credibility.

See how Nature Made uses the USP certification (U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention) to talk about their vitamins instead of their quality.

Key Takeaways From Applying Social Proof

• Display testimonials on your website.
• Never shy away from showing off your good reviews on social profiles or website Home Page.
• Curate user-generated content.
• Share milestones.
• Collaborate with experts for a social media event.
• Mention the size of your customer base in your bio or website content.
• Use social proof on your ad copy or landing pages.
• Get verified.
• Display social share count if you have high numbers of social media following.
• Be specific about your numbers. Instead of 25,000 million users, 25033 is a more legitimate statement.
• You can also add pictures and a name to humanize your testimonials.
• Express your testimonials with emotions such as “I love this product or app.”

Final Say

These are just the two level of needs that I discussed in this CXL blog, and look how powerful they are. In the next blog, I will discuss the remaining levels and how you can incorporate them on your landing page to increase conversions.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is an effective framework to follow to check if your landing pages are optimized and fulfill your users’ needs.

Incorporate these elements from Maslow’s framework and run A/B tests. It will take your conversion rate optimization efforts one step forward and dramatically impact conversions and ROI.

Now take a moment and look at your most recent landing page. Is it addressing all your prospects’ needs?