20.07.23
Can’t decide what to eat at a restaurant? Not sure what colour to paint the living room? Torn about which movie to watch tonight? Indecision is part of life, and for most of us, it’s not a significant consideration. But what happens when it’s a potential customer who’s wavering on whether to enlist your services?
When you’re dealing with a prospect who’s grappling with uncertainty, the right marketing is key to helping them commit to a purchase. Carefully crafted marketing messages, deployed as part of a campaign that systematically reinforces and builds on these, are key. In this blog post, we’ll unpick some of the science around indecision, and look at powerful, proven ways marketing can help people overcome it.
Starting with the basics, if a customer’s facing indecision, they’re experiencing a type of chronic procrastination that happens when someone has to make a choice. Overwhelmed by the number of options or the nuances of just a few choices, people typically end up either spiralling into extensive research or simply putting the impending decision out of their mind. At this point, the individual reaches a stalemate, unable to make a call and move forward.
Indecision isn’t all bad. There’s a growing body of evidence that suggests indecisive people are less likely to be swayed by confirmation bias. That means that, rather than favouring pieces of information that support their previously held views, they’re better at taking the information presented to them and weighing this up to make a more balanced decision. They’re also more likely to be perfectionists – and therefore scared of making a ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ decision.
These traits can be a win for marketers. One of the most common methods that indecisive people use to come to a decision is to consider their goals and the pros and cons of various options. Armed with this insight, you can gear your marketing to help them out. Prioritise concrete information that sets you apart from your competition and highlight the ways that you help customers to reach typical goals in their industry. Use stats, facts and clear language and deliver these at regular intervals to keep momentum behind the decision-making process.
Another useful insight to have up your sleeve when marketing to indecisive customers is that people typically experience greater satisfaction if they “choose the action that represents a change, rather than continuing the status quo”. New products, services, versions and additions to your current offering can all help to replicate this feeling of change and progress – meaning current customers don’t have to move on to another B2B relationship to keep things fresh. It’s vital your marketing capitalises on this by regularly updating messaging, highlighting additional benefits and drawing attention to new uses in the marketplace.
Keeping marketing engaging and persuasive – even for the most indecisive audience members – is at the heart of what we do here at asabell. We’d love to speak with you about how we can help ensure your marketing is successful, so please get in touch with one of the team to find out more.
