A Deep Dive into Micro-Commitments: Modern Marketing’s Key to Conversions

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Are you targeting the right people with your marketing, but your conversions are too low? Are you having trouble generating B2B leads and closing deals? If so, you could solve these problems by understanding and implementing the concept of micro-commitments.

Micro-commitments are the key to conversions in this modern marketing landscape. They can boost your conversions and provide a clearer path toward more sales and exposure.

In this article, we’ll explore what micro-commitments are and how they can help you expand your business and close more deals. We’ll also give you practical tips on how to start implementing micro-commitments in your marketing.

But first… do you know why your prospects and leads aren’t converting?

3 Reasons Your Prospects Might Not Be Converting

As humans, we don’t rush commitments, especially if there’s a lot at stake. Most of us are more cautious before investing time and money. We like to move slowly until we feel more in control and ready to trust. The point is, if prospects feel out of control or they don’t trust you yet, they won’t convert.

Here are three more reasons you might not be converting as much business as desired.

1) Asking for a Large Commitment Too Soon

Your brain can perceive change as a potential threat, and the more significant the change, the more it could be hazardous. Likewise, your prospects might fear the consequences of making a significant commitment. They need to feel they can trust you and your products first.

Getting to this stage of trust takes time. If you push prospects too hard (and too quickly), you risk losing them forever. Maybe your 8-step form asks for too much information for new prospects to fill out. Or perhaps, a phone call on day one of the sales process scares people away and hinders them from connecting with you. 

2) Making Tasks Too Difficult

Prospects will rarely give you their precious time without a reward. If there’s not enough incentive to warrant an action they deem difficult, they won’t do it. 

So, for example, maybe your survey questions are too open-ended. If so, did you provide a big enough incentive? Or would it be better to ease them into the process and not overwhelm them too soon? 

3) Expecting More Time and Effort than Is Warranted

Sure, your mom loves you and perhaps even your next-door neighbor, but your prospects don’t know you personally, and most won’t give you something precious unless they feel a connection. The best emojis, excellent UX, and dazzling copy won’t be enough to convince them to invest their time. 

First-time prospects will approach your brand skeptically, and it’s your job to ease their skepticism. A clever landing page or website might not be enough for visitors to take the action you’re expecting. That’s true even if you have the best testimonials–although these do help a lot! 

Suppose you’re asking prospects to request a free software demo. Don’t expect a conversion on the first touch. Prospects will likely visit multiple touchpoints (or make many micro-commitments) before taking additional steps.

How do you handle these frictions and nudge prospects to convert during the sales process? Enter micro-commitments.

What Are Micro-Commitments and Why Are They Critical to Conversions?

Micro-commitments are small steps a prospect takes that pull them further into your sales funnel. Each step increases the likelihood of a major sale. A micro-commitment can be anything from an email reply to a meeting confirmation. Further, into the sales process, a micro-commitment might involve asking prospects for feedback on a report or a survey.

The key is to give your audience small ways to understand your brand during the sales process. Over time, they will build trust and feel comfortable making larger commitments. 

How Do Micro-Commitments Benefit Businesses and Increase Conversions?

Imagine you met someone for the first time and felt an instant connection. After the first date, the person asked you to marry them and kept pestering you to commit. You can see how that would be troubling and end badly. 

In a naturally progressing courtship, each person says “yes” to a series of micro-commitments. Eventually, they feel ready to make the ultimate commitment, marriage. At that stage, they have built enough trust that they feel comfortable risking more dedication. Micro-commitments behave the same way. 

Let’s talk about the benefits of implementing micro-commitments into your sales process.

Slowly Ease Prospects into the Sales Process

As discussed, dating and courting are not much different from the sales process. Prospects need to ease themselves into commitment. Micro-commitments let you slowly ease your brand into a prospect’s life and journey. You create small tangible next steps to follow until they feel ready to commit.

Slowly guiding prospects with micro-commitments can increase the chances of turning them into customers.

Test Engagement and Uncover New Audience Data

Micro-commitments are also beneficial because they allow you to test engagement. How well does your email connect with prospects? Is your webinar or case studies compelling prospects to continue the journey with you? 

Create multiple touchpoints that allow prospects to make micro-commitments. This will provide you with opportunities to test how well your audience receives your message. Gather data at each touchpoint and use it to improve the customer experience

8 Ways to Use Micro-Commitments to Close More Deals and Boost Sales

Series of white stairs attached to wall leading up to red stair as concept for micro-commitments in marketing.

What does it take to progress a deal through the pipeline? How can micro-commitments take a prospect from point A to point Z?

Focus on the micro-commitments along the prospect’s journey from the first touch to the final conversion. A prospect might need to say yes to you multiple times before taking your desired action. Understanding this concept is the first step to increasing conversions. Next is figuring out how to use micro-commitments to close more deals. We’ll talk about 10 ways to get it done.

1) Offer a Low Barrier to Entry

Do you have a product that costs more than a few hundred dollars? If you sell high-priced online courses or digital offerings, consider selling a lower-priced product. This helps ease prospects into the idea of working with you.

Provide prospects with a lower barrier to becoming a part of your community. Once they realize the value you offer, they’ll be more willing to buy what you’re selling.

For example, if you sell a digital advertising course, offer a $25 eBook on how to get started with Facebook ads. Add these customers to your segmented email list and offer tips and soft sells for your higher-priced course. 

2) Offer an Even LOWER Barrier to Entry

If a low-priced product doesn’t work for your business, consider a free or low-priced product trial (i.e., $1 for 14 days). A trial allows prospects to discover the value you provide without making a significant commitment. If your product is valuable to them, many will stay and become long-term customers. 

3) Engage with Info-Packed Webinars

There are a couple of ways to use webinars as micro-commitments.

If you’re selling a product that requires a substantial commitment, you could offer a webinar packed with information your competitors wouldn’t give away for free. At the end of the webinar, pitch your product. Even if prospects don’t commit, they will have walked away with a ton of value, and they won’t forget it the next time your offer comes around. At a minimum, they might be interested in becoming a subscriber, which fast tracks them into your lead nurturing campaigns

Webinars are also beneficial during a lengthy sales process. When you host Q & A sessions, your prospects can share their objections and ask questions. And a bonus is that you can acquire loads of data and discover your audience’s biggest questions and pain points. 

4) Give Away Something for Free

It’s not hard to say yes to something free. One way to get a small commitment whenever you request email addresses is to give away a free report, eBook, or something of value. It’s the first major step to getting a larger commitment down the road.

What can you give away? Valuable information that genuinely helps your audience and solves their problems. It could be in the form of:

The more valuable the item, the better chance will be the recipient will say “yes” to future requests.

5) Encourage Small Replies and Engagement

It doesn’t take long for someone to reply to an email, a LinkedIn outreach message, or comment on a social post. Yet each one is another micro-commitment that connects prospects to your brand. A reply can come in any form, whether via an email, a social media post, a blog post, or a direct message. 

When prompting for replies, avoid asking for a commitment that’s too hefty. Ask questions that will warrant quicker answers. For example, suppose you’re selling event registration software to event planners. In that case, a fun and interesting question to ask might be: “On a scale of 1-10, how bad was your worst event planning experience? Bonus points if you share the experience.” 

6) Invite People to Share Your Content

Replying to an email might be too much of an investment for some people. Start smaller by allowing your audience to share your content with their followers. 

Here are some ideas:

7) Be Aggressive (Somewhat)

Being aggressive might sound counterintuitive to what we have been discussing. After all, we’ve been telling you to avoid asking too much of prospects early in the process.

But this doesn’t mean that you cut down on your asks. Sometimes you need to get some kind of a commitment before you end an engagement with a prospect. That means being assertive enough to ask the right questions.

For example, if a prospect is deciding between your software and a competitor, urge them to ask questions to uncover what objections they might have to your product. Use these objections to assure them of your commitment to solving their problems. If they’re still hesitant, compel them to sign up for the free trial or book a call with someone else on their team who has more decision-making authority. 

The key is to urge prospects to make some kind of micro-commitment during the engagement. Even if it’s as small as booking a meeting on their calendar, every “yes” is a step closer to a conversion. If you keep them connected (at a comfortable pace), you can eventually win them over.

8) Engage Them with Quizzes

Committing is more fun when you can convince users they actually want to commit. How?

Quizzes offer a fun and entertaining experience and draw users in with a series of questions that will help them discover something about themselves. The best quizzes create curiosity and urge the participant to continue to the end to get the pay-off. At the end of the quiz, users will be more apt to enter their email since they already made a series of micro-commitments by answering the quiz questions. 

Here, marketing service company, Interact walks visitors through a quiz that helps them discover their entrepreneurial archetype.

Interact quiz offers to help users to discover their entrepreneurial archetype.

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Users must provide their email to get personalized advice based on their answers.

Online form requests email address to get personalized advice based on the answers to a quiz.

Source

Quizzes are a fun and engaging way to get prospects to make micro-commitments and edge them closer to fully connecting with your brand.

The Takeaway: Using Micro-Commitments to Increase Conversions: What You Need to Know

Don’t sweat the small steps, and make sure you are patient during this process! Remember that you’re looking for a yes, even if it’s a small one. You might get 10 small yeses before you get the final yes, but it will be worth it. Each micro-commitment is a chance for prospects to move one step closer to the final conversion. 

In this article, we discussed:

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Filed Under: Business Tips