Micro commitments are those small steps you take to achieve a larger goal. In this case, it’s small steps a potential customer takes that pulls them into your sales funnel until they reach the ultimate goal of making a purchase. The steps should be non-threatening and so small that people hardly notice they’re doing them.
Use these six micro commitments to move your prospects down your sales funnel with ease:
- A quiz related to your customer’s #1 pain point
- Give away a free resource that helps with the #1 pain point
- Direct customers to website content that answers FAQs and Addresses Fears
- Offer a free trial of a frequently-viewed product
- Offer a $10 or less product that puts people in buying mode
- Send a feedback survey and ask for UGC to keep them engaged
A Quiz Related to Your Customer’s #1 Pain Point
I love quizzes as a micro commitment because they’re low effort. They don’t set off warning bells in people’s heads like asking for an email address does. Instead, they’re a fun way to help people discover something useful about themselves without a huge commitment.
Quizzes also help convince people that they want to make a larger commitment. Think about it. You take a quiz that’s surprisingly useful. Giving up your email address for more information or quizzes like this feels like a no brainer.
Framing your quiz around your customer’s #1 pain point will increase the chances of people taking it. And go beyond something surface level. Create curiosity that makes it impossible to stop until they get to the end.
Something like what People Magazine used to do back in the day with their quizzes. Although the one below was about something as simple as hair color, they made the pathway to your answer interactive and a little more complex than just answering questions. If you could look forward to something fun like this in every magazine, you might consider subscribing.
You could put your quiz into a pop up on your website. Or, create a landing page for it and share the link across your social media platforms. Make it no more than 7 questions. Or, if you’re doing something like what People Magazine did above, it’s got to be easy to navigate.
Users should get their results without having to put in any information. I’m not sure it’s worth pushing it, but at the end of the quiz you could tell users they can put in their email address to get more in depth insights about their results or to get more quizzes like this sent to them.
A quiz is easy for people to commit to if it’s relevant, easy to do, and doesn’t require them to put in their info for results. This then starts a relationship with your brand and begins building that trust deep enough for them to get to the ultimate goal of making a purchase.
Give Away a Free Resource That Helps With the #1 Pain Point
You can get a little more from someone when you give them something for free. But that something free has to be really valuable and relevant to the person, especially when you’re asking for a name and email address.
One of the best free resources I got was incredibly simple. I was interested in selling digital products and the brand was offering a free list of different digital products you could make and sell.
Sure, she had things on there I could find on Google, but there were a handful of others that weren’t talked about as much and more likely to convert. She got my name and email because of that.
Give away something that genuinely helps your customer and solves their #1 pain point (or gets them on track to).
For example, let’s say you’re a social media manager. One of the main things people want to know is what’s wrong with their social media page or what they should do to get more followers. You could offer a free audit to a certain number of people. They just need to sign up, provide their name, and email address, and you’ll schedule a time with them.
The more valuable the item, the better chance of getting the micro commitment and the larger commitment down the road.
Direct Customers to Website Content That Answers FAQs and Addresses Fears
An often overlooked micro commitment is visiting your website. That’s your business’s home base and where people can find out more about what you do. Not to mention your website is where they can achieve the big goal of making a purchase.
They probably won’t buy anything on the first visit, but they can come into contact with content that answers frequently asked questions and, more importantly, addresses their fears and/or pain points. Getting passed this barrier gets them closer to a purchase. And reading and engaging with content doesn’t feel any work on the visitors part.
Meatable, a lab-grown meat brand, has the kind of content I’m talking about. They answer 2 questions most people have for them, “how exactly do you grow meat out of a lab and can I trust it?” Visit their “Science” page and they tell you all about the process and back up their words with really good visuals.
When potential customers land on your social media pages, direct them to website content that answers the most pressing FAQS. Share the same infographics or visuals you use on your website content in your social media post and link to that page in the caption.
Your second focus should be on search engine optimization. Narrow your FAQ-related content into 2-3 key phrases people would type into search bars. You want your blog post, infographic, or whatever your best content is to show up high in search engine results pages. This will take time, so don’t panic if you don’t see a huge jump right away.
Directing people to website content is crucial because they’re getting insight value that gets them closer to making the decision to purchase. And as you build trust, you build emotional value that drives a person to support a business.
Offer a Free Trial of Frequently-Viewed Product
Again, it’s hard for people to say no to something free. But a free resource is one thing. A free trial of an actual product is another.
When someone shows interest in your offerings and is on the verge of making a purchasing decision, there might not be anything more useful and convincing in that moment than a free trial of what they’ve been looking at the most.
Even $1 trial offers turn prospects into buyers. Because what’s a dollar when the entire program costs hundreds? I’m sure Shopify brings in hundreds of new customers a month with their “sign up for a free trial and get 3 months of Shopify for $1/month on select plans,” offer.
Not only do you get to try Shopify for three days for free, but you also get the first three months for a $1 when you actually sign up for a plan. They require you to sign up for a 12 month term on a plan, but you can cancel at any time. So, the commitment isn’t scary.
Free trials are easier with software, services, or other non-physical products. But you can offer a free trial even if you do have physical products. I think of makeup company IL Makiage as an example.
They let you pick three products and try them for 14 days, but you do have to pay for shipping. They require you to put a card on file and if you don’t send the products back within the 14 days, they simply charge your card for the full price.
Free or $1 trial offers have been difficult for me to resist personally, and I know I’m not the only one. They’ve also been the deciding factor in buying something.
Offer a $10-$20 Product That Puts People in Buying Mode
If they did the free or $1 trial offer, hopefully it’s convinced your customers to go further down the sales funnel and actually buy something. But most people aren’t going to be ready to buy your most expensive product.
So, if all you have is a free trial and a $500 product, that’s not good. It’s way too big of a commitment coming from a free trial. A better micro commitment is something that’s in the $10-$20 range.
It should still be a quality product that helps with a pain point in some way. But it should have a low enough price to put customers in “buying mode” with making them feel like they’re spending a ton of money.
Nuts.com does a good job of this. Before you customize your own box of snacks or grab a sampler for a couple hundred dollars, you can try single serve options for under $20, many of which are under $10.
Someone who spends a small amount of money on a quality product is likely to spend a larger amount later on.
Send a Feedback Survey and Ask for UGC to Keep Customers Engaged
You want a micro commitment for people who’ve become customers. You want to work them down in the loyalty stage of your funnel with something that engages them. Something that’s going to make them feel valued.
I suggest a feedback survey AND asking them for user generated content (UGC). There’s something about giving someone feedback and seeing it implemented, or seeing your UGC on your favorite brand’s page.
Customers feel like you value their opinion and are more likely to come back. But before that, they’re willing to make another small commitment of sharing their opinion. It’s about getting them to engage in something that gives you more insight and gives them more confidence in your brand.
Attaching a reward to a feedback survey is your best bet at getting customers to do it. Papa Murphy’s Pizza does a good job at this, giving you money off your next purchase once you complete their survey.
When it comes to UGC, commit to posting as much of it as you can. Really make people feel like they have a chance of landing on your social media pages or website. You can ask for it in the same email you send your feedback survey, or you can send a separate campaign for UGC.
Coca Cola is one of the best with UGC, showcasing everyday people with their products a few times a day and tagging them.
People are more likely to go around again in your funnel when they’re engaged after a purchase.
Why Do Micro Commitments Have High Conversion Rates?
Micro-commitments have high conversion rates because people hardly notice they’re doing them. Also, when done right, micro commitments don’t feel like you’re being pushed toward the bigger goal of making a purchase.
They encourage customers to take small, initial steps at their pace towards a larger commitment. With each micro commitment, you build trust and establish a relationship with the person, which is what you need to keep them putting one foot in front of the other until they make it all the way down the street.
Do You Really Need to Prioritize Micro Commitments?
You absolutely need to take micro commitments seriously. People scare really easily when presented with what are perceived as big commitments. Micro commitments move people toward a sale without them really realizing it. You can use them to build engagement, gather feedback, and increase the likelihood of a large purchase at the end of it all.
What is the Psychology Behind Micro Commitments?
Simply put, the psychology behind micro commitments is “this big commitment isn’t so hard to do when I break it down into small steps.” Every small win builds confidence in taking the next step. Before you know it you’re at the larger goal.
There’s other literature that says the psychology behind micro-commitments revolves around cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon where someone holds two or more conflicting beliefs. The person is so uncomfortable with the discomfort that they just have to resolve the conflict.
So, in this case, a person wants so badly to solve a pain point but they don’t know where to start. It prompts them to take action and find out that first step, and they step right into the first stage of your sales funnel.
Keep all of this in mind when you’re ready to use micro commitments to move prospects down your funnel.
