If you’re in the business of selling top-tier, premium products, the way you promote them through your strategy will need to be entirely different to marketing an everyday item. High-ticket products require consideration and a certain level of discernment, not just more money.
It’s more than just running paid ads, driving traffic, and creating a custom landing page. When you’ve been working on a strategy but just aren’t getting the conversions you want, it’s time to reconsider how you’re promoting your products and look more closely at the buyer journey and showcasing your brand. With premium, high-ticket items, the customer journey will be longer and require more time, patience, and most importantly, information.
Why High-Ticket Buyers Don’t Convert Like Everyone Else
To understand what motivates someone to invest in something that comes with a higher pricepoint, you need to think back to the last time you made a big purchase. It’s unlikely you saw it once, wanted it, and bought it within the same day. For everyday, smaller purchases, most people will need multiple points of exposure to your brand and product before converting. That’s even truer for high-ticket purchases.
Ads and a solid landing page are one thing, but they’re just the beginning. Once you’ve got a prospective customer interested, they’ll be looking for trust signals. Think reviews, certifications for certain products like jewellery or expensive bedding, or safety ratings for cars.
Your buyer isn’t the same kind of person who will buy costume jewellery or gold-plated jewellery, for example. If they’re willing to invest in something at the high end of the cost spectrum, they’ll also expect the quality, reliability, and legitimacy to match. Cost becomes somewhat less important when there’s no doubt about the finished product.
This means a few things for your marketing:
The first thing to remember is that your sales cycle will be longer; the second is that you’ll need more points of contact and an abundance of trust signals along the way. Expect conversions to take weeks or months. When someone is in the early stages of the buyer journey, they likely know what they’re looking for, but are trying to find the right place to get it.
Along with an abundance of information, they’ll also be looking for an emotional investment. Going back to our jewellery and car examples, maybe they’re looking for something sentimental to mark an occasion, or a vehicle with a top safety rating for a family car. The motivation is as important as the budget when it comes to high-ticket items, and you need to be communicating why you’re worth the investment every step of the way. You’re selling a lifestyle or a solution, so you need to be able to communicate how that works and how they’ll feel once they’ve taken their chance on you.
Buyers need to feel confident, safe, and genuinely convinced that you understand their situation. To achieve that, you’ll want well-written and positioned content, plenty of social proof, and positioning and authority signals. Let’s get into the details:
Building Trust Before the Sale: Content, Proof, and Authority
When you’re dealing with a customer base who are cautious, thorough, and emotionally motivated by their purchases, you need to focus on those aspects of your communication. It boils down to giving them all the information they need, and every reason to choose you over another high-ticket retailer. All of this needs to happen before they’re even turning up to have a conversation with your staff or consultants.
Content that actually helps
The scope of copywriting and content you’ll need to account for should include anything from blog posts and videos, to testimonials and social media. Incorporating content at every layer will help build your authority, but also keeps you visible across a number of channels and stages of the buyer journey.
Outside of creating content for multiple channels, it also needs to be more than just promotional – it needs to be a combination of aspirational and informative. Focus on answering the questions prospects will have before they’ve even asked them, and think about any apprehensions they may have while you’re at it. Assume your prospective customer doesn’t know anything you do, and explain concepts they might find confusing or be entirely unfamiliar with.
Long form content can be especially useful here. Landing pages, guides, or video content can all be different facets of your marketing strategy. By addressing and explaining things early, you’re no longer just a business, but an expert in the field.
Social proof that’s specific
Evidence of your product being what you say it is and reviews are important, but the context they offer is key when it comes to high-ticket products. Simply hearing you offer great service alone isn’t enough, people need to be delighted by what you offer, and why they’re delighted matters. No one is going to commit hundreds or thousands of dollars if they can’t see that you deliver what you promise.
It could be something like a video of how you make your product to show the uniqueness of it, followed by a testimonial of the customer who received it. You can see this with bespoke jewellers making custom engagement rings, pairing video of the design and manufacture process with photos of the newly engaged couple.
Or, you might have UGC from someone using a piece of technology that’s transformed how they live. This shows the actual function and benefit in real world conditions by someone who’s already made the commitment to your product.
The primary things to focus on are that social proof needs to be detailed and specific. Show the benefit, give evidence of how it solves a problem or fulfills a dream. If you’re a long-standing business, having photos or videos of your product the day it was made vs. the same product years later shows its longevity and quality. In a market where false claims run rampant, making your product speak for itself with tangible examples is the way to go.
Positioning and authority signals
Outside of the media you can create yourself or source from past customers and clients, external evidence helps showcase your legitimacy. Partnering with other businesses, gaining awards, getting certifications, or being featured in the media all contribute to your reputation. While you can run ads for months on end, if you aren’t a name that’s recognisable yet, you’ll want proof that shows it isn’t just you and your existing customers who love what you do, but that you’re trusted by other businesses and organisations as well.
While these factors won’t seal the deal on their own, they’re a part of that long customer journey that helps the process travel more smoothly, and with greater efficacy. A prospective customer who has consumed your content, seen detailed case studies, and noticed that you’re recognised within your industry is in a very different headspace to someone who clicked an ad and landed on a page they know nothing about.
Finally, getting your prospective customers involved in a tactile and real-life way is another step in the social proof ladder. As much as seeing other people using, wearing, or enjoying your luxury product can help, encouraging them to experience it for themselves is key. Whether it’s a dream car they get to test drive, a piece of jewellery that can be tried on in store with a personalised consultation, you have to sell what it represents as much as the item itself. Someone looking to spend five times the amount on something special over something similar that’s “ordinary” isn’t just buying a product, they’re buying into a lifestyle.
Nurture Funnels That Convert Premium Clients
With all the social proof, affiliations, and reviews in the world, there will still be people who stay on the fence for a while longer. Nurturing those leads beyond the usual conversion timeframe is worth doing. If you’re promoting a high-cost product, showcasing additional value, building trust, reinforcing your brand, and gradually moving them toward a decision is essential.
Some people shop to dream a little, with the purchase being a long-term goal. They could be anywhere from six weeks to six months away from committing, but when you have that additional nurturing funnel, you’ll be front of mind when the time comes.
Remarketing: staying in the conversation
That contact and initial experience is important, but reminding your prospective customers after the experience is over is important too. Remarketing is where paid media really earns its place in a long sales cycle and can be that final reminder that’s needed to make someone commit.
Getting the strategy right for your business takes practice, skill, and the right kind of context. If you’re looking to generate better quality leads and convert more of them into returning high-value clients, the team at Reform Digital can help. No matter the stage of the customer journey, we can help you with CRO and SEO, optimising your paid ads and recapturing the attention of customers with remarketing. Book a free discovery call with Reform Digital today.
