Hey 👋 The Crew here.
Did you know that J.R.R Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings when he was 45?
He was a well-known academic before that, of course, and had already written The Hobbit. Just like you’ve probably progressed in your career so far, or have finished some projects already.
The point is, it’s never too late to start your magnum opus. If anything, it might even be a little too early…
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How to keep customers buying from you
Don’t get us wrong—knowing human psychology and how to motivate purchases is powerful stuff.
But sometimes, one of the most effective ways to keep customers loyal and happy is to partner with the people who do this day in, day out.
We’re talking about Hustler Marketing—the agency that has kept 65% of its own clients happy and on board for over two years.
Here’s why they’ve been so successful:
- They assign only 2–3 clients per dedicated account manager.
- They fully immerse themselves in their clients’ brands to make sure everything they do connects with their clients’ customers.
- They bring in fresh strategies to keep their clients on a steady growth track.
So it’s no surprise they were recently awarded “Best Retention Marketing Agency – EMEA” by their partners at Yotpo.
People who work with them are in good hands.
So if you want to finally build a loyal, raving fan base…
Book a free consultation with Hustler Marketing to map out your next step.
IKEA Effect
Ding-dong. It’s your delivery from IKEA!
You open it and it’s a bunch of table pieces and a manual on how to assemble them.
But you’re not angry or frustrated. Quite the opposite—you welcome the challenge. In fact, you’ll probably value the entire table more after you piece it together.
You may not realize it, but you’ve just succumbed to the IKEA Effect.
Not that long ago in 2012, Michael Norton, Daniel Mochon, and Dan Ariely together wrote an interesting paper—coining the term IKEA Effect.
They pointed out a 1950s case of Betty Croker’s instant cake mixes, which were failing spectacularly.
The reason? Housewives thought it made cooking too easy and devalued their labor.
So Betty Crocker did something interesting—it changed the formula so that it needed a fresh egg to work. This simple change brought back the value and benefited the brand in many ways:
- It reduced the time—and therefore costs—of production.
- It elevated the value of the product in the eyes of consumers.
- It led to higher profits.
Sounds pretty good, right? Now let’s see how it can help you, too.
Three ways you can leverage the IKEA effect
1) Allow your customers to self-assemble your product
Ever heard of HelloFresh? You sure did.
The famous meal kit company went from $1.2B revenue in 2018 to a whopping 7.5B revenue in 2023.
Their secret? Hello Fresh sends you the ingredients and recipe of the meal in the kit—and you do the rest. For the price of a regular, prepared, and delivered meal.
And it sells like crazy.
That’s the IKEA effect in action. Only instead of bolts and wood plates, you have veggies and meats. The outcome is the same.
This doesn’t mean you should change your business model. But adding elements where users can interact with the product, customize it, or make some adjustments, can boost your brand’s perceived value—no matter what you’re selling.
2) Make your product customizable
The “assembling” part doesn’t always have to include manual labor.
Some companies allow their customers to craft their own unique products in various ways, which makes the ordeal more personal—and more valuable.
One of the most cited examples is Build-A-Bear Workshop, where customers design their own stuffed toy before watching it being assembled. Sounds like a no-brainer.
It’s also why Coca Cola’s share-a-coke campaign was so successful, or why Nike’s By You option to create your own pair of shoes has been going strong for 25 years.
What you can do: You don’t have to go all-in, but having an option to customize your product in any way—giving customers a “Build your own bundle” option—can boost your conversion rate.
3) Gamify your onboarding process or checkout
The path from hot prospect to happy customer might seem short. But it’s the most crucial.
Gamifying this final experience can make users more invested in completing the process.
All the progress bars and checkmarks you encounter when you input your data, or rewards and leaderboards as you solve an onboarding section in your SaaS… it’s all for the same purpose.
Even IKEA does this with their Planners feature. The entire thing resembles something out of The Sims game—only this time you’re using the platform to build your real-life kitchen.
If you can add gaming elements to your store, do it. Mini-games showing your product in action, virtual try-ons, or even progress bars and checkpoints could boost your conversion rate.
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MUST-KNOW B2B BENCHMARKS: So it’s been weeks and you still haven’t closed that B2B deal. No worries—the average journey typically takes six months. Dreamdata’s report shares insights like this and more based on 414 B2B companies they analyzed. Download the free report now.*
CTV: Did you know that Connected TV saw a 280% increase in ad revenue since 2020? That’s huge. The channel is looking like an increasingly interesting place to run ads on… but should you? This little report might help you decide.
ADVERTISING: …on the same note, Disney just announced that they’ll introduce more ad space for mid-market advertisers—or those who’re spending between $30M-$300M on ads. There’s something there.
AI MARKETING: Talking about the IKEA effect… TikTok now allows you to “build your own influencer” using AI. That’s right, you can create a custom avatar that will help you promote your brand or content, the same way you would. It’s insane—and you have to see it to believe it.
*This is a sponsored post.
ICYMI, last time we looked at CRO in psychology.
The “Assembled” Crew
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