Part 2 | Reverse Engineering Your Customer
Unpacking Shopper Decision Question
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8 minute read
Learn how to use SDQs to increase storefront conversion rate.
Build and test your own SDQs using the SDQ Guide
Note: this guide is part of a three-part series on reverse-engineering your customer. To start from the beginning click here.
What are SDQs?
If there's one thing you take away from Zulu, make it this: Shopper Decision Questions (SDQs). These are your foundation – informing every aspect of a high-converting eCommerce funnel. It's why we put them at the core of every Zulu product.
SDQs are the most pressing questions each buyer must have answered before they will convert. The idea is simple: if you can figure out what questions the buyer will ask, you can answer them before the buyer asks. This generates instant alignment, paving the way for a frictionless customer journey, and most importantly, trust. Effectively answering your customer's most important questions early is the easiest way to improve CVR.
When we talk about understanding your buyer - this is what we mean. SDQs are the key ingredients for each conversion, and offer a window into shopper psychology. If you know why buyers convert, it's much easier to reverse engineer more conversions. Nail your SDQs, and you'll convert more customers, faster, and with lower acquisition costs. Sounds pretty good, right? Let's dig in...
8 minute read
Learn how to use SDQs to increase storefront conversion rate.
Build and test your own SDQs with our SDQ Guide
Tier 1 SDQs
These questions MUST be answered before the customer will make a purchase. They must be addressed on first landing page in the funnel.
Tier 2 SDQs
Critical information that is helpful to understand more about the value and benefits of the product or how you uniquely deliver the product/experience. Can be addressed deeper in the funnel.
Nail your SDQs
SDQs give you an opportunity to immediately build trust and alignment with shoppers. Once the buyer has decided your product solves their problem, it’s easy to stand out and win the sale. Getting SDQs right is a process that begins with consistent rounds of testing and analysis. Positioning your brand messaging around SDQs will have the single largest impact on conversion rates, but only if the SDQs are aligned with each shopper persona.
Most product verticals have two or more personas – that is, multiple shoppers looking at the same product, but with different considerations. We’ll look at two high-level examples below, examining only Tier 1 SDQs. Don’t worry, you can get our complete SDQ Guide at the end of this blog, which lays out the full process and required steps to nail your SDQs.
Hoka
It’s no secret that Hoka shoes are a favorite in both professional and amateur running communities. From the UTMB, to the Berlin Marathon, to your local turkey trot: Hoka probably has 40%+ of the starting line market share. But if you've spent time in a hospital recently, you probably noticed a similar trend in nurses and administration staff. Hokas are everywhere, but this audience isn’t donning the shoe for a training run or race – they’re wearing them all day at work.
So if you’re Hoka, how do you define SDQs for each audience? The easiest answer is that different products have different audiences. Even though Hoka’s aspirational audience is endurance athletes, a second (and rapidly growing) persona is more concerned with comfort and everyday use. In other words, hospital staff and general consumers are buying the shoes for different outcomes such as style and all-day comfort, and thus will need different questions answered.
Tier 1 SDQs
Competitive Athlete Persona:
- How will these make me a faster runner? The athlete is interested, first and foremost, in performance-based outcomes.
- What are the tech specs: Drop-height? Stack-height? Weight? The athlete understands technical specifications and uses these to make a selection.
- How long do they last? The athlete will push the product to its limits and is concerned with durability, based on past experience.
All-Day Persona:
- Will these be comfortable on my feet all day? Hospital staff will wear these all day. The primary concern is comfort over technical performance.
- What are the color options? After comfort, appearance is the most important consideration. At work, shoes are primarily a style item, whereas the competitive athlete puts performance slightly before style for shoes.
- What is the price? How much does it cost, compared to other options?
As you can see, the SDQs are different for each persona. Imagine how the All-Day Persona would respond to the Athlete Persona SDQs! For example:
How will these shoes make me a faster runner?
- Athlete: “I’m interested first and foremost in performance-based outcomes”
- Hospital Staff: “This messaging is irrelevant to me, and immediately miss-aligned with my use case.”
What are the technical specifications: Drop-height? Stack-height? Weight?
- Athlete: “I understand technical specifications and use these to make a selection.”
- Hospital Staff: “Technical jargon is meaningless to me. I want to know simply if they are comfortable on my feet.”
How long do they last?
- Athlete: “I will push the product to its limits, and I am concerned with durability, based on past experience.”
- Hospital Staff: “I assume the product will wear at a normal rate from everyday use in light environments. I do not need to understand durability to convert.”
Now that you have defined Tier 1 SDQs for both personas, determine which products align with each persona, and test your SDQs!
Jeep
In the Hoka example above, different product SKUs were positioned for different audiences. In this example, we’ll simply look at one product SKU that shares multiple personas: the 2024 Jeep Wrangler.
A good dealer also knows that selling outcomes is more effective than selling the product itself. What does the customer actually want? Where will this vehicle take them? Is the customer aspirational, or are they looking for safety, capability, or peace of mind? If the buyer is looking for adventure, start the conversation there. Build credibility and common ground, then introduce the 2024 Jeep Wrangler.
Tier 1 SDQs
Outdoor Enthusiast Persona:
- What are the capability features? Does it have 4-wheel drive? The outdoor audiences want to know if the vehicle is capable enough to suit their adventurous lifestyle.
Parent Persona:
- What is the safety rating? Any special safety features to give me peace of mind (e.g., backup cameras and collision detection). The parent is interested first and foremost in providing safety for their children and family.
In the Jeep example, both personas are looking at the exact same product. Unlike Hoka, unique messaging cannot be applied to different products designed for different each persona. Thus, Jeep must position the product simultaneously for both persona segments, and build collateral that speaks to to both.
2024 Jeep Wrangler – ’Parent Persona’
2024 Jeep Wrangler – ’Outdoor Enthusiast Persona’
If you can answer SDQs before the buyer has even thought of them, you'll engineer complete alignment from the start. But how do you know what SDQs are working?
Testing, testing, testing – we lay this out in our SDQ Guide at the end.
Once you’re sure the SDQs are nailed, they should inform literallyevery aspect of your advertising, lead gen, and storefront experience. We mean literally, as in Literally. The highest converting eCommerce funnels are entirely based around clear and concise SDQs.
Why SDQs? Why Now?
In today’s digital world, shoppers are subject to a firehouse of messaging and creativity – at home, at work, and on every device. Behind the scenes, brands are competing for the same pool of fatigued prospects. So how do you stand out and earn the sale?
Too often, we see brands approach initiatives purely from an execution standpoint –designing initiatives around the work that should be completed, and the opinions of brand leadership. Sometimes, they're answering the right customer problem statement, but in the wrong level of the funnel. Researching, testing, and validating SDQs will allow you to build initiatives around what your buyer is actually looking for, when they are looking or it.
SDQs also enable informed decisions based on facts, not options.
For example: “SDQ test A converted higher than SDQ test B, therefore the A message should applied elsewhere across the funnel.”
SDQs will ultimately become the foundation for your digital marketing strategy – informing each touchpoint across the entire buyer journey – from storefront messaging and creative to automated flows and retargeted advertising.
Now what?
Defining rock-solid SDQs allow your buyer-journey to adapt around the real needs of the customer. This means you’ll evolve faster and activate the market more efficiently than competitors.
There are two layers of SDQs and various strategies to position these messages. It’s important to note that before you implement SDQs across ads, emails, SMS, landing pages, and checkout, you should test and analyze several different variants to be sure you’ve nailed them. To ideate SDQs, you’ll need a thorough understanding of your Buyer Personas and, ideally, some customer research. To validate SDQs, you’ll need a wide range of ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu metrics, and access to your company's heat-map data. Use the button below to access our SDQ guide and get started. If you have any questions, we can help you get started or define SDQs for you. It’s what we do every day.
Learn how Zulu Core leverages customer insights to enhance funnel efficiency and recapture lost revenue. Understand the importance of Shopper Decision Questions (SDQs), Sales Intention Types (SITs), and Cart Abandonment Rationales (CARs) in crafting a high-converting funnel. Discover how these foundational elements can transform your marketing strategy and drive sustained growth.
