Prepare to dive into the captivating realm of marketing psychology. 🧠✨
In this edition, we unravel the mysteries of consumer behavior and the subtle art of persuasion with our feature on "What is marketing psychology?" Discover the science behind why customers make the choices they do.
Next, we unveil seven tactics to sway your customers' decisions, equip you with a consumer Psychology cheat sheet, and shed light on the responsible use of marketing psychology.
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Dive into the art of persuasion with HTE! 🎯 #MarketingPsychology
What Is Marketing Psychology? 🤔
7 Marketing Psychology Tactics To Influence Your Customers With Examples 🧠💡
Psychology and marketing: Use them together!✨
How To Use Marketing Psychology Responsibly? ✅🧘♂️
What Is Marketing Psychology? 🤔
Marketing psychology, often referred to as 'Neuromarketing,' takes the principles of neuropsychology and applies them to the realms of content, marketing, and sales. The goal? To wield the power of psychology in shaping consumers' choices.
For decades, researchers have delved into the cognitive responses triggered by marketing efforts. Today, it's widely accepted that marketing elicits individuals' sensorimotor, cognitive, and emotional reactions. This comprehension serves as a cornerstone for marketers aiming to craft more potent digital and traditional marketing strategies. It also assists in identifying potential customers, optimizing product launches, and forging robust brand identities.🚀💡
There are several ways to use marketing psychology, including:
7 Marketing Psychology Tactics To Influence Your Customers 🧠💡
1) Commitment & consistency bias
The commitment and consistency bias is a psychological phenomenon where people tend to align their actions with their prior behaviors and statements.
1. Create a Lead Nurture Funnel
Harness this bias by building a lead nurture funnel. Begin with small requests like reading your content and progressively escalate to more substantial actions, such as attending webinars or trying out your product. People are inclined to remain consistent with their previous engagement levels.
2. Have Progress Markers for Tasks
Employ the sunk cost fallacy, a facet of this bias, to your advantage. Encourage customers to complete tasks they've invested time or effort in. For instance, if they start writing a review, they're more likely to create an account to finish and post it.
3. Break Content into Digestible Tidbits
For long-form content, present it in bite-sized, snackable, and meal-sized portions. Start with a brief overview (bite), highlight key points (snack), and provide comprehensive details (meal). Once readers commit to the smaller pieces, they're more likely to consume the entire content.
4. Speak to Your Audience's Self-Perception
Appeal to your audience's self-perception. Make them aware that their actions align with their identity. For example, if your audience cares about pets, emphasize how not taking action contradicts their self-perception.
2) The anchoring bias
The anchoring bias refers to an individual's inclination to rely on the initial information they receive as a reference point (or anchor) when making subsequent decisions. This cognitive bias is especially valuable in the context of setting prices.
Here are various types of anchoring techniques along with examples:
Indicate Mark-Downs
By showcasing discounts, not only does the consumer perceive it as a great deal, but starting with a higher initial price can also imply higher product value. However, it's essential to recognize that pricing perceptions can vary among different customer groups. Understanding how price changes impact your product's perceived quality is crucial.
Example: Anchoring Using Markdowns
Show the Amount Saved
Many SaaS and subscription companies, like Zoom in the following illustration, offer more affordable annual plans compared to their monthly subscriptions. An alternative approach is to display the monthly rate for the month-to-month plan and then the reduced monthly rate for the annual plan. If the cost difference isn't substantial, emphasizing the total savings over the year may be more effective.
3) The paradox of choice
Imagine you're in a supermarket, ready to buy some tea. As you approach the aisle, the array of choices seems appealing. However, as you browse through the various options – black tea, green tea, white tea, red tea, regular, decaf, herbal, fruit tea, zingers, loose leaf, probiotic, sleep-enhancing, memory-boosting – just from one brand, you start to feel overwhelmed. Ultimately, you abandon your tea mission.
This is the paradox of choice!
The paradox of choice suggests that as the number of options increases, so does the stress associated with making a decision. This often leads to decision avoidance and doubts about the choices made. Here are ways to help your audience overcome analysis paralysis.
For Example:
Keep varieties and options to a minimum
Limit the number of items in your main navigation menu
Remove navigation, social buttons, and footers too
4) Social Proof
Coined by author Robert Cialdini in "Influence," social proof means following others in unfamiliar situations to feel safe and accepted.
Marketing Psychology - Social Proof In marketing, it translates to testimonials, reviews, and more. Ways to use it:
Organized Testimonials Page: Create a dedicated page showcasing clients benefiting from your solution.
Website Testimonials: Feature testimonials on landing pages and the homepage, adding credibility with headshots.
Testimonial Ads: Use testimonials as compelling ad copy, as seen in the Calm ad example.
Highlight Endorsements: Display logos or faces of big brands using your product (with permission), or showcase media outlets featuring your product.
Trust Signals: Include partnership logos, awards, and other credibility indicators.
Wisdom of the Crowd: Highlight a large user base to build trust and boost signups for your offers.
5) The reciprocity effect
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but it certainly feels right… Am I right? Reciprocity, our tendency to respond to a gesture with a similar one, plays a role in marketing.
Positive reciprocity strategies include:
Exceptional Customer Service
Prioritize customer experience, and you'll naturally collect reviews and possibly encourage extra purchases or loyalty.
Provide Valuable Information
Content marketing and SEO create reciprocity by offering valuable resources. Customers tend to favor companies that share helpful content.
6) The mere exposure effect
Social psychologist Robert Zajonc's 1960s experiments revealed the "mere exposure effect," where repeated exposure to a stimulus enhances one's attitude toward it. Familiarity breeds preference, even subconsciously.
Marketing Psychology - Mere Exposure Effect:
Display ads are often misunderstood due to low click-through rates; however, they serve to expose your business. More exposure leads to increased familiarity, trust, engagement, and preference among your audience. Combined with the commitment and consistency effect, it cultivates loyal customers. Hence, brand awareness is crucial, as it enhances click-through and conversion rates across all your campaigns.
Use retargeting ads:
Retargeting ads can achieve 2-3 times higher click-through rates than regular display ads. Caution is needed to avoid excessive ad frequency, preventing your brand from appearing intrusive.
Consistent messaging:
Reiterate your unique value proposition across various brand assets, from your website to ads. Familiarity with your USP increases its appeal, emphasizing the importance of diverse content marketing channels.
Promote content:
Leverage the mere exposure effect by promoting content on social media, and sharing it multiple times with suitable intervals.
Establish brand recognition:
Create an identifiable brand through a captivating logo and style guide, using consistent colors and fonts to form automatic associations between your brand and its visual identity.
7) The Pygmalion effect
The Pygmalion effect works for both your team and customers. It's the belief that if you think something is true about yourself or others, it becomes true. High expectations for students or employees lead to better performance.
Unify your team and improve the customer experience
For your team, define core brand values, keeping them in mind. This sets clear expectations, fostering unity and delivering a consistent customer experience.
Apply this to your audience by showing a higher level of performance is achievable. Encourage actions aligned with these beliefs, like downloading content or following on social media. As they realize their potential with your help, they can become loyal customers.
Set high standards for your team and customers, and success will follow.
Psychology and marketing: Use them together!✨
Combine psychology and marketing effectively! These strategies can influence consumer decisions:
🌐 Create a funnel
📈 Show progress
📚 Break content into digestible parts
💭 Address self-perception
💰 Highlight markdowns
💲 Display savings
🧹 Simplify options
🗺️ Streamline navigation
📢 Focus on one CTA per page
🚫 Remove distractions (nav, social, footer)
🌟 Organize testimonials
🏆 Display endorsements
✅ Showcase approvals
🔢 Utilize numbers to gain subscribers
🤝 Offer exceptional customer service
📖 Provide valuable education
🧰 Offer free tools and trials
🖼️ Run brand awareness display ads
🔄 Implement retargeting ads for higher CTR
📣 Maintain consistent messaging
🎨 Establish a brand style
🚀 Promote your content
👥 Foster team unity for improved customer experiences
🔄 Create a positive feedback loop with customers.
How To Use Marketing Psychology Responsibly? ✅🧘♂️
I'm not trying to sugarcoat things here, folks. 😬 These so-called "shortcuts" are kinda like cognitive biases, thinking traps, or just tricky mind games we play on ourselves. 😅 But hold on, before you start thinking we're all about exploiting and pulling a fast one, let me set the record straight on marketing psychology. 🛑
So, if you're thinking about using some of that consumer psychology magic to win over more peeps, here's the lowdown:
✅ DO make sure that when folks choose you, it's genuinely the bee's knees for them. Winning over customers who aren't a good match for your gig? That's a recipe for disaster, my friend.
❌ DO DON'T use these tricks to make promises you can't deliver or to pretend you're a superhero when you're not. 🦸♂️
✅ DO align your biz goals with what your potential customers want. It's all about that win-win situation. Oh, and use data to see if your psychology tricks are working their magic. 🔮
❌ And last but not least, DON'T forget that you're human too, and you're a customer sometimes. Watch out for sneaky businesses pulling manipulative psychology stunts on you! 😱🕵️♀️
Got it? Good! Let's keep it ethical and effective out there, folks! 😄👍
🎉 And that's a wrap for today, folks! 📰✨
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