All of the top internet marketers, bloggers, and even copy writers use psychology in some way to get across their ideas and sell their products. Whether that product is the service you provide, you as a person, or an actual product, psychology can help you to market it.
The Caveman Online Shopper
The beautiful thing about marketing to human beings is that our essential nature rarely changes. Prehistoric shoppers had the same wants, needs, and priorities as the sleek geek of the online world of today — and those needs and desires aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Even though the approach used online might be slightly different, marketing that worked wonders hundreds of years ago will still work wonders today because people’s basic human nature doesn’t change.
Me, Me, Me
One of the first principles of marketing is basically the same as one of the first principles of human psychology: People are selfish. They want to know the same thing about your slick website as they did about the first crude, makeshift spear to be marketed: what’s in it for them. That is, therefore, the first objective your website should fulfill. It should be clear right from the homepage what you offer to your readers, what you have for them that no one else does. Here are a few more ways to use psychological principles in internet marketing.
Curiosity Made the Cat Buy Your Product
No one wants to miss out. Everyone wants to unravel the mysteries and discover the secrets because that is essential to human nature. If you can successfully tweak your customers’ curiosity, nine times out of ten you can successfully sell them your product. “Secrets” is a powerful word that you shouldn’t be afraid to use. Reading this article will teach you the secret of successful internet marketing. See what I mean? You can take that little tidbit and adapt it easily to any product you want to promote.
Value for Less
We all want the best that life has to offer. Of course, we all want that best at basement bargain prices, which is why so many people are unhappy. If you can convince your audience that you are giving them the best product on the market at the lowest price on the market, you will have them sold. Tell them about the long and exhaustive process you went through to develop your product. Tell them how many hours you sweat away and how much you invested in testing and tweaking it. Let them know about the void you saw in the market that convinced you to develop this particular thing to fill that void. Tell them why you are sure that yours is the best option money can buy without charging too much actual money to buy it.
Behind the Scenes
Even if your business processes, practices, and quality controls are pretty standard in the industry, your customers often don’t know all of the hard work, time, and care that goes into what you do. If you can be the first one in the industry to tell the story of what happens behind the scenes, you can often look like the original mastermind. Everyone that tries to do the same afterward will look like they’re copying you.
Fear and Love
Other psychological principles that you can use to your advantage are peoples’ fear of failure and their love for exclusivity. Eliminate their resistance to your product by cutting down on the risks of trying it out. Balance this strategy out with a strong emphasis on the exclusivity of your product, offering special deals and limited time offers, and you will have them in the bag.
<p><a href=”http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1499″>Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>
6 comments
Gabriele Maidecchi says:
Jun 6, 2011
Your “value for less” point made me recall how people love stories. A cold, machine-like business will have always less success than a business offering a story behind it. Which can come from various sources, blog posts about your business, a video showing the “behind the scenes”, and so on. Anything to make people relate with the part of your company they can relate to: the people making it work.
Wendy says:
Jun 6, 2011
I would like to say thank you for reading the article and taking time to comment on it. I really appreciate all of your feedback.
I agree with your comment about how people tend to like companies that have a real back story. It is certainly something that people find easy to relate to.
A. Tatum Jr says:
Jun 12, 2011
Sell baby sell. Reminds of the end of the Karate Kid remake when he gave him the head shake to lure him in for the killer blow. You have to get the buyer to believe that you have the last ice cube in the world, or yours is better than the guys next door, but if your passionate about what your doing then it should be better than the next persons. Nice post!
Daniel Snyder says:
Jun 14, 2011
Great thoughts Alvin! Sell baby sell. 🙂
Andrew Walker says:
Jun 13, 2011
Wendy, you have opened my eyes… My sister study psychology in the university. Maybe I should give her a cal and discuss this matter. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Thiru says:
Nov 10, 2011
Such a different blog about marketing people mind, but useful. I learned few things here and hope it would be helpful in my product marketing. We can not use same trend to market our product to all customers because every customer’s having their own idea on buying our product, so need to analyze the customers need and their mind thoughts. Anyway nice reading ..