9 psychological triggers and how to use them in digital marketing
The psychological triggers.
Did you know that most of the actions we take daily are carried out automatically? For example breathing or feeding, no one thinks before chewing, we simply do it. The human brain does many actions automatically. This is so be cause we can better concentrate on situations that require more complex solutions and leave our subconscious in charge of the routine tasks and actions that are repetitive, otherwise we would be mentally exhausted. The same happen with our purchasing decisions.
There are signals lodged in our subconscious that make us choose one product over another. If we look at the people´s behavior around us we will see that they are all motivated by very similar reasons.
To persuade and obtain potential customers you need to know what the mental triggers are and how to use them in your marketing strategy. We are not talking about manipulating or harassing someone to convince them to make a purchase. You just need to provide your audience with what we show you in this post: the nine psychological triggers and how you can use them to convert your visitors into prospects, and your prospects into customers.
Let´s start with the list:
Number 1. Authority.
There´s a natural tendency to value more the opinion of someone who is considered to know more about a particular topic. That's why if you want to attract more customers you need to position yourself as an authority on the topic you are promoting about. To do this, you should focus on information that can generate value for your audience, for example keep an updated blog and offer interesting materials for free in the way that you not only show that you know about the topic but also that you educate and build a relationship of trust with your potential customers. With that relationship you´ll have more time to maintain communciation where you´ll be able to inform about the product or service and eventually propose a purchase.
Building authority is a time-consuming strategy, but when do it right it can provide significant benefits to your business.
Number 2. Scarcity.
This psychological trigger consists of intentionally inducing a high desire by creating a dearth of an offer.
We are human and our behavior is more prone to desire an object when it is scarce. As the best example we have precious metals, specifically gold, one of the most valuable metals in the world. This happens because our unconscious tends to associate that the more difficult it is to obtain a specifiy object, the more valuable it is. If the potential customer is not totally convinced of wanting to buy your product or service, he may be motivated to make a decision if he thinks he will not have another opportunity to do so.
An example of this is Amazon. When you try to make a purchase on this platform, you can see the number of the remaining units. If the potential customer sees that the number of the available items are insufficient, in some cases the people reviewing the product on the page induce a motivation to the visitor to increase the desire to complete the purchase immediately, otherwise he will lose it.
If you really need that this strategy Works, then you need to establish a real shortage. If your audience realizes that you are using this feature to manipulatethem, this strategy simply loses its effectiveness.
Example: There are only eight spots left for our YouTube mastery course.
Number 3. Pain avoidance.
The tendency of human behavior is to avoid pain and seek pleasure.
Talking about marketing products and services, it is even more common for people to seek products to avoid pain rather than to obtain pleasure. It is important to note that the trigger will work better if you know your ideal customer well and know the problems they experience on a daily basis.
One example: subscribe to our online service and you will never have to wait in line to shop at the supermarket again.
Number 4. Reciprocity.
Whenever someone does us a favor, our natural tendency is to repay that action with the same coin. That is why it is important to generate value for ourt customers before thinking about the benefits we could obtain from them.
Many entrepreneurs still find it difficult to understand the buying process because they are thinking only about making a quick buck, without respecting the consolidation process with the potential customer. If you create that relationship and respect that process by providing value in your content your sales will increase naturally, and best of all in a sustainable way.
In short, if the content that you provide adds value to your audience, then your customers will tend to respond in the way to buy your prodicts or saervices.
Example. Download our free guide and learn step by step how to promote your products online.
Number 5. Novelty.
It has been neurologically proven that exposing a person to something new and unfamiliar increases the amount of dopamine in the brain, which is directly related to atttentional focus and motivation levels.
In addition to stimulated interest, this mental trigger moves people to action as they want to be the first to try the product. That´s why large companies such as Microsoft and Apple invest so much in launches, because even in cases where the new version does not present many new features, the public is attentive to the simple fact that it is something new in the market.
For example: learn about the new IPhone X feature that allows you to see XYZ.
Number 6. Curiosity.
Curiosity not only inspires action, but also increases activity in some areas of the brain that are associated with pleasure. You should use those elements in order to increase the audience's curiosity.
Thistrigger helps tp keep the audience interested in what you are saying or doing. It's the curiosity that will make people search for more information about your product or service and watch your videos, open emails and subscribe to a newsletter. If your content is useful and helps to solve a problem, then the chances of being viral will increase, which helps increase traffic to your website, creating a virtuous cycle for your business.
Example: we will soon launch an additional module of our Mandarin course, with a totally revolutionary method in the market.
Number 7. Social proof.
Whenever we want to buy something our tendency is to look for product reviews. This process is even more thorough when the purchase is made online since still for some people exists a lot of distrust: doubts about the quality of the product or service, delivery method, support, guarantees, among others. This can be easily solved if you show the reviews from existing customers. This helps to show your potential customers the comments of other buyers, customer testimonials, number of products sold and followers on social networks.
Number 8. Urgency.
This psychological trigger is very similar to the scarcity trigger. There is a basic difference: the strategy consists of showing an irresistible offer to your potential customer that is just available for short period of time, usually displayed on a countdown timer. This trigger is used to motivate a sense of urgency in which the potential customer is stimulated to take action before the timer reaches ZERO.
Example: the 75% discount offer will expire when the timer reaches zero.
Number 9. Security.
The number one reason for not taking out a credit card out of the pocket and purchasing a product on the Internet is called "security".
The average person will feel more secure knowing that when they purchase a product or service they will have a guarantee that their money will not go up in smoke without having received the value promised for their purchase.
The most commonly used strategies in this psychological trigger are the refund guarantees, in which if a promise is not fulfilled, the money is back.
Example: 30-day money back guarantee if you don't see results.
Conclusion.
Using psychological triggers in moderation is very helpful to facilitate the buying decision of your potential customers. If you are not using the yet, you must include them in your marketing strategy, otherwise you are missing a great opportunity to persuade your audience to make a purchase decision.
To induce the expected effects on these psychological triggers, you should first deliver a lot of value in your content to your customers, otherwise your customers will feel manipulated to buy your product which in the long run will be counterproductive.