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Psychologically, the human mind prefers simplicity over complexity, which is why people avoid situations that increase their cognitive load. According to the Simplicity Theory (ST), uncomplicated situations pique an individual’s curiosity. This notion can be extremely effectively used in sales and marketing. Customers seek minimalist experiences, whether it’s with the product itself or the brand experience.
Notably, simplifying does not have to mean removing procedures (like on the checkout page) or clarifying language. Additionally, it entails mapping the customer journey, identifying pain points, and resolving them through the implementation of a user-friendly solution that simplifies the user’s life. Additionally, simplification refers to developing a complete, seamless brand experience that customers can easily browse on their own without experiencing roadblocks.
Therefore, to unveil some secret and hidden psychological triggers that can directly impact your audience, we prepared the 10 most famous and important triggers, you might want to incorporate right now.
Top 10 psychological triggers
Storytelling
Stories are an excellent approach to stimulate your clients’ brains and increase your sales. Why? Because tales elicit emotions, and 95% of our cognition occurs in our subconscious—the area of our brain responsible for emotional connections. Stories include inventive uses of words, images, and sounds that, when done correctly, help you stand out among the sea of noise. By engaging parts of the brain associated with sight, hearing, taste, and movement, a well-told story enables people to sense things they have never had. A compelling tale can significantly boost people’s perceptions of your credibility. A compelling tale can help consumers connect with your product.
Sense of urgency
Individuals enjoy being the first or the only ones to obtain something. We like one-upping our peers selfishly and subconsciously. Thus, if you can arrange something in such a way that only a select few individuals will have access to it, you will increase sales. Offers that are only available for a limited time heighten the sense of urgency. They, together with discounts and free shipping, will immediately increase sales.
Corel does an excellent job of instilling a sense of urgency with their offers. Promoting limited-time discounts and the importance of additional savings in packaged offerings helps convert anyone who is on the fence or hesitating between them and a rival.
Customer reviews
Client reviews demonstrate that the customer who is viewing your marketing content is not the only one who is interested in it; it has been used successfully by others!
According to Baymard Institute research, around 95% of users consider reviews to be a reputable source when evaluating a product or seeking additional information about it. As a result, it’s fairly clear how much influence they have on first-time purchasers in particular. Reviewing contributes to the herd mentality. The overwhelming majority are followers and are not interested in being the first to try something.
Customer feedback can be displayed almost anywhere: on your website, on your social media pages, or even in email campaigns or datasheets. The possibilities for harnessing positive feedback to build confidence in your business or product are limitless (s). As a result of this psychological effect, prospects who see others sharing pleasant experiences are more likely to purchase from you than those who do not read them at all. Additionally, buyers who see those evaluations may choose to leave their own, assisting you in increasing your ratings.
Coupa increased sales by displaying handwritten client success stories with real photographs. Coupa is an excellent example of how to personalize reviews to assist potential buyers to engage more deeply with their product.
Loss Aversion
Most of the companies experience more loss than gain. For instance, if we were informed we would receive a $2,000 rise, we would be overjoyed; however, if we were told our salary would be reduced by $2,000, we would be enraged, unhappy, and dissatisfied. The feelings we would experience if we lost the money rather than receiving it would much outweigh the satisfaction we would experience if we gained it. This is the aversion to loss’s strength. When confronted with the prospect of losing something, we tend to behave more quickly and spontaneously.
To employ it, you want to create an environment in which your audience believes they will lose something if they do not purchase your goods. You can use words to demonstrate that the consumer already owns the product, a video of another person using the product, or just provide a limited-time trial.
Context Effect
How frequently do you purchase popcorn when out shopping? Consider how frequently you purchase popcorn at the movies. I’m ready to wager you’re significantly more likely to purchase popcorn at the movie simply because that’s what you’re expected to do. This is referred to as the context effect.
To leverage this effect, you must create an environment for your consumers that encourages them to buy or at the very least puts them in the buying mindset. According to research, the comfort level of the floor, for example, affects how buyers evaluate the quality of the goods they are purchasing. By taking this online, you may create a pleasurable experience that will entice consumers to purchase.
Free Valuable Content
When the idea of reciprocity is used in marketing, it means that when a customer receives something, they feel obligated or motivated to reciprocate. Apply this directly when a friend does you a favor, such as bringing you supper or assisting you with relocation. Even if they did not request a return, you are likely to feel compelled to repay the favor in some way. This psychological principle can be applied to any type of content marketing effort.
Provide valuable information for free to your target audience. It could be a useful template, an e-book, or another worthwhile resource. Consider the following ideas when deciding what type of material to offer your users.
- The content must be valuable. If the content doesn’t offer something to the reader, they are less likely to give something in return.
- The content’s value must match the action you want customers to take. If you’re simply asking for an email address, you don’t need to offer much for free. If you want customers to fill out a survey that is pages long, you must offer some type of reward for doing so.
Choosing what type of content to give out is not a decision to be taken carelessly or fast. Consider the content’s value and the type of content you wish to offer your audience. This becomes easier once you’ve established which psychological triggers your target market is likely to respond to.
Different Content Formats
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter found in the brain that aids in the regulation of the mind’s pleasure and reward centers. When new items are launched or released, they frequently cause an actual release of dopamine in the part of the brain responsible for responding to novel stimuli.
Simply put, when something new is introduced into the brain, individuals experience an emotional flush. This high is caused by the hormone dopamine. Apple is incredibly adept at harnessing the power of dopamine. Users abandon perfectly decent devices in favor of nearly identical new ones when something new is presented. They are more eager to purchase anything new, even if they already have something similar in their possession.
You can leverage these psychological triggers by first selecting a contentious or difficult topic for folks in your sector. Create a blog article about the concept and heavily market it for a month. Once the tempest has subsided a little, reintroduce the same concept in a different style — perhaps an infographic or a movie. Although the same concept is presented, users feel as though they are receiving something new due to the new presentation. These emotional triggers in marketing pique the brain’s interest in the subject.
Color psychology
Did you realize that colors have a greater emotional impact than words? As such, the colors red and orange are connected with vitality and passion, yellow with optimism and joy, and blue with confidence and trust. Because colors define our moods and can impact our responses, you should use them effectively to communicate your message. Additionally, visual information is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text! Color psychology is an excellent tool for predicting and guiding your consumers’ choices, allowing you to sell more.
Novelty
Individuals are eager to pay for updated and enhanced versions. It is more than a matter of willingness; they desire to. When we try new things, the neurotransmitter dopamine is released in our brain, providing us with a sense of pleasure. That is why individuals value upgrades, enhancements, new features, and innovations. You do not need to introduce a new product to your offering to leverage novelty as a psychological trigger to increase sales; simply add a new feature or change the way something operates (just remember to inform your clients!).
Wondershare accomplished precisely this. They did not invent anything new; they simply upgraded their product Filmora. Updates entice users to try the latest version of a product they currently enjoy, and also entice users who disliked previous versions to return.
Build a Community
People crave a sense of belonging. Let us return to Apple, which has amassed a tremendous following of enthusiastic customers who will purchase anything and everything they provide. If done correctly, the act of building a community around your brand and product is very powerful.
Engage your audience in a conversation, speak directly to them, and provide relatable anecdotes about other consumers. To feel a sense of belonging, individuals must feel as though they “fit in,” thus use language they would use and describe circumstances they may encounter.
In Conclusion
By appealing to your audience’s psychological triggers while developing your marketing personas, you can ensure that they return to your site and develop trust in your business. Thus, in your next content marketing effort, incorporate emotion, authority, reciprocity, mystery, and a variety of formats. But let’s suppose that you have prepared enough material to start your first marketing steps and you prepare to build your product, but here’s a thing: you don’t understand how to effectively use it to gain the most productive result both for your customer journey map and the product you want to achieve. More than that, you’re entirely new to it, and you require assistance, then what?
In that case, we can provide a direct specificity of your product development and customer journey mapping processes. Over the past 10+ years, we have been involved in numerous startups and entrepreneurs that have been actively engaged in developing unique digital products. All of them have been successfully raised to a solid stage when they can efficiently labor productive results. How did they accomplish that with us? Everything has begun with our technological flow or, more precisely, with the Design and Discovery Phase. It is an accessible step where our experts will produce a direct MVP plan covering future product development. Already got interested? Leave your project details below, and we will contact you in under 24 hours!
