Even when we really want something, when it comes to the moment where we need to actually hand over the cash there is a bit of “pain” that most people feel.

This is known as the “pain of payment”. This feeling could be caused by feelings of buyer’s remorse that we have experienced in the past and which we don’t want to experience again. Or it could be that we are weighing up our lost opportunity costs associated with making this purchase. According to recent studies from the field of neuro-marketing, paying for items activates the part of the brain associated with processing pain!

Whatever the reason, this feeling of “pain” can stop us from making purchases and handing over our cash. As marketers, we want to remove all obstacles that may prevent our customers from making a purchase.

Is there a way to remove the pain of payment? And will that lead to our customers being willing to spend more money, more frequently?

Paying by card reduces the pain of payment

In 2001 MIT professors Drazen Prelac and Duncan Simester conducted a study to find out if paying by card was less “painful” than paying by cash.

They conducted a study where 64 students were asked to participate in an auction for a pair of basketball tickets. Half the students were asked to place their bids with credit cards, and the other half were asked to place their bids with cash. When the results came in they showed that the students who paid by card made an average bid of $61 vs only $29 for those who were asked to bid with cash.

They repeated the experiment with another auction for a lower-priced item of basketball memorabilia, and the results were exactly the same. Those who were asked to bid by card placed significantly higher bids than those who bid with cash.

Prelac and Simester concluded that paying by card dulls the pain of payment which allows people to spend more.

Why does this make a difference?

The two psychologists suggest that paying by card makes the transaction of money less salient or noticeable. When you pay by cash you hand over physical notes or coins and may or may not get any change back. It’s a more tangible exchange – you had some money in your possession and now it’s gone.

When you pay by card you hand your card over, the transaction is processed and then your card is handed back to you. You don’t notice any loss. The pain associated with making a payment is diminished or reduced because of this.

Think about contactless payments and how this has further reduced the pain of payment – one simple tap and the payment is made, it literally happens in seconds. It’s a frictionless experience and because there is no money handed over it makes people feel less guilty about the purchase.

This phenomenon may explain why people find it easier to spend more money online than they do in brick-and-mortar stores.

Things you can do to reduce the pain of payment

1. Allow customers to save their payment details

Make paying for goods easy for your customers by allowing them to save their card or payment details on their account with your store.

This will enable them to select their goods, add to their cart, and then pay without having to even think about their card details. The more you can distance the payment process from the physical symbols of money such as cash or credit cards, the better your customers will feel when it comes to making the payment.

Amazon does this very well and even has their “one-click purchase” option which further helps to reduce the pain associated with making a payment.

2. Remove the $ sign from your price list

You may have noticed that quite a few restaurants have removed currency signs from their menu prices. So instead of showing their prices as $9.99 they simply show them as 9.99.

This is another way in which to reduce the pain of payment. A study conducted by the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research showed that removing the dollar sign from menus increased sales by 8%.

You can take advantage of this by removing the currency symbol from your price list or relevant website pages.

3. Diminish the price

You can also make a payment seem less significant by diminishing the price. You do this by comparing your price to a smaller and less significant purchase.

Example:  “For less than the price of a cup of coffee a day…..”

By comparing your price to the cost of a commodity like coffee, you are re-framing your customer’s perception of the price of your product and making it look much more affordable and reasonable.

This is a strategy you see quite often when it comes to subscription-based services but it can be used for any sort of product or service.

4. Allow contact-less payments

If you run an offline business then you should be adopting contactless payments if you haven’t already done so.

As we’ve already seen, paying by card is a lot less “painful” than paying by cash. By allowing for contactless card payments this payment pain is further reduced. The more you can make your payment process feel less like a cash transaction the less painful it will be.

5. Use charm pricing

Charm prices typically end in odd numbers like $4.99 as opposed to a rounded number like $5.00. Even though there is only a 1c difference in the price, the $4.99 seems to represent better value than $5.

There are various explanations for this.

One is that we read from left to right, so we place more emphasis on the first figure than the last. This makes $4.99 seem a whole lot less than $5.00, even though there is only a one-cent difference.

Another explanation is because charm prices have been used for a long time now, we naturally associate them with sales, bargains, or better value.

Although various research studies have shown that items priced with charm prices sell more compared to when they are priced at a more rounded amount, a lot of businesses still do not use this strategy.

Conclusion

So there you have a few ways in which you can reduce the pain of making payments for your customers. When you do so you may start to see an increase in your conversion rates or sales. Test what works for your products and market.

If you are in the luxury goods market your customers will be less price sensitive, so use some common sense and take the approach that works best for you.

Not sure how to price your products or services?

Find out about different pricing strategies you can use here – Pricing Strategies – How to price a product.

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The more you can understand how people will act or respond to your marketing campaign, branding, or pricing strategy, the more successful you’ll be. Marketing is about all people. It is important to understand how to attract the attention of prospects and communicate with them effectively.

Understanding who they are, what they want, and what drives their purchase decisions are essential to being able to market your goods and services to them.

This article will delve into what exactly marketing psychology is, and give you some tips, tricks and examples so you can start implementing them into your marketing campaign and overall strategy.

What is marketing psychology?

Marketing psychology is the study of how human behaviour and cognitive biases influence consumption and our approach to products and services. It explores differences in persuading, influencing and attracting consumers, and considers how different marketing strategies and media might influence a consumer’s response to a product or service.

It is closely related to consumer psychology – the study of how and why we buy goods and services.

Marketing psychology borrows insights from the behavioural sciences, such as neuroscience, behavioural economics, and the cognitive sciences. It seeks to understand why people buy the things they buy, what motivates their buying decisions, and what factors influence and persuade them to make a purchase and select one product over another.

How does marketing psychology benefit marketers?

Every marketer’s dream is to understand exactly what their target audience wants, and needs, and how to best deliver it to them.

If we know how our prospects will respond to a certain product, branding, logo, price point or advert we can easily predict the success of our marketing campaigns and adjust the individual factors and variables accordingly.

Marketing psychology gives us insights into how people respond to certain aspects of our marketing and sales activities. By understanding human behaviour and consumer psychology, we get a good insight into how our target market will respond to:

• The price of our products or services
• Our choice of brand logo
• The name of our product
• Our packaging – colours, shape, look, and feel
• Our adverts
• Our offers and call-to-actions

Marketing psychology tricks and examples

Here are some psychological marketing tricks, tips and examples that you can start to implement.

(1) Loss aversion marketing

During their research on prospect theory, Nobel-prize winning psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky discovered that people have an aversion to loss much more than they have a preference for gain.

Put simply this means that people seem to value avoiding a loss, much more than they value accessing an equivalent gain. This can explain why FOMO (the fear of missing out) is such an effective motivator. People fear missing out or losing opportunities, and this fear can be used to move prospects into making a buying decision or following through on your call-to-action.

Loss aversion marketing strategies include:

• Limited offers

You can produce a limited quantity of a certain product or offer a time-limited offer, such as a special price that is only valid for 24hr.

Scarcity is a powerful principle of persuasion and influence, and it works because of loss aversion or the fear of missing out. When you make a product or offer scarce, its appeal goes up because people don’t want to miss out or a rare product or limited offer.

This is why rare items such as limited edition cars, baseball cards or other collectibles sell out faster, and for much higher prices than their standard equivalents.

• Trial offers

We value items that we own more than items that we don’t own.

When you give someone a trial offer, you are giving them the opportunity to try your product or service for free, for a limited amount of time or with limited functionality.

For the duration of the trial they have access to your product and can make use of it, this gives them the feeling of ownership. This feeling of ownership means that a certain number of people will want to keep the product after the free-trial period is over, in order to avoid the feeling of losing it.

This is why Amazon continuously offer their customers free trials of their Amazon Prime service. When a user has used the Prime service and its extra features such as Prime Video etc, it can be hard to give them up when the trial is over. Most customers will continue their use of the Prime service in a bid to avoid feeling like they are losing out.

• Offer something free with their purchase

When you make a limited offer such as free shipping, or a free bonus gift with every purchase, the idea of losing this free gift can act as a strong incentive for convincing your customers to make a purchase that they were originally on the fence about.

(2) Habit marketing

Habits are things that we do that no longer require any conscious thought or effort. Habits are under the control of our subconscious minds, which makes them easier and more automatic to perform.

We turn repeated thoughts, actions, and behaviours into habits as a way of freeing-up mental resources. Anything we do repeatedly becomes a habit so that we can use our mental capacity for other things. Research has shown that it takes between 21 – 30 days of repeatedly doing something before it becomes a habit.

Getting up early, exercising daily, and eating healthy foods are all things we can learn to do habitually.

Our buying behaviours and purchase decisions can also become habits. If we continually buy a particular brand of bread we get in the habit of buying that brand. It becomes our brand of choice, but over time it no longer becomes our brand of choice – it becomes our brand of habit.

If we buy certain products and brands for long enough, they become automatic purchase decisions or buying habits. We don’t need any advertising or clever marketing campaigns to persuade us to buy that brand – we buy out of habit. Once a habit is formed it takes conscious effort to break that habit or replace it with a new habit. Once we have a brand of choice and are in the habit of buying that brand, it can be difficult for us to consider using another brand.

I know guys that started using Gillette razors because that was the brand their father used, and now they also use it out of habit. There are many different razor blade brands and companies to choose from, but the habit of buying Gillette makes it an easy purchase decision.

Trying another brand involves more effort than sticking to one we already know and habitually use.

We have to consider alternative brands and do research on their effectiveness. We might read online reviews to see what other customers think. There is also the risk that we may lose money if we try a different brand and are not happy with it. This is why once we are in the habit of using a product, and that product works for us and we are satisfied with it, we may not ever consider another brand unless we have good reason to.

Understanding the psychology of habit and how to use it in your marketing can be the key to winning new customers and creating long-term brand loyalty.

How can marketers benefit from the power of habit?

• Offer 30 day free trials of your product

You want to get your customers to use your product, so offer them a free trial to get the product in their hands at no risk to them. Offering a trial between 21 – 30 days increases the likelihood of the consumer forming the habit of using your product.

Once the trial ends if the habit has been successfully established you should start to see more and more trial users become permanent or long-term customers.

• Understanding when to target them with the right offers

The best way to do this is by using a loyalty scheme such as a loyalty card. These cards allow you to track and collect data on your customers’ purchases.

Once you analyse the data you should be able to spot shopping trends and determine which products are habitual purchases. You can then target them at these times with bespoke offers, which align with those existing habits. Targeting prospects when you know they habitually buy a particular product also gives you a great opportunity to steal them away from another brand.

Give them a reason to break their brand habit and to try your brand instead – offering a free trial or free sample is a great way to loosen buying habits and get them to consider you as an alternative.

• Target your audience during life-events

Life events are those moments in your target prospect’s life when they are undergoing big changes. This can involve moving house, getting married, or having children.

Life events are a great time to target your prospects as they are key opportunities to disrupt their existing buying habits or to establish completely new ones.

If you know your prospects are expecting their first child, now is a great time to offer them a discount or coupon for baby food, or diapers. Perhaps they’ve changed their diet and gone meat-free, now is a great opportunity to get your brand of vegetarian food in front of them with some targeted display ads, or by giving away a free sample at the supermarket.

Consumers are also less price-sensitive around life events. When someone gets married or has a child they want to buy the best and will spend more than usual to ensure they are buying quality products and services.

Having the data and access to their purchase behaviour is key to being able to target the right people, at the right time, with the right offer. This is one of the reasons supermarkets excel at this sort of marketing – they have huge amounts of data and use it to better understand their customers.

(3) Social Proof

Social proof is the term we use to describe the act of using the behaviour of others to determine our own.

In other words, when we see a large number of people acting in a certain way it increases the likelihood that we will also act in the same way. When we see someone else do something it acts as “social proof” that that action is something we should do also.

I have talked about the principle of social proof in more depth in previous posts. Psychologist Robert Cialdini has done a number of experiments that demonstrate the effect of social proof.

During the covid-19 lockdowns, across many countries, you saw people panic buying, particularly toilet paper.  This behaviour was completely irrational and was reported widely by news outlets across the globe. Despite being something to laugh at, the principle of social proof kicked in and seeing more and more people buying stacks of toilet paper caused other people to believe that they too should be buying stacks and stacks of toilet paper!

When we are unsure of how to act in a given situation, we will look to the masses and see what they are doing to decide what we should or should not do.

How can marketers use social proof?

• Use influencers to promote your product

Influencers are popular because of the principle of social proof. When a popular person is seen to use or endorse a product, they lend their credibility and likeability to your product by means of association.

Find out who the influencers are in your target market and approach them.

• Use reviews and testimonials

Ask customers to leave reviews so that other potential customers can read about the great experiences other people have had with your product or service.

The first thing most people do before they buy a product online is to check out the reviews and testimonials.

If they are positive then they act as powerful social proof about the effectiveness of your product and nudge people who may have been on the fence about whether to buy or not to make a purchase.

• Mention the number of products you have sold

Amazon do this well with their “best seller” tittle they attribute the products that sell well. Seeing those two words acts as a powerful form of social proof – “if it’s a best seller it means lots of people brought it so it must be good, right?”

McDonalds also did this is their early days when they use to mention the number of hamburgers they had sold or the number of customers served.

You can also do this by having a running count on your website of the number of products sold. You can also add a time to this e.g. “34 sold in the last 24 hours”.

• Use official accreditation 

It may be a Trustpilot rating, the famous blue tick on Twitter, or the stamp of approval from a trusted authority in your market. By getting official accreditation you have a proven way of establishing credibility within your market, which also gives your first-time customer peace of mind and confidence to buy from you.

(4) The Pratfall effect

The Pratfall effect states that our attraction to someone who is perceived to be superior in a particular field or domain increases when they commit a blunder of some sort which displays their normality.

Put simply – this means that if someone we revere and hold in high regard commits a small blunder, we tend to be attracted to and like that person even more. This is because we relate to people who are like us. When we see someone we respect commit the same sort of error that we would, it brings them into a new light and we see their “normal” side, to which we can relate more.

How can marketers use the Pratfall effect?

• Showcase your flaws

Guinness is a great example of how to use the Pratfall effect and turn a perceived negative into a positive.

A pint of Guinness takes a lot longer to pour than a pint of any other beer. This is because of the consistency of Guinness – it needs time to settle before you can carry on pouring. The average time to pour a perfect pint of Guinness is 119 seconds or almost two full minutes. That’s a long time to wait, especially in a busy bar where lots of people are waiting or where you may be buying drinks for multiple people.

Guinness recognised that long pour times were having a detrimental effect on their sales in pubs and bars. But instead of hiding this perceived negative attribute, they decided to use the Pratfall effect and came up with the “Good things come to those who wait” marketing campaign.

This had the effect of equating the longer pour time to higher quality, making people relish the fact that their pint of Guinness would take longer to pour than an average beer. They turned what was considered a negative feature of the product into a positive.

• Own your mistakes

If you make a mistake then own it. Instead of trying to hide it or bury it as deep as possible, own it and talk about it – your customers will appreciate you so much more if you can honestly own up to any mistakes you have made. Your honesty and transparency will go a long way with customers, who don’t want to be lied to, deceived or patronised in any way.

Admitting that you made a mistake, that you have flaws and are not perfect, and are trying to rectify the flaws and learn from your mistakes will give you a tremendous amount of goodwill with your customers.

We all make mistakes, so stop trying to portray an image of perfection – your customers will see right through it.

A great example of owning your mistakes is the FCK campaign launched by KFC in the UK.

When their new food delivery partner had major logistical issues it meant that they couldn’t get any fresh chicken delivered to the stores. Hundreds of KFC stores across the UK had to close because they didn’t have any chicken in stock.

Customers were furious, and this whole incident went on for weeks with more and more negative mentions of the brand on social media and the mainstream media.

KFC decided to own the mistake. They did this with a brilliant marketing campaign which expressed their apologies to their customers and also explained how they were tackling the issue.

The campaign was a huge success and gave disgruntled customers something to laugh about whilst being able to appreciate the honesty of the company.

Summary and further reading

Marketing psychology is an ever-increasing field of study, with more research being conducted and more valuable insights being gleaned. When you understand some of the universal principles in human behaviour and cognitive science you will be better equipped with the insights that can turn a failing product or marketing campaign into a winning one.

Knowing the best way to market a new product, or how to turn a flaw into an attribute is possible when we understand human behaviour and apply these insights to our marketing and sales activity.

Give yourself an edge over your competitors by applying some of these psychological marketing tricks and principles to your campaigns and test the results for yourself.

Full Suite Marketing was born out of a passion for marketing and psychology, so check out some of the posts below  which cover various aspects of marketing psychology which you may also find interesting:

Goals: the driving force behind why we buy

6 psychological triggers that attract customers and boost sales

6 Principles of influence and persuasion

The post Marketing Psychology Tricks To Boost Your Sales – With Examples appeared first on .

What is social proof?

The principle of social proof states that one means we use to find out what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct. This is especially applicable when it comes to determining what constitutes correct behaviour. How we should behave or act in any given context is largely determined by how other people act and behave in the same context.

Imagine for a second you’re at a dinner party and they are serving chicken wings. Is it acceptable to eat the wings with your hands? Do you need to use a knife or fork? Most people in this situation will observe what the other guests are doing and follow suit.

Interestingly, when Robert Cialdini initially asked people whether other people’s behaviour influences their own, they insisted that it did not. We don’t like to think of ourselves as acting in a certain way just because others are. We like to believe in our own free will and the ability to make our own decisions without being influenced by anyone else.

The towel experiment

Cialdini and a few other researchers did an experiment where they wanted to test the principle of social proof and its ability to influence the behaviour of others.

He approached a hotel and asked if he could do an experiment to see if he could increase the towel re-usage rate amongst guests. Hotels always want to encourage guests to reuse towels more than once as it saves them a lot of money in the long run and is better for the environment.

Hotels normally leave little cards in the bathrooms which politely ask guests to reuse their towels as part of their efforts to save the environment. Cialdini and his team wanted to see if they could increase the compliance rate of these messages by using the social proof principle.

They already knew that the majority of guests who encountered a reuse towel message will recycle their towels at least once during their stay. Would simply stating this fact on the card have any effect on future guest behaviour?

To test this they created 2 new cards, each with a different message. The first card had the usual environmental message which was adopted by most of the hotel industry, which was something along the lines of

“Please help save the environment by re-using your towel during your stay”

The second card used the principle of social proof by stating the honest fact that:

“the majority of guests reuse their towels at least once during their stay”

They randomly assigned these cards to hotel rooms and hotel attendants were asked to collect the findings by recording whether or not guests used their towels more than once.

The results

The guests that had received the social proof message were 26% more likely to reuse their towels during their stay compared to those that received the generic environmental message.

Simply by changing a few words on the card they were able to increase the reuse rate by 26% higher than the industry standard. The message stating that the majority of guests re-use their towels acted as a powerful indicator of how other guests should act, and they acted accordingly.

Cialdini and co decided to test another message. This time they placed cards with the message

“Guests that stayed in this room reuse their towels at least more than once during their stay.”

The results of this small change were astounding. This message led to a 33% towel reuse rate amongst those guests compared to the standard environmental message.

Using the words “guests that stayed in this room” acted as even more powerful social proof of how other guests staying in that room should behave. This is because the messaging was made even more relevant and specific to subsequent guests in that room and therefore enhanced the ability to influence them.

What is negative social proof?

We now know that thanks to the principle of social proof you can influence people to adopt a certain behaviour by stating that other people are also behaving that way. But what happens when the message you create reinforces the negative behaviour instead of changing it?

This is called negative social proof and is exactly what occurs when you get your messaging wrong. If you want to stop people from acting in a certain way, the worst thing you can do is highlight how many other people are also acting in that way.

When you do that you are implicitly stating that the behaviour is acceptable and they’ll think: “If other people are doing it then it must be ok for me to do it also.”

The theft experiment

Cialdini, Steve Martin, and Noah Robertson did an experiment to test the influence of negative social proof messaging.

They wanted to see if they could stop the trend of petrified wood being stolen from Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. The National Park was trying to deter visitors from stealing petrified wood and they had put up signs which said: “Our heritage is being vandalized every day by theft losses of petrified wood of 14 tons a year, mostly a small piece at a time.”

Cialdini and his team thought they could do better and wanted to test this so they created two different signs, one of which was a non-social proof message, and the second a negative social proof message.

The first message conveyed a negative social proof message which stated:

Many past visitors have removed the petrified wood from the park, changing the natural state of the petrified forest.”

The second message was a non-social proof message and simply read:

Please don’t remove the petrified wood from the park, in order to preserve the natural state of the Petrified Forest”.

They placed these signs at various places throughout the park and used marked pieces of petrified wood along the trails to see how much visitors would steal.

The third condition was that they had several areas of the park where no signs were displayed.

The results

When there was no sign 2.92% of the pieces were stolen. The non-social proof message asking people not to steal resulted in a 1.67% theft rate. But astonishingly, the negative social proof message resulted in 7.92% of the pieces being stolen!

As Cialdini put it, using the negative social proof message was a “crime promotion strategy instead of a crime prevention strategy”.Despite the good intentions of the National Park management team, they were unknowingly promoting the stealing of petrified wood.

This is a great example of how not to use social proof. When you state a behaviour as being common amongst people, it encourages others to adopt that behaviour. With this in mind, you must always remember to focus on how you want people to act, instead of highlighting the way you don’t want them to act.

Wikipedia is another example of an organisation that was unwittingly using social proof in a negative way. They wanted to encourage donations to the organisation in order to keep the site free to use, but unfortunately, they used negative social proof instead of positive.

The message that greeted most visitors to the Wikipedia website read:

“Only a tiny portion of our readers give.”

This of course highlights the fact that most readers do not donate to the site, and therefore reinforces that behaviour amongst other readers. In order to attract more donations they should simply reverse the focus of the message and state how many readers do donate.

How to use the social proof principle

Using social proof can act as a powerful influencer to attract more customers, make more sales, and get people to act in a particular way or adopt a particular behaviour.

Take advantage of this principle by implementing the following some of the following:

Use testimonials and reviews

If a prospect is on the fence and is unsure about whether or not to buy your product, a few testimonials can help to give them a gentle nudge in the right direction.

Ask your customers for reviews and testimonials of their positive experiences. If you haven’t got one already then set up a profile for your business on popular review sites like Trustpilot and TripAdvisor.

Use star ratings

Displaying star ratings on your website or on your adverts can hugely influence your prospects and their opinions of your products and business.

You can use your star ratings from sites such as Trustpilot, Amazon and other sites and display them proudly on your website and sales pages. You can use dynamic code to automatically update these so that they are always up-to-date and relevant.

Use statistics

Quantify your social proof by using statistics. Numbers are a powerful way to make your statements more tangible and impressive.

Examples:

• “79% of customers who try us once re-purchase from us again.”
• “90% of customers surveyed said they would recommend us to a friend.”
• “9/10 people preferred us over competing brands”

Display a sales/visitor count

Displaying a count of how many products you have sold is a powerful way to use this principle. This can be applied whether you sell physical goods or digital goods. App stores use this when they display the number of downloads a particular app has.

You may also notice that a lot of YouTube videos use this in their video titles or thumbnails. Videos that state how many views they have will attract a lot more views because of the social proof principle. You can also state how many products/downloads you have gained within a particular time period.

Examples:

• “43,000 downloads in the last 24 hours”.
• “20,000 visitors to date”
• “Over 1 million views!”

Have fun testing your messaging and remember to use positive social proof to reinforce desired behaviours and actions. Check out this post to learn more about Cialdini’s 6 principles of influence.

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But how do you make your prices appear more attractive without having to lower them? After all, we all want to sell more products and make as much profit as possible. Lowering our prices to be lower than our competitors is not always the best strategy.

Here are some pricing strategies and tips that can help you get the edge over your competitors without lowering your prices.

Price is relative

You need to understand that price is relative.

The price your customer is willing to pay for a product is not a decision they make based on the product alone, but by comparing it to other products in the same category.

For example:

Let’s imagine you decide to pop into the supermarket to buy a packet of chocolate biscuits.
As you scan the biscuit aisle you spot the chocolate biscuit section and start looking at the different options available.

The Supermarket’s own brand of chocolate biscuits is £0.80 compared to a pack of Fox’s biscuits at £1.32. Fox’s biscuits contain more chocolate and are your favorite brand, but at more than double the price of the supermarket’s brand, they do not appear to be the best value.

Then you spot the Maryland biscuits at £1.86. Suddenly in comparison to the Maryland’s, the pack of Foxes appears to be good value after all, and you joyfully grab them and place them in your shopping trolley.

People do not evaluate anything in isolation. We always need something to compare anything to in order to evaluate it properly. Comparing one price with another gives us context. In the example above we saw that one packet of biscuits was only considered to be good value when it was compared to another. Otherwise, how would we know whether a price was fair or not?

It’s human nature to compare

Robert Cialdini named comparison as one of his 6 weapons of influence. We are hardwired to compare things, especially when we are making a buying decision.

In order to decide if a price represents good value or not, we have to compare it to something else. We determine whether something is expensive or cheap, good quality or inferior, a bargain or a rip-off by comparing it to other items.

Your customers will be evaluating your pricing and offers by comparing them to what your competitors are offering. If you price your product lower, you need to demonstrate that your product is still as good as your competitors.

But if you want to keep your higher price? When your prices are higher than your competitors you need to demonstrate to your customers that your product offers more value or benefits in comparison.

Use comparison charts to highlight your value

By demonstrating that your product offers more value compared to your competitors, you are taking advantage of your customer’s tendency to compare.

You can use a clear comparison chart to do this.

A comparison chart takes their focus away from price and takes it towards whatever you want them to focus on. This could be features, benefits, USPs, bonuses, review ratings, etc

A comparison chart is a visual representation of your product benefits, features, and USPs in comparison to your competitors. The chart makes the normally long, difficult comparing process, easy.

You are steering them away from comparing on price, and getting them to compare on benefits, features, and value instead. They can clearly see that your product has more features and benefits than the competition, and therefore represents more value.

Now they can see why your price is higher, and they don’t mind because they know what they are getting in exchange for it. When you can demonstrate that your service or product offers more value than your competitors then the buying decision becomes much easier for them to make.

Stop competing on price, and start competing on how much value you can offer your customers. Clearly demonstrate this added value by use of a visual chart and make the comparison easier for your customers.

Tiered pricing strategy

So you have your product and your price is set. We already know that your prospects will compare your product and pricing to your competitors in order to gain an understanding of whether it’s a fair price or not.

How do you get your competitors out of the picture? By making your prospects compare your products with…..more of your own products! Essentially, what you do is create 3 offers or packages around your product line, varying in value and price. Creating additional offers/packages gives your customers more price points to compare before deciding which offer represents the best value for them.

This is known as Tiered Pricing. By presenting your prospects with different packages and price points to consider, you are fulfilling their human tendency to compare. But you are getting them to do it with your own products.

This strategy basically takes your competitors out of the equation. Your prospects will be comparing your own products against themselves, NOT your competitors.

How to use tiered pricing

You should create a budget option, a middle tier option, and a premium option. You see this tactic used a lot by people who sell software packages, subscription options, and consulting services.

Have a look at the example below:

The budget option is priced lower because it offers limited or restricted access to features and benefits, and therefore less use value overall. The middle tier option offers considerably more use value than the lower tier. There is a clear difference – the middle package offers 3 extra features that aren’t included in the basic package. The upper tier or premium option offers only a little extra value compared to the middle option, but it is priced much higher.

The additional features of your highest tier option should be things that will enhance the use of the product but are not essential to use it. In the example above the extra features are not product features but are personal one-to-one support options.

When comparing 3 options such as these, studies have shown that the majority of people will opt for the middle option. This is because it offers more use value than the lower option and represents better cash value than the higher tier option.

In the example above the price difference between the basic and middle options is $100 extra. But the difference between the middle and higher tier options is $200 – double the middle tier price, even though it doesn’t have double the benefits.

What it does offer is two more features in terms of personal support, which some users may attribute a lot of value to if they require it, but in terms of actual product features the middle and higher tiers are the same.

This tier pricing strategy is used in almost every industry from the phone industry to computers, and car manufacturers. Play around with this and test it out. 

The best way to get started is to have your product as the middle tier, and then think of things you can add to create more value and charge that as the higher tier option. Likewise, take some features out of your product or offer and set that as your lower tier or entry level option.

Change the comparative environment / who you compete against

Changing who you compete against is a great way to take advantage of consumers’ tendency to evaluate prices in comparison to others.

How do you do this without completely changing your product? You can achieve this by changing the way your product is perceived. Your customers are going to compare your product with other products in the same category or market, right?

By changing the way your product is perceived, you change the competing products your customers will compare yours to.

How to change the way your product is perceived

The most obvious way is to change the appearance or branding of your product so that it does not fit in with the general norm of your product category.

Red Bull is an excellent example of this – a single can cost up to 3 times as much as a can of Coke even though they are essentially both competing in the soft drinks market. A £1.50 can of Red Bull doesn’t seem good value when compared to a 60p can of Coke. When it was first launched people couldn’t believe how expensive it was in comparison to other soft drinks.

In most cases, it was more than double the price of most popular soft drink beverages. But instead of trying to compete on price with other drink brands, they decided to differentiate themselves and change the way they are perceived by customers.

Their strategy was not to focus on promoting their energy drink but to create a brand that embodies a distinct lifestyle and particular audience. They positioned themselves as an energy drink that “gives you wings”, or the energy you need to do whatever you want. Red Bull also uses a smaller can size to differentiate it from the other soft drink brands that typically package their drinks in the same size 330ml cans.

This made them stand out on the shelves and made the product look and appear more appealing. By distinguishing themselves and building a strong brand, they were able to firstly differentiate themselves from other soft drinks, and create a category of their own within the energy drink industry.

People no longer compare Red Bull and other soft drinks or even other energy drinks on price. It has differentiated itself from its competitors so that the high price is no longer an issue. Think about what you can change so that customers perceive you differently.

When they perceive you differently, who they’ll compare you to will also be different. 

I’ve seen personal trainers re-brand themselves as “lifestyle and nutritional coaches” and charge a lot more for their services because of this one small change. By branding your products or services differently from the standard category you are able to change the comparative set to which they are compared, and therefore change the way your price is by perceived by customers.

Likewise, when you give people the option to pay for your product in smaller increments (rather than one lump sum), you anchor people on the smaller price.

Offer payments in installments

Suppose that you’re selling a product that costs $499. Your competitor is also selling their product at $499. By offering the option to pay in smaller installments (e.g. 5 payments of $99), you cause two things to happen:

1. You change your customer’s perspective of your total price

Breaking down the total price into more manageable smaller payments takes the pain out of making one big payment. People are more easily able to see how they can spread the total cost over a longer period of time.

By breaking down the total payment your customers will be more likely to compare your installment price ($99) to your competitor’s total price (e.g. $499) — a huge difference that makes your offering more appealing.

2. You alter their view of your competitors’ prices

People often compare reference prices subconsciously.

This means that although they consciously know that $99 and $499 represent two different things (one is an installment price, and the other is the full price), at the subconscious level they can’t help but think that $99 is much better value.

If your competitors are not offering installment plans it means your prospect will be comparing your installment price with their full price. They’ll be weighing up the benefit of paying in smaller more installments vs paying a large amount outright. They’ll be thinking about how 5 payments of $99 vs paying $500 outright is easier for them to manage.

The smaller installment price also represents a smaller risk. By breaking a large payment down you make it seem like a less risky investment, and your customers will appreciate you for it. It’s a lot easier to commit to a buying decision when the payments are in smaller, more manageable amounts.

Your customers experience less buyers remorse, and your refund rate will decrease as a result.

You don’t have to drop your prices to gain the competitive edge

Using the pricing strategies above will help you gain a significant competitive edge against your competitors. You’ll be able to sell more products without having to lower your prices.

These strategies enable you to change how your prospects perceive your product. Using visual aids like comparison charts can help you compete on the benefits and value you offer instead of the price.

Differentiating your product from the market can help you stand out and change your comparative set (the competitors your prospects compare you to). Making small changes in your branding and positioning can put you into a whole new category or subcategory where your higher prices will be justified and accepted.

The tiered pricing strategy will help you move towards eliminating your competitor from the comparison equation. It also gives you a chance to cater to different customers with varying budgets.

Offering installment plans makes it easier for your prospect to commit to the buying decision. It also makes your price and offer appear to be better value compared to that offered by your competitors if they’re not offering an installment plan.

Use the strategies that best suit your product, service, and the market you are operating in.

The post Pricing Strategies – How To Price a Product appeared first on .

If you can understand what makes your customers buy you’ll be able to increase the effectiveness of your marketing and sell more goods. You’ll also be able to understand your own buying behaviours and habits.

So what is the mysterious force that makes us buy? Well, the answer is quite simple – it’s motivation.

Motivation is the driving force behind all human behaviour and action

This also applies to purchase behaviour. But what creates motivation? The answer is goals! Goals create the motivation that makes us take action and buy things.

The goal value

A goal value is how relevant a product or service is to fulfilling our active goals. We attribute a higher “goal value” to products that satisfy our active goals, and a lower “goal value” to those that don’t.

Example:

If we are hungry, we have the goal of eating and feeling full. Food items become more rewarding to us or have an increased “goal value”, therefore our willingness to pay for food increases.  When we are not hungry we don’t have the goal of eating, therefore we are less willing to pay for food items. That makes sense, right?

The more relevant a product or service is for an active goal, the higher the expected reward, and the more motivated we are to pay for it. If you feel really hungry and drive past a restaurant or Burger King drive-thru, the goal of buying food to satisfy your hunger becomes more appealing and your willingness to pay for that rewarding feeling is high.

But after you’ve just eaten and satisfied your hunger you can drive past the next 10 Burger King’s and not even look at them.  Your willingness to stop and purchase some food is diminished because you no longer have the active goal of eliminating your hunger, therefore food has a low goal value at that moment.

If products or services fit into your active goals they offer a high goal value and you are more willing to pay for them. Our goals, therefore, determine how we decide what to spend our money on.

We have different active goals for each situation. Our active goals for buying laundry detergent are different from our active goals for buying an automobile. 

Example:

Let’s say we are out looking for a new car. Price difference aside, how do we decide between the Mustang or Volvo? It depends on what our overall goal is.

If our goal is to buy a family car, then safety is an important element. In that case, we are more likely to go for the Volvo because the brand is well associated with safety, and therefore has a higher goal value in this instance. If our goal for buying a car is to look flashy, or we have a need for speed, then we are more likely to buy the Mustang as it has an overall higher goal value in this context.

When comparing two competing brands or products that are equally priced, we will normally go for the one with the highest overall goal value. We are motivated to achieve goals that are of high value to us.

What does this mean to us as marketers?

We can take some valuable marketing lessons and insights from this understanding of how goals affect purchase behaviour.

1. Create products or services that fulfill your prospect’s goals

If we understand what goals our prospects want to achieve, we can create goods or services that fulfill their goals, and ultimately sell more products. Pretty straightforward, right? Give the people what they want.

That’s why it is so important to understand your target market. When you know what your target audience’s goals are, and then create products and services that help them achieve those goals, you will be more successful. What problems do they have? What are they trying to achieve? What do they want more of or less of?

When you drill down into these questions you will gain a better understanding of your prospects and the goals which motivate them to buy. When you know what their goals are, you can design, create, or produce goods or services that meet help them achieve their goals.

2. Your prospect’s goals will determine how your product is perceived

Let’s say you sell cupcakes outside a block of busy offices. If your prospect’s goal is to alleviate their hunger before lunch with a sweet treat then you’re in luck because a cupcake fulfills this goal and will have a high goal value in this context. Your prospect, therefore, perceives the cupcake as a great purchase and reaches for their wallet.

But what if your prospect’s goal is to alleviate their hunger before lunch with a healthy, low sugary snack that won’t ruin their appetite? A cupcake will have a low goal value in this context and your prospect will most likely purchase an apple instead. Same product, same customer, but the difference in goal alters the perception of your product.

Different segments of your customers will have different goals.  As we’ve seen in the example above, the same customer will also often have different goals depending on their situation. What can you do to address this?

As marketers, you should design different campaigns for each of your prospect’s goals.

Let’s say you own a coffee house. Some people like to go to a coffee house and have a relaxing cup of joe before they head to the office – so to target customers who have this goal your adverts should emphasise the warm environment, chilled music, and comfy chairs in your coffee house Other customers like to grab a coffee and drink it on their way to work or when they get to the office  – so create an ad that focuses on your quick takeaway service and the fact your coffee tastes great no matter how it’s served or consumed. 

When you create different campaigns for each goal you’ll start to see an improvement in your ad performance. 

3. Goals drive attention

Our goals determine where we place our attention.

Let’s do an experiment. You have 30 seconds to identify and count every red object you can see around you right now. Ready? Go! OK, how many blue items did you count? I’m going to guess probably zero. Why is this? Because your attention was focused on looking for red items.

Your Reticular Activating System (RSA) is the part of your brain that filters the world based on your goals. If your goal is to find red items, your RSA filters out anything else which isn’t red so you can focus your attention on finding those that are. The non-blue items don’t suddenly disappear, it’s just that you’re not actively looking for them and so they are filtered out from your conscious perception.

As marketers, this means that your ads will be viewed differently depending on what your customer’s goals are. They will place their attention on different parts of your ad, features, or benefits depending on what they are trying to achieve through the use of your product or service.

If someone wants to buy a family car the goal of safety will be one of their priorities. They will therefore pay more attention to anything in your ad that mentions the safety aspects of the car – child locks, better braking system, rear passenger airbags, external cameras, etc.

When you know what your prospect’s goals are you can create ads or marketing campaigns that draw their attention to certain features, benefits, or USPs that meet those goals.  Your ads will therefore be highly targeted and appear more relevant to your prospects. High relevance will increase the perception of your product’s ability to fulfill the desired goal, increasing its goal value and making them more likely to buy.

Summary and concluding thoughts

We buy products or services that we think will fulfill our active goals. We give these products or services a higher goal value. The higher the goal value of a product or service in a specific context, the more willing we are to buy it.

Start thinking about your product or service in terms of the goal or goals it fulfills. When you understand what result or reward your prospects are seeking from your product, you can design different advertising strategies and campaigns to highlight its ability to do so.

Different customers will have different active goals for the same product or service, your job as a marketer is to make sure you communicate with each of these customers differently by focusing on how your product or service fulfills each goal.

When you start thinking of your target market in terms of the different goals they have, you will have a wider and more targeted segmentation strategy which will boost the effectiveness of your advertising.

The post Goals – The Driving Force Behind Why We Buy appeared first on .

They can be ethically used to influence people and enable us to predict with a high degree of certainty how people will react in certain situations and conditions where these factors are present.

Harnessing the science of persuasion becomes easy when you understand these principles. Robert Cialdini called them the “6 weapons of influence.” They are:

1. Social Proof

2. Likeability

3. Authority

4. Reciprocity

5. Commitment & Consistency

6. Scarcity

Understanding these principles of influence can dramatically enhance your powers of persuasion. By correctly applying them to your sales copy or advertising campaigns they can have significant results on your business.

You’ll be able to:

• Improve your customer acquisition and retention rates
• Turn prospects into loyal customers for life
• Make your target market prefer you over your competitors
• Position your products as the market leader in your industry
• Boost your sales
• Make your products or service more desirable
• Improve your marketing ROI

Let has a deeper look at each one of the Cialdini principles in order:

1. Social Proof

Humans have a deep psychological need to belong. We want to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. This helps to shape and share our identity with the world and gives us a sense of our place in it. 

We express this need to belong in different ways – we may dress a certain way, listen to a certain type of music, wear the jersey of our favourite football team etc.

We feel pressure to belong, and this expresses itself in our need to conform to certain behaviours. But how do we know what behaviours are acceptable or correct? One way we do this is the principle of Social Proof.

The principle of social proof states that one of the means we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct.

The more we see other people act or behave in a certain way, the more that reinforces our beliefs that this behaviour is correct for us to adopt also. When a lot of people are doing something it naturally seems like the right thing to do. This human tendency to assume an action is more correct if others are also doing it is exploited in many ways.

Buskers exploit this by putting their own money in their hats before they start performing to make it seem that other passersby have been tipping. Bartenders exploit this by filling their tip cups up with a few of their own dollar bills to simulate the appearance that other customers have also tipped paper money rather than coins. 

How can you use the principle of social proof?

Testimonials are powerful examples of social proof. Showcasing testimonials from satisfied customers is a great way to influence prospects and convince them that your product or service is worth buying.

To make this even more powerful, include testimonials by customers who are exactly like your target audience. We are influenced by the behaviour of others, but we are even more influenced by the behaviour of people whom we consider to be like us.

Sharing testimonials in the form of customer success stories is a great way to influence your target market. Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to create an emotional connection between your product and your target audience.  Sharing your customers’ positive experiences in story form is a powerful way of using social proof in your sales copy. They help your prospects relate to your existing happy customers, and make them think “If it worked for them, it can work for me!”

Reviews and star ratings are also great way to use this principle. The more reviews you have the better – they show your prospects that lots of people are buying your product, and anything that lots of people are buying must be something that we should buy too, right?

Highlight your TrustPilot and review site scores on your website – seeing those 4 or 5 star symbols has a powerful influence over your prospects because they represent quality, good service, and value.

2. Likeability

You may have heard the saying – “people buy from people that they like and trust”. Likeability is a powerful factor that makes people want to interact with us, do business with us, and buy from us.

This liking doesn’t have to just apply to you personally.  The liking cue can work if your prospects like you, the salesperson or representative of your company, the personalities in your adverts, your advertisement jingle, or even the customers who use your products. This is why celebrity endorsements are so effective. If you see an advert of a celebrity that you like using and recommending a particular product or brand, you will have an affinity and liking for that brand and product even though you may have never used it or heard of it.

If someone you like and trust recommends a product or service or service to you, it automatically gives it credibility. When people like you, you are able to more easily influence them. Your words will hold more weight and they will be more likely to listen to your recommendations.

This is why as a marketer, salesperson, or business owner it is important to be likeable.

How can you become more likeable?

You can make people like you more by paying attention to them.  Listen to your customers, ask questions about them, put their needs before yours, and go the extra mile to serve them.

By offering tremendous value upfront in the form of useful content, a free ebook, a free sample, and a free delivery and returns service, you will increase your likeability.

Be honest and transparent, add value to your target market and build trust with them. They’ll like you more for it and will want to do more business with you or spend more money on your products as a result.

3. Authority

Authority works as a powerful influencer because we have a tendency to trust and believe people in positions of authority or power. This may stem back to our childhood where we have been taught from a young age to respect authority figures –  our parents, teachers, doctors, police officers etc.

People in positions of authority seem to have an uncanny ability to influence us without much difficulty. We don’t tend to question someone in authority as much as someone who is not an authority figure. The thing about this is that the person in question doesn’t even have to be a real authority figure, they just have to look and sound like one. Don’t believe that?

Think back to all those adverts by healthcare companies that featured actors who played well-known television doctors. They would have these actors in the role of their on-screen doctor wearing a white lab coat endorsing their product….and it worked! Despite the fact that the majority of people knew these people were just TV actors who were only acting in the role of a medical professional, they still succumbed to the influence of the authority principle. 

Even when the advertising regulators started clamping down on this and began to enforce that the actors in these ads declare that they were not real doctors and only played one on TV, the ads were still effective!

Why does authority work?

It works because like most of these principles of influence, it acts as a mental shortcut. Human beings love mental shortcuts which enable us to come to conclusions, gather knowledge, or make decisions without having to do too much deep thinking. 

As mentioned above when we see an advert for a medical product which features an authority figure dressed in a white lab coat and wearing a stethoscope, we unconsciously transfer the credibility we attribute to doctors to the product being advertised…..sounds far-fetched and irrational, but it’s true!

The authority principle is exactly how Milgram was able to do his famous “obedience to authority experiment” where he got real participants to go along with administering electric shocks to someone else, just on the say-so of an authority figure in a lab coat.

How can you harness the principle of authority?

Determine who the respected authority figures in your market are. If you can get them to endorse your product in some way or give it the seal of approval you will transfer their credibility to your product, company, or brand. 

If you operate in an industry where there are regulatory bodies like the FDA, make sure your product meets its standard and get permission to use its seals or approval marks on your product, website, or sales copy. Perhaps you can send them your product and get them to review it if they are impressed by it. By getting someone who is a respected and well liked authority in your market to recommend your goods, products, or services you will have hit a sweet spot of persuasion with your prospects.

4. Reciprocity

The reciprocity principle states that when someone gives you something, you feel an irresistible obligation to give them something back.

If someone gives you a compliment, a free sample, or a gift, you feel indebted to them. You then feel the desire or need to clear this debt by reciprocating in kind.  If someone invites you to dinner or to a party, you naturally feel obligated to invite them to dinner or to the next party you throw. If someone gives you a compliment you feel obligated to say thank you and do something nice for them.

This rule of reciprocity seems to exist among all cultures and societies. It seems to be a fundamental part of human society and interaction – so much so that when someone doesn’t follow the rule we tend to label them as misers, greedy, selfish…or worse.

Think about a time when you did something for someone and they didn’t reciprocate. Have you ever been driving and given someone way and then got upset that they didn’t even acknowledge your gesture? Perhaps you brought someone a birthday card or present, and they didn’t even remember your birthday!

We tend to dislike it when people don’t reciprocate, and we form negative opinions of those people. We dislike it so much that we make an effort to avoid being one of those people by always reciprocating in like fashion whenever someone does something for us or gives us something.

Following on from the likeability principle we mentioned above, we tend to reciprocate more with people that we like. But the amazing thing about the rule of reciprocity is that it also applies to people we don’t like! If someone we don’t like gives us a compliment or does something nice for us we feel the same indebtedness to them as we would towards someone we like. 

That’s what makes the rule of reciprocity such a powerful and effective influencing technique.

How can you use the principle of reciprocity?

To effectively use this principle you have to start the ball rolling by giving your prospects or target customers something. Giving away free samples is a great way to allow customers to try your product and see if they like it without them having to spend any money. 

The free sample also acts as a gift and therefore engages the rule of reciprocity. This is why you’ll see magazine publications give away free samples on the front cover, or why large companies will send you free samples of new products they have launched. 

Giving free samples of your product works especially well when done in person. Have you ever been to the supermarket and encountered a smiling sales attendant who hands you a free sample of chocolate? When you accept the sample it’s hard to just walk away without feeling the urge to buy something from them.

A tactic that is frequently used by many door to door salespeople and multi-level marketing companies is to give their prospects a small sample selection of their products to try.  After a few days, the sales rep comes back to collect any unused samples, get their feedback, or take their orders.

Once a prospect has accepted this offer and used the products for a number of days, the chances they will place an order increases dramatically. Even if they didn’t particularly like the products they may still end up buying because they feel obligated to you – after all you did go out of your way to drop them the products, let them use them for free, and come back to collect them. 

If you’re a consultant you can give away a free 45min consultation. Personal trainers can give away free sessions, gym owners can give away free 2-day membership passes, mechanics can give away free car air fresheners, and dentists can give free tooth whitening sessions. 

Think about your target market and the products you sell – what can you give them in order to activate the law of reciprocity? There are literally hundreds of ways you can put the reciprocity principle into action, but it starts by giving.

5. Commitment & Consistency

This principle states that we have a deep need to be consistent with our beliefs and previous actions. Why is this the case? Consistency is seen to be a valued and admirable character trait, and being inconsistent is largely viewed as an undesirable character trait.

People that are inconsistent in their words, beliefs and actions are deemed as flaky, indecisive, hypocrites, two-faced etc. On the other hand, people that demonstrate consistency in their words, beliefs and behaviours are considered to be honest, stable, trustworthy individuals who “keep it real”. Commitment and consistency go hand in hand.

When we make a commitment to something we have an innate tendency to be consistent with that commitment. The commitment can be to a political party, a promise we make to our kids, supporting a charity etc. Once we take a stand on something we will stubbornly commit to that stand because of the need to be consistent.

If charities want to increase their donations they can start to get people to commit to small acts first – like volunteering for a few hours each week, sticking a charity bumper sticker on their car, or wearing a pin with the charity logo.

Once people have committed to these small actions, the desire to appear consistent with this behaviour increases the likelihood that they will donate money to the charity when asked further down the line.

How can you use the principle of commitment and consistency?

Get your prospects to commit to a small act first before asking them to commit to a larger one. You can get them to make a small low-value purchase, sign up for a free trial, or subscribe to your social media channel.

Once they have committed to taking this small initial action, it increases the chances they will remain consistent with this behaviour by following up with further actions you want them to take down the line – such as making larger purchases or committing to your products or services long-term.

Amazon does this well by offering their free Amazon Prime 30 day membership trials. When people commit to using the Prime service, enjoy its benefits, and start identifying as Prime customers, it increases the likelihood that they will continue their memberships once the free trial period is over.

You can also create this effect in your sales copy by asking questions which elicit an agreement or “yes” response from your prospect.

Example:

“Are you tired of working for someone else? Do you want more money and freedom? Do you want to fire your boss and escape the 9-5 rat race?

Then join my one week workshop which will teach you everything you need to know…..”

Once you have made your prospect say yes a few times, it dramatically increases the chances that they will say yes when you present your offer or product.  This is known in NLP as a “yes set”, and is a subtle yet powerful way to use the power of consistency to influence your prospects.

Having strong brand values is also another way to use this principle. Your customers will align with your brand and organisation if you have strong brand or organisational values that are shared by your target audience. They’ll proudly buy your products, display your company logo or slogan, follow you on social media, like and share your posts, and become brand advocates. 

As long as your brand and organisation remain true to those values, your customers will also remain committed to you, because of the powerful need to be consistent with their words, beliefs and actions. 

6. Scarcity

The scarcity principle states that opportunities or items seem more valuable to us when their availability is limited. 

We want what we can’t have, and our attractiveness for an item increases if we think it is in limited supply. It seems that people, in general, are more motivated by the thought of missing out or losing something than they are by the thought of gaining something. Things that are rare or are becoming rare increase in value and this increases our desire to have them.

Scarcity work because of two main reasons:

1. We believe that things that are easy to obtain and plentiful in number are less valuable, and things that are hard to obtain and scarce in supply are more valuable.

This is exactly why collectors value items that are rare or limited in number. Anything that is limited in supply or availability automatically becomes more attractive to us and triggers the fear of missing out.

2. The idea that something we want is scarce and that our access to it is limited as a result triggers what is known as Psychological Reactance.

Psychological reactance is the tendency to react against anything that restricts our sense of freedom. This is exactly why forbidden fruit always seems more attractive, or why if someone tells us not to do something it increases our desire to do it as an act of rebellion and re-exerting our sense of freedom.

Scarcity triggers psychological reactance because if an opportunity or something we desire is scarce or we have limited access to it, our freedom also feels restricted. Whenever our free choice or sense of freedom is limited or threatened we will react against this interference by wanting or desiring our freedom (or the products and items associated with it) even more intensely. 

How to use the principle of scarcity?

Using scarcity in sales and marketing is a very well known and widely used tactic. You can make use of it in various ways.

Here are some examples:

• Create limited editions of your products: these will be regarded as more valuable
• Have one day sales: time-limited offers force your prospect to make a buying decision or miss out
• Put deadlines on your offers: countdown clocks on sales pages still work very well
• Offer one-time offers at the point of sale: your customer either buys or misses out forever!
• Make special prices or bonuses available only for the first 50/100 customers who buy

Harnessing the science of persuasion

So there you have it, 6 principles of persuasion and influence. Robert Cialdini spent a great deal of time researching these principles and discovering how and why they work.

If you’re a serious marketer or salesperson or just someone interested in behavioural economics or psychology, I highly recommend you check out his landmark book “Influence, The Psychology Of Persuasion.”

Now that you know these principles of influence, you can incorporate them into all aspects of your communications, including your sales copy, offers, sales funnels, landing pages, social media channels, email marketing etc.

You should also try to become aware of when they are being used on you, or notice when you are acting in a manner consistent with these principles.

Like me, you may find yourself laughing out loud whenever you catch yourself being influenced and persuaded by someone….at least you’ll know how they’re doing it!

The post The Art of Persuasion – 6 Principles of Influence Revealed appeared first on .

Here’s a list of 6 powerful triggers that you can learn and use straight away to improve your results.

1. Honesty

When it comes to your marketing there’s a golden rule you should always stick to – honesty is the best policy. How many times have you looked at an ad, read a sales letter, or seen a TV commercial and thought the claims being made were total B.S.???

You are a smart consumer. Your customers are also smart. In fact, today’s consumers are more savvy than ever. Our customers are savvy shoppers who are hip to some of the tricks and methods used by the advertising industry to get us to buy. Some of the old sales and marketing techniques that used to work back in the day just won’t cut with the consumers of today. That’s because a lot of the advertising was based on bravado or overhyped claims, which in reality didn’t stack up or amount to much.

Nowadays customers don’t want bravado  – they value honesty and integrity and will buy from brands who mirror and exhibit those values.

Joe Sugarman was a legendary marketer and copywriter, and author of the excellent Adweek Copywriting Handbook. He put it best when he said:

“Consumers really appreciate the truth. And since they are smarter than you or I, you can’t fake the truth. They’ll pick out a phony statement every time.”

We instinctively get turned off if we feel that we are being lied to or manipulated in some way. We put up our defensive barriers straight away.

Being honest in your communications prevents your customers from putting those barriers up. They allow you in much more because they trust you. If they trust you, they’ll like you, and as every good salesperson knows – people buy from people who they know, like, and trust!

Be honest about your goods and services. Don’t promise results if your product can’t deliver them. Talk about the results your prospect can get from using your product or service, but don’t tell lies or over-exaggerate.

If you can back up what you’re saying with real testimonials and customer reviews that’ll boost your credibility. You can even detail some of the flaws of your product as a means of being transparent. If you do this right this can work wonders for your brand.

Example:

Guinness did this very well. A pint of Guinness takes almost 2 minutes to pour and settle before it is served. That’s much longer than a normal beer.

The company doesn’t shy away from this fact or try to hide it. They talk about it openly in their campaigns and use the slogan – “Good things come to those who wait.” They took one of their product’s “flaws” and turned it into a strong USP by being honest about it and re-framing it in the minds of their consumers.

2. Simplicity

Your advertising should be focused on trying to achieve one goal, and one goal only. Whether that goal is to get someone to click a link, subscribe to your email list, or buy something – you should only present your audience with ONE GOAL.

You should eliminate everything from your ad or sales copy that doesn’t facilitate your one goal. The less thinking your prospect has to do when reading or viewing your ad, the better your results will be.

If you present them with too many calls-to-actions, and options they’ll get overwhelmed. The more options you give your prospects – the more they’ll experience decision fatigue and not know what to do – so they’ll most likely end up doing nothing.

Make it simple for them by only focusing on the one action you want them to take.

If you want your reader to click a link in the ad then make that the goal, and don’t include any other options. Too many marketers try to cram such much into their ads that their ad loses focus and doesn’t generate the response they hoped for.

Don’t overcomplicate your marketing. Keep your sales copy and calls-to-action simple, and you’ll be amazed at how much your results improve.

3. Storytelling

Storytelling is an art form that has been around as long as people have been communicating.  It has existed in all cultures around the world since time immemorial.

We love to tell and hear stories. We use them for entertainment, to convey information, and to educate.

There’s a lot written about the power of stories and how they can be used in marketing and sales to influence your prospects to act, position your product or service, and engage your target audience on an emotional level.

Stories make selling frictionless, entertaining, and effective. Why?

Because stories can create an emotional bond that grabs your prospect’s attention and holds it long enough for you to convey your message. Stories are a vehicle for being able to engage the emotional side of your prospect’s personality.

People buy on emotion and justify with logic – so the key is to be able to tap into the emotions of your target market, and stories are a proven way of doing this. Brain research studies have even shown that when people are listening to a story their brainwaves actually synchronise with the storytellers!

Think about that for a moment…..You can literally sync the brainwaves of your listeners with yours by using the power of storytelling. That’s how powerful stories are.

Studies have also shown that people are 22 times more likely to remember facts when they are presented in story form. When you create stories around your products and services you are tapping into a powerful psychological trigger.

Use stories in your marketing to be more memorable, and to connect with prospects on an emotional level, they’ll be more receptive to liking and buying from you as a result.

4. Urgency

Creating a sense of urgency within your prospects sparks a powerful drive within them which makes them act. Urgency makes people take action. Why does it do this?

A sense of urgency:

• Builds anxiety and triggers the fear of missing out
• Grabs and holds your prospect’s attention and focuses it on your offer

If your customers are on the fence you need to give them a nudge in the right direction to get them to act on your offer – and creating a sense of urgency can achieve that.

How to build a sense of urgency

Using time-related words that convey scarcity

Words such as:

• Hurry
• Limited quantity available
• While stocks last
• Act now before its too late
• Offer ends soon

Examples:

“Get 6 months memberships free if you sign up within 24 hours!”

“Buy one get one free on all products – offer ends at midnight”

“Get FREE shipping on all purchases made today – act now!”

“Limited quantity of 100 available  – grab yours now”

Use real-time sales figures

Highlighting how many people have brought your products in the last 24 hours (or any time frame) gives you credibility and also acts as a powerful form of social proof that reinforces your customer’s desire to buy. To add a further sense of urgency to this, you can have a real-time message of how many people are looking at your offer in real-time.

Hotel booking websites and airlines use this very effectively to create urgency and make people book.

Examples:

• “6 people are looking at this hotel room right now”
• This triggers the fear of missing out on the deal and makes people urgently want to book now.
• “4 people booked in the last 24hrs”

This acts as powerful social proof and enforces the buying decision. If you have a limited number of products this works wonders.

Tell your prospects you’re pulling the offer away

Again, this creates the anxiety of missing out on a great deal. When you tell your prospects that you’re pulling your offer in a certain amount of time they are forced to make a decision – buy or miss out.

The fear of missing out is a powerful motivator and creates the necessary anxiety to move people to take urgent action.

Example:

• “LAST CHANCE – 60% off my premium app building training”

Experiment with different offers according to the market you are targeting.

5. Fear

Fear is a very powerful psychological trigger and one of the great motivators that cause us to move into action.

The sense of urgency is partly based on the emotion of fear – it is the fear of missing out on a great deal or opportunity that creates anxiety – which in turn creates the sense of urgency.

But fear is also used in other ways. The fear of anything that threatens our own survival and that of our loved ones is one of the most deeply rooted and powerful psychological triggers. Fear of the unknown and fear of worse-case scenarios are powerful motivators.

You can see examples of fear-based marketing all around you. The insurance industry is based primarily on the emotion of fear. People are fearful of what will happen to their loved ones if they die unexpectedly, so they take out expensive life insurance policies. Travelers are afraid of their flights or hotels being canceled or so they take out travel insurance.

People install CCTV and burglar alarms because they are afraid their homes may be burgled. People may buy and carry a gun or mace because they are afraid of being attacked.

If your product or service solves a problem, you can use a little bit of fear-based marketing to make them aware of what will happen / not happen if they don’t buy your product.

Just remember to be ethical, and to use discretion when using fear as a psychological marketing trigger.

6. The desire to belong

One of the strongest human desires we all have is the desire to belong. This may not always be a conscious desire – it’s often an unconscious desire that we all have.

Belonging to a certain group gives us a sense of identity. Certain products and brands become successful not because they are the best in the market, but because they have attained a certain collective identity and status which make them desirable.

Harley Davidson is a great example. There are bikers who own motorcycles, and there are bikers who own Harley’s. When people buy a Harley they aren’t buying one because of the features or re-sell value (even if that’s why they justify logically to themselves).

The people who buy a Harley Davidson buy one because they subconsciously desire to be part of that exclusive club of Harley Davidson owners. The Harley Davidson brand and motorcycle have an image and a reputation – and owning one is a status symbol.

When you own a Harley you take on that brand image and reputation by way of association – you belong to that exclusive group and therefore, at the subconscious level, you identify as a part of that group and (in your mind) acquire the characteristics and attributes of that group.

The people at Harley Davidson know this all too well. That’s why they started the Harley Owners Group. They have turned owning a Harley into a lifestyle and built a community of enthusiasts for whom owning a Harley has given them their identity and a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves.

Apple is another good example. They have created an almost cult-like following of customers who live and die by Apple products and wouldn’t consider using another brand for a second. People that use Macs rather than PCs feel a part of something – many of them think they are more creative or more unique than the average PC user. They happily belong to, and identify with being a member of the Apple family.

If you can create a community around your brand and position your product or service accordingly, then you can tap into the strong psychological desire to belong. You’ll attract more customers and increase your customer lifetime value as they continue to feel like part of your tribe.

Be ethical when applying these triggers

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using psychology in your marketing to persuade or influence your customers. Psychology and marketing go hand in hand. The only problem I have is when I see marketers using these principles and insights unethically.

That is why the first trigger at the top of the list was honesty.

If you are marketing and selling products and services that add value to people’s lives, then you are being of service to them and can be proud of what you do. Sometimes people need a nudge, they may not be aware of the solution to their problem and they may need to be ethically persuaded or influenced to take action.

If what you are selling meets and surpasses their expectations, and provides more use value than what you have taken from them in monetary value, you have done your job as an honest and ethical marketer.

Have fun exploring, trying, and testing these triggers.

The post 6 Psychological Triggers That Attract Customers And Boost Sales appeared first on .

If you observe your behaviour and that of other people, you’ll soon find that you typically make the same decisions often at the same time and place, without any conscious thought.

Think about your morning routine. What do you do every morning when you wake up? Chances are you follow the same habitual patterns of action – checking your phone, taking a shower, making a coffee etc.

Our brains are hardwired to make things easier for us, including our decision making and any actions we repeatedly perform. If we do something repeatedly the brain makes a habit out of it so that it can free-up our thinking power for more strenuous decisions or tasks that we haven’t performed before.

What does this mean to us as marketers?

As consumers, the way we shop and make buying decisions is also a habitual behaviour for most people.

For many people, this means shopping on auto-pilot: buying the same brands of food, shopping in the same stores and visiting the same websites online. This is especially true for routine purchases that we perform often such as grocery shopping.

We may buy a certain brand of bread to try it. If we like it, we may buy it again and it soon becomes our brand of choice. Over time this decision to buy this brand becomes less of a conscious choice and more of an unconscious habit. Unless something happens to disrupt that habit, we may end up buying that same brand of bread for the rest of our lives.

Once a brand has acquired a new customer, they work very hard to retain that customer. They may offer a discount on the next purchase or have a loyalty scheme where you can win rewards or points with every purchase. This is done to encourage you to become a repeat customer.

The more often you buy that brand the more likely it is you will become a habitual customer of that brand.  Some customers will be loyal to a brand for life – and not always because that brand is the best in that category – but simply because the consumer has formed the habit of buying that brand!

Smart companies work hard to keep those customers and make them habitual customers. The perfect example of this is Apple. They have really redefined the meaning of “brand loyalty”.

Apple customers will typically start off using one product, such as the iPhone for example. Over time they get used to Apple operating systems and form the habit of using them. This leads them to adopt other products in the Apple ecosystem such as a MacBook or Apple Watch, iPad etc.

Apple products have been cleverly designed to work seamlessly with one another. Over time customers form the habit of using Apple products in all areas of their lives, from Macbooks to iPhones, to Apple Watches. Apple has managed to create an almost cult-like following among its customers, which continuously keeps them habitually coming back for more Apple products.

How do we as marketers interrupt those habitual buying patterns to get consumers to make conscious buying decisions and take the actions we want them to take, such as clicking on our ads or purchasing our products instead of the brands they habitually buy?

Below are some ways you can take advantage of the power of habits and use it to your benefit.

How to apply the power of habit to your marketing

Market to People Who Have Undergone Life Changes

As we’ve already mentioned, habits are context-specific, so to take advantage of this we should look for opportunities where prospects have undergone some sort of change to their environment or setting. These changes offer us an opportunity to create new habits in prospects and turn them into our long-term customers.

Perhaps they’ve moved to a new city, got a new job, recently got married or just had kids. These sorts of big changes are commonly known as Life Events. Life Events offer the perfect opportunity to be able to disrupt consumers routines and/or environment enough so that the old habits are weakened.

A recent study was able to demonstrate that people are more likely to switch brands when they have undergone a life event. These life changes were able to cause people to switch their brands of coffee, beer, mobile phone, and broadband provider to name a few. During or after a life event is the ideal time to target consumers with our ads and introduce them to our brands and products.

Facebook and other platforms allow us to specifically target our ads to people who have recently got married, had children, moved cities, changed jobs and more. The more specific and granular you can get with your targeting the better.

Use these opportunities to get your adverts and products in front of these prospects whilst the window of opportunity is open. If you are able to win over a customer at this critical stage or milestone in their lives, they may remain loyal customers for many more years to come.

Disrupt Habits At The Point Of Action

If we can grab our prospect’s attention just before or whilst they are engaged in habitual behaviour, we have a good opportunity to steer their behaviour in the direction we want.

This is easier said than done however and will require a considerable understanding of your prospect’s habitual patterns and behaviours. We’ve seen how Facebook ads have evolved now to look just like organic posts on someone’s timeline. YouTube has also started doing the same thing by placing static ads among other videos. These ads look exactly like a normal video thumbnail.

Make the headline or opening of your ad relevant and captivating enough to disrupt your prospect’s browsing habits and make them take action.

Video ads work extremely well for this particular tactic, as long as the first 5 seconds of the video are captivating and relevant enough to grab and hold their attention.

Target Consumers on Sites They Habitually Visit

If you know which type of sites your prospect is likely to habitually visit, target those sites with your ads. Perhaps they regularly visit a certain forum, or maybe they log onto Facebook at a certain time every day.

You can easily track consumer behaviours online now using a variety of tools and different software. Once you know what sites they’ve visited you can target your ads to show on those sites or similar sites.

Platforms like Google Ads and Facebook utilise machine learning and A.I to track the best times and devices to show the appropriate ads to your target audience.

Use these insights into their online habits to your advantage and get your marketing messages in front of them at the right time, where they’ll have the biggest impact.

Understanding the habits of your target market is the key to being able to influence and change their buying behaviour so that you can attract and retain more customers.

The post How Marketers Use The Power Of Habit appeared first on .

In other words, we look to other people’s actions to confirm our own.

The towel experiment

Robert Ciadini did an experiment to test the power of social proof on towel re-usage in hotels. We’ve all seen those cards that are left in hotel rooms encouraging people to reuse their towels during their stay. Reusing towels saves a hotel time in terms of labour, is more economical in cost, and is more environmentally friendly.

Cialdini and his team wanted to see if they could use the principle of social proof to increase the percentage of people who reuse their towels more than once.

They printed new cards which stated: “75% of guests who stayed in this room used their towels more than once.”

These cards were then placed in half of the hotel’s rooms. They tested this against a different message which stated the benefits of towel re-usage and its positive effects on the environment.

The guests who had seen the first message were 26% more likely to reuse their towels than those who saw the environmentally-based message.

Why did this simple change in messaging work?

Because we look to the actions of others to guide our decision-making process either at a conscious or unconscious level.

Social proof is a commonly used tactic in marketing, but a lot of marketers either under utilise it or use it incorrectly. We see social proof in action all the time, especially online, where sharing opinions and experiences is easy to do.

Social proof online

Review sites such as Trustpilot, IMBD and TripAdvisor rely completely on the power of social proof provided by users. Sites such as

Amazon uses social proof very well. Their review system is something that I look to when deciding whether to buy something or not. If something has a large number of reviews with high 4-5 star ratings then I normally go for it.

They also use the power of social proof with their recommendations – “People that brought x also brought y”. We tend to trust people who have similar interests and tastes, so highlighting other items that people similar to me have brought increases the likelihood that I’ll also buy it, or at least consider buying it.

When we see a lot of people doing something it influences and validates our decision to do it also.

This doesn’t just apply to purchasing decisions but also applies to everyday actions and behaviours. If we get to the bus stop and everybody is standing in an orderly queue, we are more likely to also join the queue instead of just jumping the queue and barging our way onto the bus.

If we come across a post on Facebook with a lot of likes or a video on YouTube with a lot of views we are more likely to view them also.

How To Use Social Proof Effectively

State the number of customers you have served or how many products you have sold

You can do this on your website or in your marketing communications.

Mcdonald’s utilised this to great effect by displaying in their drive-thru restaurants the running count of how many hamburgers had been sold by the company to date.

“1 million hamburgers sold” is a pretty convincing statement that what they’re selling must be good if so, many people are buying, which in turn leads more people to want to buy.

Allow customers to leave reviews & ratings

Encourage customers to leave reviews and feedback.Sign up for review sites such as Trustpilot, and ask your customers to leave a review whenever they have had an experience with your company or brand.

Reading a few positive reviews may be the nudge a prospect needs to convince them to buy.

Use testimonials to tell your story

Testimonials allow you to selectively highlight some of your most favourable reviews and showcase them with pride. They are usually more detailed than reviews and can be used to tell the story of how your product or service positively impacted your customer’s life/business etc.

Stories are a powerful way to communicate your message and using a real-life testimony from one of your happy customers is an effective method of conveying the benefits of your product and services. Present the most positive testimonials by some of your most prominent customers, and you’ll be able to command the most social proof.

Providing some details about the customer giving the testimonial might be able to attract other similar customers as well (e.g. testimonials from dentists about how your consultancy service helped boost their dental business can attract other dentists or medical professionals interested in getting the same results).

Some customers may think your service or product isn’t suited for them, but by presenting testimonials from customers from similar backgrounds, you provide social proof that they can relate to which can influence their decisions to buy and change their opinions about you. For maximum effect, use testimonials from customers from a variety of different backgrounds, professions, and demographics.

Use influencers to review your products and services

Influencers within your target market or niche can have a greater impact as they’re seen as authorities by your target audience, but influencers from outside your niche can be just as impactful.

If an influencer with a large following on social media gives you a positive endorsement this will have a significant impact on the way in which you are perceived.

Collect testimonials and reviews from influencers and share these in your marketing copy and on your social channels where others can see them.

Avoid using social proof negatively!

Negative Social Proof occurs when we talk about the behaviour that we want people to avoid, therefore reinforcing it and making it work against us.

One example of the use of negative social proof is Wikipedia – In their message appealing for donations to keep the site free to use, they previously used the statement “only a tiny proportion of our readers give”.

This statement highlighted the fact that most people do not donate and therefore reinforced this behaviour among other readers. Many of their readers read that and think, “Oh I’m not the only one not donating” and carry on using the site without giving any further thought to donating.

Avoid doing this by highlighting only the behaviours you want your customers to act on.

Conclusion

By using social proof in your sales and marketing copy you will be able to increase trust, demonstrate the viability of your product, and ultimately increase sales.

Incorporate social proof into all aspects of your sales funnel. You should share these testimonials and stories on your website, in your ad copy, and on your social media platforms – at as many touchpoints as possible.

If you have great success stories of people getting a desired result or having a great experience with your product then make sure you share those stories.

Hearing about the positive experiences of others will encourage new prospects to take action on your offers. It could be just the nudge they need to push them over the fence and convince them to make a buying decision.

Check out our other article which explains the other principles of influence and persuasion Robert Cialdini researched and wrote about.

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We want our customers to feel good about spending their money with us, and we want our products and services to offer them tremendous amounts of value compared to the cash value they have paid for it. The better our customers feel when they buy from us, the more likely they are to remain a customer and also to recommend us to people they know.

This is why it’s so important to make sure our customers are fully satisfied with their purchases and have no doubts or regrets about buying from us. These negative feelings that customers sometimes feel after they have made a purchase is commonly known as “Buyers Remorse.”

This article examines what buyers remorse is, what causes it, and what we as marketers can do to reduce or completely eradicate it, hopefully leading to making more sales and turning our customers into raving fans.

What Is Buyers Remorse?

We’ve all been there. At some point in our lives we’ve spent months and months thinking about buying that product we so desperately want.

We’ve gone online and read all the reviews, watched countless YouTube review videos, and spoken to people who have used the same product. We’ve scoured the internet for the cheapest prices and best deals, and we finally arrive at the point where we have all the information, cash, and courage to make the purchase.

Woo Hoo! We’ve reached the point of making a buying decision and we’re ready to go through with the sale. We complete the sale, hand over the cash, grab our ​goodies, and hurry home excited about what we’ve just brought.

​Having finally gone through with the sale and are now feeling a sense of relief, self-satisfaction, and excitement. Oh how much better our life is going to be with our shiny new toy!

Then we get home, and doubt and fear set in… We start to question our decision, and ​all sorts of questions race through our minds: Have I made the right decision? What if the product doesn’t meet my expectations? What if the product fails and the service offered by the company is not good enough to sort the issues out? What if I could have got it for cheaper elsewhere?

I have personally experienced these feelings countless times, and I’m sure you have too. What you are experiencing is commonly known as Buyers Remorse. Buyer’s Remorse is the feeling of regret, guilt, or fear that we experience when we’ve purchased a product or service, and then feel that we have made the wrong choice.

These feelings​ can make us have doubts about the price, quality, quantity, and how much we will use the product/service. The feelings of buyers remorse can vary from slight to extreme, and the level of intensity is normally affected by a few factors:

5 Factors That Influence Buyer Remorse Intensity

1. The Price Of The Item Purchased
2. The Number Of Alternative Options Available
3. The Necessity Of The Purchase
4. The Opportunity Cost
5. Our Involvement In The Decision Making Process

Let’s look at each one individually.

1. The Price Of The Item Purchased

The higher the price, the higher the level of buyer’s remorse that may be experienced. Whenever we make a purchase decision our brains process this as act as a risk. What are we risking? We are risking making a mistake, and when we make mistakes we feel bad. Over time as we get older, we learn that we enjoy feeling good, and hate feeling bad.

We are hardwired to avoid doing things that make us feel bad and do more of the things that make us feel good. Makes sense, doesn’t it? When we make an expensive purchase we are putting ourselves at risk of making an expensive mistake which will generate feelings of guilt, regret, and anxiety.

We are hoping that the money we spend will be worth it in return for the amount of value we experience from the product in return. The more of our hard earned cash we spend on something, the more we expect from it, and in our minds, this means the bigger the risk we are taking.

In a behavioural science study, participants were shown a variety of images whilst the reaction in their brains were monitored. When images of prices were flashed on the screen, the part of the participant’s brains associated with pain was activated. This experiment was repeated several times and was shown to be conclusive – on an unconscious level, we link price to pain!

Expensive purchases are more likely to lead to more intense levels of buyer remorse, and less expensive purchases tend to lead to less intense feelings.

2. The Number Of Alternative Options Available

Having more options means we have to spend more time thinking about which product is right for us and which will best suit our needs.

This can make the decision making process stressful as we don’t want to make the wrong decision and pick the product that is inferior, is more expensive, and delivers less value for money.

Online reviews are really helpful in helping people to compare different products and make a reasonable decision, but the more products there are to compare, the more chances there are of making the wrong decision.

We eventually reach the point known as Decision Fatique. This is the point where every new product comparison and evaluation decision seems to get harder and harder as we just can’t seem to decide.

After carefully weighing up all our options we make a decision and go for product A. Then we start to think that maybe Product B should have been our choice, or in hindsight, Product C offered the best value for money. Once we have decided to go through with the purchase the other options may weigh on our mind and we start to doubt if we have made the right decision after all.

That’s why consumer psychologists have proven that if you narrow the number of options it actually makes it easier for consumers to make a purchase decision.

3. The Necessity Of The Purchase

Is it is an essential purchase or an impulse purchase?

If we’ve just spent our hard earned cash on yet another luxury watch, or a designer pair of shoes that we don’t really need, then feelings of guilt and regret will tend to set in.

The excitement of making these sorts of purchases normally fades once the purchase is made. Then we start to think about the things that we really should have spent that money on, like perhaps paying those outstanding parking tickets, or enrolling in that training course we’ve been meaning to do.

The higher the level of necessity there is for making a purchase, the less remorse will be felt. The lower the level of necessity, the more remorse will be felt

4. The Opportunity Cost

When we part with our cash for a certain product we may start thinking about all the ways in which we could have spent that money. This can include completely non-related products, services, or experiences we could have spent our money on instead. In economics, this is known as an “Opportunity Cost”.

Once we arrive at a buying decision and go through with the purchase we tend to think of all the alternatives that we have given up as a result and this can cause feelings of doubt and anxiety.

5. Our Level Of Involvement In The Decision Making Process

How involved we are in the decision making process before making a purchase can vary from low to high levels of involvement.

Involvement refers to the amount of effort and cognitive processing required during the decision making stage, how important the product is to you, and how much information you need to make the decision.

Low involvement purchases are normally low cost items that we use regularly and don’t have to spend much time (if any) thinking about them or considering alternative brands. e.g. buying bread is a low involvement buying decision.

We know what brand we like and when the bread in our cupboard is running low we naturally make the decision to buy a new loaf the next time we are at the grocery store without thinking about it.

A high involvement decision involves a lot more thinking and consideration. An example would be the purchase of a house. When considering whether to buy a house we tend to make a lot of effort in finding out as much information as we can about the property, the neighbourhood, our potential new neighbours, the local amenities, the crime rate, the community etc.

We may speak to other people who live in the area, and look at reviews online. We will want to see as many different properties as possible and gather enough information to ensure that we are making an informed decision.

High involvement decisions represent taking a higher risk – making the wrong decision and moving into a house that has a lean against it, rot in the basement, and crazy neighbours would be a disaster and would significantly affect how we feel.

Low involvement decisions represent low risk – what’s the worst that can happen if you brought a loaf of Wonder Bread instead of your regular Warburtons?

Low-risk purchases = less intense feelings of buyers remorse.

High-risk purchases = more intense feelings of buyers remorse.

How To Reduce Buyer’s Remorse

Now that you have a bit more insight into Buyers Remorse and its causes, you can see how important it is to reduce it in order to keep customers satisfied, improve referral rates, and gain their trust and loyalty.

Here are some immediate action steps you can implement to reduce buyer remorse:

Offer a Money-Back Guarantee

This is a tried and tested method of gaining trust with customers. Offering a 100% money-back guarantee is proven to increase sales significantly. It automatically reduces the risk level involved in the purchase and makes the decision ​easier as the customer can try the product risk-free, knowing they can get their money back should they want to.

Offer Post-Purchase Customer Support

There may be a few niggling doubts and questions that your prospect has in the back of their minds once they have made the purchase.

Providing a way for them to be able to speak to you or someone from your customer support team (if you have one) will make them feel a lot more reassured and will reduce the amount of anxiety that could normally lead to refund requests.

Having a customer support phone number, live chat function, or email support is a great way to gain customer trust, and increase their confidence in your product and company.

Offer a Free Trial Period

Another great way to get prospects to use your products risk-free. ​Offering a 30-day free-trial is a sure way of getting people to sign-up and try your product or service.

Even if they cancel after the trial, you have their contact details and can re-market to them at a later date with other offers and trials.

Offer Extended Warranty and Repair or Replace Service

​We all dread dropping our brand-new smartphones and cracking our screens,​ or turning on our new laptop to find it doesn’t work.

​Offering a good warranty period it gives customers peace of mind knowing that if anything goes wrong they will get the support and service required to repair the item or get a brand new replacement.

This is great for expensive purchases such as laptops, smartphones or household appliances.

Show Post-Purchase Confirmation or Thank You Page

There have been a few occasions where I’ve brought something online and after I’ve typed in my credit card details and clicked the buy button, nothing happened! Not even a confirmation page or follow-up email to let me know my sale had gone through and was complete. I was left wondering if I needed to re-order, at the risk of making the purchase again and being charged twice…something I felt uneasy about doing.

This is a frustrating experience and creates feelings of regret and even animosity toward the company for having such a crummy after-sales process. ​

You should always have a confirmation message shown once a customer has purchased something. A thank-you page and email order confirmation are expected as the norm these days, and they provide closure of the sales process to the customer. Make sure you include these!

​Use Coupons or Discount Codes

Make use of coupons or offer discount codes to give prospects more reasons to buy.

When customers feel like they’ve got a bargain the feelings of buyer’s remorse are naturally lessened, and they are able to feel good about their purchase.

Summary

When you take the steps mentioned above to reduce the unwanted feelings of buyer’s remorse in your customers, you gain their trust much more easily​. Trust is one of the most important things that must be established before and after a sale is made.

Whether you are representing yourself as a salesperson, or consultant, or you are working for a large sales organisation, you will be able to attract more prospects, make more sales, and retain more customers when you are able to establish trust.

When you offer ways to reduce your prospect’s feeling of buyer’s remorse, their buying experience is pleasurable and not painful. This​ positive buying experience makes them trust you, and this can lead to them becoming loyal customers.

Whenever they think of your brand they won’t associate it with the pain or risk that consumers are so desperate to avoid. Instead, they’ll associate your brand, products, and services with positive feelings, and this is the key to retaining customers and getting repeat business and referrals.

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