Well here’s a valuable lesson I learnt from Jim Edwards in his fantastic book “Copywriting Secrets“.

“People don’t buy without a reason why”

If you can understand why people buy you can use those reasons to make your ad copy much more effective. When you can demonstrate a necessity for your product or service and tie it back to one of these reasons why people buy, you will inevitably sell more.

What are the reasons why people buy?

Jim Edwards identifies 10 reasons why people buy:

1. Make money
2. Save money
3. Save time
4. Escape pain – mental or physical
5. Avoid or decrease effort
6. To be more comfortable
7. Attain better health
8. Gain praise
9. Feel more loved
10. Increase their status

If you look at these reasons you will see they correspond very closely to the “Life-Force 8” identified by Drew Eric Whitman in his book Ca$hvertising.

The Life-Force 8 are 8 biologically programmed desires that every human has, which can be attributed to why people buy. You can read more about the Life-Force 8 by checking out my post which goes into more depth on the topic: Marketing and the Life-Force 8

Now you have a good idea of why people buy, you need to tie one, two, or even three of these reasons to your product. The more reasons you can tie to your product the better.

How to tie the reasons to your product or service?

In order to effectively tie these reasons to your product or service you need to determine how your product meets their reasons why by asking questions in relation to each reason.

Questions you need to ask about your product or service

1. What are 5 ways my product helps people make more money?

2. How can my product help people to save more money over the next week, month, or year?

3. How does my product save them time, and what else can they do with that time?

4. In what ways can my product help to reduce their physical or mental pain?

5. What is something they don’t have to do anymore once they have my product, thus reducing their effort?

6. What are 3 ways my product can make them feel more comfortable?

7. How does my product help to improve their health, feel more healthy, and become more active?

8. In what ways does using my product help them to gain more praise from their peers?

9. What are 3 ways my product or service will make them feel more loved by their friends and family?

10. How does buying and using my product increase its popularity and status?

You must know your target audience

In order to honestly answer those questions in relation to your product or service you need to have a good understanding of your target audience. It’s no good answering those questions from your perspective – you need to put yourself in the mind of your ideal customer in order to get answers that will resonate with them.

Think about who your target audience is.

Where are they at in their lives right now, and where do they want to be? What are their pain points? What are their goals or aspirations?

When you have a good understanding of exactly who your target audience is the answers to these questions will come more easily, and more importantly, they will be relevant to them.

Tying the reasons to your product or service – Example

In this example, we will use a business executive coaching program as our service, and tie the reasons why to it.

1. Make more money – The business executive coaching program will help you to perform better in your current role, help you get promoted, and get more job offers from other firms.

2. Save money – Instead of paying expensive consultants to do this sort of work, our coaching program teaches you how to do it yourself.

3. Avoid effort – You don’t need to stress or figure it all out by yourself. All you have to do is follow our proven blueprint and easy instructions.

4. Feel more loved – You’ll become a highly effective and efficient operator, meaning you’ll spend fewer evenings at the office and have more time with your family and kids, which they’ll love and appreciate you for.

5. Increase status – With the improved performance and better results you’ll be delivering for your employers, you’ll gain recognition from your peers and move up the career ladder faster, whilst your reputation as a problem solver and results person will continue to grow.

The more reasons you can tie to your product or service the more persuasive your copy and marketing campaigns will be. Why just give them one reason to buy if there are several they can benefit from?

Use reasons that relate to different areas of your prospect’s life – such as family, personal, career, etc. The more areas of their life you can touch on the more appeal your product or service will have.

Where can you use these reasons “why”?

You can use these reasons just about anywhere in your copy and marketing:

• Your offers
• Your headlines
• Email subject lines
• Calls-to-action
• Hook, story, offer framework
• In your stories
• In your bullet points
• In your content headings

Focusing on the reasons why someone should buy your product makes creating the copy, or coming up with an effective headline a less daunting process as it gives you a basis to center your copy around.

Constantly thinking about the reasons why someone should buy your product helps you to stay focused on your customer, rather than your product.

When your customer is the focus of your copy you will find that they become more receptive to it. After all, your customer is not interested in reading about your product unless they know what it can do for them and how they can benefit from it.

They are constantly thinking “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM), so having your copy focused on their reasons why will help you to create copy that is more compelling and effective at persuading them to buy or take action.

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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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What is color psychology?

Color psychology is the study of how color affects human perception and behaviour. It seeks to understand the effects of color on our feelings, emotions and thought processes.

Do certain colors make us feel better or worse? Can a certain color influence us and make us act in a particular way? These are the sort of questions that psychologists have been asking and researching.

Color psychology in marketing and branding

By understanding how different colors can affect our moods and perceptions, we can use these insights in our branding and marketing campaigns.

Color psychology in marketing and branding seeks to understand how color affects consumers’ perceptions and buying decisions. Different colors can influence your prospects’ impression of your brand or product and can influence and persuade them to take action on your offers.

As visual creatures, humans are influenced on an unconscious level by different colors in various ways. If you can understand the effects of a particular color you can make better decisions when it comes to your logo design, branding, and even the color of your call-to-action buttons and text.

Check out the fantastic color psychology chart from Space Refinery which gives an overview of the different attributes and associations of each color.

Colors and emotions

Colors can trigger various emotions, feelings, and moods. The emotion that gets triggered by color will depend on what we associate with that particular color. 

Each color has both positive and negative emotions associated with it. But where do these associations come from? What we associate with each color is normally dependent on three things.

These are:

1. Experience

People have different experiences with different colors, and those experiences can influence our perception of color and the meanings we associate with it. Over time our perceptions and associations of different colors may completely change, or they may become weaker or stronger. It all depends on whether or not we have new experiences which override our old associations.

Someone who works in a funeral parlour will have a strong association of the color black with mourning, sadness, and death. An individual who works on a ship will have a strong association between the color blue and the ocean.

Because we all have different experiences, the things we associate with each color will also differ. There will also be some similarities of course, but it’s important not to make assumptions.

2. Culture

What we associate with a particular color will also be widely influenced by our culture. There are cultural associations with color which differ from one culture to another.

For example: In the West, black is typically worn to funerals as it has a strong association with death and mourning, but in the East, white is typically the color that is worn to funerals and during times of mourning.

In the West, the color red is commonly associated with passion, energy, or danger, whereas in many Eastern countries like Japan red symbolises power and protection.

When it comes to your marketing you have to think about your target audience and what their potential associations are with a particular color. This is especially important if you are expanding aboard or operating in foreign markets.

Taking the time to understand the cultural differences behind the feelings and emotions associated with colors in different parts of the world can help you to tailor your branding appropriately to different segments of your target market.

3. Context

Colors will hold different meanings depending on the context in which they are viewed.

The color green can be associated with money and wealth, or it can also be associated with the environment and being eco-friendly. On the negative side, it can also be associated with jealousy and envy.

The same color will mean different things to different people depending on the context in which it is viewed.

Brand color psychology

Now that you have a good overview of the positive and negative emotions associated with colors, you can use that knowledge to make better and more informed decisions about all aspects of your marketing, branding, and advertising.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution though. What works for you may not work for another company. It all depends on your target audience, the market you’re operating in, and the nature of your products and services. Other factors such as the values of your brand and organisation also come into play.

For example: If you own a very eco-friendly company that is geared towards saving the planet, then green would be an obvious and sensible choice of color to feature in your branding and marketing materials.

On the other hand, green would probably be a poor choice for a funeral director as the color is not associated with mourning and may be deemed inappropriate.

It really is a personal choice as to how your use colors in your advertising and branding, but you should keep in mind some of the more universally accepted emotions associated with colors when designing your logo or creating marketing materials.

The color you use in your branding depends on how you want to position your brand, and what you want your brand to represent and communicate to your target market. Understanding brand color psychology can help you to position your products more appropriately, and can influence how your brand is perceived by your target audience.

How you are perceived by your prospects is important, and this perception can either lead to more sales or fewer sales.

Checklist for selecting your color scheme

Here are some questions to keep in mind when choosing your color scheme for your branding and marketing.

• What are my brand/company values? What color best communicates these values?
• What emotions do I want my customers to feel when they interact with my brand?
• What colors are associated with the emotions that I want my customers to feel?
• What colors are associated with the emotions that I DON’T want my customers to feel?
• Do my brand colors have a completely different association with another segment of my target audience?
• Am I using colors that are positively associated with my niche/target market/product category?
• Does this color show off my brand personality in a positive light?

If you ask yourself these questions when selecting which colors to use in your branding and marketing you will hopefully create a brand that positively appeals to your customers and is associated with the positive emotions you want to elicit in them.

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These desires are biologically programmed into every human being and are common to everyone. It doesn’t matter where someone lives, where they were raised, what colour they are, what religion they are, what language they speak, we all have all one thing in common – we all share these 8 desires.

If you can tap into any one of these wants and are able to fulfill the needs that each desire creates you will sell a lot more products.

The “Life-Force 8”

What exactly are these 8 desires that all humans are biologically programmed with? They are:

1. Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension

2. Enjoyment of food and beverages

3. Freedom from fear, pain, and danger

4. Sexual companionship

5. Comfortable living conditions

6. To be superior, winning, and keeping up with the Joneses

7. Care and protection of loved ones

8. Social approval

Each one of these desires is hardwired into us. They are a fundamental part of what makes us humans tick. You can’t eliminate these desires, they all exist within you to one degree or another.

The extent to which they exist will differ from person to person and they may hold different levels of priority in each person’s life, but they can’t be turned off or eliminated. Think about it. Can you stop your survival extinct? Can you stop being hungry or wanting to enjoy food or drink? Can you realistically give up desiring sexual companionship and loving relationships?

These 8 desires drive us to take action. We want to satisfy them and will do what is necessary to fulfill them. When you can make your advertising appeal to any one of these 8 human desires you will find your results will dramatically start to improve.

This quote from Young and Rubicam sums this up beautifully:

“People buy because of emotion and justify with logic. Force an emotional response by touching on a basic want or need”

Why these desires are so powerful

These desires appeal to the very essence of what makes us human. In fact, they are pretty much the same needs that psychologist Abraham Maslow identified in his famous “Hierarchy of Needs.”

Maslow first developed the hierarchy to help explain the connection between basic human needs and human desires. He believed that as each need or level of the hierarchy was fulfilled, we then move on to fulfilling the next.

As you can see the needs identified by Maslow correspond very closely to the Life-Force 8. These desires correspond to the spectrum of human needs – from the very basic to the more advanced, from the physical (survival, food – Life-Force 1 & 2) to the psychological and social (winning, keeping up with the Joneses, social approval – Life-Force 6 & 7).

These desires are not going anywhere, they are here to stay. If you can tie your product to one of these desires you will inevitably sell more. As a marketer, your job is to tap into these desires with your ads and sales copy. If you can appeal to these desires in your marketing you will get your message seen and heard more loudly and ultimately get your product or service into the hands of more people.

How to incorporate the Life-Force 8 in your marketing

According to Drew Eric Whitman, not only is fulfilling these desires pleasurable, but reading about other people fulfilling them is also just as pleasant to us!

When we read about how someone was able to fulfill one of these desires and can imagine ourselves fulfilling them, it makes us feel good also. The trick to doing this is to create ad copy that causes your prospect to visualise themselves using your product and enjoying the results.

Example – Read the following sales copy:

“By using the ‘Fit in 90 days Plan’ George was able to finally lose the excess weight he had struggled to get rid of for years. Now he is in the best shape of his life, looking good and feeling great!  

His confidence has skyrocketed, and he now has the courage to approach beautiful women and ask them out, something he could never have imagined in his wildest dreams! As a result, he has been on 3 dates in the last 2 weeks and has plenty more lined up.

He is buzzing with energy and his friends and colleagues at work have all noticed the positive change in his attitude. His performance at work has excelled, and he is now on track to smash his previous best-ever sales quotas.”

If you’re an out-of-shape guy low on confidence and unable to get a date, reading how George was able to solve those issues and is now enjoying his life and fulfilling his desires makes you feel good.

When you read about George fulfilling these needs (sexual companionship, winning, social approval, self-esteem) you can literally visualise yourself in his position. It also gives you a sense of hope and optimism that the product can work for you also. You can share in the happiness and sense of achievement George is feeling – because you desire that exact feeling also. You can see yourself using the ‘Fit in 90 days plan’ and enjoying the same benefits that George is.

This is the effect that creating effective copy can have on your prospect.

Create ad copy that paints vivid pictures

In order to be effective you have to write copy that appeals to the senses and use visual words that paint a vivid image inside your prospect’s head.

With the right use of words, you can dictate the mental movie that is playing inside the mind of your prospect. You make it easy for them to see themselves using your product and getting the results (the fulfillment of their desire) they so badly want. When your prospects can see themselves successfully using your product to fulfill the desire they have, it creates and fuels the desire for them to have your product.

Anytime you can make your prospect use your product in their imagination, you are moving much closer to making a sale. This is exactly why if you visit a car showroom the salespeople always encourage you to open the car doors and sit in the car. They want you to get inside, smell the leather, hear the engine, feel the steering wheel, and imagine yourself driving it.

This is also why offering a test drive is so effective at closing sales – prospects can actually use the car for real and get a sense of how driving and owning it would make them feel. It engages their senses and imagination.

Anytime you can offer a free trial of your product or service you should do so as it gives prospects a chance to get hands-on with it and increases the likelihood that they’ll buy. But for products that don’t allow for free trials or trying before you buy, you can use your ad copy to create the experience of them using the product in their imagination.

Example:

“Our new milk chocolate is expertly hand-crafted by professional Swiss chocolatiers using a traditional recipe that has been passed down for 3 generations. Its silky smooth taste and rich velvety texture will scintillate your tastebuds.  The luxuriously light and delicate chocolate will melt in your mouth. “

The descriptive words in your ad copy probably caused you to imagine the chocolate and what it would taste like. As you read the description of the chocolate you may have even started to salivate as you imagined eating it!

This is how powerful well-crafted copywriting can be. It can literally create vivid images and experiences of your prospects using your product in their imaginations, often without them being consciously aware they are doing so. If they can imagine themselves using your product and fulfilling their desire (whichever of the Life-Force 8 your product targets and fulfills), it massively increases the chances of them buying your product.

When your prospect creates a mental movie of using your product in their head it bridges the gap between first learning about your product and making a purchase decision to buy your product. It “primes” them to buy.

This is why so many great salespeople and marketers incorporate the word “imagine” in their presentations or ad copy. The more you can get your prospect to see themselves using your product or service, the more likely they are to buy.

Summary

Humans have 8 basic desires or needs that we want to fulfill. When these desires are not fulfilled we feel a sense of tension, and this tension motivates us to take the actions necessary to fulfill those desires and alleviate the tension.

The most effective advertising appeals are based on these 8 desires. If you can create a product or service that successfully fulfills any of these desires you will always have a steady stream of customers. There will always be a demand for your product or service as these 8 desires can not be eliminated and people are always striving to fulfill them.

You can appeal to these desires by using creative ad copy that causes your prospect to visually demonstrate the product inside their head. When done right, this builds a strong desire for the fulfillment of the want(s) or results that your product promises to satisfy or deliver, thus fueling demand for your product.

You must incorporate the senses in your sales copy, and use words that stimulate vivid images. When you can incorporate and appeal to your prospect’s sense of tasting, touching, seeing, smelling, and hearing, you will engage more of their brain power and make the image in their head more vivid and real.

When you appeal to any of the Life-Force 8 human desires and create ad copy that allows them to visualise themselves using your product to fulfill that desire, you are bound to have an uplift in your sales and conversions.

Experiment with writing different copy to appeal to the different desires. Try using words that will resonate with your target audience, and always remember to test, test and re-test your campaigns, ads, and copy.

Get the book

If you haven’t already read Ca$hvertising I highly recommend you buy a copy.

It is one of the best and most interesting books on copywriting and ad creation I have read. In addition to the Life-Force 8, Drew Eric Whitman also talks about the 9 secondary human desires, principles of consumer psychology, ad-agency secrets, and easy ways to boost your ad response.

It’s well written (as you would expect from a copywriter!) and is also fun and easy to read. I had a hard time putting the book down. You can read my review of it here.

Click here to buy Cashvertising on Amazon.

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Online ads are designed to make you stop what you are doing and make you curious enough to click or follow through on the call-to-action.

If you keep that in mind when you create an online advertising campaign, you’ll view your efforts and measure success with the right metrics – the king of which is clicks that lead to a conversion action.

I remember when I first started a job as a Google Ads account manager. I thought that it would be a good idea to create some ads for “brand awareness” purposes. My boss quickly shot that idea down and told me that online pay-per-click ads are not about creating brand awareness or anything else. Their sole purpose is to generate clicks and drive traffic to your website or offer.

Of course, there are other types of ads that you can use to create brand awareness and everything else, but if you want to make sales then your ads should make people click and act on your call-to-action.

So how do you create effective online ads that grab people’s attention and make them click?

6 secrets to creating effective online ads:

1. Not all clicks are equal – you only want the right people to click on your ads

Getting loads of clicks is only a good thing if the right people are clicking on your ads.

If you have hundreds of people clicking you might feel like your ad is successful – until you see that those clicks are not turning into sales. If you’re getting lots of clicks and visitors to your website, sales page, or offer and these are not turning into conversions then it’s likely that many of those people are not in your target market.

This is why getting your targeting right is so important. You don’t want people who are not in your target market to see or click your ad –  this can end up eating up your whole advertising budget if you’re not careful, especially with pay-per-click advertising. Make sure you understand your target market. What platforms do they use? Where do they congregate online? What images or words will connect with them?

Make use of as much data as you can. Knowing essential demographic information, using custom intent audiences, and knowing when your target audience is likely to be online, what device they prefer to use, what browser, etc. are all things that will ensure your ads are optimised to be displayed to the right people at the right time.

2. Curiosity makes people click

Curiosity sells. It also causes people to click!

If you can arouse a sense of curiosity with your ads you will have a significantly greater chance of making people want to click.

Curiosity is used a lot nowadays in online advertising. I’m pretty sure you’ve seen those ads which have headlines such as: “This box lay unopened in her attic for years. When she finally decided to open it she was shocked to discover what was hidden inside.”

If you read that the chances are it aroused your curiosity. What is in the box? What did she find? This curiosity is what drives so many people to click.

These sorts of ads may seem like clickbait (and many of them are), but the reason you see them so often is that they work! People are bombarded with ads nowadays so getting their attention is becoming harder and harder. The one thing that will guarantee you their attention and increase the chances of getting a click is curiosity.

If your ad makes someone ask “What it is?” or “How do they do that?” then you have successfully aroused their curiosity enough to make them want to click your ad.

You can arouse curiosity with an interesting image or an interesting headline. Having a good headline is important as this is normally the first thing that people see, or pay attention to, which brings us to our next tip.  (For a more detailed list of headline tips you can check out the post I wrote that will help you to learn how to write catchy headlines)

3. Grab people’s attention by asking them a question

The easiest way to grab someone’s attention is to ask them a question. A question makes someone stop, pay attention, and even answer the question to themselves in their head. Questions are a great attention grabber and make for very effective headlines.

Some examples of effective questions include:

• Would you like to…………?
• Have you ever wanted to……………?
• Are you fed up of……………?

These questions will enable you to grab the attention of people in your target market, whilst eliminating those who you do not wish to target. The key to using questions is to ask a question that is relevant to your product, service, or offer, and to which your audience will answer “yes”.

Example: Imagine you’re in the weight-loss industry and are selling a new home-based workout course.

• Are you fed up with trying every new diet on the market only to find out they don’t work?
• Would you like to lose weight, get in shape, and feel great without having to pay for an expensive gym membership?
• Have you ever wanted to know the secret to burn stubborn body fat and building lean muscle whilst still eating the foods you love?

If someone answers “yes” to these questions it means that you will have successfully grabbed their attention. They will be curious to know what product/service/secret /answer behind these questions is, so they will click to find out.

4. Emotion is the key

The questions above succeed in grabbing your prospect’s attention because of one thing – emotion.

When you ask the right question to the right person, it should elicit an emotional response. If you ask the right question to the wrong person it won’t elicit any response, because it will be completely irrelevant to them.

Let’s go back to our weight-loss example above.

If you are someone who has struggled with your weight, tried and failed so many diets, and wants to get in shape but can’t afford to pay for expensive gym memberships – then those questions we asked will resonate with you on an emotional level.

Just by reading the questions you will relate them to your own struggles. They make you think about the efforts you put in to get in shape and the failures and setbacks you have experienced so far. They will cause you to think about how unhappy you are in your current situation, and how badly you want to get the results that have so far eluded you.

It is the power of emotion that grabs their attention and holds it long enough for them to read your copy, which arouses curiosity and makes them click.

“People buy on emotion and justify with logic”

If you can trigger the right emotional response it’s almost like having access to a “buy” button in your prospect’s mind.

5. Make your call-to-action clear and easy to follow

Never assume that your customer will know what to do when they see your ad. I’ve seen so many advertising campaigns fail because of this one thing.

Remember – the purpose of your ad is to grab your prospect’s attention and make them click or follow through on your call-to-action. Once you have their attention and have aroused their curiosity you have to make it easy and clear for them to know what to do next.

Your audience doesn’t want to work hard in order to figure out what next steps they are supposed to take – you have to make it crystal clear for them.

Important Note: If you mislead your prospect and you send them to a landing page that they weren’t expecting they will normally click off straight away and you will have lost them forever. If your bounce rate is high then it normally means that what you served up after the ad is not what your prospect expected to see when they clicked.

You can avoid this by making your call-to-action clear enough so that your prospect knows exactly what to expect when they click.

Examples:

• If you want them to complete a form then your call-to-action should be something like: “Click here to sign-up”
• If you want them to watch a quick intro video your call-to-action should be something like “Click here to access your free video”
• If you want them to download a report then your CTA should be something like: “Click here to grab your free report”

Make it clear what they should do, and also make clear what they can expect to see/do/hear when they click.

6. ABT – Always Be Testing

Always be testing – this should be the motto of every online advertiser. You need to continuously test and re-test your ads. Split-testing or A/B testing your ads is a great way to find out which one is performing better.

But once you have found an ad that works, don’t rest on your laurels! You need to constantly be creating and testing new ad copy to replace the winning one when it stops performing.

Even the most successful ads will start to slow in their performance after a while. People develop ad fatigue (this is where your audience becomes overly familiar with your ad) when they see the same ad over and over again, so it’s important to keep things fresh with new ad copy in order to keep attracting clicks.

As a Google Ads account manager, I tested hundreds of ads. When I found a winning ad I would create another to test against it and see if I could beat it. And so on and so on. You can read my post on some of the key things I learned from testing thousands of Google Ads.

You’ll be amazed at how much you can improve the performance of an ad with just a slight tweak here and there. Digital marketing tools and platforms have made online advertising super easy. We can now create ad tests and get fast and accurate results to know what works and what doesn’t. Compare that to traditional forms of advertising such as print, radio, or television. Campaigns on these offline channels have always been hard to measure, but online advertising is super fast and accurate, with no guesswork involved.

Different niches and markets will respond differently to different ad types, images, and ad copy. Create different ads and test them against each other, and let your data tell you what works and what doesn’t.

Summary

So there you have 6 secrets to creating effective online ads.

If you want to save yourself from wasting money on unwanted clicks then first make sure you have your targeting right – target the right people and avoid the wrong people!

Curiosity is the key to making someone click. If you can arouse a sense of curiosity with your ad then you have a great chance of making someone click.

Asking questions is a great way to grab attention and create curiosity. Make sure you are asking the right questions and that they are relevant to your niche and target audience.

Your questions should elicit a “yes” answer. If you understand your target market and ask the right questions, you will trigger an emotional response.

Emotion is a powerful motivator and will cause your prospects to take action on your call-to-action, which should be clear and simple to follow.

ABT – always be testing! Even the best ads will stop performing eventually, so don’t get caught out – make sure you are regularly testing new ideas and ad copy to find new winning ads. Test new headlines, new images, new questions, new fonts, etc. but remember to only test one variable at a time.

There are other ad writing tips and tricks you can use to boost your ad performance. Check out my post on how you can supercharge the effectiveness of your ads by appealing to the senses.

I hope this guide has been helpful.

For more tips on how to write effective ads check out our 5-part blog series which covers the 5 fundamental purposes of an advert: Ad Fundamental #1:Getting Attention!

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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

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An ever-increasing number of companies now use the art of storytelling to capture their audience’s attention, communicate their values, and to position their products and services.

Humans are pre-wired to love stories, they are part of the very fabric of human communication.

Right from ancient times, when man was living in a cave, right up to the present where we walk around with smart phones in our pockets and have access to knowledge at our fingertips, storytelling has been part of human society.

Stories bring people together

In a time before the internet, when computers, TV and radio didn’t exist, and even before the printing press was invented, stories were the way in which we entertained ourselves.

They also served as a vehicle for learning. Stories were the medium through which important life lessons were communicated, taught and passed down from one generation to another.

Ancient tribes and cultures across the world all had something in common – they used to gather together and share stories. Every village had a storyteller, who would tell great tales and spark the imaginations of all who would listen.

They also served as a vehicle for learning. Stories were the medium through which important life lessons were communicated, taught and past down from one generation to another.

Stories bring people together when they contain emotions – the universal language that we can all understand.

We all understand human emotions like hope, anger, despair, courage, and fear. Stories that contain these elements allow us to connect at an emotional level, and thus create a sense of commonality and community amongst people.

Uri Hasson, profession of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University conducted a number of studies that show that after a certain time, the brainwaves of an audience listening to a story actually get synced with the storyteller!

This is why great storytellers are able to captivate their audience and hold them in rapt attention.

With stories being able to connect us with others through the universal language of human emotions, it’s no surprise that more and more businesses are using storytelling in their marketing, sales and branding activities.

Check out our post on 3 storytelling templates you can use to boost your business.

Although it may seem complicated to create a story, it’s actually quite simple once you understand that all stories share the same 3 common components around which you story is fleshed out.

The 3 basic components of a story

1. Characters

All stories contain at least one character (known as a protagonist). Your characters act as the eyes, heart and mind of your audience. They are your audience’s window into your story world.

Characters are the bridge between you as the storyteller and your audience, which is why it is important to make sure your audience are able to relate to your character

2. Conflict

This is what makes your story engaging. Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces of good and evil, in whatever form that may take.

When you character experiences opposition they must take action to overcome it. This struggle to overcome creates the conflict, without which there is no story.

It is in the conflict that the character learns vital lessons that will carry them on to victory.

3. Resolution

This is the conclusion of the story’s plot, where loose strings are tied. It is also where you learn what happens to the characters after the conflict has been resolved.

This is where we see how the character has changed after the journey they have just been on, and how they will now live as result.

Every story you can think of from Lord of the Rings to Star Wars contains these 3 components in one form or another.

Using these components in your marketing or sales copy will also help you to connect with prospects on a deeper emotional level.

Writing stories for your business

Now you understand a bit more about how powerful stories are at connecting people and the 3 basic components of a story, its time to see how you can use stories in your business to attract more customers and make more sales.

1. Know your audience

Before you can write anything its important that you know who you are writing for. You need to understand your target market in order to know how to appeal to their emotional nature.

Remember the old adage: People buy on emotion, and justify with logic.

You can only tap into the right emotions when you understand your target audience – what are their pain points? What challenges do they face? What emotions do they want to feel once their problem is resolved?

2. Clarify your core message

What is your message? What are you trying to communicate with your audience? This will determine the objective of your story.

Perhaps you are selling a physical product, or you may be trying to raise funds for a good cause, or bring awareness to a particular issue. Maybe you’re advocating a service.

Whatever it is you are selling and trying to communicate, you must get clear on it and make it your core message.

If you can summarise your story in 10 words then you have a clear core message.

3.  Determine what effect you want your story to have on your audience

Different types of stories will naturally have different effects on your audience.

What do you want your audience to do and feel when they hear your story?

• Want your audience to take action?

If you are trying to get them to take action – click a button, make a sale, give them your email address etc. then you should use a story that describes how your character, in the pursuit of a goal (this should be the same goal your audience wants to achieve e.g. weight loss) took an action (used your product or service) to get the result they wanted (e.g. their ideal body weight).

This shows your audience that they too can obtain the same results by taking the same action.

• Want to educate your audience?

Tell a trial and error story, where your character has a problem, tries various solutions, learns some valuable lessons by making mistakes along the way, before discovering the answer or solution that yields success.

By experiencing your character’s journey through the story and embedding the lessons you want to impart within the narrative, your audience share in the lessons and learn them in a powerful and effect way.

Books like “the One Minute Manager” and others in the “One Minute” series use this formula to impart valuable business lessons to their readers, in a fun and easy to learn fashion.

• Want to tell your audience about yourself?

Tell your story in a open, honest and transparent way. Use humour, and don’t be afraid to talk about your failures and shortcomings.

What challenges have you experienced?

What lessons have you learnt?

What valuable advice can you share as a result of your journey?

Your audience will appreciate you for your honesty, they will feel a greater connection with you. People do business with people they like and trust, and sharing your story in an honest way will endear you to your audience and make them like trust and buy from you.

• Want to convey brand values?

You must tell a story that your audience can relate to in terms of the characters, situations, emotions. When your audience can relate to these factors in your story, they will be able to see how the values you are communicating in the story apply to their own lives.

This is particularly important if you are communicating values that your audience consider to be different to those they currently hold.

Understanding your audience is the key to making them relate to your characters, and therefore the story as a whole.

4. Clarify your call-to-action

You must know exactly what you want your audience to do once they have heard your story, and you must make it clear to them by having a clear call-to-action (CTA).

Don’t assume that your audience will always know what they are supposed to do next – make it clear and obvious so there is no confusion.

If you want them to click a link then make it obvious by using a clear CTA like:  “Click here for more information”. Perhaps you want them to share your post on social media, so include easy social sharing icons and use a “Share now” CTA.

Remember, your call-to-action is the reason why you have told them your story in the first place!

They have connected with you, your character, or your brand so they are now in a more receptive mood. Take advantage of this by telling them what action you want them to take next.

Summary

Stories connect us and are effective at getting people to resonate with an idea, lesson, and values. They can also inspire audiences to take action.

When used effectively, stories can help to educate your audience about your brand, product or service and inspire them to take action like making a purchase, or subscribing to your email list.

Without the use of stories, it can be difficult to connect with your audience on an emotional level where they feel compelled to follow through on your call-to-action. Boring, drab, corporate sales copy just doesn’t have the ability to touch people emotionally and move them into action.

By creating a story and incorporating the 3 components of character, conflict, and resolution, and making them relevant to your audience you will have a shortcut to the button inside your audience’s head that moves them in to taking the action you want.

Here are 3 storytelling templates you can use to help you outline your stories for maximum effect.

Start creating stories, and improve the way you connect, market and sell to your audience.

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Let’s explore the differences between these two approaches and the right way to use each approach to get the best results.

The right way to use negatives in your copy

The right way to use negatives in your copy is to highlight the problems, fears, mistakes, and issues that your target audience is experiencing.

You have to enter the conversation that is going on in their head in order to resonate and establish rapport with them. When your audience knows that you care about them, they will be more likely to listen to what you’re saying and take action on your recommendations.

This is true in sales copy as it is in real life. When you’re having a conversation with someone and the other person is not paying attention, or is busy on their smartphone, how does it make you feel? I’ve experienced this many times, as I’m sure you have. It’s annoying and frustrating when we feel like we are not being listened to.

On the other hand, when we are talking with someone and the other person gives us their undivided attention it makes us feel appreciated. We feel that the person cares, and this establishes a greater level of trust and rapport.

Salespeople understand the importance of being a good listener. Whether they are out in a meeting or out prospecting they understand the importance of listening to the needs of their clients in order to offer a consultative selling experience. You can make someone feel valued and appreciated simply by giving them your undivided attention, and showing that you understand them by asking relevant questions.

When it comes to sales copy or online advertising, you can accomplish this by stating the negatives that your prospect is experiencing, thus showing them that you understand them and care for their situation.

Example:

• “Are you having trouble attracting clients for your dental practice?”
• “Are interest rates and low credit score preventing you from getting a mortgage?”

When you can demonstrate that you understand your prospect’s problems, you will immediately have their attention and be in sync with them.

Once you have their attention and are in sync with them you can present your solution. This is where you explain how your product or service will help them to attract more clients or will help them qualify for that loan, etc. You can demonstrate the effectiveness of your product or solution by using social proof – sharing testimonials and reviews.

This is the right way to use negatives in your marketing and sales copy. So what is the wrong way?

The wrong way to use negatives in your copy

The wrong way to use negatives is to outright attack somebody or your competitor by name.

You may see this a lot in political campaign ads where one party outright attacks the other by highlighting the negative (or perceived negative) aspects of their policy or party members. They even attack the character of their rival candidates and go to great lengths to dig up dirt on each other. This normally leaves a sour taste in people’s mouths.

In business, if you have to attack your competitors by name in order to make yourself look better, it always makes you look weaker. You can use the weaknesses of your competitors against them without calling them out by name. Instead of attacking a person, or company by name, you can attack their methods, results, or behaviours.

Example:

• “Some companies will tell you that they can help you make online sales without much effort, but in reality, we know that that’s simply not true. Here’s what you really need to know…..”
• “You may have heard some fitness experts talk about losing belly fat by taking their magic pill, without having to diet or exercise, but we prefer to be honest with our customers….”

The above two examples call out the b.s claims of the competitors without naming them, whilst giving you an opportunity to introduce your product or solution in a much better light.

This approach will paint you, your company, or your product in a much more positive light in the minds of your prospect. It helps you to avoid entering a war of words with your competitors, which in the long run can have some seriously detrimental effects on your brand and ability to attract new customers.

Summary

You shouldn’t shy away from being negative in your sales copy – providing you know how to do it. After all, the world isn’t a perfect place, and nobody is positive 100% of the time. That’s just not how life works. You should embrace the negatives because they are the reason your product or service exists – to act as the solution.

If your product or service can help someone to genuinely solve a problem, then you need to highlight the problem and agitate it before presenting the solution. This is the right way to use negatives.

If you see other people in the marketplace doing something wrong or marketing themselves using false claims, don’t call them out by name. Instead, you can highlight their false promises, unrealistic results, and unethical behaviour, and then explain why you’re better.

So, there you have it, the right way and wrong way to use negatives in your copy and online marketing. Be creative and keep testing these in your sales copy, headlines, and call-to-actions.

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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.

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Understanding this fundamental difference and using this insight in your marketing will help you to:

• Connect with more customers
• Promote your products or services more effectively
• Make more sales
• Make more money

It doesn’t matter if you’re a salesperson who sells products or services in person, an online marketer, or an offline marketer – you need to understand the difference between features and benefits in order for your sales and marketing to be more effective.

Features vs Benefits – what’s the difference?

Many people in sales or marketing confuse features and benefits as being the same thing. They are very different, and both play a different role in your sales copy.

What’s a feature?

Features are the attributes or qualities of your product or service.

What’s a benefit?

Benefits are what those attributes mean to your customer. The benefits can be a result that they’ll get from using your product, or it could be a feeling they’ll get from it, or both.

Benefits are the primary reason why your customer will buy your product.

Example:

Let’s look at a BMW and see the difference between its features and benefits.

• Feature: 450 BHP, 8 litres, V-12 engine Benefit: power, more control, improved handling and stability
• Feature: heated leather seats  Benefit: comfortable luxury seating all year round in all climates
• Feature: rear passenger airbags and child locks  Benefit: safety and security for your family giving you peace of mind whenever they are in the car

Do you see the difference? Features are attributes, components, or qualities of your product. Benefits are what those attributes, components and qualities mean to your prospect.

If you remember this fundamental difference and communicate this in your ads and sales copy you’ll start to make more sales – because when you highlight the benefits you are telling them why they should buy.

“What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM)

This is what your customer really cares about when they are reading or viewing your advert. Sorry, but the truth is they aren’t overly interested in you or your company!

“What’s in it for me?” (also abbreviated to WIIFM) is all they are concerned about. What can your product or company do for them? This is what they really want to know. Whenever your customer reads your sales page or watches your ad they are thinking about themselves.

They couldn’t care less if you’re celebrating your 10th year in business. They don’t care about how many units you sold last year. What they do care about is  – what’s in it for them!

I’ve seen so many marketers and salespeople make the classic mistake of talking about features without mentioning the benefits. These sorts of marketers and salespeople are always wondering why their prospects don’t buy.

“I mentioned every spec and feature of the product and they still weren’t impressed enough to buy!” they moan to themselves. That’s because people don’t buy on logic, they buy on emotion! Features trigger the logical part of your prospect’s brain. Benefits trigger the emotional part of your prospect’s brain

When you explain how they will benefit from your product you’re appealing to the emotional aspect of their personality. Your sales copy and ads should be filled with the benefits and results your customers will get from using your product or service. Fill your sales copy and ads with benefits, rather than over-emphasising features.

Aren’t features important?

Of course, you need to mention the features and specs of your product or service, but you should always relate them back to the benefits.

There are some industries, such as the automotive industry and electronics industries, that tend to focus more heavily on feature-driven messaging than benefits. Many car adverts or ads for laptops or cameras tend to focus more on features. But ultimately what drives prospects to actually part with their hard earned cash for these items are the benefits.

When you watch a car advert you’ll hear the voice over talk about the features, but the visuals are always telling the story of the benefits.

If features alone sold cars, they’d be no need for those over-the-top adverts. You know the ones I’m talking about – the ones that feature beautiful looking couples driving through serene looking mountain roads…..The elaborate visuals and sounds of the ad aren’t communicating the features, they are communicating the feeling (benefit) that you’ll get when you drive this car.

The feeling of driving through picture-perfect mountain scenery, with the top down, hair blowing in the wind, and lover in the passenger seat. The roar of the engine, the sound of the tyres driving across gravelled roads…..that’s what sells you!

When you visit a car showroom it’s all good being told by a salesperson that the new BMW has heated leather seats. But that doesn’t get you salivating, does it? What really sells you is the feeling of luxury and comfort you feel when you sit in the seat – ultimately it’s the benefit and emotion that convinces you to buy.

For most products or services you can’t go wrong when you emphasise the benefits in your copy over the features. You can do that by keeping your customer front of mind, and asking yourself questions that make you focus on how your products’ features relate to them.

Things to keep in mind when writing sales copy

These are some customer focused questions you should ask when you are writing your sales copy or putting your ad campaigns together.

• Why should your customer care about this feature?
• Why does this do for them?
• How do these features benefit your customer?
• What result will this give your customer?
• What problem does this solve for them?
• How does this make them feel?

Instead of concentrating solely on how great your product is, concentrate on what it can do for your customers. If you can answer these questions in your sales copy and ads you’ll be able to achieve that.

How to link features and benefits

There are some simple words or phrases you can use to link features and benefits. They are:

“Which means…..”

“So that…..”

“So you……”

Let’s see how easy it is to link features and benefits using any of these connecting phrases. I’ll use the BMW example I used earlier.

Example:

• Feature: 450 BHP, 8 litre V-12  engine Benefit: more power, greater control, improved handling and stability

Linked feature and benefit: 450 BHP, 8 litre V-12 engine WHICH MEANS you’ll have more power, greater control, and improved handling and stability on the road.

• Feature: heated real-leather seats Benefit: comfortable seating all year round in all climates

Linked feature and benefit: heated real-leather seats SO THAT you’ll feel luxuriously comfortable whatever the climate

• Feature: rear passenger airbags and child locks Benefit: comfortable seating all year round in all climates

Linked feature and benefit: rear passenger airbags and child locks SO YOU can drive your family around safely with total peace of mind

Pretty straightforward, right? When you link the features to benefits you are telling your prospects why they should buy. You are telling them clearly what exact benefits or results they can expect to gain when they make the purchase.

This makes it easier for them to justify buying your product.

Sell the hole, not the drill

When you start focusing on the benefits or results your customers can expect to get when they buy your product, you will start to sell more.

As the legendary Harvard marketing professor, Theodore Levitt once said:

“People don’t buy ¼-inch drills because they want a ¼-inch drill, they buy ¼-inch drills because they want ¼-inch holes”

In other words, people aren’t buying your product because they want your product – they buy because they want the result or benefit your product gives them.

Knowing how to use features and benefits the right way effectively means selling the hole, not the drill. Keep this in mind and make your adverts and marketing campaigns customer focused.

Tell your prospects how they’ll benefit and what results they’ll get when they buy and use your product. Tell them how these benefits will make them feel. The more emotion you can tie to the benefits the better.

Features tell, benefits sell!

Now that you understand the difference between features and benefits, go through your marketing materials and see if you need to change the focus of your ad copy.

Just adding even one simple statement linking a key feature and benefit can make all the difference. If you get confused between the difference between features and benefits just remember this quick reminder: features tell, benefits sell! 

Features tell your customers about your product, benefits sell your customer on why they should buy your product. Keep your prospects’ needs and problems at the forefront of your mind when writing your copy by referring to the customer focused questions above.

When you focus less on yourself and more on what your product can do for your customers they’ll love you all the more for it, and this should be reflected in your ability to reach more people and increase your sales.

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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.

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We are bombarded with adverts nowadays. Everywhere we look we have adverts and marketing messages thrust in front of our five senses. Never before in history have we been subjected to such a high volume of advertising. As consumers this annoys us, but as marketers this excites us!

We now have so many opportunities and different channels through which to target our prospects, and the level of targeting has gotten so granular that it’s almost scary.

With companies like Facebook and Google having an incredible amount of data about their users, these advertising platforms make it easier than ever to make sure our ads are being seen by the right people at the right time. But just getting our ads in front of the right prospects doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll be effective.

In order to make our ads more effective it’s important to consider the mood our target audience is in when they see our ads.

The correlation between mood and ad recall

Professor Fred Bronner from the University of Amsterdam ran an experiment to investigate the effect mood had on the ability to notice and recall adverts in a newspaper they were given.

The study showed that participants who claimed to be in a good or relaxed mood were able to recall significantly more ads from the newspaper compared to those who claimed they were in a bad or stressed mood.

Those participants who said they felt happy and relaxed were able to recall 56% of the ads. The participants who said they felt stressed were only able to recall 36% of the ads.

The effect of mood on how ads are perceived

Another study conducted by Richard Shotton and Laura McClean suggests that people who are in a happy, relaxed state of mind are more likely to respond favourably to an advert they are shown.

They showed the same advert to over 2,000 people. Each participant was asked how much they liked the ad. They were also asked to rate how they were feeling at the time on a scale of 1 to 10, with 0 being miserable and 10 being extremely happy. 21% of participants who rated themselves as happy claimed they liked the ad. In contrast, only 13% of the participants who were in an unhappy mood claimed to like the ad.

Many other studies have shown similar results. Both of the two studies mentioned have demonstrated that consumer moods:

• act as filters that influence how much of an ad they notice and their ability to recall it
• affect their perception of ads – how much they like or dislike them

You now understand just how much of an effect your prospect’s moods have on the effectiveness of your ads.

Use mood to increase ad effectiveness

Here’s how you use these insights into mood to increase the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.

1. Target prospects when they are in environments that put them in a happy state

Although there is no real way to know how our prospects are feeling at any given time, we can make educated guesses by targeting them in environments most likely to make them feel happy or relaxed.

Ads placed at the cinema are a good shout – your prospects are likely to be in a calm, relaxed state of mind when they are on a night out watching a movie. They are also more receptive to seeing ads on the big screen, as this is part of the experience of watching a movie at the cinema.

You can place your ads on billboards (print or digital) in places where people go out to enjoy themselves – normally city centers or areas where there are lots of restaurants and other forms of entertainment – bowling alleys, ice skating rinks, shopping centers, etc.

2. Target Prospects between Friday and Sunday

Studies have shown that consumers are more likely to be in a good mood between Friday and Sunday compared to any other day.

The peak is on Saturday when people are more than 40% more likely to be feeling in a happier, relaxed state of mind. This is not surprising. People love Fridays as they signal the end of the work week and the start of the weekend. People are most likely to be at their happiest on Saturdays, as it’s a day when most people are relaxing or are out socialising, or just enjoying themselves in general.

Targeting consumers during these days greatly increases the chances of them being more memorable and making a positive impression.

3. Match your ad messaging to your prospects’ moods

If you can roughly guess when your prospects are likely to be in a happier or sad mood, you should change your ad messaging to match accordingly.

Using granular targeting available on many of the ad platforms today you can target people during significant moments, events, or occasions such as birthdays, wedding anniversaries, holidays, etc. Your prospects are likely to be in good moods during these times so you should match your ad messaging accordingly.

High energy ads are well received when people are in a happy, relaxed, or excited mood. If your product or service is something that targets people likely to be in sad, stressed, or unhappy moods, e.g. funeral services, or people with serious medical conditions, then your ad should be more considerate in tone to match their mood.

Key takeaways

Targeting your prospects with ads when they are in the right mood significantly improves the chances that they will like and be able to recall your ad, therefore significantly increasing the chances of them becoming a customer down the line.

When you can achieve congruence between the tone of your ads and your prospect’s moods, you will start to see better results from your marketing campaigns.

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