Your marketing strategies are crucial to increasing your sales.
As an SME who also plans your marketing activities, you must understand how your customers think and behave. Meaning you have to use a psychological approach to know the characteristics of your target market and what attracts them when buying a product.
According to a study, just changing the color of buttons on a website can increase conversion by 14.5%. This is an interesting finding, and now you’re probably even more curious about what other psychological approach you can use to increase your sales.
Online sellers usually use the two most common selling techniques: BONUS and DISCOUNTS. This time, we want to share some psychological tactics in marketing that are also very powerful in increasing your sales.
Powerful psychological strategies in marketing
1. Embrace the emotional side of customers
Neuroscience confirms that people buy based on emotions over logic. Emotion, therefore, is an important factor that influences a person’s decision, including buying a product or item.
If all this time you have only been explaining the advantages of your product, start turning those advantages into a story that will appeal to the emotional side of customers. Create relatable or situational content that contains elements of happiness, disappointment, curiosity or even laughter (humorous approach).
This approach is also called emotional marketing. Here in the Philippines, SADvertising works very well with audiences. These are stories that tug our heartstrings; they usually start sad but give us happy endings. That’s why we get a lot of heartwarming ads from big brands, like the Kwentong Jollibee series.
Ninja Van’s HUSTLE story film, for example, earned many positive feels from online sellers, particularly single parents who could relate to the story.
Of course, the content you create can be in the form of videos, images or carousels and tailored to the characters of your customers and relevant stories.
2. Give back to customers
When someone gives us something, consciously or unconsciously we feel compelled to give something back. This is where psychological reciprocity plays a role in marketing.
To make your customers feel they have a special relationship with your brand, give something back that feels exclusive and unique. This can be in the form of a custom giveaway or freebie for loyal customers. Or send them a birthday coupon so they can avail of a special discount from your shop.
It can also be a free service, like a free consultation if your product requires special applications, such as skincare and health products. Or even a grand event that would make customers excited.
These kinds of efforts build customer retention and help increase your sales.
3. Show social proof
You have to remember that customers buy your product because they believe in it.
others to try your business, too.
So, the next marketing psychology trick is to show evidence that your product or brand is trusted by many who have used or using it. Show new customers they have nothing to worry about as they can also trust you.
You can start by sharing reviews or recommendations from happy customers, displaying product certifications or good ratings and a Trusted Seller badge if you sell in marketplaces. Then share these proofs on your social media accounts for everyone to see.
4. Use the decoy effect
Think about the times you’re given choices when ordering food, they offer sizes from small, medium and large. But the price difference between medium and large was so small you were easily convinced to get the pricier size.
isn’t that big. Because they get more for less.
This strategy is called the decoy effect, when marketers “trick” you into switching your choice to the more expensive or profitable one.
This popular marketing tactic can increase your sales if you apply it correctly:
- Keep the choices at exactly three. Giving customers too many choices may make it complicated, and they’ll end up not buying at all.
- Upsell the variant with the higher or highest price. While the pricing is pretty close, you should make the more expensive variant slightly better and more appealing to the buyer.
- Create a bundle or package. Another way to do the decoy effect is to offer products in a bundle so that customers will feel they’re getting savings from buying two (or more) instead of one item.
5. Optimize for the goldilocks effect
The goldilocks effect makes consumers feel they’ve found a product that suits their wants and needs, not because it’s the cheapest or the most expensive option. But simply because it’s the right one.
This marketing strategy gives customers product and pricing options of ‘too low, too high and just right’.
For example, you’re offering a promo for Valentine’s Day with these gift options:
- Basic package (PH 500): 3 red roses + 1 big Hersheys chocolate bar
- Standard package (PH 1,000): 12 red roses + 1 big Cadbury chocolate bar + cute plushie
- Premium Package (PH 2,500): 24 red roses + 1 box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates + cute plushie + sparkling wine
A customer may see the basic package as not romantic enough, and the premium package as a bit too much. But the standard package is just right for a romantic Valentine’s gift for their special someone in terms of the gifts and their budget.
Tap into the customers’ buying behavior
In addition to these five psychological marketing tricks, there are other principles that you can use that appeal highly to customers, like offering a free trial, creating FOMO (fear of missing out) or giving them free shipping.
and increasing your sales. Image from Getty Images
Most importantly, you have to understand your target market so you can apply the best marketing techniques that would bring big sales. Use analytics and historical data to look into your customers’ buying behavior.
If you’re still feeling your way, you can start with these psychological marketing tricks, find out which works and which doesn’t and then adjust your strategies as necessary.
Featured image by Sewcream via Getty Images
