For a variety of reasons, the psychological approach to online marketing is oftentimes overlooked despite its clear and undeniable advantages. The biggest of these reasons no doubt lies in the fact that most affiliates simply think it’s either too difficult or would require too much extra work or research on their part to properly harness the benefits. Fortunately, utilizing basic psychological principles to effectively help bolster your overall return on investment (ROI) percentage is far, far easier than you’d expect.
And it’ll now be even more of a walk in the park thanks to this post that you’re now reading, because we’re going to outline three of the best and easiest psychological principles for you to implement in a simple, easy-to-understand fashion for you below.
* * * *
>> AUTHORITY
We as human beings are specifically wired to inherently trust figures of authority. Whether said figures are in positions of authority or demonstrate their authority through their words, actions or level of knowledge, it really doesn’t make much of a difference.
Have you ever wondered why celebrity and industry-specific expert endorsements are so very popular with practically every kind of product or service worldwide? It’s simple.
It’s because it establishes a direct and deeply personal link with the target through the inherent feeling of trust and familiarity that said celebrity or expert helps them exhibit.
But how can you harness this phenomenon without shelling out astronomical amounts of money to celebrities or niche industry experts to help you promote your campaigns? By simply creating your own type of niche expert celebrity/persona in the space, of course!
You can accomplish this by fully establishing yourself (or a member of your team, if available) as an authority in the sub-industry you’re looking to — or already are — operating in.
Alternatively, you could forge strategically implemented partnerships with other authorities in the space. This will ultimately help to provide mutually beneficial rewards for you both via either thoughtful, useful, and knowledgeable content and/or utilizing the added authority of said partner within your specific market.
* * * *
>> ANCHORING
Believe it or not, but the human brain is actually constantly looking for comparisons. What with our minds usually operating in a tangled, complicated web of various options, outcomes and scenarios, we oftentimes drive ourselves insane trying to come to the correct conclusion or decision.
Due to this pattern of thinking, though, we usually tend to try and compare all progressive options against the original one that we thought up or believe to have come first.
A simple and easily applicable way to take advantage of this principle of psychology is offering discounts or bonuses to help supplement an original offer, product or service. While oftentimes delving directly into the incentive side of the fence, don’t let this steer you clear of trying to utilize this principle in any non-incentive campaigns as well, because it can certainly be done (so long as you outline your options and recognize the best way to go about things according to the existing offer or program rules).
* * * *
>> LOSS AVERSION
By our very nature as humans, we’re understandably terrified of loss. And whether these instincts are a direct result of our hunter-gatherer backgrounds back in the day, or we’re just predisposed to value certain resources or items more than others, we’ll usually go above and beyond the call of duty to help avoid loss of any kind regardless.
Thankfully, you can use this fact of human nature in your online marketing efforts simply by making consumers believe they’ll incur a potential loss or penalty by not taking the immediate action(s) that you require them to take.
By highlighting your offer, product and/or service scarcity, for example, you’ll be making your target market feel that they’ll be missing out something wicked by not following through and converting on the call to action. Limiting the time that an offer is available or even indicating a certain limited number of items available will create an immediate sense of urgency.
You can add this loss aversion psychological principle into content marketing as well by simply using buzz words such as, “Stop wasting your time” or, “Stop wasting money” – better yet, why not combine the two and exclaim, “Stop wasting your time and money…”
* * * *
All in all, implementing these simple psychological principles into your online marketing endeavors may be a small bit of extra work, but as you can clearly see, it’s most certainly worth it.
And it doesn’t just stop here either, as there are various other psychological principles you can easily implement in all different aspects of your online marketing campaigns in order to help give yourself the ultimate edge in your overall return on investment (ROI) percentages. All it takes is a bit of extra research, an open mind, and a willingness to split-test, split-test, split-test, and you’ll be good to go.
