Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves.
Esther
Welcome back to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today we're talking about the psychology of marketing. What do you know about psychology, Melanie?
Melanie
I live with a psychologist. Does that help?
Esther
Does he shrink your head every night?
Melanie
No. The conversation isn't that in depth, in fairness.
Esther
We'll not tell him. Okay, but psychology is important. Would you agree with that bit?
Melanie
I think understanding the mindset and the customer journey is important, but when you start invoking the words of psychology, I think it might be a little frightening and off putting to people that aren't psychology students as "Oh heck, is this something else I need to understand as well?"
Esther
Well, it might be more off putting to your customers if they listen to how you're shrinking them every time that you're sending out posts and stuff. But psychology is some people say it's the root of marketing. I don't know if it's not the be all and end all, it's not the one and only thing that will make your marketing work, but it is, I think, a really important part of it. So we've talked about some aspects of these before, but today we're just going to go through in these ten minutes, we're going to talk about ten psychology principles that will make you a better marketer. And it goes for any business, any industry, any person at all.
Melanie
I like your chances of keeping this ten minutes. We've not done any of the others in ten minutes.
Esther
For a while. No, for a while. Well, we'll have to stop waffling on, then. Right, carry on. Okay, number one, ask your customers for testimonials.
Melanie
How's that psychology? Surely that's just common sense.
Esther
No, well, it has a psychological twist to it, right? So it's called gathering social proof. So if one person sees that other people like something, then they want to buy it, right? So if you're shopping for a new car and your friend has just bought the same car and somebody else that you know has just bought the same car, then you're going to ask them and say, "do you like your car? Do you like this new car that you got?" And if they are ranting and raving about it and say, yes, this wonderful car, then obviously it's going to tilt your perception. It's going to influence you to buy one as well. Unless you don't want to be like your friends, unless you want to go to the opposite extreme and go, "nah, I'm going to buy the rubbish one from the other dealer around the corner instead."
Melanie
Well, no, I do get the old social proof. In fact, I've been very lucky the last few weeks because I send out my link on a frequent basis asking people to give me feedback and reviews. And I've actually been quite lucky over the last few weeks in getting some really nice ones. And I do make a point because a lot of them just end up either on LinkedIn or actually, most of them are on Google reviews, and they kind of disappear there because how many people actually look up your Google reviews? So I tend to copy and paste them, put them into Canva, and then I share them.
Esther
And add them to your website.
Melanie
Well, I add them to my website, but the only way they started to get really popular is in the highlights on stories. So you put it up as a story and then you save it as a highlight, and then it never disappears.
Esther
See? Testimonials work. So Point 2 - the decoy effect. Did you know that people presented with two options to buy will have different opinions than people presented with three? So if you have one product and you've got two price points in that one product, say you've got in our case web design, and if it's a five page website, or a 25 page website, or an unlimited page website, if we only offered the two and said five pages, or landing page, or static or brochure websites, and these are your two prices. You've got this one for that amount, the other one for the other amount. People are less likely to buy than if you give them a third option.
Melanie
Well, that's classic. You see a Costa coffee and Starbucks, and that's why they offer them three sizes of cups and then four. Well, the majority of people go for the middle.
Esther
Yeah, but I saw a video a couple of days ago that even if you buy the smallest one, it all still fits almost identically in the other two sizes anyway. But that's the story for another day. But if you give them if you don't have three options, then invent a third option, or invent something that will - not invent, but you know what I mean, bring in other elements into your course, for example, that will give them the third option. Number three. Scarcity. We love knowing that something is limited edition, right? Limited quantities. Buy now, last day to buy.
Melanie
But how do you do that as well? Graphic designers, website designers, social media trainers. There's hundreds of us. We're hardly scarce, are we?
Esther
But this is where your USP comes in. This is where what you do makes a difference to what they get out of it.
Melanie
Okay, so how do we do this?
Esther
So for scarcity, right, you're a prime example because you have a course, right?
Melanie
My supported Digital marketing strategy course for those of you who are wondering,
Esther
Right, so you do a webinar to promote that course. So on the day of the webinar, if people sign up that day, you could give them a discount on this day only on this day, when you get it for this price, right? And then maybe for the next week, they will get it for a rising amount. But only the people who join the webinar and join the course on that day will get it for a certain amount. You want to join later, even if you're on the webinar, if you didn't take advantage of it that day, too bad. It's now, this price. Okay, what I don't like, and I know I'm not going to make it to ten minutes because I just looked at the time,
Melanie
I told you!
Esther
Sorry, guys! What I don't like is the people that go, "one day only", "three days left to get this". And you refresh the page and it still gives you three days left to buy it.
Melanie
Oh is that just poor website design?
Esther
No, but some people are too scared to actually cut off and say, early bird is only until this date. Some people go, well, yeah, early bird was that date, but I've decided to extend it. No, sorry, I don't trust you anymore. Next one is anchoring. Anchoring. What's the amount of information online these days? People need something to hold onto a North Star, source of truth, something that buyers need to press that buy now button. Right? So if you're running a sale, make sure people aren't just seeing the sale price. Show them what it was then and what the price is now. Right? So you've got that on your website. You've got normal price or value of items is X amount, one day only this price. Don't hide what it usually is. If you're going for a 50% sale on your clothing line, show them what the price was before.
Melanie
Yeah, okay, now that makes sense.
Esther
That does make sense, right? So what are we up to? Five. Yeah, right. Loss aversion. Psychology is the study of people and how they think and everything. It's taught us that humans are more fearful of losing out than they are excited about gaining something. Now, I've also heard of this in the other way around, because with this one, it's better to say, "don't miss this experience" rather than "gain this knowledge".
Melanie
Do you know what this makes me think of? Do you remember the Maureen Litman ad? I can't remember. I think it was for Tea or something.
Esther
Yeah, she was Tea.
Melanie
And he's got an ology. He's a scientist. And do you remember that? Maybe it's just in the UK.
Esther
I'm in the UK.
Melanie
Well, yeah, I keep forgetting that. When it came down to thinking of that particular psychology, I can understand how MayKing brings FOMO to people's minds. She's letting them know what's to come, but you have to be there. So are we now saying that MayKing is a shrink?
Esther
I'll leave that up to you guys. But I've also heard of it in the opposite way. Instead of saying negative things like this will help you not to do something. I'm thinking of it in terms of I heard it from a hypnotist and he said that he markets it rather than this is to help you stop smoking. It's help you to or instead of saying to help you not want to smoke. Instead of using a negative. He will turn it into a positive.
Melanie
But marketing classically gives you the bad stuff. Find five ways how you're doing it wrong. So how is this going to help people with their marketing?
Esther
Because people will want to click into how to not do it wrong. Rather than clicking into "five ways you know that you're doing it right". I'd rather figure out if I'm doing it wrong and change that and see if I'm doing it right. Yeah. Plus, I think a lot of people are negative and don't look for the positives in things anyway. So instead of saying, gain this from this experience, it's like, don't miss out. Don't lose money by going with that other bunch of people for your house insurance. Right, what are we up to now? Six. Six, seven right now with psychology. Right. Colour psychology. We talked about this with Sue on a previous podcast. Colours are feelings, emotions, brands, products. The colours you choose to showcase in your marketing can greatly impact the way people think of your brand. So think about how you're choosing those colours, how you're putting them together, what they mean, what they symbolise and the emotional responses attached to them.
Melanie
How it makes you feel, how it makes your audience feel.
Esther
Exactly. It's not, because it's not just about you, it's about how the audience feels. And would that make them buy from you, trust you, see you as authentic, see you as somebody that they can relate to as well.
Melanie
Exactly. Right, so it's relatability that matters, isn't it?
Esther
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so the next one is a bit more complicated. Are we on eight? Nine?
Melanie
No, we're eight now.
Esther
Thought this was seven. Anyway, you can let us know in the comments if we messed up the numbers. Law of least effort.
Melanie
The law of least effort?
Esther
Yeah. Right. If you're Maths quiz, mathematic whiz, you can put pen to paper and solve an equation. Right. But most people use a calculator instead. Why?
Melanie
Because it's easier
Esther
Exactly. Yeah. So the law of least effort. Is it easy for people to check out on your website?
Melanie
Ah so customer experience? CX.
Esther
Yeah, right. I told you, these are things that we do without thinking that they're psychology. Is your website scrollable? Is your content thumb stoppingly good? Yeah. When they're on your website, on a mobile experience, can they click the button where their thumb is, rather than having to move their thumb or use a different digit to click the Buy Now button? How many processes, how many steps do they need to get to the checkout and pay for your stuff?
Melanie
And ultimately, they're trying to do that with every platform now, aren't they? They're trying to reduce the amount of moves that you make.
Esther
Yeah, absolutely. Right, next one, because we have lost count of the number: paradox of choice. How many times have you walked into the store to buy a piece of clothing and be overwhelmed with the decision process and left with nothing?
Melanie
Classic example. Pennies.
Esther
Yeah. Or Primark, for those of us in the UK, you walk in and you go, right, I'm going to buy a pair of trousers. Right. Or a pair of jeans. And then you get to them. Do you want skinny jeans? Bell bottom jeans, skinny jeans with bell bottoms at the bottom of them?
Melanie
Mum's jeans.
Esther
Yeah. Why can we not just have one option? Then there's the colour choices. What colour do you want them in? One of each please. Too many options. I think in the case of Penny's/ Primark a bit, because they're so affordable, you probably would buy more than one
Melanie
In fairness you would. Yeah.
Esther
But if you were handbag shopping, shoe shopping, too many choices. Right. So there was a study carried out that the more choices the shoppers have to choose between, the less likely they are to actually choose one. So in the case study that I saw, it was jam. So if you have 24 choices of jam, attracted 60% of the shoppers and 3% of shoppers bought jam, whereas if they had six choices of jam, it attracted 40% of the shoppers and 30% of those bought jam.
Melanie
Oh, what a high conversion.
Esther
Right. So you're more likely to get people buying it if you have less. Which also relates back to the urgency of, well, if these are the only options I have: buy now, or don't buy, you're going to buy now. Right, okay. We're almost done. Almost done. Hang in there with me. It's gone way over time, but hang in there, okay?
Melanie
We haven't done a ten minute podcast in a while. Come on.
Esther
We will, we will. Eventually. Eventually. Right, so urgency. Yeah. Give them deadlines, give them countdown timers, the price increases, just like we were saying earlier on, if you buy today, you get it for this price, but if you buy it over the next week, then maybe on the Monday, it's £3 dearer. On the Tuesday, it's £5 dearer on the Wednesday. Price increase like that. There are other ways that I saw of somebody wanted to have on their website that the first 100 people, so the first person that bought got it for £1 or €$1, whatever it was, the next person then bought it at $2, then $3, then $4. So if you weren't one of the first ones to buy, you could end up buying it for $50/$100. Yeah.
Melanie
Wow.
Esther
So if you have that urgency going right, so we've had 30 people buy and there's 14 people online looking at it. Holidays for sale.
Melanie
Well, you see it all the time, don't you?
Esther
Yeah. So many people have bought this and 14 people are looking at it right now, but we only have three rooms left.
Melanie
And then Paul from Northumberland bought one room, three rooms left.
Esther
Yeah. Right, so there's loads of websites do that, although I think maybe the one where it says Paul from the Northumberland bought might be in breach of GDPR. But anyway, you have these where you're like, okay, so there's only three rooms left at that price, or there's only five seats left on the plane at that price and there's four of us, so going to need to buy it now you've got that urgency and it might turn around that, oh, somebody returned their seats or didn't want to buy that plane ticket, et cetera. So now you could log in the next day and there's 20 of them left. You never know. Right, last one. Promise.
Melanie
Okay, I thought that was the last one.
Esther
No, I told you that you messed up, that you were counting wrong. This is the one that I have a hard time pronouncing. Reciprocity.
Melanie
Reciprocity.
Esther
We all like free stuff. Oh, yeah, right. When you get a free perk like An AgoraPulse hoody, you're more likely to remember them, take photographs of it, share it out in your socials. The same works for conversions. Give shoppers something upfront and hope that they return the favour. Right. You could give them a discount code, a free ebook, a website audit, a guide. There's lots of things that you could give them when they buy from you that adds value, that they're more likely to then go, oh, these guys are great because they gave me free stuff. I'm going to shout about them, give them their testimonials. I'm going to tell my friends that if you're looking for somebody to go to for social media training, they should go to Melanie. If they're looking for a website, go to Esther. If they're looking for XYZ, go to that person or thing. If it is free T shirt that you send and we end up walking around the streets wearing it, all the more people seeing it.
Melanie
You do realise you've just made everybody aware just how cheap we are now?
Esther
Oh, yeah, we work for hoodies and notebooks and cups of coffee / mugs. Yeah, we definitely love our mugs, but, yeah, I think everybody loves free stuff.
Melanie
Yeah, no, you're right. I hadn't realised, actually, so much of what we do on a daily basis, not everything that we do on a daily basis, is down to a psychology of some description. And I have been sort of trying to be the naysayer throughout today's podcast. Not because I haven't believed or I do understand everything that's been said, but.
Esther
You're playing devil's advocate.
Melanie
Basically, yes. And there's going to be some of people in our audience who are going to think, well, how does that work? Why does it apply to me and how can I apply it? So I do hope you found this information useful. It certainly pricked our ears up when we came across this information. So thanks to Esther for suggesting this topic today. And do let us know if you're applying any of your psychology tidbits or any of the ones we've mentioned today, and we'll pass it on on another podcast.
Esther
Absolutely. That's it for today, guys. We'll talk to you again next week. Until then, have a good one.
Melanie
Seriously? Ten minutes. Ten minutes. Ten minutes.
Esther
Okay, I lied. I'm sorry.
Melanie
It's nearly double!
Esther
I know. Well, if you'd stopped talking, then, you know.
Melanie
Well, they're finished. They're not listening now anyway.
Esther
I'm going to make you do all the talking in the next and see if you can stick to ten minutes.
Melanie
Deal