Priming
Priming is like planting seeds in people's minds without them realizing it. It's a sneaky way to influence how people react to new things.
Basically, the first thing you show them affects how they'll react to the next one, all happening in their subconscious. It's a mysterious and powerful trick that marketers use to shape behaviour.
Let's take an example:
Imagine you see an ad with happy beach scenes and sunsets. Later, when you see a product like a sunscreen or a tropical drink, your mind is already in a positive, relaxed state because of the earlier images.
Without even realizing it, that first ad influenced how you feel about the second thing you saw. That's priming in action!
Reciprocity
Dr. Robert Cialdini provided the simplest definition to understand the term reciprocity in his book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion".
"If someone does something for you, you naturally will want to do something for them. "
Let's see how it works:
In marketing, if you give someone something nice, like an eBook or a free trial, they might feel happy and want to do something nice for you in return.
It could be as simple as saying thank you or helping you out. Just make sure you give something free before asking for anything back.
Social Proof
Speaking in general social proof is when people look at what others are doing or saying to figure out what they should do or think.
It's like when a lot of friends say a game is fun, and you want to play it too because they all like it.
Some easy ways to leverage social proof
Featuring positive comments and reviews from happy customers.
Using star ratings to indicate high satisfaction.
Sharing user-generated content such as photos and videos
Displaying any badges or awards your product has received
Decoy Effect
A less appealing third option is introduced as a strategy in the decoy effect. The goal is to make one of the original choices look better.
It's a psychological strategy. Steering you towards a specific decision by tweaking how you perceive the options.
The goal is to influence your choices. By playing with the perceived value and attractiveness of the available options.
Decoy effect in play
The $6 popcorn is like a trick or a distraction. Its job is to make the $6.5 popcorn seem like a better choice, even though it's a bit more expensive.
So, they put the $6 popcorn there to make you think the $6.5 one is a great deal. It's a sneaky way to get you to pick the more expensive option by making it look like the better choice!
Scarcity
This is a psychological principle that has something to do with supply and demand.
"The more rare the opportunity, content, or product is, the more valuable it is."
Some examples of scarcity in marketing
Limited-time offers: "40% off sneakers for one day only"
Flash sales: "There are only two rooms left"
Exclusive product drops: "Introduce “while supplies last” limited-time offers"
Seasonal or promotional items: "Create excitement with exclusive product drops"
Keep this in mind if you are using this principle
Make the scarcity idea work by saying there used to be a lot of a product.
But now there are only a few left because everyone wants it.
People like that.
But if you say there were only a few from the start, it won't have the same impact.