3 Ways You Can Use Psychology In Marketing
It’s important for a marketer to successfully do their job. The first thing they need to understand is who the customer is, what they want, and what drives them to buy. These techniques are based on psychological theories, which are generally called marketing psychology. They use several psychologically-based human behavior observations to effectively communicate with potential customers and increase daily conversions. Marketing psychology has been broadly described as “ incorporating a set of psychological concepts into your content, marketing and sales strategy” they can also think marketing psychology as a way of searching for trends in humans and determining how these contribute to their purchasing decisions.
Here are some 5 commonly used psychology marketing principles:
- Reciprocity principle: this theory is based on the premise that you are more likely to return the favor if a company does something positive for you, and have increased cooperation in the future.
- Information gap theory: this theory implies if someone in a field that concerns them has a void in their knowledge, they will take steps to find out what they want to know.
- The scarcity theory: this theory suggests that humans place greater importance on the items they consider are unique and place a lower value on what can be easily obtained.
- Social proof theory: the theory related to the idea that people are more trusting in goods when they meet someone who can affirm their interest.
- Loss aversion market: this theory emphasizes most people would prefer to avoid losses compared to gain.
Ways in which psychology can be used in marketing:
- Color Psychology: the study of hues as a determinant of human behavior is color psychology. Color has a huge impact on an individual’s behavior and should never be underestimated in the context of marketing. Color psychology in relation to marketing found that people make up their minds about a product within 90 seconds and 62%-90% of that decision is based on color alone.
- Use a random reward schedule: you know the stem cards issued to you by some restaurants and coffee shops that allow you to get a free discount anytime you’re coming? These cards can be effective, where customers are rewarded with discounts anytime they arrive. The customers may keep going to the restaurants again and again to maximize their chances of getting discounts. It is based on a phenomenon called psychological operative conditioning where people learn to equate their actions with events.
- Scarcity marketing: psychologists believe human beings value things that are more difficult to get. We should think about scarcity in a positive way as it “orients the mind toward unfulfilled needs instinctively and strongly” scarcity marketing is where customers believe they may lose out on what is now on sale, thereby sacrificing their freedom of choice. Eg Black Friday sales, it’s a fast becoming trend around the globe that attracts bargain hunters, limited product offering, updating the status with only a few stocks left or few seats left for a cheap flight.
Whatever the tactic you may use, it’s obvious that psychology is an important part of optimizing your marketing strategies. Psychology doesn’t just give you a knowledge of consumer behavior, but it also allows for you to empathize with the client and introduce ways to appeal to them and make your brand successful simultaneously.