The advertising landing page carries an extremely important responsibility - to "brainwash" consumers and then safely send users to the "customer incubation box". If you agree with this point of view, then the purpose of the landing page can be focused on the word "brainwashing".

You may ask, there are so many brainwashing marketing arguments, how should you choose when making a landing page? Of course there is more than one way. Today I will share a good way that starts from the weaknesses of human nature.

Well-known brand marketing guru Martin Lindstrom wrote a book called "Brand Brainwashing". When I read his core marketing "tricks", my eyes lit up - these methods are also applicable to the conversion scenarios of landing pages~

1. Let’s talk about “fear” again

Martin Lindstrom mentioned that using fear, a human weakness, in marketing can make people feel anxious or uneasy in an instant, which in turn affects rational decision-making and leads to obvious biased behaviors. This is a perfect match for scenarios where landing pages need to quickly convince users.

Using fear to promote marketing is not uncommon. Let’s look at an example of a landing page using fear.

It can be seen that creating a sense of fear does not require a long, complete and lengthy message. On the contrary, short/fragmented information is more likely to cause people to feel momentary fear, and the landing page scene is very suitable for creating such an atmosphere.

Not only that, fear makes people anxious, and anxiety makes people desire "psychological massage" - fortunately, there is enough space on the landing page to provide 1-2 ways to soothe the soul, which can be used directly to guide conversions.

Of course, fear is also a double-edged sword. Physiologically, fear motivates people to take two opposite actions - fight or flight.

As shown in the picture above, parents who saw the title of this landing page generally felt that the word "illiterate" was too harsh, which led to a sense of disgust and they left directly. It can be seen that if the fear is too great or too little, it may backfire and make consumers turn away. Only when you create just the right amount of fear in consumers will they make the “battle decision” you expect.

Three key points to grasp "moderate fear"

By analyzing a large number of successful landing page cases throughout 2019 and the first half of 2020, Lingqi discovered the following insights about the "moderate sense of fear" of landing pages.

1. Use people’s fear of “failure”, but don’t make them feel “frustrated”

The above is a landing page for adult English, which allows consumers to see their future "failed self" - through the header image of the landing page, it tells you that if you don't spend time learning English, your future may be affected.

First, it resonates with you, so that you want to intervene or do something; then, you will follow the steps designed by the brand, "discover" the method that suits you best, and take immediate action to prevent failure.

Note that although the fear of failure is a tried and tested strategy, it can easily over-stimulate consumers and lead to an avoidance mentality. Failure should not bring people extreme fear, but serious frustration or extremely high risk will make users feel very uncomfortable and thus develop a rejection mentality.

2. Taking advantage of people’s fear of “lack of control”, but not “completely out of control”

The fear of not being able to control certain things will prompt consumers to rush to find some form of comfort.

To give a very simple example, the first thing people see when they open WeChat is the lonely planet. The lonely little man is facing the huge planet and the universe, which makes users feel lonely that they "cannot control their own interpersonal relationships" - so we become more obsessed with this social software because it allows us to communicate with friends at any time and understand our friends' dynamics, thereby soothing our uncertainty about interpersonal relationships.

As shown in the home decoration landing page example below, the "sense of lack of control" can reduce consumers' rational defenses, making the brain more sensitive to stimulating things (such as coupons, limited time, free, etc.) and easier to trust, thereby completing the conversion of the landing page.

However, we cannot create a feeling of complete loss of control, as this will scare away users. As shown in the figure below, the same home improvement landing page, if users are made overly fearful and worried, will create a sense of loss of control over things, and the landing page effect is likely to plummet.

3. Use peer pressure to create fear in people, but don’t belittle or ridicule them.

Smart landing pages will use the pressure of "others have it, but you don't" to brainwash users, prompting people to want to learn more and buy. This is actually the use of peer pressure, that is, peer pressure - people instinctively influence their own decisions by observing the behavior of their peers.

Think about it, such situations are very common in marketing, from small items like facial masks and health products to large items like investments and real estate. In short, everyone tends to develop a comparison mentality with their peers and the same group.

But in fact, peer pressure is not just about comparison. This psychology also includes some invisible and primitive desires that people are born with - this essentially falls into the category of "herd" psychology. And "conformity" does not just mean acting like everyone else; it means being influenced by the actions of others.

As shown in the figure below, an education landing page uses "peer pressure". Parents will subtly feel that if they don’t participate, their children will fall behind. But that’s not all. Next, the brand combined it with hunger marketing and deliberately limited the number of registrations. As a result, an illusion of supply exceeding demand is created, which creates greater peer pressure on users and leads them to try to purchase the course in various ways.

If we break it down further, the fear of peer pressure mainly comes from two scenarios: the worry of "fear of not having enough" and the uneasiness of "fear of falling behind". The landing page can use this human instinct to instill the following message in users: Only by doing this can you be no worse than your peers.

It is particularly important to emphasize here that the essence of peer pressure is to gain recognition and the desire to be respected - for example, people's enthusiasm for luxury goods, fashionable products, and high-end courses. However, you must never use logic such as "others can do it, but you can't" to provoke ridicule or belittle a certain group. This goes against the original intention of peer pressure and will cause users to respond negatively, thus failing to achieve the conversion effect of the landing page.

To review, today we have analyzed in detail how to use "fear" to improve the conversion effect of landing pages - the key lies in the word "moderation". A basic principle for finding the right balance is to clarify "which fears can be used safely in landing pages", fear of failure, fear of lack of control, and fear of peer pressure. In a word, even if we use "fear" to mobilize emotions in the landing page, we must use "more positive fear".

Author: CTR Insight

Source: CTR Insights

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