11 marketing techniques preferred by top marketers, each one is a killer!

There are no experts in marketing . The only experts are consumers. All you have to do is impress consumers.

Experienced marketers rarely plan for the sake of planning or create for the sake of creativity. They are always good at finding breakthroughs in consumers and then influencing them.

When everything is changing rapidly, human nature always exists. Insights into consumer psychology always help them solve problems and drive marketing success.

In this article, Lao Zei wants to share with you 11 marketing techniques that are driven by human nature. They are universal and can be flexibly used in marketing, operations , copywriting and other aspects.

1. Social proof always works

When people are unsure about an action they are taking, they usually look at what other people around them are doing and use that as a reference for their own actions.

People are naturally inclined to do what most other people are doing, even when that behavior is socially unacceptable. We change our behavior to align with the majority.

You have to tell consumers that people similar to them are doing this and using this product, so that they are likely to rush to do it too.

For example: customer on-site testimonials, customer videos, customer audio, customer testimonials, screenshots of web page reviews, customer handwritten letters, etc.

It is best to create a real scene experience for potential customers, so that existing customers have the opportunity to provide the most powerful testimony to potential customers, such as: seminars, customer appreciation meetings, organizing various theme activities, etc.

For example, many training institutions now hold some achievement reporting activities regularly, and there will be performances and speeches by old students on site. On the one hand, it is to maintain old customers, and on the other hand, it also allows potential customers to experience it on site.

Furthermore, the more similar the person providing the customer testimonial is to the target audience, the more persuasive the testimonial will be. It would be best if you could let the target audience see you and resonate with you.

2. Too many choices may not be good

When consumers are faced with too many options, they may find the decision-making process troubling, thereby increasing the decision-making cost of the purchase itself.

Because too many options will create a huge burden, we have to spend more time thinking about which one we want among so many options. We will analyze and compare them one by one, which will consume a lot of brain cells.

Everyone wants to make the wisest choice, but gradually, the anxiety and discomfort brought by the choice even exceed the pleasure of shopping itself.

In the end, as you think about it, your decision-making ability and interest decrease, and the possibility of giving up increases. You might as well just not buy it. It’s annoying.

There is a classic jam experiment abroad in which the experimenter provides consumers with the opportunity to taste the jam. The experiment was divided into 2 groups. One group had 6 types of jams to try, and the other group had 24 types of jams to try. After trying all of them, they could buy any of them at a price lower than the market price.

As a result, in the group with 6 jams, 30% of the tasters chose to buy, while in the group with 24 jams, only 3% of them finally chose to buy.

The reason is simple: low decision costs lead to a high number of actions.

The 24 types of jams may seem more tempting, but in fact they increase the final decision-making cost for consumers. It is difficult and brain-consuming to choose, and consumers may simply give up the purchase in the end.

3. Compromise options in the eyes of consumers

This is still a question of choice. When faced with numerous options, in order to avoid brain fatigue, we usually choose a compromise option in the end.

That is, we will choose an option between "meeting the minimum needs" and "the highest affordable cost".

For example, when we have to choose between two similar products, we usually settle for the second best and choose the one that is relatively cheaper or has a better cost-effectiveness. But when having to choose between three similar products, people often shift from choosing the cheapest to choosing the mid-priced one.

And here is where you need to pay attention: when there are not many options, consumers will always try hard to find a compromise option. What you need to do is to highlight the compromise option.

When Apple released the Apple Watch for $349, what did it do to make the price seem reasonable?

They also released 38 different versions of the product, ranging in price from $349 to $17,000. The existence of this $17,000 Apple Watch makes the $349 price tag look a lot more affordable.

4. Note that even if it’s free, you should still emphasize its value

If you want to offer a giveaway for a service or product to boost conversions .

If you want to use free marketing methods to generate a lot of traffic for your product or service.

I think you will definitely be able to attract everyone. I have only one suggestion, that is, no matter it is a gift or free, you must shape its value and let users get it.

Don’t give something away just for the sake of giving it away, and don’t give it away for the sake of being free. Your users must be interested in something not just because it is free or given away, but more importantly, they see its value.

Also, don’t use the word “free” lightly, as free is too wasteful. For example: "Free trial of the sweeping robot" is much weaker.

What if so? "You don't have to spend a penny to experience the sweeping robot that originally costs 1,888 yuan."

5. The more you use fear for marketing, the more scientific it must be

Fear is always hidden in people's hearts and can be easily aroused.

But many people often make some mistakes when doing fear marketing:

1) When a sense of fear is created without providing a clear solution.

2) The fear scenario you create is something your users don’t care about at all and are just scaring themselves.

3) There is fear but also a solution, but the solution is unclear and seems difficult to achieve, so users ultimately give up.

4) We always like to focus on future fears and ignore the threats in front of us. We must know that compared with future losses, people care more about possible harm in front of them.

5) The pit of fear is too big, and your own solution cannot fill it at all and seems unreliable. For example, if you say that young people today have no dreams, and the solution is to ride shared bikes, that’s ridiculous.

Regarding fear marketing, I have read a "protection motivation theory" before, which contains a scientific fear appeal design method:

1) Threat severity (attracting attention) - How serious would the threat be if it actually happened?

2) Threat susceptibility (inducing fear) – Is the threat likely to occur? It is not enough to just say that it is serious. It is necessary to explain that it is very likely to happen, which will arouse people's fear.

3) Response effectiveness (reasonable solution) - Can your solution really effectively reduce the threat? If consumers believe your solution does not eliminate the threat, it will be in vain.

4) Self-efficacy (ease of implementation) - Is this plan easy to implement? Is it easy to do? Even if your solution is great, if consumers find it difficult to implement, they will simply give up.

In this way, a complete fear marketing design is completed, and it is relatively more scientific.

6. A small step strategy at the door

Goals that are too high often make people give up. Just set a low-difficulty goal first. Once this goal is achieved, it will be possible to complete the ultimate goal.

Psychologists believe that, in general, people are unwilling to accept higher and more difficult requirements because they are time-consuming, laborious and difficult to succeed.

On the contrary, people are happy to accept smaller, easier-to-complete requests. Only after achieving the smaller requests will they slowly accept larger requests.

This is the so-called foot-in-the-door effect. I can say with certainty that everyone should have been affected by the foot-in-the-door effect!

In marketing, it is generally difficult for consumers to directly accept your ultimate goal, which often requires them to incur a lot of costs, including financial costs, image costs, trust costs, action costs, learning costs, health costs, decision-making costs, etc.

We need the target population to slowly approach the threshold, first set a threshold that they are happy to accept, and then have them take the first step. Once they accept and become interested or satisfied, they will be more likely to accept bigger and higher requirements. for example:

Give consumers trial packs or free product trials;

Selling courses, you can pay 1 yuan to listen to the course first, and then buy it if you think it is good;

You can pay for goods in installments;

It's hard to get users to pay, but it's easy to chat with them;

Selling products is difficult, but it is much easier if you follow the official account first;

It is difficult to download the APP, but it is much easier to experience the mini program first.

…

Another advanced example:

If you are not interested in my product, I will tell you my entrepreneurial story first;

If you don't want to buy my phone yet, let's talk about the feelings first to make you accept it.

You can get the highest benefits by recharging 10,000, and you can also enjoy discounts by recharging 100;

Original price or 50% off? But you can only enjoy a 50% discount if you forward it to 10 friends;

Is it difficult to decide on furniture? Why don’t you come to IKEA and sleep on the bed first;

You don't like advertising or sales? Then let me be friends with you.

…

There are too many such cases, and they can be said to be everywhere. In essence, they all require users to take the first step and step onto the threshold.

7. Label users

What does it mean to label users?

This is particularly used in offline sales, for example: "You are a good father", "I heard that people in your line of work are very rich", "You must be very good to your family"... These are all labels.

People are then likely to hold themselves to this label in order to achieve consistency.

Labeling means attaching a certain trait, attitude, belief, habit, etc. to a person, and then making a requirement for that person that is consistent with the label.

As a result, he will also behave in a way that is consistent with the label. You said he was "a man of great integrity," and it turned out that he did become a man of great integrity.

8. Taking the initiative to reveal your shortcomings can also create benefits

When we point out a minor flaw in a product, we can create a perception that makes the public feel that this company and this product are trustworthy.

People don't like perfect things, but instead throw out a few insignificant points that don't conflict with the essence of the product and can also improve user favorability.

This is also very much in line with the current development trend of Internet brands .

What people prefer nowadays may not necessarily be big brands, but brands they like and recognize.

Such brands are not perfect. They are like real people, with advantages and disadvantages. They are no longer like the brands in the past that established a lofty image every day and could not have any shortcomings.

When you have shortcomings, it is easier to get closer to users and they can accept them.

9. People are more afraid of losing than gaining .

When people face gains and losses of similar size, losses are more unbearable to them. This is because we care more about the unhappiness of losses than the happiness of gains.

When it comes to deciding their own returns, people tend to be risk averse. When people face losses, they all become extremely adventurous and are all risk-seeking adventurers.

Let’s take the simplest example:

1) 100% chance of winning 10,000 yuan.

2) There is a 70% chance of getting 30,000 yuan and a 30% chance of getting nothing.

Do you prefer 1 or 2?

As a result, people are more willing to choose to get 10,000 yuan without any trouble, rather than choose to have an 80% chance of earning 25,000 yuan (obviously more), because there is a 20% chance of getting nothing, which is too much of a loss.

In 1985, Coca- Cola made a fateful decision that Time magazine later called "the biggest marketing failure in nearly three decades."

At that time, Coca-Cola saw that more people liked the sweeter Pepsi , so after market research, it completely stopped production of the old flavor of Coca-Cola and began to use a new formula to produce sweeter Coca-Cola.

As a result, consumers completely disagreed and did not buy into it.

When the original flavor of Coca-Cola was completely discontinued, consumers couldn't stand the sudden loss of the old taste they had enjoyed for decades as the loss was too great.

Therefore, there are two common marketing methods now: one is to build a better future. It is to constantly shape the profits you will make after using the product so that you don’t feel that you will lose a lot.

The other approach is more direct and is to constantly emphasize the losses. It keeps telling you the consequences of not using it, and you will lose a lot.

For example, instead of saying “how much money you can save,” say “how much money you will lose if you don’t use it.”

Not only that, there is also a more interesting principle of bundling losses in the psychology of loss aversion.

For example, many businesses will say "Buy a 3,999 yuan computer, and get a headset, a high-end mouse pad, and one-year free on-site repair" instead of marking out the prices of the headset, on-site repair, etc. one by one?

If you spend the same amount of money on products and services for 3,999, why do you describe some parts as “free”?

This is also taking advantage of the loss aversion mentality, and merchants are bundling losses.

If you say that a computer set costs 3,999 yuan, the computer costs 3,000 yuan, the headset costs 200 yuan, the repair insurance costs 200 yuan, a hard drive costs 400 yuan, and the mouse costs 199 yuan, they are the same price, but the user will definitely feel that he has lost a lot.

Therefore, countless merchants will say "buy a 3,000 yuan air conditioner, free shipping", instead of saying "the total cost is 3,000 yuan, of which you spent 2,995 on the air conditioner and 5 yuan on shipping."

10. Don’t make users start from scratch

When you design a task for users and hope they will complete it, don’t let them start from scratch. This is boring and their desire to act will not be strong.

You don't need to deliberately lower the threshold required to complete the task. There is a way to make users more willing and complete the task faster.

This approach is to design the task to have already started, rather than starting from scratch.

For example, some fitness institutions issue membership cards and will stamp them for you when you recharge. When you have 10 stamps, you can become a senior member and get attractive rewards and benefits.

What they did was very clever, because when they issued the card to you, they already had three stamps on it. (Only 7 chapters are left)

Think about it another way, if you start with zero stamps, you can become a premium member after you have 7 stamps. Both require 7 chapters, but the effects are very different.

The closer people are to achieving their goals, the more effort they will put into trying to achieve them. All you have to do is help them get one step closer.

11. Don’t put a price tag on gifts

Giving gifts certainly won’t cause users to be unhappy. It is a move to enhance user stickiness. However, once you put a price on the gift, that may not be the case.

Even counterproductive!

Because a small gift can also keep users and companies within social norms, away from market norms, and enhance feelings. Once a gift is priced, it enters the market norm, and people will react to it the same as money, and gifts no longer evoke social norms.

No matter what your price is, users will compare it with similar products, and the gift will no longer be the value of the gift, but just a commodity.

The social norms and market norms mentioned here are what we must know. They are two very important basic principles.

Social norms refer to friendly requests that people make to each other, which are generally friendly, have unclear boundaries, and do not require immediate rewards.

For example: When you move, if you ask a friend for help, he will usually be very enthusiastic and will not ask for any material rewards from you. Your mother cooks for you and doesn't ask you to pay.

Market norms are just the opposite. They mean comparison of benefits and timely repayment. Usually the boundaries are very clear and transactions are black and white.

When you ask a moving company to help you with moving, you cannot just say thank you or treat them to a meal, you have to pay them.

The working mechanisms of these two specifications are completely different. We use different specifications in different scenarios and when facing different objects.

Small gifts belong to the category of social norms. If they become market norms, they will lose their original meaning.

Well, that’s all I want to share today. To sum it up, it’s still that sentence:

There are no experts in marketing. The only experts are consumers. All you have to do is impress consumers.