3 psychological biases marketers use on you all the time – now you can use these in your writing!
There are tons of techniques deployed by marketers and sellers, basically to get you to buy. Or take action.
Here are 3 such biases that are consciously and unconsciously deployed to influence your behavior. You should be aware of these.
In fact you can also use these in your marketing efforts. They produce great results.
Anchoring is a psychological technique used to peg someone’s mind to an arbitrary number, that is of advantage to the proposer or seller. This technique is deployed in several areas and primarily in negotiation.
Human beings rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered.
For example, when negotiating the salary for a particular position, if the first number you hear is $180,000, you may ask for $200,000 – not $450,000. Or if you are negotiating the sale price of property and the number quoted first is $600,000, you may ask for $520,000 – not $200,000.
Negotiating time for completing a task, resources for a project, sale price, salary, concessions, or any give-and-take discussion has the opportunity for anchoring.
Be aware of this technique, and use it when negotiating – anything.
FOMO:
FOMO or “fear of missing out” tugs at our desire to be like others in our group or tribe. You see this routinely in action. When you buy a book, Amazon prompts you with another list, saying “people who bought this (what you bought” also bought this (new list)”. Or Netflix prompts your next movie, touting that people like you watched this one.
I am sure you have felt the urge to consider the new list. Objective achieved! Psychology worked its magic.
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Scarcity:
Studies have established that people want something that is less available, than something else that is more abundant.
When you book an airline ticket or a hotel room online, routinely you will see messages that tell you, “only 4 tickets remaining” or “only 3 rooms left”.
This is the “scarcity” at play. A great psychological technique in getting you to get you to make the purchase. Have you not had that quick thought at the back of your mind that tells you to speed up else you will miss out on?
Buying, making decisions or even not buying starts with gut-feel. i.e. psychology at play. Ensure that these techniques are an inseparable part of your content creation strategy, and see your writing improve.