What are triggers in marketing? How to increase sales without investment

Promotion through content is a long-term process. People visit your website, read your newsletter, visit groups on social networks, but do not become your clients. And then once - and they become. What should your content do to make this breakthrough in the reader’s mind, turning him into a buyer?

Figuratively speaking, the task of content is to press the right buttons. The combination of these buttons, like the correct code on an intercom, will allow you to achieve success in sales through content marketing.

These buttons are called psychological triggers.

Before I talk about triggers, I should note that these “buttons” can be used not only in texts, but also in all other types of content. To learn more about them, download the “Types and Groups of Content” mental map under this article or right now and use it as a cheat sheet when preparing materials.

What is a trigger?

Trigger translated from English means “trigger”. This is a certain stimulus that activates decision-making in the brain. The action of a trigger leads to the fact that a person makes a decision about a particular action automatically, and only then, after the fact, his conscious mind rationalizes the decision.

Imagine that you find yourself in a store where there is an intoxicating smell of fresh baked goods. And your mouth immediately began to water, you wanted to eat, and suddenly you suddenly “remembered” that you were running out of bread, but this baguette could be used as croutons for a salad... And you buy bread. And at the same time other products - and more. You think that this decision was made by the head, but in fact it was stimulated by the smell.

Of course, we cannot imbue electronic texts with the smell of baking, but we have emotional triggers.

There are actually a lot of triggers; you’ve seen them many times, especially in selling texts. For example, customer reviews are about using a trigger, telling a story, and having a strong portfolio too. In general, this topic can be studied for a long time and used with pleasure in texts.

And for successful content marketing generally you need to use, in my opinion, 7 main triggers:

• Authority
• Mental involvement
• Interchange
• Favor
• Confidence
• Curiosity ("Feeling Hungry")
• "This is for me"

In this part of the article I will talk about three of them, and next time we will continue. For now, think about how you can use this information in creating content.

1. Authority

Any decision to do or not do something is influenced by the presence or absence of an authoritative person nearby whom you trust. If you personally need to make a difficult decision, you are likely to seek advice from someone you consider an authority in the field. We all consult and learn from authorities.

When we sell something, we are actually we advise potential customers to buy our product (or in some cases our partner’s product). In which case will they be more willing to follow our advice? In the event that we are an authority for them.

How to enable the authority trigger?

• Be an expert on your topic and share your knowledge generously.
• Create a reputable portfolio. If you have clients to brag about, don't hesitate to do so.
• Use a professional interface. A website made conscientiously makes you an authority more than an inconvenient one put together on your knees; an expensive suit - more than jeans and a rumpled turtleneck; Professional photo portraits are more than just phone photos. And sometimes it happens the other way around, if your target audience only recognizes jeans and turtlenecks and does not respect people in suits. :)
• Show that your audience appreciates you. If you have fans, keep them active to show it off to others. If you have reviews, use them.
• Use protection. If you have reviews of your work from famous people, recommendations from market experts, show them. If you worked for a large company or with a famous guru, show it off.
• Turn on charisma. Strong charisma is always a sign of potential authority. If you don’t have charisma, it can be trained and developed.

2. Mental involvement

This is a very strong and interesting trigger. When it is turned on, you do not need to sell anything explicitly; the client makes the purchasing decision as if on his own.

We know that people love to buy, but they don’t like to be sold to them, much less sold to them. But if people make their own purchasing decisions or think that they themselves have accepted it, they buy it more willingly.

Let’s say you don’t communicate with a client at all, and you suddenly need to sell him something. In this case, write a selling text. But, if you have the opportunity to communicate with potential clients using content, then you may not even need selling texts. Because, with the help of all your content, you have already led the client to the idea that they need to make a purchase from you.

For example, to recruit groups for trainings, I use selling texts, because people who don’t know me also come to training. And then the text is an introduction to me and the training, and it’s good when it’s selling.

But for an individual program I gather small groups, and for them no selling text is needed, a short information block in the newsletter is enough.

How to include mental involvement?

• Don't sell, but educate and share information. If you spend some time telling your readers how to solve his problems, and you do it for free, he understands that you can do more and better for money. And thus he makes the decision to purchase.
• Give examples. Talk about how your product already helped clients, made his life better. Readers (or viewers, if you have, for example, a YouTube channel) begin to think: “Maybe I need it too?”
• Provide varied and interesting content. If people are bored with you, they project that boredom onto the rest of your work and your product. If people are interested in you, they understand that your scope of competence is wide.
• Find out what your audience thinks. Arrange polls, ask for comments, ask readers what interests them. If the audience gets the feeling that you are working for them, then your product is perceived as created for them, taking into account their wishes.

3. The principle of mutual exchange

It is based on human nature to feel obligations. If they do something for you, then you feel obligated. If you gave something to the audience (useful content), then the audience will feel not only literally obliged to you, but in a sense grateful and more inclined to make a purchase.

How to incorporate the principle of reciprocity?

• Let's have more varied quality content. If people really receive the necessary and valuable information that helps them make some useful decisions, somehow improves their lives, and so on, the principle turns on by itself. If a reader experiences something useful as a result of studying your content, they feel they have learned something from you. Which means he owes you something.

Don’t take it literally, there are no real obligations here! You cannot demand and expect a client to make a purchase after reading 10 articles. But still, you have an additional argument FOR the purchase.

• Don't be greedy. You've probably come across sites, articles, and webinars more than once where the author managed to tease your curiosity by posing some pressing problem. And then the author said: that’s it, then it’s all about money. So, you don't have to do that! There is no principle of reciprocity here, because you did not give anything to the reader, but only teased him. Therefore, give the real benefit, and don’t just promise it.
• Help specific people. If you conducted a survey, collected wishes, and then created content, your readers feel like it was created especially for them. If you answer questions from specific readers, that's even better.

By the way, we ask our new subscribers: what topics are they interested in? And we try to work through these topics in the content. We also have a VKontakte page where each of you can ask a question and get a free micro-consultation. Well, remember that we are always open to wishes - in letters, Skype and comments. :)

• Always respond to comments and questions, maintain dialogue, and help customers. This brings you even closer to the audience. Your answers and active participation in the dialogue are always very important.

And don’t forget that just below you can download a mental map by types and groups of content.

What tricks do marketers use to sell more? Surely you yourself use them all the time when working online, and you probably yourself have fallen into such hooks a hundred times, buying completely unnecessary things. We are talking about marketing triggers.

How you can use triggers in business and what trigger marketing is - let's talk about it now!

What is a trigger in marketing

Triggers are psychological techniques that help influence the buyer and create a need for him to purchase the product. That is, triggers allow you to literally control the behavior of the target audience, because they motivate buyers to take specific actions.

In English, the word “trigger” is translated as “trigger” and is used in marketing as a designation of a certain message for buyers that influences them psychologically and forces them to take the required action.

Triggers can turn on certain states in people and evoke emotions. For example: to cause fear, greed, joy, desire, anger...

Essentially, sales triggers are levers of influence on clients to achieve the following goals:
— increasing conversion;
- increasing sales;
— removal of objections;
- programming people's behavior.

What are the triggers in marketing?

1.Deficit. Fear of losing something is a very powerful trigger that affects a person. Therefore, the deliberate creation of a shortage, and even with a time limit, is simply a bomb for powerful sales. Surely, more than once you have seen a countdown timer on landing pages, indicating the regular price and a discounted price with a limited number of products. These are the triggers.

2.Exclusive. This trigger is based on people’s desire not to be like everyone else, to stand out. That is why there are exclusive offers, VIP groups for training, and access to restricted content not for everyone. Because there is a group of people who are willing to pay for exclusivity.

3. Greed. Sales, competitions, promotions, discounts - all this is based on one human weakness - to get something for nothing, on greed.

Here is the most common promotion “Two products for the price of one” - yes, yes, it’s all about greed.

4.Social proof. Surely you have seen the “best seller” label on products - this is proof that the product is in demand, and now your hand reaches for the product to put it in the cart... Also, social proof is based on the herd instinct: if others buy, then so will I need it.

5.Fear. If you know your target audience well, you have a portrait of your audience, then you probably know what these people are most afraid of.

For example, you work in the field of personal growth, psychology and relationships. You know that representatives of your target audience are afraid of loneliness, they have a fear of losing a loved one, divorce, betrayal. Therefore, a new blog article could be called “7 Rules for Harmonious Relationships to Avoid Divorce.” This is the title that will attract the attention of your target audience to the article.

But there are many fears: some are afraid of heights, and others are afraid of extra pounds. Therefore, using a fear trigger, you can sell almost any product.

6.The desire to be part of something Almost every person has it. Invitations to closed clubs and communities work on this trigger. Your friends are already here, but you are not yet, join in!

7. Guarantees. How to build customer trust in a company? Guarantees help with this in the best possible way, for example, a quality guarantee, a guarantee of free service, money back.

8. Expertise is a powerful trigger, which is why every speaker speaking in front of an audience talks about his credentials, showing why he can be trusted.

9. New. This trigger draws the audience's attention to the product and also helps increase sales.

10. Stereotypes. Prejudices that are ingrained in people's minds, that are formed throughout life and influence people's choices and behavior. “Products made according to GOST are safe and healthy,” “the Chinese make cheap consumer goods, and the Germans make high-quality goods.”

Buying Cycle and Triggers

The buying cycle consists of three stages - recognition, research and purchase. When a buyer is at the stage of showing interest in purchasing, it is very difficult to sell him anything. And it's easy to sell a product to a buyer who is in the last stage of the buying cycle. But there are tools that can push the buyer from one stage to another. And triggers are such helpers.

For example, a person comes to a landing page and just wants to inquire about a product, he is not ready to make a purchase, but when he sees a timer and a low price that will last only two days, a person can immediately purchase the product, or he will think about it for one day and make a purchase the second. What happened? The trigger worked - and the purchase was made.

In this way, triggers help move the buying cycle through quickly. But the fact is that when a person makes purchases under the influence of emotions, it may later turn out that the buyer is left with an aftertaste from the purchase, because he was not yet ready enough to buy.

Therefore, there is no need to overuse triggers; they most often contribute to instant one-time sales, but cannot tie the buyer to the company forever.

We talk about how to create a constant flow of customers into a business using social networks and the power of the Internet at an open online meeting.

Register here to receive a roadmap for the development of your project, which will clearly show how to achieve results.

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Whoever talks about brands today - a brand sells, a brand provides long-term development, they buy only from brands.

Is there a mechanic for building a strong brand? Let's find out in the article

Sometimes you read a text, watch a video or listen to an advertisement, and they touch you to the quick. In the process of studying, dozens of different emotions are born and die in you: fear, greed, vanity, threat, friendship...

Such threads in marketing are called psychological (selling) triggers. We will discuss how to use a trigger in marketing below.

CONTROL OVER LUCK

Our nation has a rather addictive game called Russian Roulette. This is when a group of people, for the sake of argument, take a revolver and take turns shooting themselves in the head (sounds creepy, I know).

But that doesn't mean everyone who pulls the trigger dies. The fact is that out of 6 chambers, only one of them contains a bullet. So the question is, who will be lucky?

Why am I telling you about all this entertainment? And besides, in sales and marketing there are similar bullets that amaze customers on the spot and force them to buy your product.

These are selling triggers, psychological triggers, trust triggers, whatever you want to call them. And their motto is “Buy or Die.”

Trigger- this is a certain message that encourages the client at a psychological level to take the required action.

It is translated from English as “trigger”, which is why I made an analogy with Russian roulette.

These kinds of trigger words are used everywhere, I will even say more, you yourself use them everywhere: on a website, on a banner, on a leaflet, in, and even in a conversation with a potential client.

This is a series of things I do that I understand, but I don’t know. All that remains is to make this pull on the trigger conscious, so as not to hope, but to control luck. And for this, here is a list of the main messages:

1. Interaction;
2. Authority;
3. Social proof;
4. Specifics;
5. Comparison;
6. Result;
7. Fear;
8. Appeal;
9. Deficiency;
10. Stories;
11. Participation;
12. Value;
13. Attractiveness;
14. Unpredictability;
15. Expectation;
16. Common enemy.

But not all marketing triggers are direct stimulants to purchase. Some of them are based not on the selling part, but on building a level of trust in your company and product.

Which, as a result, helps the client make a purchase with a cumulative effect. By the way, building trust is a greatly underestimated phenomenon in our time.

CHARGING EVERYTHING AT ONCE

Such a number of different “triggers” does not mean that you need to take everything and start shooting at clients, remembering the very motto “Buy or Die” (for fans of American blockbusters, “Buy or die”). All this wealth must be used wisely and wisely.

Depending on the selected action that you want to sell to the client, you choose the very meanings that will best support it.

WE ARE ALREADY MORE THAN 29,000 people.
TURN ON

1. Shortage

I, as a true fan of Apple technology, tried to buy an iPhone X on the first day of sales. But just for fun, no one wants to take my money.

Even taking into account the fact that I pre-ordered several weeks in advance, I still hear that it is out of stock, the first batch is sold out, and it is not a fact that I will be lucky with the second one.

This can be called in different words, and one of them is deficit. Moreover, I think it was created intentionally.

Well, I don’t believe that a company that has been producing one of the most famous technologies for many years still cannot set up production on such a scale that everyone can become the proud owner of a phone on the first day.

The bet is that what is scarce, people want more. On a psychological level, this indicates either that the product is of very high quality and popular, or that it is not for everyone.

Moreover, restrictions can be different: by price, by quantity, by date, by time, by configuration, by color. Therefore, you can also create a scarcity effect so that people will line up to you like in the 90s, when everyone was behind milk and sausage.

Important. Do what you promise. If you said that it will only happen today and won’t happen again, then do so.

Otherwise, the reputation of such a trigger has already been spoiled by sites on which the ever-spinning timer goes in a circle again every time it ends.

2. Stories

So one well-known site attracted a lot of attention when it began to oppose the Plato program for drivers. Concerned owners of the vehicle were attracted by this and they all stood under the company’s flag.

9. Interaction

The more people invest in you, the more they value you. Also, the more they interact with you, the more they trust you.

This is the law not only of business, but of life in general. For example, when a person comes back from vacation and brings you a gift, you automatically become closer and become indebted to him on a psychological level.

That is why, when you also go on vacation, you are sure to buy him something in return.

It's the same in business. You need to do everything to get a person to invest in you or interact with you.

This could be just a dialogue through or could be in the form of completing a survey to receive.

Moreover, even the very fact that a person comes to your office is also a part of the “interaction” trigger, which brings you closer to the client.

You can be proactive and do everything possible to make the person feel an obligation to you. For example, you can provide him with part of the service for free or give him samples.

This marketing trick is called “Trivertising”. We have a free preliminary consultation with an expert.

10. Authority

As soon as some star posts information that she has purchased a new contraption that allows her to lose 10 kg in 3 minutes, everyone flocks to buy this miracle product for weight loss.

And this is a normal reaction. Moreover, it’s not even about the magic pill, but about who advertises and uses it.

We trust public people, especially if they are experts in their field. In the subconscious it looks like this: “If they use it, then it’s definitely a good product.”

By default, we believe that a star cannot make the wrong choice. She always chooses the best a priori.

Example of Authority

Therefore, in order to increase the level of trust in the company, we take a media personality or an expert, or better yet, both, and make sure that they support our product with their appearance or actions.

Moreover, I really like to use people who are famous on a small scale, because, as practice shows, their people are the most loyal in comparison with stars of the first magnitude.

11. Social proof

The same goes for marketing. If we see social proof in the form of “friends,” we automatically believe in this company and this product. Even if these people or company were not previously known.

Social proof example

The most typical social proof is reviews. But you can go further and support all this with letters of gratitude, links to social networks and even a personal phone number.

In other words, you need to show everything so that a person doesn’t get the feeling that it’s a fake, because now every 2-3 sites actually post fake reviews and supporting materials.

If reviews are not practiced in your field, you can go with the minimum program and show the logos of the companies you have worked with.

We ourselves personally practice this approach, because as practice has shown, it is more effective for our clients to see the logo of a company known to them than to look at each review separately.

12. Specifics

I love this trigger because it really makes it stand out from the others. Even in such a hackneyed headline as “Why 95 percent of people choose us,” you simply change two numbers to make it different - “Why 94.3 percent of people choose us.” But I generally recommend not using this header. He's too tired.

With maximum accuracy, people have more faith in the reliability of the information, since there are rarely accurate values.

Therefore, if you have rounded values, then you need to take them and make them as specific as possible. For example, not a month, but 27 days. Or not 5 kilograms, but 5.5 kilograms. Everything is simple and easy, and most importantly it increases confidence in you.

13. Comparison

Quite recently, I consulted for a chain of driving schools and I was honestly shocked that at a cost above the market average, they simply have incredibly luxurious training conditions.

They offer: training cars for one and a half million, free tea/coffee, and transportation to the race track in a Mercedes. And with all this, there are problems with sales.

The key problem was that they were compared only on price and did not pay any attention to additional benefits.

What do you think was the first idea in my head? Make a comparison table with other driving schools. Moreover, we did not do it in the format of comparing us with direct competitors, but simply showed ourselves and a typical driving school.

Our client, who is a professional carpet cleaner, had a similar situation. The whole humor is that its main competitors are not the same companies, but car washes and home cleaning services.

Due to the fact that the client did not realize the whole problem when cleaning the carpet with a non-professional approach, we had to make a comparison table where we closed this issue once and for all (part of the table below).

Comparison example

14. Result

An ideal message for those areas where you can show the result BEFORE/AFTER. In the shortened version, it is enough to show AFTER.

This trigger in marketing can be classified as social proof (point 12), but in my opinion, I present it separately, since it deserves special attention due to its hyper-effectiveness.

If your clients buy a measurable result, not emotions, then you definitely need to show what they will get in the end.

You can show it using photos and videos, as well as text. The most important thing is for a person to see point A (where he is now) and point B (where he will be). Ideally, show before/after using someone else's example.

This trigger is also often called “Case”. But in general, it doesn’t matter what you call it, this is not a ship for you, even with the wrong name it will sail as it should.

By the way, here is an example of how we achieved the result on one of our clients. The slider in the center moves and you see before or after.

Example result

15. Fear

What are you afraid of? I'm serious. For example, I’m afraid of spiders, I don’t know why, but they really make me shake and the instinct of self-preservation and “evaporation” of my legs automatically turns on.

This question is not for fun. It is this kind of fear that needs to be used to influence clients. This is how we will touch their heartstrings as much as possible.

If you now understand this literally, you need to take your advertising material and write on it “If you don’t buy it, the spiders will come for you.”

That's not what I'm talking about. What I’m saying is that you can put pressure on your customers’ fears, but from the point of view of your product.

For example, “Do you want to regret for the rest of your life that you didn’t do it now?” or “Every day you miss the opportunity to meet the girl of your dreams” or a more typical example: “What if the neighbors flood and you don’t have a stretch ceiling?”

16. Appeal

All people have characteristics. Just like any technology. Only they have different names here. This means that we can segment people based on these characteristics and attract their attention through their data.

In simple terms, we take and make an appeal to a potential client based on any of the distinctive features:

1. Name – Natalya;
2. Age – Are you 20 years old?;
3. Profession – Engineer;
4. City of residence – Moskvich;
5. Clothing – Girl in a red dress.

Such appeals can be invented and invented. But one thing is for sure, they have a very good effect on purchasing power.

A person gets the feeling that this is about him and for him. And also a very quick response to the appeal, because this is not a hackneyed “Girl / Man”.

Example. We created 10 audio promotional videos for a jewelry store and launched them in a shopping center.

The result made us happy, because people actually turned around and listened to the advertising, because they understood that it was for them.

Briefly about the main

The main idea is that each trigger moves the client towards a positive decision. Therefore, it is very important for you to “cover” everything with the client with them.

It is necessary that with each new contact you add wood to the fire and the fire flares up, flares up, until there is a fire. Where they buy everything and anything. Ehhh...they buy everything and anything...it's just a dream.

But also don’t forget that sales triggers alone won’t save you. In addition, obviously your sales are not like in “Shop on the Couch”.

Psychological triggers are additional features that will forgive you some of the weaknesses of a product or company. But they will never change the global situation, even if you use them all at once.

P.S. We ended up with 16 triggers and that’s not all. These are the selling triggers that I personally like, the ones that I use most often.

Although I’m lying, for dessert I have another favorite of mine, it’s called “Laughter.” The idea is that when people smile they are more likely to part with money, so don't be too formal, joke around and be happy.

The key to success in any business is understanding the psychology of customers. Marketers around the world are scratching their heads every day, trying to figure out how to attract users' attention. However, it is not necessary to have hypnosis skills to win people's favor. Experts can help you in this difficult matter triggers- a kind of trigger for the human psyche. By turning on a trigger, you send special impulses to the brain that make a person act in a certain way. In marketing, this can be used to unobtrusively lead users to the realization that it is your product that they need.

Marketer Akshay Nanavati published on the Kissmetrics website in which he clearly showed how triggers work on websites and what psychological techniques should be used to attract more customers. He collected 15 examples illustrating the influence of human emotions on purchasing decisions.

1. Driving forces of human behavior

When making any of his daily decisions, a person is guided by the desire to enjoy everything. Even if something causes us great pain, we still strive to derive pleasure from it. For example, many people deliberately arrange tests for themselves, seek joy in physical activity and peace in struggle, and the feeling of accomplishment after exhausting work brings them happiness. Firefighters go into a burning building because they feel good about saving lives and helping people. Athletes run a physically exhausting 26-mile marathon to experience the joy of victory. All behavioral triggers described below are based on this motivation.

Before you start using the trigger technique, you need to understand what customers associate with pain and what they associate with pleasure. Agree, not everyone’s joy and pleasure are associated with sports and heavy workloads. Remember the marketing lesson: To influence someone, you need to know how much influence they are under. Once you know what customers want, you can choose the appropriate tactic and use it as a trigger.

Practical Conclusions

Let's imagine that each customer moves from point A (where he is now) to point Z (where he wants to be). When crafting your marketing message, you want to help users get as close to Point Z as possible before money comes up. The closer you get them to point Z, the more likely they are to buy your product, which will satisfy their needs. Thus, in their heads they already associate your business with the pleasure received as a result of the journey they have taken.

On this landing page, GoToMeeting promotes the freedom of online communication, in other words, completely free video meetings that do not require credit card information upon registration. Thus, you are already at point Y, one step away from point Z - purchase. Now, if you want to enjoy freedom all the time, you need to pay. You want to enjoy freedom much more if you have tried it at least once.

Against, using motivation that is associated with pain, show all the possible obstacles and dangers on the road from A to Z. Present your product as a weapon that can eliminate them.

This motivation is much stronger than the desire to have fun, because each of us has what psychologists call "negative bias". Our actions are more aimed at avoiding pain than at obtaining positive emotions. This works on a neurological level and proves that the brain reacts much more strongly to negative external stimuli than to positive ones.

Take a look at the Harvest time tracking service page. The company's marketing message is centered around the fact that competitors' regular apps are very difficult to use. One of the creators of Harvest, Danny Wen, once said: “Help me get rid of pain and don’t be shy about charging for it.”

Nowadays there is such a variety of choices that it is better to resort to using these two triggers at once in marketing. For example, no one really needs an iPad. Moreover, no one needs an iPad mini. By their very nature, they do not solve pressing problems. People stand in line for several days to be the first to buy a new Apple product. Why? Because this company has learned to create desire, attraction and desire to own technical innovations that make life more enjoyable.

2. Novelty

Novelty is always captivating. Exposure to new things has been shown to increase the release of dopamine in the brain.

The feeling of novelty makes our brain freeze in anticipation of something beautiful. This is why Apple releases new versions of the iPhone and iPad every few months. We all understand perfectly well that the difference between the models is very insignificant, but every time a company announces the release of a new version, people drop everything and run to change 4 to 5. It is no coincidence that every successful automobile brand releases a new car model every year.

Advice: Novelty can also have negative consequences if it exposes a lack of experience and authority. To solve a problem, use this trigger in combination with the ones described below, especially social proof, solution work, and curiosity.

3. Explain why

When you read, “I’ll donate a few hours of my precious time and develop a free strategy for you on how to make $100,” what are you thinking? You want to know why you need this, right? And it's natural. Our brain is always looking for answers to questions. University of California psychology professor Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, in his book “Who’s in charge? Free will and the science of the brain" discovered that our rational brain looks for meaning in everything, even if there is none. Essentially, we are trying to find explanations for everything that happens to us.

Storytelling activates the parts of the brain responsible for sight, sound, taste, and movement. It allows you to feel the whole range of emotions directly, without taking any action for this. We are literally transported into a fantasy world, and the emotional brain, which is involved, is responsible for making the decision to buy or not. Here's what brands need to pay attention to.

Practical Conclusions

A role model in the field of storytelling is RedBull, which comes up with excellent advertising campaigns:

RedBull's advertising clearly explains to users: "We don't just sell energy drinks, we explore the potential of human performance." Their brand, and with it the associations of everyone who saw the ad, is built on one idea that inspires, challenges and motivates to achieve new horizons.

And here is another wonderful example that tells how the dream of a wizard’s wife came true. Most of all, she wanted children, and the toy bear she was given came to life and turned into a child in her arms:

This toy and the story about it were put up for auction: starting price was $1, sold for $51.

Rob Walker, author of Buyingin: What we buy and who we are, teamed up with Joshua Glen to conduct an experiment: They bought hundreds of used cheap items and tried to sell them, after having come up with a touching story for each. They invited 200 writers who created really high-quality content and listed items on eBay. In the end, they earned $8,000, a profit of 2,700%.

5. Make the solution as simple as possible.

In his best-selling book Thinking: Fast and Slow, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman said: “The law of least effort applies to both physical and mental activity. The law states that if a person is given a choice of ways to achieve the same goal, he will choose the easiest one. In order to save effort, we must balance the cost of the voltage expended with the benefit. Laziness is in our nature."

We're always looking for the easiest way to achieve a goal, so it's no wonder Stephen Covey became a multimillionaire after developing the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Practical Conclusions

Use this psychological trigger to develop your business: create an accessible and easily executable behavior model for your customers. Let them know that your product can solve their problem easier and faster than others. Even though we all know deep down that we need to work hard to achieve results, we still want to find a way to avoid stress. Therefore, provide the audience with the solution they need, making it accessible and understandable.

Here's another more modern video where Apple again made the PC the enemy:

The enemy does not necessarily have to be a competing company. For example, the employment agency Careerbuilder.com released an excellent video in which there are several enemies at once: boring work, a boorish boss and mentally unhealthy colleagues. After watching it, everyone who experiences similar problems will understand that the time to change jobs has really come:

Advice: Be careful if you decide to use such a trigger. You cannot make a mistake in choosing an enemy, because the audience may not support you. Try to stay away from issues of politics, racial intolerance, and religion. You can choose an obvious enemy that evokes negative emotions in most people, as Careerbuilder did with their 9 to 5 workday.

7. Arouse curiosity

Carnegie Mellon University professor George Loewenstein discovered that the typical behavior of a person is to focus his efforts on filling the gap between what he knows and what he wants to know.

The author compares curiosity to an itchy skin that just needs to be scratched. It not only stimulates action, but also increases activity in the areas of the brain responsible for pleasure. The curiosity trigger means that potential customers are willing to open emails, promote branded content, and buy products just to find out what's behind the teaser you recently presented to them.

Practical Conclusions

There are many ways to pique your audience's curiosity. For a more successful implementation, try to combine this trigger with others from this article.

The first way is to use all the text on your website to keep potential buyers excited for more. Let them experience the taste of achieving goals and solving their problems with the help of your service.

On this page, the Zipongo brand offers the user exactly what he needs, and with a 50-90% discount. “I get the desired result and pay little money - ideal,” these should be the thoughts of a grateful client.

The second way to use this trigger is provocation.

Manpacks posted the headline "Is your girlfriend working part-time?" and a provocative image, in the hope that even those guys who have never heard of the brand but live with a girl will want to know more about the product.

Advice: Be more creative when working with triggers and you will be surprised at the results.

9. Use social influence on opinion

Much has already been said about this, but it is impossible not to mention this trigger. Psychology professor and author of The Psychology of Influence Robert Cialdini once said: “It is much easier to reach someone who thinks like those you have already convinced than to convey an idea to an individualist who is free from all stereotypes.”

Man is a social being. Each of us looks at the others and does the same.

Practical Conclusions

Show people how popular your products are among others, and how much benefit your customers have already received. Post recommendations from clients and publicize the number of transactions. Potential buyers need to know what cooperation with your company will lead to.

LeadPages has posted on its website not only recommendations from experts, but also logos of companies that use their service.

10. Everything is known by comparison

Dan Ariely, author of the bestselling book Predictably Irrational, said: “Man rarely chooses things by absolute value. We do not have an internal counter that determines the price of the product. Rather, we look at the relative advantage of one over the other and price accordingly.”

Practical Conclusions

The consumer judges each new marketing experience based on the previous one. Set a narrow price range and offer special deals periodically to ensure that memories of your previous purchase are positive and lead to new business.

Basecamp has set a specific starting point - $150 per month, which makes subsequent price tags located under the stated first amount very attractive to buyers.

11. Make the buyer feel special

Nature has made us such that we feel an irresistible desire to be significant, necessary and special in the eyes of others. Tony Robbins said that this is one of the main human needs.

Practical Conclusions

Unfortunately, today decent customer service is a rarity, so influence the loyalty of your customers. Let them feel important and needed by you, take care of them, and they will never leave for competitors.

According to Leo Widrich, one of the founders of Buffer, “The best customer service imaginable is one of our company's priorities. We want to improve it every day." On the FAQ page on their website, they made sure to convey to every reader how much the company values ​​and loves its customers.

Another great way to make customers feel important is to reward them, like banks do when issuing credit cards:

There are many triggers for influencing buyers. But behind each of them there is a real concern for the client, who will immediately feel if it is fake.

12. Create a complete community

Aristotle was right when he said: “Man is by nature a social animal. Anyone who cannot lead a normal social life or is so self-sufficient that he does not need it is either a beast or a god.”

We have an innate need to feel part of the crowd. This not only gives us a feeling of stability and security, but also forces us to achieve what we want so that others will appreciate it.

Practical Conclusions

Simon Sinek, in his book How Great Leaders Inspire Action, describes how Apple uses a community-building model that begins with the question “Why?” The company’s answer to this question is beyond doubt: “In everything we do, you can see a challenge to the usual state of things, we believe that we think differently. Our products are beautiful and easy to use. We make great computers, would you like to buy one?”

Here's another example of a large community:

Starbucks corporate culture is one of the foundations of the company's business model. In the words of Starbucks CEO and creator Howard Schultz, “If you grow people, they will grow the business.”

Advice: Create a community whose members share the brand's position and have a similar worldview.

13. Tie your ad to the event of the day

Memory is fickle. Today people are worried about an earthquake, tomorrow they will forget about it and remember only when another one happens. This is why earthquake insurance sales soar after a natural disaster ends, even though there is very little chance that another one will happen soon.

This strange behavior is typical for humans. Daniel Garner, in his book The Science of Fear, explains that recent events leave the most emotional impact and are best remembered.

Jonah Berger, author of the book “Virus,” believed that people would talk about a brand that would be the first answer that came to mind (for example, when some consumers think of cigarettes, the Camel brand immediately comes to mind).

Practical Conclusions

Here's how Oreo celebrated the anniversary of the Moon landing and Mars rover landing with a marketing campaign around the theme.

14. Rarity is always valuable

As stated above, we decide how to act based on others. Therefore, the less a product is available, the more people want to buy it.

But a trigger can have negative consequences if used incorrectly. The study proved that the value of a product decreases if the product is first exposed as being in short supply and then vice versa.

You don’t want your customers to think that you first rolled out a product line for the elite, and a little later the same product at different prices for everyone else?

To use an exclusivity trigger in marketing, make it clear to your audience that there is no possibility of further distribution throughout the market. Other methods of using this technique: placing a countdown timer on the landing page, releasing a limited number of one product model, limited access.

Groupon loves to put this trigger into practice. Right under the “Buy” button, the user sees that the sale time is limited by a set timer and understands that he needs to act right now.

15. Provoke controversy

The author of the book “Virus,” John Berger, proved that provocations scare away, but often, on the contrary, attract a certain audience. Contradiction not only arouses curiosity, but also increases negativity. And negativity is one of the main components of viral content.

Practical Conclusions

Tim Ferris once said, “Go to Digg or MSN.com and you'll notice that the most popular articles divide readers into two groups: pros and cons. Don't try to appeal to everyone, instead choose one strong position and divide people into two camps. Try to influence users according to the 3 B’s rule: behavior, belief, or belongings, and then the content will really go viral.

Here's a great example of how HelpScout used a controversial headline to attract readers. Many people were very angry after reading it because it hurt their feelings.

Advice: Don’t forget about creativity, study the audience, their habits, weaknesses, and you will be able to manage your clients. And, as mentioned in this article, play fair - do not touch the topics of religion, politics and racial intolerance.

I first learned what a trigger is when I got hooked and bought training from an author who used psychological techniques.

Triggers in marketing- these are psychological techniques that motivate the visitor to take a specific action here and now. For example, leave your email details to receive a free checklist or buy “on very favorable terms, but right here and now.”

A trigger is a certain message that prompts the client at a psychological level to take the required action. Translated from English as “trigger”.

Selling triggers affect human instincts such as greed and fear. They trigger the user's instincts, pushing him to the desired action.

Triggers are believed to have a good effect on sales. Yes. They influence. Using triggers and templates, you will make a one-time sale. But you don't have to count on more.

I will tell you about the main triggers, which are very popular and actively used. But I don’t recommend abusing them if you are interested in long-term relationships with customers.

1. Mutual gratitude

First they give you something for free. For example, a checklist/book or any other electronic/physical product. What's the catch. First they give you a gift, and then they will ask for reciprocity.

For example, you are offered to download a template of cool headlines. You are ready to download with tears of gratitude, but in return they ask you for a postal address, where letters from the author of the template with a specific offer to buy will then pour in.

Offline you can often find sellers of something delightful and very cheap: books, samples of cool perfumes, manicure accessories, flashlights. But if you enter into a conversation with such people, they do everything to sell you more and more. It’s the same thing online - once you leave your address, it’s as if you are giving permission to contact you with offers of varying degrees of interest. If you are very lucky, then you will simply receive a newsletter with interesting content, which will sometimes contain interesting offers: promotions, promotional codes, discounts, sets - everything that turns on your wallet and turns off your head.

trigger marketing example

Therefore, when using the mutual gratitude trigger, do not abuse it if you do not want to receive an aggressive reaction in return. If you plan to sign a person up for your mailing list and sell there, write what your letters will be about and how often they will arrive.

Example of a trigger in the screenshot

2. Scarcity

As a rule, it is created artificially, creating a stir. For example, a company sells a small batch of toys from a cartoon popular among children. Parents are scrambling to find their favorite characters on the shelves. But they are nowhere to be found. It will most likely be... by the New Year. Thus, the company ensures tripled sales for the holiday.

Another example from personal experience. When information businessmen artificially create a stir by limiting the number of places in their super-duper training: “Because I’m taking only 5 people, and there are only two places left free, so hurry up in making a decision.” And then it turns out that all 155 people are on the course.

First of all, those who have placed a pre-order receive the goods, you are on the waiting list, these conditions are for the VIP club of our customers - these phrases will be attributed here to the creation of a shortage.

3. The desire to be part of the whole

“Hey, almost all of your friends are on the team. They want to change their lives, and they are already doing it. If you don’t want to be a loser and run behind the carriage, come join us! Become part of our team!”

Have you seen such advertisements on social networks? I do. I’ve been reading almost every day for a year and a half now. And the text hardly changes. This trigger pushes the thought “everyone is already there, but I’m not there.” And in order not to look like a loser, you shell out money to “become part of the team.”

4. Commitment and consistency

Another striking example is holding tastings in supermarkets. If you think that they are held in order to introduce customers to new products, then you are mistaken. Companies use a clever influence technique, understanding that a store visitor who has already tried the product will be uncomfortable leaving after tasting without buying anything. Moreover, the purchase will be made even if the product is not to his taste.

The same technique is used by salespeople in stores with the words: “Just try it on, we don’t charge money for this.” And the seller will spend a long time and painstakingly choosing clothes for you, because he knows that then you will be embarrassed to leave without buying, because this dear seller tried so hard for you.

5. Fear

If you have studied your target audience well and know the client’s secret fears, you have a powerful weapon in your hands that you can deftly control. Every word you say will hit the target.

For example, my target audience is afraid to write because they believe that they have no talent or ability. Afraid of criticism, afraid of the lack of any reaction at all to their texts, afraid of ridicule from loved ones. Knowing this and knowing how I can help, it is not difficult for me to reach readers by gently addressing these fears.

In fact, there are many more triggers, and we will talk about them in the next episode. But I would like to warn you - inept and aggressive use of these triggers can turn into a dangerous weapon. If you want to make multiple sales, if you want to create warm, trusting relationships with clients, base sales on feelings of love and mutual respect. This can be done through stories, which I would also like to tell about in one of the next issues.

Because it is personal stories (storytelling) that help create a strong foundation between you and customers, which is called trust. Personal stories work much more effectively than template ads:

"We are number one on the market"

“We are the sales leaders!”

“We have the best products!”

“I know how to help you! Come to me!"

Such words are worthless if they are not supported by facts and figures.

How to stand out among competitors

If you want to stand out from your competitors, if you have a unique selling proposition, say so.

1. Tell us how the product helped YOU personally.

3. Clearly demonstrate real photos of your clients (before/after).

4. Don’t spy on how and what others write—write yourself.

5. Write from your heart and soul.

From the editor: We invite our readers to an updated course on SMM, where a lot of attention is paid to consumer psychology.