There are times when doubling your conversion rates isn’t achieved through increasing the number of newsletter subscribers, but rather convincing more of your existing subscribers to buy. What most marketers don’t know is that it’s a lot simpler than they think. There’s no need to manipulate, coerce,312-76 or even hypnotize readers into doing things that they don’t want to do – all you need is a little understanding of psychology and how to flick mental “switches” that will help convince people to buy. These psychological triggers have been there all along, and knowing what they are will allow you to double your sales. These include:
The Fear of Pain and The Desire for Pleasure
These are actually two items, but they are grouped together because they are basically the two most powerful driving forces in all human behavior. Every time someone does something, it is done in order to avoid pain or to gain pleasure. These two psychological triggers are so powerful that one can cancel the other in some situations, such as when a person does backbreaking, torturous work (did not avoid pain) because he wants to enjoy the pay he’ll get for the work (wants to gain pleasure) or when a person avoids delicious food (did not seek pleasure) because it’s bad for his health (wants to avoid pain.)
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In order to apply this to your newsletter, you need to take the time to know what your subscribers associate with pain and pleasure, because it changes from person to person. Data gathering and feedback will help a lot in this case. Once you do get a feel for what they associate with pain and pleasure, you can start hitting them with pitches that play on these two driving forces. For example, you can sell toothcare products to people who are concerned with toothache, or sell juicers to people who love the taste of natural fruit juice.
Fondness for Novelty
This is a subset of the desire for pleasure, but deserves mentioning as a separate trigger because it allows better targeting: humans are neurologically wired to take pleasure (that is, there is an increase in the release of dopamine in the brain) when they are exposed to something new and unfamiliar. This is an important psychological trigger because it transcends physiological needs. People’s fondness for novelty is the reason why there are products and services that sell well to people who have no need for them or have more urgent needs that require their money.
With regard to how you can apply this to your newsletter, you have to look at one of the best marketing examples of this psychological trigger being used: Apple and their I-devices. Why do iOS devices sell like hotcakes even if the previous models are still functioning and even if the new iterations provide minimal hardware improvements? Because it’s something new and creative and it plays to people’s desire to seek the next novel thing. Find out how you can apply this to your newsletter, whether by seeking new novelties to present or by keeping your content fresh, entertaining, and unique.
Curiosity
This psychological trigger is so powerful that it single-handedly allowed humans to reach the top of the food chain. What prompted the first humans to use fire as a tool instead of simply running away from it? What caused humans to discover the world and develop science and technology? Curiosity. Humans are driven to find out the WHYs and the HOWs.
In your newsletter, you should practice writing copy that piques a reader’s curiosity, usually by pairing it with other triggers – write a headline promising to show them how to avoid pain, or how to achieve pleasure, or promise them something novel…then hold the answers and let them read the entire mail just to get it. Once you’ve triggered a person’s curiosity, you can pretty much make them do a lot of things (even buy stuff) just to get at the answer.
Lastly, Use Social Proof
This is something that many of you probably already know, but it’s still worth mentioning: try to show your readers that there are people like them who are benefiting from what your newsletter is selling. This can be done through various methods – you can use testimonials, or you can even turn many of your existing customers as proxy evangelists either by selling them something so good that they can’t help but recommend it, or incentivising recommendations (e.g. get discounts if a friend buys, etc.) In marketing, a really good salesperson or a really great copywriter won’t bring you as much sales as an existing customer speaking highly of your product.
