Marketing psychology - ten quick tips

Marketing psychology is, of course, a huge subject, but whatever the size of your business it pays to give some attention to how your customers think and act. Here are ten quick tips. I advise you not to use them as a checklist,or try to implement them all. Instead, use them to gradually hone your marketing messages.

1. Customers’ are emotional beings. People will want a product if it appeals to an emotional need: to look good, feel good, to be admired, to feel they are in control or up to date, and so on. Marketing psychology has to appeal to people’s emotions. What emotion would your product satisfy?
   
   
2. Customers justify their decisions with facts. People usually realize that buying on emotion alone is not sensible, so they will search for facts that confirm their choice to buy is a good one. Does your marketing show the benefits that the product will bring to the customer?
   
   
3. Customers love themselves. People see the world according to how it affects them. Marketing psychology should satisfy people’s need to feel good about themselves and the decisions they make. Do your describe your product in a way that enhances their view of themselves?
   
   
4. Customers want value, not cheap. Value is the difference between what customers think the product is worth and its price. Psychologically, a product’s worth is altered by its benefits, its availability or scarcity, and the emotional need for it. The price is seen in terms of what others are or have asked. Provided the perceived worth is high, a higher price will be accepted. Does your marketing demonstrate that your product worth what you are asking?
   
   
5. Customers are people. People’s psychology responds to a degree of personal approach, because they perceive a relationship with you. They are reassured if other people, especially people like them, approve of your product or your company. Does your marketing introduce a personal touch in the written copy, with photographs or with testimonials, etc?
   
   
6. Customers enjoy buying. Buying, we have said, fulfils psychological needs. People feel good if they can happily contemplate the benefits of what they have bought. They feel satisfied if they got good value for money and were treated well. Does your marketing help your customers to meet their needs, or do you just sell to them?
   
   
7. Customers are cautious. People avoid risk and seek reassurance. They want to deal with reputable people, offering good value products, in a safe environment. Does your marketing portray an image of you, your products and your methods that gives your customers confidence?
   
   
8. Customers want convenience. People want their purchase to be easy. They will look further if they feel your offer is too good to pass up and is unlikely to be bettered - or even offered – elsewhere, and if you make the buying process easy. Do you convince your customers that yours is a great deal, and that they can buy now, quickly, simply and with confidence?
   
   
9. Customers like to try out stuff. It is natural to want to make sure something will do the job you say it will. If you are selling online, you may have to be creative in how you allow customers to experience something of what it would be like to own the product. Can you fulfill people’s psychological need to try out products or see them in action?
   
   
10. Customers make up their own minds. People want to feel that they are in charge of a situation, making their own decisions and not being forced. At the same time, they want information to base their decisions on. Do you help people make decisions, or badger them with facts?

Effective Marketing Strategies

Whatever the size of your business, you need an effective marketing strategy. It doesn’ t have to be elaborate, but without it your marketing will be untargeted and less effective. There are two main aims.

• To make sure that your products meet the needs of your customers.
• To build relationship with your customers that is effective and profitable.

To do this you have to identify what needs that your products satisfy and then how you can best tell your customers about them.

Here are some questions to ponder.

• Your customers will fall into groups with different needs. Do you know what groups and what needs? Do you know which are, or could be, most profitable? Perhaps some simple market research is necessary.
  
  
• Is there a good match between your products and what your customers are looking for? If not, will you alter or expand your product range or your customer base, or both? Do your prices and customer service meet what customers expect? Note: not all customers want low prices and extensive customer service.
  
  
• Of the whole range of online and offline marketing strategies, which provide the ability to show off your products well, and reach your customers? (The Marketing Mix)
  
  
• Do you know how your customers find you now? Have you asked them? Do you run website analytics?
  
  
• How will you test the performance of your marketing so that you can make adjustments? Perhaps a trial or a review or a survey?

Learn how to write effective marketing strategies.

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The Marketing Mix

'The Marketing Mix' is a concept that was developed by a number of marketers in the 1950s and 60s, and it is mentioned in most marketing textbooks. It became associated with the '4 Ps': Price, Place, Promotion and Product. Later, marketers added up to three more Ps: People, Process and Physical Evidence. Well that's all fine and dandy, but it's not my aim to get you a degree in marketing. What can the idea of the marketing mix do to help you with your own home based business? It's about blending the Ps together to produce a plan that sells your product at a profit. Lets take them one at a time.

Price. Pricing products is usually one of the difficult decisions for any new business. Many make the mistake of thinking they have to be cheaper to compete. In fact there are few businesses that compete on price alone. It's more about the customer believing they have bought at a good price in the circumstances. If service is prompt, quality high and their need for the product great, they will accept a higher price as being reasonable.

Place - where, and how, you sell your product. Will you be selling direct to your customers, or through agents or affiliates, or a mixture of these? Will you have to hold stock? Will different routes get you a different market? Will some take longer than others? What are the costs of each? Try to be flexible in your thoughts about the routes to your customers. But do make sure you understand the probable outcomes of each.

Product. Remember that old salesman's saying 'sell the benefits, not the features'? If you think about your product that way you may come realise that while you thought you were selling, say, a new software application, the main thing you sold was time-saving! You may also have sold peace of mind, in the form of a money-back guarantee or online help. These factors alter the way the customer sees the value and desirability of the product.

Promotion. You customers may meet you products in more ways than your direct sales pitch. Through mentions on your website, your blog or someone else's, through your competitors even! Each time they meet the product it affects their vies of it. Make sure that all the meetings you are responsible for are good ones. Another old salesman's saying: AIDA. Grab their Attention; hold their Interest; get them to Desire the product; have them take Action towards buying it. The AIDA process may take a few seconds if you are selling beer in a heatwave, or weeks and months if it's a car.

Physical Evidence. Customers want to see evidence of your business and your product. If that product is a service or computer software they won't actually be able to see the product itself. They are them more reliant on other evidence: pictures, websites, letters, business cards, logos, premises, a telephone number - in short, anything about you and your product that will assure them of genuineness and value.

Process. The process your customer goes through in meeting, purchasing and using your product. Our job is to make that process as smooth, simple and satisfying as possible. Your product may be great and just what the customers want, but if they have to endure poor service to get it, they may not think it worth their while, or their money.

People. The last and most important ingredient in the marketing mix. People buy from people. In this internet age customers may never see or hear you or your staff. But they will tune in to any human traces in websites and emails. Pictures of people, use of customers' names, friendly wording and much more, will help. Of course, if your customers do meet you, you have the opportunity to ensure they are treated well.

Use the Marketing Mix to focus on each part of your marketing. You will find areas that need improvement, and attention to improvements will increase sales and profits.