How to Use Psychology to Convert More Leads

As a marketer, your job is to get your target audience on your team. Competition is tough, and you need any edge you can get to turn prospects into better leads.

Marketing is a mind game, and you can (and should) use tenets of basic psychology in your content marketing to get ahead of the curve.

Here’s a video from London Real talking about the hows and whys of psychology in marketing:

Quick Takeaways:

• Advertising effort and resources is proof of your product or service’s authenticity

• The rules of marketing can be bent to your advantage

• Sell whatever your version of a product or service is, define yourself by your own niche – not your competitor’s

In mind games, you need to be a mind reader. You need to understand why and how people think. Well, maybe not everyone, but you at least need to know your target audience.

It’s not enough that you know who they are and where you can find them—you need to know what makes them tick, what motivates them, what inspires them, and more. You need to understand them like the back of your hand.

By understanding the psychology of your ideal customer (customer persona), you become more capable of creating high-impact marketing initiatives in generating qualified leads with the highest potential for conversion.

How to Use Psychology in Lead Generation Efforts

Visualize an Outcome Your Customers Want

People have different reactions to offers, and this depends on whether they see the offer as something that will improve their way of life – or something that has no value. Say you have a product or service, instead of simply listing its amazing features, you can focus on how it adds value to people’s lives.

In other words, you need people to see what you see and help them visualize how your product or service can address their pain points and make their lives better. Walk them through an everyday story that applies to them – get personal.

Tap Their Egos

Everyone wants to feel like they’re special, and marketers have gone to great lengths to show just how valuable their customers are to them. Take it up a notch by focusing on exclusivity.

Asking a prospect to do something is a request, whereas providing them with an opportunity to become a part of an exclusive community is a gift – a privilege.

This can be achieved by offering an emotional experience to your customers through the use of your products or services, focusing on aspirations like success, love, family and relationships.

No one does this better than Apple. They’re not just selling tech gadgets; they’re offering customers the chance to be part of a certain lifestyle. When people get their hands on an Apple product, the ego is nursed, a great customer experience is delivered, and loyalty is secured.

Introduce Scarcity and Urgency

Source: Parallax Kaushish

This psychological marketing trick is so evident that many people, if not all, have experienced it at one point in their lives. We’ve seen brands lure their customers by adding taglines like “Limited Time Offer Only!” or “Only 3 Days Left For 50% Discount!”

Smith.ai offers this suggestion for your strategy:

A great tool to prompt this is a countdown timer. For example, on an email or landing page, you can set a timer to the exact second an offer will expire, pushing customers to buy. You can also limit an offer to a short period of time, even a single day, to drive customers to commit to the purchase.

We’ve seen them in retail stores and websites, and the reason companies do this is because scarcity is powerful. By introducing the concept of scarcity, people automatically associate your product or service with a higher value simply because of low supply.

This also explains why the last cookie in the cookie jar is the tastiest. This trick is simple, but effective.

Make Reciprocity Work for You

Source: Upland Software

It goes back to basic goodwill. If someone does you a favor, be it big or small, you feel inclined to return the good deed. In marketing campaigns, reciprocity can be in the form of free gated content, product samples or demos, exclusive gifts to loyal customers and more.

If you give something to customers for free, they feel inclined to give something back, and it can be in the form of word of mouth, good reviews, or spending more money on your brand. This is quite common in gyms where sales reps often offer you free training for a week or even a month in exchange for your friends’ contact numbers and eventually, your membership.

It’s great for lead generation tactics. Just make sure the freebies come first before you ask them to do something for you.

The Propinquity Effect

Source: Proximity Marketing

In class, your seatmate often becomes your new best friend. In the office, the ones who sit next to each other often become a close-knit group. Proximity has a huge effect on people, and you can use this in marketing too.

With marketing propinquity, strategically weaving contextually relevant communications into your customers’ lives increases their awareness of your brand. Think about a brand like HubSpot. Imagine how many customers they’ve attracted by producing content that’s relevant to their target market.

In essence, propinquity lies at the heart of all content marketing and lead nurturing activities.

Wrap Up

Through social media and content marketing, you can be part of your customers’ lives by engaging them in online conversations, delivering exceptional customer service, and inviting them to events.

Technology has provided us with more ways to be constantly connected to people (through social media especially), which is perfect for both generating and nurturing leads.

Understanding how your customers operate gives you a steady advantage in the marketing mind game. It’s all about telling and giving them what they want, exactly how and when they need it.

You have to be a constant voice in their ear, which in turn makes them feel that you are part of their lives. Psychology and marketing often intertwine, and when fused properly can give you a great advantage when it comes to building awareness, trust, and authority with your clients.

Do you want to use some of the marketing strategies seen here on MIG’s site but need some help or advice? Marketing Insider Group has a team of 35+ experienced writers ready to produce content for YOUR business. Check out our weekly blog content service or schedule a free consultation. 

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