The Truth About Buyer Psychology

Understanding what attracts consumers to your product or service is like playing a game of chess. Only the most strategic and experienced players are able to dethrone the king and proclaim victory. Succeeding in sales requires in-depth understanding of the way your target audience thinks and how to appeal to their interests.  Mastering this craft takes time, time you usually don’t have when you’re trying to keep your business afloat.

Buyer psychology is the philosophical underpinning of marketing. It helps you get inside your target customer’s head. Here’re some ways you can use it to your advantage.

Create Detailed Buyer Personas

Buyer personas help you think carefully about your target customer. The steps for creating a detailed buyer persona are pretty simple.

1. Give the persona a name. Doing this adds the human element and makes it more relatable to you as you develop your marketing plan.
2. Use a photo or avatar to represent this person.
3. Identify the persona’s age, income bracket, educational background, and job.
4. Identify the persona’s hobbies, interests and ambitions.
5. Identify the persona’s pain point. What’s that tricky problem this person needs to solve?

Paying attention to these details helps you better understand your customer. The trick is using this information to get the customer to bite your bait. This article provides some useful tips for creating powerful buyer personas.

Obey the WIIFM Rule

The What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) rule underscores that fact that all customers want to know is how they can benefit from what they’re watching, reading or buying. It seems selfish, but it’s true. Your aim is always to demonstrate how your product or service solves this person’s problem. If the buyer is convinced, you’ll make a sale.

Pay Attention to Your Sales Funnel

Very rarely do customers purchase a product or service the first time they’re exposed to it. Therefore, you must have a clear marketing plan for buyers at each stage of the sales funnel. The visual representation of a sales funnel provides 2 key observations.

Firstly, the funnel narrows to a point. There are more people at the top of the funnel than there are at the end of the funnel. In other words, there will be a lot of people who become aware of your brand because of your marketing initiatives but only a small percentage will act. Increasing the number of people who make it to the end of the funnel means optimizing your overall conversion rate and other conversion metrics. This article vividly explains the metrics that you must consider with laser focus.

Secondly, a customer has to go through 4 stages before becoming a paying customer. Too often we consider marketing as a one-shot approach; we make a video or poster and expect anyone who sees it to become a paying customer. There is a greater probability that this won’t happen than there is that it will. Your marketing plan must, therefore, take your target customer through each stage of the sales funnel.

Constant evaluation is the key to using your sales funnel effectively. What road  block is your customer facing at each stage of the process? Is the customer not clear about what you really offer and how it benefits him or her?  Are your prices unjustified? Is there any evidence that other people have successfully used your product or service? The answers to these and other questions will help you better reach your customers.

Appeal to the Right Emotions

Emotions fuel purchases.  I have a problem with online clothing shopping. Each time I see pictures of women in nice clothing I’m filled with envy. One of the main thoughts that runs through my mind is, “I want this outfit so that I can look as good as her!” What makes it worse is that there are usually timed discount deals associated with these images.  These online clothing stores know how to catch me, but I rarely make a purchase because I can’t afford it.

My clothing woes describe a common buyer emotion. According to Koka Sexton, there are 6 possible types of buyer emotions:

1. Greed: I will get something for doing this.
2. Fear: I’ll lose this deal if I don’t act now!
3. Altruism: I’ll help someone by acting now.
4. Envy: My competition will win if I don’t act now.
5. Pride: This will make me look or feel good.
6. Shame: I’ll look like a fool if I don’t act now.

You must decide the type of emotion to which your product or service appeals. The emotion may change depending on your marketing strategy, but you must keep it at the forefront of your mind.

Support Your Bait With Facts

You may lure a buyer in with an attractive suit, but what really makes the buyer decide to purchase is the facts about that suit. It may be made of the best material on the market and custom-fitted so that he can look dapper and walk with some swag. it may also be the suit of choice for his favorite athlete.

Show a buyer the facts after you’ve lured him or her into your sales funnel. Showing the facts up front can be intimidating and may scare the buyer away. For example, let’s say you’re selling a health supplement that relieves menstrual cramps. Your marketing campaign can begin with a video of a woman cringing in pain and then miraculously feeling better after ingesting the supplement. This may connect with a woman who’s tired of feeling terrible menstrual pains and will get her to click the link in the video. However, it won’t get her to purchase.She’s at the awareness stage.

Clicking on the link can take her to a specially designed landing page on your website. On this page, you present the facts about the supplement: how it works, the natural ingredients it contains, and why it’s good for the body. You can even add some testimonials. She begins to rub her chin and say, “Hmmm…this seems interesting. It could actually work for me.”

Scrolling to the bottom of the page then presents her with a limited time offer for a discount on the product. She knows that she must act fast or she’ll lose the deal. Acting takes her to the final stage of the sales funnel where she clicks on the link to purchase her supplements.

Add Value

We know that your final product or service is already high quality. Everything that leads up to someone making a purchase should also be high quality. The videos, images and words you use should be well put together. Additionally, customers shouldn’t feel like you’re always trying to sell something to them. They want content and experiences that add value to their lives for free.

This may mean that you’ll have to create a blog with useful tips and information about your niche. You may also have to dabble some more in social media by using live videos, polls and other engaging strategies to reach your audience. Always remember that whatever you do must add value to the customer. If you need help creating quality content, visit cemwritingservices.com.

 

Clearly understanding who your buyers are and what they’re interested in forms the core of buyer psychology. This knowledge equips you with the information you need to reach your customer at each stage of the sales funnel. Never forget that your brand must always be associated with quality. Therefore, everything you do, post and sell must deliver the quality your customers are expecting.