Marketing Psychology: 21 Key Principles of Human Behavior

Marketers, entrepreneurs, and business owners assume that most people make decisions by conducting research and then weighing the options. As a result, every marketing campaign is structured around that outcome. But, that’s not how most people make decisions. People frequently act illogically, making their behavior difficult to predict. And, they rarely take the time to learn the full facts before taking action, as often evident on social media.

Marketing psychology can give smart marketers and business owners a competitive advantage, by optimizing marketing strategies and tactics in ways that intentionally and proactively influence the psychology and people’s behaviors and decisions to identity more potential customers.

People commonly second guess their own behavior, especially if they’re not sure how their decision will impact them or people close to them. This is called the action paralysis principle.

If you’re trying to trigger someone into action, clearly emphasize that their action will make a difference. For example, instead of just saying 'buy now', you can say 'buy now and improve your health today.' The lesson here is that whenever your customers or prospective customers have reason to question their decisions, provide a good reason for them to convert or make a purchase.

A 'call-to-action' (CTA) is a marketing term for any statement designed to prompt an immediate response or to encourage an immediate sale or other type of conversion. Such CTAs could include, for example, a request for people to subscribe to your newsletter, download your free e-book, sign up for your service, or purchase your product. The CTA is the simple act of requesting a prospect to act. And it provides the motivation prospects need to convert.

As a psychological principle, commitment and consistency refer to the choices people make to believe more strongly in the decisions we’ve already made in order to avoid cognitive dissonance (a situation where you have conflicting beliefs or behaviors). This is clearly evident in conversations on social media, on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And, it’s also present in free trials because once we start using a product and invest time, we often tend to believe that the product helps us.

The decoy effect (also called the asymmetrical dominance effect) is a cognitive bias that occurs when people change their preference between two options when a third, asymmetrically dominated option is presented. Put differently: when there is a third important choice (the decoy), a consumer is more likely to choose the more expensive of the first two options. The decoy effect is specially powerful in digital marketing when it comes to pricing.

Framing is the act of manipulating context to make consumers more receptive to your product or service. Our brains take in all outside information and then filter to determine which bits are important. This means that context is just as important to the decision-making process as your product or service itself.

The information-gap theory posits that when someone has a gap in their knowledge on a topic they care about, they will take action to find out what they want to know.

Marketers use the information-gap theory in content and social media marketing. For example, headlines such as 'How to do something', 'The secret to XYZ', or 'What you must know about...' are all used to excite our curiosity and make us want to learn more about the topic.

We like people who are similar to us, who pay us compliments, and who cooperate with us towards mutual goals. This is the psychological liking principle.

Consider Apple stores. It is no coincidence that this high-end, high-tech store is staffed with reps in jeans and a t-shirt instead of traditional suits and ties. Apple uses the liking principle to its advantage. This strategy says: I am a human being and I am like you. I am casual and approachable. My products are for you.

Research shows that successful reps are 10x more likely to use collaborative words like 'us,' 'we,' and 'our'. Why? Because people are drawn to a sense of belonging - they crave social proof. Prove to your client that you are 'one of them' too, and you will gain their trust (and their business).

This works even for celebrities. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian are not like typical people who follow her, but she does have a substantial amount of credibility from her followers in certain market segments, including cosmetics. In fact, celebrities often use they key elements of social psychology to gain a bigger audience and more influence.

According to the mere exposure theory, repetition creates familiarity and familiarity is good. Mere exposure theory posits that the more people see something, the more they will like it. Apparently, the simple act of repeated exposure automatically triggers an increased positive association in our brains.

Priming is the process of presenting someone with a word, image (or sentence) that prepares them to be more receptive to a particular point of view. Priming can influence action as well as thought.

It’s possible to prime someone to say 'Yes.' This specific form of priming is often called the 'Foot-in-Door' method. Don’t let the pushy visual of a foot blocking your door fool you. Foot-in-Door technique can be executed respectfully and with subtlety.

But, what is it?

Foot-in-Door is the technique of priming consumers with small asks (such as signing up for a free e-letter) to prepare them to be more receptive to larger asks (like buying a subscription to a paid newsletter).

Prime your customers to say 'Yes' by building a relationship of small asks early on. For example, you can ask that customers share comments on social media, read blog posts, attend free webinars or download an ebook as other useful examples of small asks that can prime them to say 'Yes' later, when it counts.

People’s attention is drawn to the thing that is the most relevant to them at that moment. The salience principle is seen in things like the ubiquitous up-sell during the checkout process on a website.

People tend to take the path of least resistance and seek out the most important (or salient) thing for them when they arrive on a website. Designers can take advantage of this by knowing what people are looking for and then arranging the page to group similar things close to that primary goal.

Social proof is a psychological and social phenomenon where people are unable to determine the proper behavior and instead, assume that people around them know more about the current situation and behave like the other people. Simply put: we want to know what others are watching, buying, wearing, and experiencing — and this social proof ultimately influences our decisions to do the same.

There are many important principles, theories, and concepts used in marketing psychology. These include:

• the principle of reciprocity
• information-gap theory
• scarcity
• social proof theory
• and loss aversion marketing

You can research each of these principles, plus dozens of other key principles of marketing psychology, via the links below.