6 Secrets to Mastering Emotional Triggers That Sell

How do you increase leads and revenue? This is the question on the mind of every business and marketer today.

Despite the digital landscape now dominating our world, the answer is as timeless as humanity itself. Our psychology hasn’t fundamentally changed since we were living in caves — and it’s at the root of all buying decisions.

Here’s some emotional triggers you can use in your marketing messages to persuade your prospects to become loyal customers:

1. Curiosity

Getting your audience interested in your sales copy starts at your headline. It draws them into the first line, and then the second line and so on guiding them into action. Challenging common beliefs is one powerful way to put curiosity to work in your headline.

As humans, we need to collect information to make sense of the world. When you violate expectations, you create a desire in your reader to click, read or subscribe to fill the gap in their knowledge. But curiosity can be tricky to sustain. It can quickly decline if you leave your reader unsatisfied by your opening paragraph, featured benefits, imagery and storytelling.

2. Authority

Establishing trust is a surefire way to get people interested in what you have to offer. In the cornerstone marketing book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini, he lays out how people tend to obey authority figures even if they’re asked to do things that they would normally reject. Partnering with a celebrity figure in your industry can lend your product loads of credibility that will have customers lining up.

3. Novelty

Seeking out the new and unfamiliar makes our brain feel good. Plus, being among the first to get in on the ground floor of a product or service gives us a sense of being a trendsetter. This is why large brands like Apple release a new version of the iPad and iPhone every few months.

To increase sales you can create new products or just make a few updates and rebrand the old ones. This trigger is often used best with others like scarcity, curiosity and authority to avoid appearing as if you lack credibility or experience.

4. Avoiding Pain / Increasing Pleasure

According to Sigmund Freud’s pleasure and pain principle, increasing pleasure and limiting pain motivates our everyday actions. It dictates how we live our lives and the choices we make. This kind of persuasion works most effectively when you are familiar with your customers’ pain points. Explain all the dangers of getting to where they want to be and how your product is exactly what they need to succeed.

5. Urgency / Scarcity

Creating a limited time offer helps to prevent procrastination — the biggest sales hurdle. People’s desire for what you have to offer increases as the threat of it being taken away increases.

The law of supply and demand has worked on this principle for centuries. Ask yourself how badly you want to buy something when it’s the last one available.

6. Instant Gratification

Although we would like to believe that all of our buying decisions are based on carefully weighing the pros and cons and then making a rational choice, the reality is that we largely buy on impulse. People will spend more to have something now rather than later, even if it is not exactly what they want. Immediacy trumps quality, but add in a little anticipation and they’ll enjoy it even more once they have it.

Understanding what motivates a person to buy is vital for boosting sales. Often customers base purchases on their wants rather than strictly on their needs. Using these emotional triggers in your sales copy can help you increase revenue and serve your customers better by fulfilling their desires and expectations.

How do you use emotional triggers in your marketing messages to increase sales?