Human behaviour can be influenced by a whole range of common psychological quirks. Perception of scarcity, the herd effect, reciprocation and personalisation, all lend themselves to techniques for marketing optimisation and lead generation.
But what are these quirks of human nature and how are they actionable? In this post we've mapped the psychology to lead generation and marketing techniques, shining some light on why certain tactics work and to give you some inspiration!
Above: Travel website shows how many rooms are left to encourage booking.
Get one before they're gone! Creating scarcity by limiting availability increases perceived value and puts a purchase decision into a timeframe. Scarcity will also encourage social sharing as people will want to help their friends to get one too (whilst demonstrating that they are 'in the know').
People will also pay more when scarcity is introduced.
Scarcity is often used in the launch of online services, where there is a double benefit; access to the service becomes conversation worthy and potential scaling issues are kept in check.
Above: Highrise uses customer testimonials effectively.
Social proof is a common tool for encouraging people to buy, testimonials by already satisfied customers make it easy for you to visualise yourself enjoying product benefits. Even the number of people that have liked or tweeted a web page encourages you to do the same.
Using personas to laser target your prospects and personalising your communications makes the herd effect more compelling. If a designer thinks all of the other designers are using your software/pens/brand of computer, they'll use it too.
If people think they are being measured they will change behaviour, sharing success stories based upon a level of uptake will encourage people to carry on to achieve more. eg "96% of our customers achieve 5 stars and your current star rating is 3 (you can gain 2 more stars by adding your birthday)."
And don't give people bad news without also giving them instructions on how to put it right (as above), because they'll give up.
Above: Dropbox uses radical simplicity, there's no confusion about what to do here!
Keep it simple. Offering too many choices introduces friction, if your visitors have to start thinking about what they need to do next they will give up.
The solution? Show people what you want them to do, make it as easy as 'point and click'. If you haven't read the excellent "Don't make me think" go and do it now. I'll wait.. ..that was quick!
Unless you're a freeloader, then it sounds great! But then you'd never pay for it.. Freemium anyone?
Plus, if you're selling on discounts you're damaging your brand.
Above: Hubspot offers free ebooks extensively to drive lead generation.
Free ebook, free trial, free consultation, share your knowledge and your viewpoint, give advice openly and willingly. These days it will set you apart from the competition and connect you with your future customers.
It's worth keeping in mind that favour value decreases over time for the receiver, that's why you need to have a number valuable knowledge gifts that you can share over time.
You know this every day as you deal with the flotsam in your inbox. If someone has taken the time to understand you and your requirements they are worth your time. If they haven't they're not. Simple.
Combining a gift with personalisation is like a power move. It feels like it's your birthday, that's got to be good!
The example here is from the Yes* book and demonstrates the mechanics with after dinner mints and tips.
Mints on way out is the baseline.
Mint with check +3.3% uplift in tip value.
Waiter offers each customer a mint (personalisation) before check +14.1% uplift in tip value.
Waiter offers each customer a mint, (personalisation) then as he walks away he stops, returns, and offers an extra 'generous afterthought' mint to each customer (double personalisation). +23% uplift.
If you are having trouble getting customers to commit to a full case study, start off by writing a short testimonial for them to approve. Once they've committed to the small testimonial they'll be more receptive to the case study as the precedent is set.
Freemium anyone? Seriously though, this is where freemium works as you have a low barrier to entry and once your customer is engaged you can up sell incrementally.
You're a marketing professional, right? Well 73% of business to business marketing professionals take a free 14 day trial of the Jumplead Business Lead Generation Software after reading this article. Tempted?
How about a post purchase poll that asks your new customer for the deciding factor in their purchase. Plus, writing things down improves commitment. Double win!
If you have the opportunity to communicate with someone who has previously chosen your competitor's products give them the opportunity to change their mind. Talk about their changing circumstances and new requirements, this gives them permission to change their mind without feeling that they made the wrong decision in the first place.
People like to help, it's part of how we connect with each other, ask for your customer's opinion and show that you value it. Asking how you can improve your product or service one to one is best way to do this. Automated questionnaires break the mechanic somewhat, because you're not giving them the time that you're asking for.
Above: Freemium in action.
Time and effort invested in pursuing something, generates a degree of lock-in. If you've spent time bidding at a low price, you're more likely to go high.
So, Perhaps if we start by removing the financial barrier to entry, encourage people to learn our way of doing things and then charge more for the parts that offer increased levels of value.. Aaaagh Freemium again!
This isn't so much a tool for lead generation, but using lists and numbers to structure information makes it more appealing, convincing and easier for people to use. Plus I didn't want to leave this as 13 point list because that'd be bad luck!
*This article was inspired by Noah Goldstein's, Steve Martin's and Robert Cialdini's Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. If you've got any other ways to use these for sales lead generation and marketing please let me know in the comments below:
Human behaviour can be influenced by a whole range of common psychological quirks. Perception of scarcity, the herd effect, reciprocation and personalisation, all lend themselves to techniques for marketing optimisation and lead generation.
But what are these quirks of human nature and how are they actionable? In this post we've mapped the psychology to lead generation and marketing techniques, shining some light on why certain tactics work and to give you some inspiration!
Above: Travel website shows how many rooms are left to encourage booking.
Get one before they're gone! Creating scarcity by limiting availability increases perceived value and puts a purchase decision into a timeframe. Scarcity will also encourage social sharing as people will want to help their friends to get one too (whilst demonstrating that they are 'in the know').
People will also pay more when scarcity is introduced.
Scarcity is often used in the launch of online services, where there is a double benefit; access to the service becomes conversation worthy and potential scaling issues are kept in check.
Above: Highrise uses customer testimonials effectively.
Social proof is a common tool for encouraging people to buy, testimonials by already satisfied customers make it easy for you to visualise yourself enjoying product benefits. Even the number of people that have liked or tweeted a web page encourages you to do the same.
Using personas to laser target your prospects and personalising your communications makes the herd effect more compelling. If a designer thinks all of the other designers are using your software/pens/brand of computer, they'll use it too.
If people think they are being measured they will change behaviour, sharing success stories based upon a level of uptake will encourage people to carry on to achieve more. eg "96% of our customers achieve 5 stars and your current star rating is 3 (you can gain 2 more stars by adding your birthday)."
And don't give people bad news without also giving them instructions on how to put it right (as above), because they'll give up.
Above: Dropbox uses radical simplicity, there's no confusion about what to do here!
Keep it simple. Offering too many choices introduces friction, if your visitors have to start thinking about what they need to do next they will give up.
The solution? Show people what you want them to do, make it as easy as 'point and click'. If you haven't read the excellent "Don't make me think" go and do it now. I'll wait.. ..that was quick!
Unless you're a freeloader, then it sounds great! But then you'd never pay for it.. Freemium anyone?
Plus, if you're selling on discounts you're damaging your brand.
Above: Hubspot offers free ebooks extensively to drive lead generation.
Free ebook, free trial, free consultation, share your knowledge and your viewpoint, give advice openly and willingly. These days it will set you apart from the competition and connect you with your future customers.
It's worth keeping in mind that favour value decreases over time for the receiver, that's why you need to have a number valuable knowledge gifts that you can share over time.
You know this every day as you deal with the flotsam in your inbox. If someone has taken the time to understand you and your requirements they are worth your time. If they haven't they're not. Simple.
Combining a gift with personalisation is like a power move. It feels like it's your birthday, that's got to be good!
The example here is from the Yes* book and demonstrates the mechanics with after dinner mints and tips.
Mints on way out is the baseline.
Mint with check +3.3% uplift in tip value.
Waiter offers each customer a mint (personalisation) before check +14.1% uplift in tip value.
Waiter offers each customer a mint, (personalisation) then as he walks away he stops, returns, and offers an extra 'generous afterthought' mint to each customer (double personalisation). +23% uplift.
If you are having trouble getting customers to commit to a full case study, start off by writing a short testimonial for them to approve. Once they've committed to the small testimonial they'll be more receptive to the case study as the precedent is set.
Freemium anyone? Seriously though, this is where freemium works as you have a low barrier to entry and once your customer is engaged you can up sell incrementally.
You're a marketing professional, right? Well 73% of business to business marketing professionals take a free 14 day trial of the Jumplead Business Lead Generation Software after reading this article. Tempted?
How about a post purchase poll that asks your new customer for the deciding factor in their purchase. Plus, writing things down improves commitment. Double win!
If you have the opportunity to communicate with someone who has previously chosen your competitor's products give them the opportunity to change their mind. Talk about their changing circumstances and new requirements, this gives them permission to change their mind without feeling that they made the wrong decision in the first place.
People like to help, it's part of how we connect with each other, ask for your customer's opinion and show that you value it. Asking how you can improve your product or service one to one is best way to do this. Automated questionnaires break the mechanic somewhat, because you're not giving them the time that you're asking for.
Above: Freemium in action.
Time and effort invested in pursuing something, generates a degree of lock-in. If you've spent time bidding at a low price, you're more likely to go high.
So, Perhaps if we start by removing the financial barrier to entry, encourage people to learn our way of doing things and then charge more for the parts that offer increased levels of value.. Aaaagh Freemium again!
This isn't so much a tool for lead generation, but using lists and numbers to structure information makes it more appealing, convincing and easier for people to use. Plus I didn't want to leave this as 13 point list because that'd be bad luck!
*This article was inspired by Noah Goldstein's, Steve Martin's and Robert Cialdini's Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. If you've got any other ways to use these for sales lead generation and marketing please let me know in the comments below:
Lead generation is important for your business because the traditional buying process has dramatically changed and therefore, requires your business to stimulate interest in your products or services across the customer pipeline.
Nurtured leads produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities and businesses who nurture leads make 50% more sales at a cost 33% less than non-nurtured prospects. Find out more about how businesses are generating leads, what's working and what's not.
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