Become The Brightest Marketer In Your Niche - 5 Methods (Continued)
In the previous posts about how to Become The Brightest Marketer In Your Niche, we've covered the following:
Today we will be wrapping up these 5 methods, giving you a better overall understanding of online marketing, so you can elevate yourself to the top 2-3% of your niche.
AA Method #4: The Basics of Human Psychology, Persuasion, & Your Audience
Essentially, marketing is nothing more than the art of persuasion.
The best marketers in our industry are great with using their words, and convincing people to take action.
But how do they make it look so easy?
I'll tell you...
They make it look easy, because they truly understand human psychology, and are able to use different emotions to get people to open up their wallets.
Salesforce did a study that stated, all buying decisions are based on two things; logic and emotion.
They took it a step further by giving what percentages of logic vs emotion are used...
An astonishing 80% emotion vs 20% logic is used when making that decision.
"FMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) neuro-imagery shows that when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions rather than information. Emotions: Personal feelings and experiences. Information: Brand attributes, features, and facts."
I figured emotion would play the bigger part, but I didn't realize it would be so significant. 80% of our decisions being made are based on emotions and how we feel at that very moment. NOT logic and reason.
It is this very reason why landing pages with count downs or emails with words like "Free" or "Discount" still work extremely well.
They work well because they almost immediately trigger emotions and capture our attention.
Take a look at the info graphic below, it tells us how emotions are directly connected with your marketing message...
Source: Uptick Marketing
In this example, marketers use different psychological triggers like Familiarity, Social Proof, Reciprocity, etc. to create more persuasive copy or advertisements.
To become a skilled marketer, one must develop, at minimum, an understanding of human behavior and how our brains respond to different types of content.
Next time you write copy, try marketing the benefits instead of marketing the features. This is one of the core principles of persuasion.
Marketing copies that mainly focuses on the features of a product fails to trigger any emotion in the buyer. As a result, it rarely converts.
Benefit-driven copy, on the other hand, makes people dream about their ideal life, and all the problems they could/would be avoiding. As you can imagine, conversion rates jump off the page when doing so.
Below I have posted an example of how to translate features into benefits and problems of your audience. Understanding this is crucial, so do spend some time thinking about it and applying it to your niche.
Source: eCommerceCEO
Once your features are translated into benefits and problems, you can use them to polish your marketing copy by making it much more persuasive.
I've included one last info graphic for you to take a look at. This strategy is genius, and would work great with niche marketing. Look carefully how they focus on the benefits over just features...
Source: eCommerceCEO
When you read a review, and all it has in it are praises, what do you think? I think it seems like the writer was more than likely on said company's payroll...
You don't trust it. No one trusts it.
I'm not saying your next review should be "open range" for you to take shots against your product.
But by using the blemishing effect above, you can play with the minds of your audience by mentioning one or two minor negatives about your product (mixed in with a list of positives.)
Your copy will instantaneously become more credible.
These are just a few examples how Human Psychology plays a key role in marketing. And if you want to become a better marketer, I'd suggest you pick up a couple Psychology books, next time you're at the book store.
AA Method #5: Construct Your Business Around Proven Systems & Data
This last method, is what will separate you from about 90% of other marketers in your niche.
Every business decision you make, every new product you create, every marketing campaign you run, and every new blog post (OK, maybe not every one.... but you get the point) you publish, should ALWAYS be backed by proven systems/data & successful case studies
This is the one time in life you shouldn't go with your "gut instinct," because you know where that will get you?
Alongside all the other marketers who have failed because of doing so...
Don't publish an article because you LIKE the topic of THINK it will convert. Don't use a headline because you THINK it's cool, or promote a product because you THINK it's awesome.
You need to stop caring about what you THINK, and look at what the data tells you and what the trends are saying to do.
Take a good hard look at REALITY.
Test, test, test, and test again...
As I said, this is what separates brilliant marketers from all the "phonies" and self-proclaimed "experts."
Take a look at the info-graphic below, some of those numbers are crazy BIG!!
Source: Optimizely
By testing the best banner ads, Sony (one of the biggest brands in the world) increased their online sales by 20%.
They did this by NOT "following their gut" but rather following trusting in the data to make their final decision
This is no coincidence, this is the mindset that all successful marketers have.They use research, solid data trends, a clear understanding of their audience's needs, and knowledge of their industry to create low risk and high impact marketing campaigns.
This is the mindset that you must have in the internet marketing world. It's this exact mindset that helps the top marketers create their products that are successful even before their're launched.
Why?
Because their businesses are based on proven systems and hardcore research, not some loophole, so-called secret, of short-term tactic.
Their decisions are driven by data which tells them about their customers, not what they want their customers to do.
Below is a famous quote by Steve Jobs, one of the many great marketing minds. His says it bests and supports what we advocate here at Affluent Affluent.
Whenever you're coming up with new products or niche ideas, keep this in mind.
Source: Expand
Promoting a product because you like it or because XYZ expert recommends it is nothing more than a recipe for disaster.
You don't chose a product then go out looking for people to buy it. It's the other way around.
You find a problem, research the **** out of your audience, determine their needs, wants, fears and aspirations, and then you create a product that aligns with your research.
There's nothing complex about marketing.
If you put the NEEDS of your customers FIRST and use data to make informed decisions...
The rest will take care of itself...
Smart Marketers Know Expertise Is Relative
They realize they don't need to know EVERYTHING to become experts in their niche, unlike hesitant, unsure, and unsuccessful marketers.
They describe expertise the way this image below does, take a look and see how quickly you can go from "knowing nothing" to "level of required knowledge..."
Source: Sia Mohajer
Being A Lifelong Learner
The more content you share with your audience and the more knowledgeable they become, the less they'll depend on you for information.
And the day they know as much as you, or more than you, they will no longer consider you an expert.
Which means they won't listen to you anymore and/or won't buy from you,
So what does this all mean?
It means you must be one step ahead of them as far as knowledge goes, and keep it that way.
This is what smart marketers do, and this is why they ALWAYS stay relevant.
They play with your emotions, but not in a bad way.
According to Harvard professor Gerald Zaltsman, 95% of sales are driven by subconscious decisions.
The best marketers understand human psychology and use it to their advantage.
You must not care what people THINK, rather care about what they NEED.
The Blame Game
Just the other day, I received an email from one of my followers, telling me that I made them feel bad, angry, and frustrated because of one of my emails.
Did I make them feel like that or did they decide to feel like that?
This email was on my mind the rest of the day, and after thinking about it, it took me some time to realize that no one else can make me feel anything.
Only I can decide how I feel and no matter what other people say, do, or what happens in life, only I get to choose how I react to it.
I don't always react the right way even now knowing I'm the one in control but I thankfully realize now that other people can't make me feel bad, angry, mad etc.... Only I can.
But apparently not everyone has come to that realization yet.
One day I hope everyone does soon though, because when you do, it's VERY powerful and changes the way you think and act in certain situations and it can REALLY improve your life and relationships.
It's easy to point fingers and play the blame game, but is it the right thing to do?
Have you come to this realization? And realized that no one can make you feel anyway but yourself?
Why am I posting this and what does it have to do with marketing?
Because I was simply trying to give free value from a well-intended email campaign.
But you can't make everyone happy, and really you shouldn't even try to because you can't please everyone.
But in my opinion successful marketers are only concerned about their audience, it's needs, and how they can profit by solving their problems.
Everything else is a distraction...
May All Your Affiliate Needs Be Affluent
-Sean Patrick
https://AffluentAffiliate.siterubix.com
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Well written Sean! Great post thank you
Thank you Brad!!