You may have the nicest layout and the cleverest images, but when it comes time to click “Buy now!” your customers are going to want to know why. Why are they buying? If you don’t understand what triggers your customer to buy, you can’t expect them to either. Content development is more than just prefect grammar and a flair for the theatrical, it can also take the skill of a psychologist to push the triggers that make people who visit your site decide that they do indeed want to buy your product or service. That’s why all Internet marketers should familiarize themselves with common psychological triggers that create some sort of response towards copy that aims at creating a sale.

What Makes Us Human

There are certain psychological aspects that we all share as human, and they’re not all positive. But, they can positively be used to create a sale. Envy, for instance, can translate into copy that targets status seekers. It can appeal to people who want to maintain a certain upper-crust image or at least pretend to be a part of that group for a while. It’s often said that when you are selling a product or service, you sell the benefits, not the actual description of the item. What are those benefits? Those benefits are the things that will trigger us to buy, by making it clear what we get when we choose to purchase. Here are a few different types of triggers that smart content writers can use to instigate a sale.

• Laziness – Sloth is one of the deadly sins, but it doesn’t stop people from looking for the easy way out. If you have a product or service that creates ease in a person’s life, it can be a major draw. Difficult or tedious tasks can be a golden opportunity to trigger someone’s laziness factor and make a sale. Most people would rather pay someone to make their life easier than to work hard to solve a problem. It’s just that much easier.
• Fear of Loss – This is not that hard to trigger with limited time offers. If you want to light a fire under a customer that won’t get off the fence, create a fear of loss in them. Tell them that they’ll lose out on this great deal if they don’t take it within a certain period of time. This can work wonders for first-time buyers, too.
• High Perceived Value – In other words: Greed. Greed is a psychological trigger than happens when someone thinks they’re getting an unbelievable deal. Make your offers high value in comparison to your competitors and the greed factor definitely kicks in. One way to do this is to show your customers what the real value of an offer is (without discounts or sales) and then offer them the limited time, high value, low price offer.
• Status – Status can take on many forms. It can mean looking wealthier than your neighbor or more knowledgeable. It usually distinguishes you as part of a select group. Use status when you make exclusive offers that only certain people are allowed to take advantage of because of their preferred customer status. By offering specials that only come to certain people, you trigger a tendency to create status and people feel special when they buy.