7 Psychological and Emotional Triggers that can Increase Your Sales

As humans, we all share similar needs and triggers, by understanding these psychological and emotional drivers we can create experiences that more readily drive sales.

1: Belonging

From clans and ganglands to families and sports teams. Humans have a strong desire to belong, driven by emotional connections and deep seated personal motivators.

There’s no easier place to see this than on the social networks. Highly illogical and irrational activities driven by emotion and the need to belong and be accepted.

image source: Geograph

Or queuing for hours to be the first to get hold of the latest Apple iPhone.

2: Fear

Fear or ‘fear appeal’ as a marketing tactic isn’t one of the most popular, but if used ethically it can certainly be very powerful. Rogers’ Protection Motivation Theory(1975) states that people are motivated to protect themselves from physical, psychological and social threats.

For many years it was popular in marketing campaigns of charities, although this has somewhat faded out. Fear is most often used as FOMO – fear of missing out.

3: Guilt

Guilt can be one of the most effective and most sickening emotions to prey on. ““Forget about depression, fear, angst, anxiety or night sweats. Guilt, that most puritanical of all our human emotions, has resurfaced to become a 21st century emotional social and consumer pandemic” Martin Lindstrom, Branding Strategy Insider.

Image Source: aytm

4: Trust

Long-term, trust is what you want to be known for. Once you are trusted, people will buy from you with minimal thought or cognitive effort.

There are many ways you can build trust, we have outlined 7 things you can do in our Smart Insights blog post to increase trust.

Above are just four outlines of the seven emotional triggers we cover in depth in our Smart Insights blog post. The final three are Leadership, Values and Instant Gratification / the Pleasure Principle – the “need” to keep up with the Jones’s. Head on over and have a read, where each emotional trigger is covered in detail and with examples as to how you can incorporate them into your sales and marketing.