10 principles and theories of marketing psychology

Written by: Sara Hassouneh

There is a connection between Marketing and Psychology. Besides, smart marketers incorporate one or more psychological principles into marketing campaigns and marketing strategy, content marketing, and sales strategy.

What is Marketing Psychology? And what is the Importance of Psychology in Marketing

Marketing psychology is used to understand why people think and act the way they do. The principles of marketing psychology can be applied to products and services in a wide range of industries. Many companies are using this method to identify the mindset and behavior of their target audience, allowing them to align their marketing strategies accordingly. For example, big companies like Google and Facebook, have developed algorithms that enhance content and ads to increase engagement. The concept of marketing provides marketers with an understanding of people that help influence consumer behavior to buy or act in a certain way.?

The term "marketing mindset" is related to the field of neuromarketing. Neuromarketing is defined as a neuroscientific approach that links research and analysis of consumer behavior to marketing activities. The concept of neuromarketing is to provide powerful insights and techniques for marketing research and consumer research. Neuroscience and market research researchers have common brain activity to specific psychological responses and patterns, which directly affect consumer choice, preferences, and expectations. These findings have allowed companies to understand and engage with them to achieve more effective advertising strategies and products

Different studies have shown that consumers tend to make purchasing decisions based on emotion and personal biases rather than logical reasoning. This gives an understanding of people’s hurry and using it to increase sales is important for any marketer. Neuromarketing helps create engaging campaigns, refines customer interactions, and enhances brand loyalty. All these objectives are very important for businesses in today’s competitive market.?

How does marketing psychology improve marketing?

Marketers, entrepreneurs, and business owners often assume that most people make decisions after researching and then considering their options. As a result, every marketing campaign is structured around that outcome. However, that is not how most people decide. People tend to behave irrationally, making it difficult to detect their actions. And, they rarely take the time to learn all the facts before taking action, as is often evident on social media.

Why we are qualified to write about marketing psychology

The marketing psychology guide by author Ross Kimberowski, founder and CEO of crowd spring. Ross is a psychologist and marketing expert and writes extensively on these topics for the Crowd spring blog and other top publications. Ross has a degree in psychology and worked as a trial lawyer for thirteen years before founding Crowd spring. Working as a trial lawyer, Ross gained a wealth of knowledge about the human psyche and how people think and behave. As an entrepreneur for the past 15 years and an attorney for the past 27 years, Ross has overcome thousands of complex issues related to starting and running a successful business and shares his insights, experience, advice, and best practices as he covers business ideas in this guide.

What are the ten psychological theories in marketing?

There are several ideas and psychological principles in marketing that can help marketers better understand their audience. Below, we will show you some of the theories related to marketing psychology and explain how they work. It helps you understand the basic psychological marketing theories, where you can optimize many aspects of your campaigns and marketing efforts, from website development to content marketing. Also, in order to help you attract, convince, and convert more people with your marketing. The following are the principles of psychology:

1. Social proof: About 95% of consumers report that positive reviews have a significant impact on their purchasing decisions. You need to add the following buttons and social sharing options to your website. Show how many followers you have and how many times posts you have been shared. Add your clients into your website, including landing pages, to convince potential customers.?

2. Loss aversion: Loss aversion theory in marketing focuses on customers who prioritize loss avoidance over profit. Marketing strategies aimed to reduce risk perception and assure that harm will not occur, ultimately playing on the fear of product harm to drive consumer behavior.

3. Urgency and scarcity: According to a buyer psychology theory, consumers tend to value items that are limited, scarce, or difficult to obtain more highly than those that are easily accessible. The sense of urgency created by scarcity can prompt consumers to act quickly and make a purchase. On the other hand, items that are available may have less value for consumers. There are different varieties to use urgency and scarcity; first , to promote your products. Second, utilize strategic marketing tactics, in order to establish a sense of exclusivity and desirability around your offerings. Also, to entice consumers to act swiftly in acquiring your unique products.

4. Reciprocity : is a simple version of popular psychological marketing theory. Based on the idea that the company or product does something good for the customer, it turns their leads to the customer returning the favor by doing something good for the company. This may include buying more products, sharing the product with friends, or advertise on social media.

For example, offering discounts, free samples, or small gifts to customers can help build trust and demonstrate your value. Another effective strategy is to create valuable content, such as videos, blog posts, or e-books, that resonate with your audience. Giving them something useful by helping makes customers more likely to respond by making a purchase or subscribing to your mailing list or doing a favorite thing.?

5. Anchoring bias: helps attract customers through content marketing. This principle is very useful when pricing a product or service. According to this theory, consumers typically look at price first as a starting point when making a purchase decision. These baseline values act as their anchor, against which other values are judged as good or bad. An effective sales strategy using anchors is to show customers how much they save with each purchase. This approach is very useful where you offer a subscription plan.

6. Information-gap theory: if a customer lacks information about something, he/she can take action to fill gaps in his or her knowledge. This principle can be effectively applied to social media and digital marketing campaigns to encourage customers to search for more information and engage with the advertised product or service

Consider that every teaser or article you encounter begins with a phrase like "How To..." or "The Secret To...". These subject cards are designed to capture your interest and engage you by providing valuable information that you may not already know. The main goal is to attract you to click on the article and expand your understanding. It is very important to be careful when using this method, and not to mislead people with false information. If you use a catchy headline, be sure to deliver the promised content.

7. Call-to-action: A ‘call-to-action’ (CTA) is a marketing message that prompts an immediate response or encourages an instant purchase or engagement. These actions could include asking for newsletter subscriptions, providing a free eBook, facilitating service registration, or promoting product sales. A CTA is a direct invitation for potential customers to take action, and motivate conversions.

8. Color psychology: some studies showed how colors can be used to comprehend, anticipate, and manipulate human behavior. In marketing and branding, color is frequently utilized to influence us. Some research indicates that it is more important to anticipate your customers’ response to a color and its association with your brand than the color itself.

9. Commitment and Consistency: refer to the tendency of individuals to reinforce their beliefs in already chosen products, a common phenomenon found in discussions on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn so as to avoid conflict of interest. This is also evident in free trials, where users tend to invest their time and effort into creating a product and gaining positive feedback. By combining research, understanding, and branding fundamentals, marketing psychology can help in developing strong brand awareness for complex brands. Brand identity is built on the foundation of typography, color palette, forms and shapes, and composition.?

10. Emotional marketing: attract and retain customers. It aims to encourage consumers to remember, share, and buy products/services. Emotional marketing is persuasive and can influence consumer decision-making. The primary emotions used in emotional marketing are anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, expectancy, trust, and happiness.