Elements of Habit Forming Design Part 1: Internal vs. External Triggers - Key To Getting Your Customers Hooked on Your Product or Service

What are internal trigger and external triggers and how can they help you hook more customers to your product or service? Good, we have a question, but before we get to the answer of that question we must understand the concept of getting people HOOKED onto something.

The dictionary definition of hooked is:

Hooked also means captivating which is relevant here, but let us focus on the definition addicted on this article. Think about it, what does it mean for someone to be addicted to something? Typically, when we think about someone being addicted to something our minds go to tv, drugs, alcohol, phones, etc. but the things we are referencing are - for the most part - negative addictions.

So, are there even positive addictions then?

William Glasser shares that "positive addictions" strengthen us and make our lives more satisfying. He specifically focuses on understanding running and meditation as a positive addiction, but his focus should give you an idea of what positive addictions could be i.e. yoga, going to gym, cooking, etc.

Addictions don't have to be negative, they can be positive ones too.

Also, keep note of both (negative and positive addictions that happen) and what emotions are underlying in those negative and positive addictions because understanding those will lead us to the very important answer of using internal and external triggers to get someone hooked onto the product or service you're offering.

Why should we understand the underlying emotions behind the addictions?

INTERNAL TRIGGERS

To answer this next questions I'm going to have Nir Eyal (a product design expert and the author of Hooked) tell you what an internal trigger is P.S. We'll get back to the first question at the end of this article.

When a product is tightly coupled with a thought, an emotion, or a  pre-existing habit, it creates an “internal trigger.” - Nir Eyal

Now that you know what an internal trigger is you might understand why I told you about addictions and how keeping track of those emotions (that are underlying in those addictions) are responsible for keeping your customers hooked or will get them hooked if they're brand new. If you haven't figured it out let me tell you why we should understand the underlying emotions in addictions.

It's because, to develop a hook in your product and/or service and get your customer to keep coming back, you must understand why your customers get addicted to things. Internal triggers are those emotions behind the addictions tied to your product or service.

If you're not following, we're just working backwards and looking at what's behind the hook. The hook is an addiction and that addiction has both internal and external triggers and is what keeps your customers engaged for a longer period of time.

The internal trigger in this case is what keeps your customers engaged based on an emotion like for example pain or disgust or being board and understanding that your audience is board when they use your product or services shows you how you can reach them more effectively aka recognizing the internal trigger that get's them to keep coming back time and time again.

EXTERNAL TRIGGERS

I'll share an example that Nir uses to quickly hit the idea home of what an external trigger is

Instagram filled Twitter streams and Facebook feeds with whimsical sepia-toned images, each with multiple links back to the service. 

This just means the service feature itself is the external trigger. Like for example, Instagram slogan “Fast beautiful photo sharing” which attracted millions of new users and as we know the product keeps them coming back (referenced from Nir and Far Blog by Nir Eyal).

These are Nir Eyal's Hook Canvas and are the 4 things that will help you create a hook for your product and or service (this are the very specific 4 steps you need to take to develop a solid hook to keep attracting customers).

Most of them I'll go over in posts to come and you can ask me questions in the comments about them, but to highlight these are the 4 steps in the Hook Canvas:

1. The triggers have to be present (what we've just briefly gone over).
2. Taking Action (Sufficient ability - capacity to do the behavior and how easy it is to do).
3. Variable Reward (Reward of the tribe - things that feel good that have this element of variability and come from other people, reward of the hunt - i.e. when you're on social media - one story might be interesting, but the other isn’t and that's what you're in constant search of and that's what makes it a reward, & then finally the reward of the self - this reward doesn't come from others it comes from you i.e. when you level up in a game or mark things off of your todo list).
4. Investment (What “bit of work” is done to increase the likelihood of your customer returning?)

Now, to answer the question that was proposed at the beginning and go over what we discussed. What are internal trigger and external triggers and how can they help you hook more customers to your product or service? First, understand what emotions are behind the customers addictions and keep note of them. Understand that those emotions are what truly trigger them to use your service and/or product (this is better known as the internal trigger). Use external triggers alongside your internal triggers to get customers to keep visiting. Then, finally, use the hook loop that Nir Eyal proposes.

*Last example to hit Internal and external triggers home for you guys.

Imagine I gave you $100 to listen to me tell you a story for 25 minutes. Initially, the $100 elicited an emotion of surprise and excitement (the internal trigger). That 25 min story is the reinforcement to the $100 (it's the external trigger - that story needs to have surprise and excitement in it). This can lead to you, as the story teller, to get more out of the person listening if the external triggers are exhibited correctly (pre story, during story, and post story).

PLEASE COMMENT AND LIKE IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS I'M HERE :) Stay Awesome people ??????