Persuading People to Buy: Insights on Marketing Psychology That Pay Off for Your Company, Professional Practice or Nonprofit Organization
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About this ebook
Attract Interest, Then Nail the Sale
With attention spans mercilessly short, you can't afford to approach customers with anything but the very strongest, most on-target pitch. Learn how to capture the interest of perfect prospects for your product, service or cause, then convince them to complete an order.
This pithy, provocative book from a master of creative marketing offers both timeless principles of persuasion and insights from recent research and marketing trends. Real-life examples illustrate Marcia Yudkin's advice on strategies that work and those that may backfire.
Marcia Yudkin is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity, now in its third edition, and 10 other books.
"In almost 20 years as a business and marketing columnist, I've yet to encounter anyone with more know-how of what it really takes to transform strangers into prospects, customers and brand loyalists. Marcia Yudkin's M.O. is moxie delivered in bite-sized bits and in terms everyone can understand - and put to immediate use. One handy book with Marcia's years of wisdom is well worth the investment."
- Jeff Zbar, Founder, ChiefHomeOfficer.com, U.S. Small Business Administration 2001 Small Business Journalist of the Year
"Marketing insights come fast and furious in Persuading People to Buy. If you want to peek inside the minds of buyers, motivate them to buy what you offer, and think of new ways to tempt them, this is the book for you."
- Mike Schultz, President of RAIN Group, Co-Author of Professional Services Marketing
Marcia Yudkin
Creative marketing expert Marcia Yudkin has an unparalleled ability to find the right words for a message, an unusual angle to get folks to pay attention, and the promotional strategy that pays off handsomely for her clients.Her 16 books include 6 Steps to Free Publicity, Persuading on Paper, Web Site Marketing Makeover, Meatier Marketing Copy and Freelance Writing for Magazines & Newspapers, a Book of the Month Club selection.Marcia’s articles have appeared in hundreds of magazines, including the New York Times Magazine, TWA Ambassador, USAir Magazine and Business 2.0. For eight years running, she served as an official site reviewer for the Webby Awards and has helped judge the Inc. Magazine Small Business Web Awards.She has been featured in Success Magazine, Entrepreneur, Home Office Computing, Working Woman, Women in Business, dozens of newspapers throughout the world and four times in the Sunday Boston Globe, as well as on National Public Radio.Her clients range from grizzled entrepreneurs to nervous newly self-employed professionals, from software publishers and ecommerce startups to media companies, associations and independent educational programs.Marcia Yudkin holds three Ivy League degrees, including a Ph.D. in the humanities.
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Persuading People to Buy - Marcia Yudkin
Introduction
Years ago, I ran a class for freelance writers on how to convince top-tier magazine editors to assign them articles. One man brought in a rejection letter he’d received and read it out loud. His face turned red with anger as he reached the end.
What a stupid, stupid editor!
the man exclaimed, slapping the letter with the hand not holding it. "I told him it was a national story I was proposing, not a local one. Should I send him back my letter with the sentence that said that circled?"
This person had run into a gap that exists whether you’re selling ideas or iPhones, wine or weight loss coaching. It’s the gap between how you think and how others do, the gap between what you believe will make others agree with you, then take a particular action and what actually persuades them (or not).
Passion alone does not bridge the gap. Often reason doesn’t create interest and willingness, either.
Persuasion always begins with an understanding of the audience’s expectations, beliefs, habits and desires. By far, the hardest and most necessary part of marketing is how to shift your perspective from your own thinking and perception to that of the customer. Only then can you create a connection and motivate them to buy.
The man in my class, for instance, had failed to meet the editor’s criteria separating a national story from a local one. His own criteria were irrelevant.
This book contains anecdotes, explanations, tips and research findings that show how to relate your pitch, offers and pricing to what matters to those you’re hoping will become–and remain–buyers.
The chapters originate in a weekly column, The Marketing Minute, that I’ve published since 1998. You can sign up for a free email subscription at www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm. I’ve added action steps and quotes to help you apply the marketing lessons in the columns and enhance their impact.
Contents
Introduction
Part I: Know Your Customers
Your Audience’s Expectations
Know Your Audience
A Mile in Their Shoes
Americans Treasure Choices
CEO Hot Buttons
Insult One Group to Woo Another?
Purple Cows and Brown Ones
Gender Differences in Shopping
Surprising Gender Senders
Do You Really Know Your Customers?
Never Sell to Androids
Wooing One Important Customer
High-Value Marketing
What People Say Vs. What They Do
Picture Your Customer
Use Customers’ Words
Part II: Establishing Value
Reputation Pays
They Don’t Value What I Do!
Sell to Those Who Understand Your Value
Your Value, Understood, Part I
Your Value, Understood, Part II
When They Don’t Get It
Part III: Reasons for Buying
Using Hot Button Appeals
Multiple Hot Buttons
Emotional Reasons for Buying
Cherchez le Sentiment
Today's Upscale Motivators
Customer Convenience as a Lure
Four Ways to Discover Hot Buttons
Discover Distinctive Reasons to Buy
Not Obvious, Not Shared
Creating More Reasons to Buy
Rethink Your Rationale?
Analyze Purchasing Triggers
Part IV: Persuasive Techniques
Selling Through Consequences
Make the Consequences Explicit
Convince Us!
Surprise, Surprise
The Power of Suspense
Get Them Involved
The Point, Please!
Important But Not Urgent
Use the News
Expand Your Repertoire of Offers
No More Rejection!
To Persuade, Prepare
Be Yourself – Dressed Up
Your Address Sends a Message
Part V: Approaches That Can Backfire
Should You Exaggerate?
Be Believable
Don’t Reject Questions
Incentives and Identity
Latest = Greatest?
Show Your Heart?
Beware Secondary Passions
The One Up
Factor
Part VI: Pricing Psychology
Consider Posting Your Service Prices
How to Pull Off Higher Prices
Stay Firm on Your Fees
Pricing You Can Live With
Some Pricing Principles
Offer Pricing Options
Mental Mistakes About Pricing
Pricing Psychology Quirks
Take the Pain Out of Prices
Part VII: Keeping Customers
Eliminate Ordering Obstacles
Head Off Buyer's Remorse
Should You Guilt-Trip Customers?
Your Client's Inner Child
Tossing in a Lagniappe
What's Next?
Want Fries With That?
Each Customer is Unique
Recommended Books on Marketing Psychology
About the Author
Part I Know Your Customers
Your Audience’s Expectations
Guidelines from the Boston Center for Adult Education, where I used to teach, remind teachers that even though adult learners may not have been in a classroom in decades, they come to class with specific expectations like these:
* The classroom contains chairs with writing arms or chairs and a table.
* The teacher knows more than students.
* The teacher speaks from the front of the room.
* The student takes notes on important points.
A teacher who violates these expectations has an uphill battle winning over students.
Expectations derive not only from childhood experiences, but also from the current business climate. For instance, someone now calling their insurance company on a weekend would expect to be able to leave a message, though this would not have been true 20 years ago.
Expectations also arise from your behavior with clients. If you normally call clients back within hours, they’ll begin to worry whether you’ve had a heart attack or something if a couple of days go by without a callback.
Do you know–and meet–the expectations of the folks you attempt to sell to?
Action Steps
* Convene a focus group and ask them to describe the way they imagine themselves experiencing your product or service. This often unearths pre-purchase expectations.
* You can also survey customers a week or two after they buy, asking whether or not there were any surprises in their purchase.
* Unsolicited complaints may reveal foiled expectations as well. Periodically sift through customer emails to discern what people didn’t realize about your offerings.
Know Your Audience
When Kristen Golden moved to Amherst, Massachusetts after many fundraising successes during her 20 years in New York City, she discovered that techniques she’d mastered in the city did not work in Western Massachusetts.
* In New York City, businesses supporting a cause want to write a check and see their names in lights, but in Western Mass., affluent donors prefer anonymity, along with hands-on involvement.
* Donors in New York City expect flash and gloss from organizations they support. In Western Mass., donors want to see recycled paper, as little funds spent on marketing as