Drive and Motivate Your Prospects to Act!

Successful creative strategies are not those that are clever, win awards, sound really interesting, or get people to pay attention. All of these outcomes are desirable, but they are not the reason we marketers should spend so much time thinking about our creative platform. Rather, our goal is to drive action.

To become a master at driving and motivating buying actions, it helps to understand exactly what it is that causes people to buy. And it probably won’t surprise you that people buy products and services to satisfy the same needs and desires that they attempt to satisfy with many of their other daily choices. Consumers buy for the following reasons:

·         To solve a problem

·         To increase knowledge

·         To feel more comfortable

·         To make life easier

·         To become more valuable

·         To satisfy a curiosity

·         To feel better about themselves

Few people go through a checklist when deciding to make a purchase, but there is in fact an unstated process. First, they must have a perceived need or desire for what you offer. Then they have to believe that your offering satisfies their requirements, and they must also be convinced that you are trustworthy and your claims are believable.

Simply put, prospects have to be satisfied with the basic value proposition—that what they receive by doing business with you is worth as much, or more, than what you are asking them to spend (including money, time, and effort). Finally, they must believe that the risk of doing business with you is low or manageable. 

Appeal to People's Emotion

People buy with emotion and justify their purchases with logic. This is why advertising that appeals to the emotions is often more successful than that which appeals to logic. First make your appeal to the emotional side of the prospect, then give him or her lots of good, logical fact-based reasons to justify the decision already emotionally made.

Whether making a small purchase or a big-ticket item, people often have some degree of fear and anxiety when approaching the buying process.

Your job as a marketing or sales professional is to negate or overcome this fear and anxiety by making the purchasing experience as painless as possible. This can, in fact, be a point of competitive differentiation. Two of the most important buying motivations are to make life easier and to feel more comfortable, so whatever you can do to help your prospects achieve these objectives will be well rewarded.  

Motivational Appeals That Work

Napoleon Bonaparte said, "There are two levers for moving men: interest and fear."  These are indeed the two master motivators, and all others are subset of these behavioral drivers. Because humans can be motivated in a variety of ways, using the correct incentive for a specific audience is a hallmark of good marketing.

Examples of appeals that have proven successful:

Greed – Everyone is susceptible to greed to some degree. While greed is usually thought of as a negative emotion, it is really just the desire to get a better deal than the next person, or to enhance our position at a low cost. Copywriters who effectively push the greed button sell a lot of products.

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) – With the FUD formula, you are selling from the negative perspective. FUD copy implies, "If you don't buy our product, these bad things will happen to you." As an example, fear has been used in financial marketing to persuade prospects that their current investments are suspect.

Guilt –Used carefully, guilt can be a powerful motivation tool. A good example of this type of appeal is AT&T's successful "reach out and touch someone" campaign that ran from 1979 to 1983, and was resurrected in 2003. The campaign’s not-so-subtle theme is that you should feel guilty for not calling your loved ones (especially your mother) when AT&T makes it so convenient.    

Curiosity – This appeal is most effective with so-called early adopters of products. Some people have a strong need to own, or at least know about, the newest products and services. If you are generating leads for a new product or service, create the curiosity in your advertising by withholding a little information. A curiosity-seeker who is satisfied does not respond to advertising.

Status or Exclusivity – People who have children know this as the reverse psychology approach. As soon as you tell your child he can't have something, his interest in the forbidden object increases dramatically. Likewise, for many individuals, the desirability of a product rises in direct proportion to its difficulty of attainment.

Time Pressure – This appeal works better in a supporting role. Time pressure creates a sense of urgency by saying "buy me today because it will cost you more tomorrow" or "only the first 200 respondents can take advantage of this offer."

Convenience – Most people feel a great deal of time pressure in their lives. Marketers who show people how their products and services will save them time and/or make their lives easier have a significant selling benefit.

Financial – Financial hot buttons can be pushed two ways: first, by demonstrating how your product or service will save money, and second, by demonstrating how your product or service will help generate more income.

Learning – Many people have a thirst for knowledge. They want information on how to do their jobs better, make their companies more profitable, and have a successful business and home life.

One important aspect to remember about the two master motivation levers: While fear can be a strong short-term motivator, interest (positive rewards) is usually more effective for long-term changes. This is equally true whether you are trying to get your children to do the right things, or to get your prospects to make a purchase.