How To Align Your Marketing
With The Forces Of Nature …
And Forces Of Nurture
- Why fear and anger are such useful emotions to evoke in your copy …
- How society conditions your customers to respond in automatic, predictable ways to given stimuli that you can use in your marketing …
- How demographics impact human nature, and human nurture …
- Plus more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
Do you want to increase your skill as a copywriter? Do you want to become more capable of consistently putting pen to paper profitably on the web – in niche after niche? Of course you do. Or you wouldn’t be reading this. Well here’s the secret …
Become an intensely curious observer of human nature and human nurture. And apply what you learn to your marketing. That’s precisely the topic of this week’s edition of Web Marketing Advisor.
Shall we begin with some definitions?
Human Nature: Primeval, timeless and immutable, downloaded into our mental firmware at birth. The result of millions of years of evolutionary history, it acts like an unseen hand that leads us inexorably toward predictable habits and innate tendencies.
The fight or flight response, for example, is the survival mechanism that causes us to become fearful or angry when threatened.
Our natural curiosity has its roots in the need to find food and develop new and improved methods of hunting and procuring shelter.
And our self-obsession is the result of the constant fight for self-preservation that took place in the harsh and dangerous pre-civilization environment of our distant forefathers.
The conditions that gave rise to these various survival mechanisms may have long been conquered, but they remain an intrinsic part of our nature and impact our behavior at an unconscious level.
Somebody insults you, and a searing rush of prickly heat races its way from the base of your spine to the top of your head. Your face becomes red with anger, and before you know it, you’ve said something you’ll regret.
You reach into your mailbox and pull out an envelope from the IRS. Immediately, you feel a knot in the pit of your stomach, and your heart starts beating noticeably.
There’s no need to fight or flee, but your physiology pumps adrenaline into your bloodstream just the same, and you’re primed for action. That’s one of the reasons fear and anger are such powerful and useful emotions in copy. They are the emotions of action.
All of the primordial instincts, which comprise our human nature, are similarly useful to the persuader, because they are some of the most involuntary responses impacting human behavior.
Human Nurture: If human nature is the firmware of the brain, human nurture is the software installed by the society in which we live. In the first two decades of life – the first one in particular – we form powerful neural connections that color our perception of the world for the rest of our lives.
From infancy to adolescence, a child will model behavior encountered in social interactions with people in his environment. The child observes certain traits, attitudes, emotional reactions, and actions, first of his parents, and then of other members of society directly and through the media.
These experiences coalesce into attitudes that tend to persist throughout the remainder of his adult life. He is therefore conditioned to respond unconsciously to the most powerful of these influences, many of which are cultural survival mechanisms passed down from generation to generation.
Dr. Robert Cialdini gives examples of a few of these powerful forces in his classic book, Influence, The Psychology Of Persuasion, where he expounds on them at length. Here’s a quick snap shot of a few of them …
Reciprocation: From the moment a child is old enough to speak, he is trained vigorously to say “thank you” to anyone who offers him something, to feel indebted to that person, and obligated to return the favor, should the opportunity arise. “Remember when we were in the store and I bought you those bonbons. How dare you not clean up your room for me now after I did that for you …”
There is a very important sociological reason for this conditioning. Without it, people would not feel nearly as comfortable taking the first step in any business or social transaction.
Reciprocity greases the wheels of modern commerce and makes specialization and the division of labor possible. Those who break the reciprocity rule are severely ostracized, labeled “mooch” and “lowlife” by other members of society.
Reciprocation therefore becomes almost automatic and unconscious. No wonder “FREE” is one of the most powerful words in advertising.
Commitment and Consistency is another cultural value that is nurtured strenuously by society. From a very early age we are taught to say what we mean, and mean what we say. To be of firm moral character is to be decisive and consistent.
To the marketer, this conditioning is a goldmine, because what it means is that if you can get your prospect to make a small commitment towards making a purchase – agreeing to send for a free sample of a product, for example – he will feel compelled to remain consistent with that commitment when you ask for a larger one. This is particularly true if there is a public record of that commitment.
Think of the implications to the timing and placement of incremental calls to action in any web campaign, or how social networking devices like blogs and forums can be used in this light.
If you can get your prospects to take affirmative action toward a purchase, no matter how small, or write positive comments about you and your products after having done so, they’ll be unconsciously compelled to continue buying in order to remain consistent with what they’ve gone on the public record as saying.
Social Proof: Over 99 billion served. Damn, those hamburgers have gotta be good!
One of the ways we use to judge what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct. This conformity is highly beneficial to society, because it allows a very efficient “top down” system of governance for those in power.
Think about your earliest days in school … how you were taught to line up for class … mimic the actions of the other “well behaved” students … perhaps even wear a uniform … and how uncomfortable you felt when you broke ranks. No need to think, just follow the person in front of you.
For a marketer, the message should be clear. Since most people are imitators, and only a few are initiators, your target market will be much more easily swayed by the words and actions of your existing customers than by any proof you can offer.
This is particularly true when your prospects have little direct experience with products like yours … when your customer testimonials are from people who appear to be like them … and when there is some type of barrier around the group that insulates it to some degree from external influence – such as a paid membership.
Social proof is an especially potent force because it’s the result of both nurture and nature. Monkey see, monkey do.
Authority: Deference to authority is one of the most important precepts of success of any society. A sound chain of command is necessary for civilization … facilitating resource production, trade, defense, the rule of law, and so on. The alternative – anarchy – in the words of social scientist, Thomas Hobbs, would render life, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Therefore we are trained from birth that obedience to proper authority is right, and disobedience is wrong. The parental lessons and popular stories and rhymes of childhood and the social indoctrination of adolescence reinforce it to such a degree that by adulthood the symbols of authority have become deeply anchored in our psyches.
A doctor’s smock, a judge’s robe, a military uniform, a blue power suit, and other symbols of authority within the social theater trigger an almost automatic and unthinking compliance.
For the marketer, the language of authority is an important tool of influence. After years of bowing to authority, people have forgotten how to think for themselves, and much prefer to be led to conclusions. That’s why it’s so important to use command statements in your calls to action. Tell your prospects very directly what they should be doing to get the promise of your product.
Of course it doesn’t hurt if you’re able to wrap your spokesperson in the symbols of authority and show other authority figures singing the praises of your product.
There’s more to the nature and nurture story …
Both nature and nurture are also impacted by demographics. As we age, our natures change, and we tend to value different things. Many people change their priorities after the age of forty. Biological desires, such as sex, eating, and physical activity, as well as the desire for power and status tend to decline.
On the other hand, the desire for extended family relationships, honor, and idealism increase in strength with advancing age, along with the desire for freedom from fear and pain.
Nurture is also a moving target. The social constructs that people use to deal with the various phases of life reinvent themselves from one generation to the next. The familiar rituals and heroes that children are exposed to form an integral part of the language that each particular generation uses and responds to.
That’s why it’s critically important when you’re writing copy for a particular demographic to become intimate with the era in which its constituents were growing up.
Who were the popular heroes in the highly impressionable twenty-year period following their birth? What were the pervasive urban legends and momentous current events of the time? Gaining an appreciation for these things provides vital clues to unlocking the unconscious beliefs and attitudes of the demographic.
More on this subject in future Web Marketing Advisor issues.
Until next time, Good Selling!
Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™
Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology Masters of Copywriting featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.SellingtoHumanNature.com.
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Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by John Demas — November 28, 2007 @ 5:21 pm
Daniel:
I have toadmire your clear thinking about Human Nature. I recently sent out 500 flyers telling about my Retirement Sale. We had over 15% return on the flyers. Busness has been 3 times my expectation and all because of your \”Ethos, Pathos and Logos\”.
You must be related to Aristotle!
Thank you for such great insight and guidance.
Comment by Ann Ginrgich — November 28, 2007 @ 9:44 pm
I have been watching you Clayton and well I have been impressed. You provide the guts of your business without any cost and in a world of copywriting people wanting money that\\\’s cool. The redhead rocks too. Thanks for all that you offer in your newsletter even without cost. You rock, hey you look good on that Harley too. Thanks Ann Gingrich CopyWriter in training.