My name is Matthew Bredel and as of March, 2007, I am a full-time, work-at-home internet marketer.
For close to 10 years, I worked for a defense company which was an OK job, but I was so uninspired in life and frankly, I needed some more money. That is when I first discovered internet marketing! Now I admit that I didn't start making thousands in my first couple of months (in fact, I lost my shirt!), but I finally saw the "internet light"...
Buying and Selling ANYTHING has always been a psychological task in our minds. Why do we buy stuff? Why do we sell stuff? What needs are we filling? The answer is rather basic, but when you step back and really think about it, it can really open your eyes to many new opportunities and ideas!
I think I am still trying to digest last week’s Thanksgiving turkey, because I am WAY overdue with a post this week!
But what do this have to do with girls holding guns? Keep reading…
I was at our local Internet Marketing Meetup yesterday afternoon and we were discussing the ever-famous (and important) question of “What Do I Sell?” No, I am not referring to a Lisa Suttora product (though, WhatDoISell.com is awesome!).
A friend of mine (as well as the meetup co-leader and well-renown hypnotherapist), David Snyder from HypnoThoughts.com made a statement about the buying psyche of people that really made me think. I want to share that with you…
What he said was this: When in comes to buying, people are mostly driven by two major factors:
Survival
and
Procreation
Hmmm…sounds simple, and a bit fundamental when it comes to general animal instincts. But when you really start to think about it, this really makes a whole lot of sense! And most particularly, it correlates perfectly with the “hot” topics that seem to always dominate selling on the internet.
Let’s go over a few example of hot online niches…
- Home Based Business (Survival)
- Diet (Procreation - Finding a Mate)
- Dating (Procreation - Finding a Mate)
- Debt & Finance (Survival)
- Self-Help (Survival)
- Teeth Whitening (Procreation - Finding a Mate)
- Pets (Procreation? - Finding a Partner)
- Health: Acne, Yeast Infections, Anti-Wrinkle Creams, Back Pain (Both Survival & Procreation - Finding a Mate)
See what I am getting at here! Sure, there are things (such as hobbies) that people seek out themselves on the internet that may not relate to either Survival or Procreation directly (though, I am sure you could make an argument about it).
But just knowing this gives us an advantage!
Uncontrollable Emotions
First, both of these traits can drive uncontrollable emotions. This is important from a marketing standpoint. By controlling the emotions of your visitors, you can control their buying patterns more easily.
Have Customers Come to You
Second, these are “human needs” that people seek out. They are problems they need fixing. Their inherent subconscious drives them to solve these issues. Therefore, they will usually come to you looking to buy, rather than you having to go to them to convince them they need your product. Do you see the difference?
For example, it is easier to sell an acne solution to someone suffering from acne (resulting in low self esteem and having the desire to find a mate) than it is to convince someone that the new Barack Obama Chia Head is going to add value to one’s house.
Note that the Barack Obama Chia Head CAN (and DOES) sell well, but it is a harder sell.
Also, products dealing with Survival and Procreation can usually be sold at a higher price. Urgency, Emotion, and sometimes Desperation drive this. This is why eProducts catering to these niches are so powerful! They are immediately delivered and people are willing to pay more because of it!
(In our example, people may pay $10 for a Chia Head with a 25% profit margin while these same people may pay $100 for an eBook on Get Rid of Acne Forever with a 95% profit margin.)
Demographics & Gender Preference
One of thing that Survival and Procreation provides us with is some inherent demographic information about your customer. Men are more likely to be driven by Procreation (I hope I don’t need to explain this any further!). Women are more likely to be driven by Survival and security.
This is be seen in how different products are sold in their advertising! For example, beer commercials. Their demographic focuses on men and therefore you are likely to see advertising with girls in bikinis. Women are more skeptical and usually don’t buy into this. They are more cautious in how they buy and cater more towards the survival aspect of buying products (what is it going to do for me and how does it work? - Survival instincts).
In summary, I think it is important for us to sit back and re-evaluate the primitive nature of our own being in both choosing what we sell online and how we sell it. The concept is rather simple but it really can make you think twice about WHY people are successful at selling stuff online.
And next time you buy something, ask yourself: Am I doing to to satisfy my survival or procreation instinct? You may be surprised at how often you do!
cheers…matt
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I was looking for articles on conversational hynosis, believe it or not, when I came across your great post which got me thinking and lead me to what I was looking for. Strange world isn’t it.
January 18th, 2010 at 3:36 pm