One of the fundamental truths of buyer psychology is that shoppers will try and remain consistent with their previous choices.

Definition

Before we get started let’s talk about Buyer Psychology. What exactly is it? And why does it matter? Buyer psychology is the understanding of the subconscious forces that help shoppers navigate marketing decisions.

Why it matters

The average person makes an eye-popping 35,000 choices per day (source). This is a crazy number. There is no way a person can actually process this huge quantity of options daily. So our brains have developed a series of shortcuts to make sense of the world. As marketers, if we can understand these decisions we’ll be able to better anticipate the shopper journey. Understanding buyer psychology allows us to influence the shopper.

An example

Fact 1: In Google Analytics you discover that one of your 30-minute videos has a really high conversion rate but is seen by only a small percentage of visitors.

Fact 2: A 30-minute video is crazy long. It would be insanity to show it at the top of the product description.

How does one reconcile these 2 vinegar and oil facts?

A 30-minute video isn’t crazy long if you prime the user.

Here is how we prime them. We first ask: how important is ______ to you?

Options: [not very] [a little] [very]

Most will pick [very]. Trust me.

We then say: “Great, since ______ is so important watch this 30-minute video.”

Now people will spend more time watching the video. Why? Because they are trying to be consistent with themselves. They already picked [very] so watching the whole video is the consistent behavior. This why understanding Buyer Psychology is so powerful.

I posted this idea on LinkedIn and Chris had a pretty good point:

In Conclusion

As you can see in the article above making a small tweak can have a big impact in terms of influencing and converting shoppers. But this is just one example, we have 680 more to share.