{"id":28269,"date":"2018-08-29T10:14:42","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T15:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crowdspring.com\/blog\/?p=28269"},"modified":"2026-02-05T10:46:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:46:04","slug":"marketing-design-psychological-triggers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crowdspring.com\/blog\/marketing-design-psychological-triggers\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Powerful Psychological Triggers That Can Help You Improve Your Marketing To Increase Sales And Profits"},"content":{"rendered":"

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People like to think they’re in control, especially when it comes to their behavior.<\/p>\n

Science has proven otherwise.<\/p>\n

According to marketing psychology<\/a>, most human behavior can be at least partially attributed to deep-set psychological traits or triggers. We may have control over our actions, but science has shown that we have cognitive biases and can be persuaded to take specific actions.<\/p>\n

In fact, the higher a person’s motivation and the easier something is to do, the higher the chance an emotional trigger will successfully influence behavior<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But what are psychological triggers and how can you leverage them in your marketing to boost website sales and improve the user experience for your customers and prospects?<\/p>\n

What are triggers?<\/h2>\n

Digitalpsychology.co<\/a>\u00a0explains triggers:<\/p>\n

Triggers are anything that sparks us to complete a particular action. They tell us what to do next, and come in the form of internal and external triggers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

External triggers are things that happen externally to the person. They can take many forms but are generally tied to our senses.<\/p>\n

For example, they can be visual, such as the way a page is laid out or the color or positioning of a “Buy Now” button. Or they can be scent-related, like how realtors try to add the smell of baking to a house they’re trying to sell to trigger feelings of coziness and home in potential buyers.<\/p>\n

Such persuasive design techniques can create external triggers<\/a> that influence how people react to something, and what they do.<\/p>\n

Internal triggers are impulses that happen inside of us, in our minds. Digitalpsychology.co describes internal triggers<\/a> like this:<\/p>\n

Memories, emotions, or situations provide information for what to do next. For example, the fear of losing out on a moment triggers some people to take a photo and post it on Instagram. Internal triggers are a major factor for building habit-forming products, and are the drivers for the growth of billion dollar companies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We already talked about the psychology of reciprocity<\/a> as a major trigger that can influence people’s behavior, but there are other useful triggers your should know.<\/p>\n

1. Calls to action<\/a><\/h3>\n

The\u00a0\u201cCall to Action\u201d or CTA<\/a> is one of the most powerful triggers used to influence behavior.<\/p>\n

Understanding what makes a CTA successful is a fascinating mix of psychology, design, and strategy.<\/p>\n

CTA’s can be as simple as text saying\u00a0\u201cClick Here\u201d or as complex as the way a page is laid out, the copy on the page, the value proposition of what’s being offered<\/a>, and much more.<\/p>\n

People expect that any page or screen they encounter has an action that it wants them to take, so they’re already primed by their experience.<\/p>\n

Then there’s the curiosity of what happens after the person follows a call to action. What happens after I click this button?<\/p>\n

The CTA is possibly the most important trigger because no service, product, or idea can truly succeed without getting people to perform some action.<\/p>\n

The trouble is, not enough companies and marketers are using CTAs effectively, if at all.<\/p>\n

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Via SmallBizTrends<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

In fact, a study by Small Business Trends<\/a>\u00a0found that 70% of the surveyed B2B websites lacked an effective call to action.<\/p>\n

How can you use CTAs to boost sales?<\/b><\/h3>\n

You can take advantage of CTAs by ensuring that any touchpoints you have with your customers (whether it be email, website, app, marketing campaign, and more) are optimized around a clear action that you want them to take.<\/p>\n

Whether you’re asking a customer to buy, subscribe, sign up, inquire, share, download, or something else, make sure your call to action on your website<\/a> is meaningful and provides value both for you and your customers.<\/p>\n

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2. Social proof<\/a><\/h3>\n

People are influenced by others.\u00a0Dr. Robert Cialdini\u00a0explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Whether the question is what to do with an empty popcorn box in a movie theater, how fast to drive on a certain stretch of highway, or how to eat the chicken at a dinner party, the actions of those around us will be important guides in defining the answer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Scientists have studied the importance of social proof for decades.\u00a0A great example of social proof in action comes from an experiment done by scientists in 1969<\/a>. They found that if they had a single person standing on a sidewalk looking up, very few people joined in to look up as well.<\/p>\n

As they increased the size of the initial group of people looking up, the proportion of passersby that joined in and looked up went up as well. The behavior of the people passing by was triggered by the increasingly large group of people looking up.<\/p>\n

Social proof explains why major brands invest so much money on influencers<\/a>. Brands hire well-known athletes to promote sneakers, models to promote clothing, actors to promote insurance, etc. Others use social proof tools like live visitor counters and recent sales or conversion popups.<\/p>\n

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