nftified news

What can you do to use Marketing Psychology to Increase the Sales of Online Courses

Feb 6, 2023

For course designers The success of your marketing efforts depends on various factors, including your budget, the advertising channels you choose to use, as well as the target market you're targeting. These factors won't be a thing if you don't know the motives that drive people's buying decisions. If you're not aware of how and why people act the way they do, it'll be extremely difficult to develop compelling marketing materials to prove that your strategy can help them solve their problems.

Marketing psychology aims to explain the way people think when thinking about buying an item. In this article, you'll learn eight marketing psychology principles that will aid you in understanding, predicting, and influence the buying choices of students who are considering it.

Skip ahead:

What is the term used to describe marketing psychology?

The human brain is complex. But through experiments and research, scientists have been able to identify some human behavioral patterns, usually unconscious -- that govern the buying choices of people. The patterns of behavior that are predictable come from heuristics. They are the shortcuts our brain develops for the tasks it carries out repeatedly, such as assimilating information, making decisions and tackling problems.

You can use marketing psychology in several ways, such as:

  • The words that can be used to trigger emotion in your audience
  • The format of the copy on your landing page
  • Your course pricing, etc.

8 essential concepts of marketing psychology

In this part we'll look at some of the most important concepts of marketing psychology, and the best way to implement them when you set up and market your online courses.

The Anchoring Bias

Ever wondered why you find it so difficult to resist pulling out the credit card at times when the clothing shop you love is having a sale?

A lot of times this is due to the anchoring bias. This refers to the tendency of individuals to use the first piece of details about something as a benchmark for making other decisions. Consider this as a benchmark to compare.

Let's take the instance of your favorite clothing store. Say this store typically retails jackets at $70, but when you find they are on sale for 45 dollars, you're likely to be thrilled. Why? Because you're going to save $25 if you buy the jacket. If your friend buys jackets at a different retailer for $40, they'll not consider that saving $25 is such a big deal.

If you employ anchoring to your advertising, you're offering prospective buyers information you'd like them to have to help them make the right purchasing decision you're asking to get them to make.

This applies perfectly to pricing online courses -- especially if you're running an offer. You want to clearly indicate the initial price for the course (this is known as the anchor). Next, list the sale price or discount price directly next to it. The anchor will lead the reader to believe that you're purchasing your course for the lowest price.

Take a look at this illustration from Kat Norton's The Excelerator Course.

Are you able to see how she's guiding potential students to believe that if they pay for the course right now and pay for it later, they'll save over $1,300? If the original price was not clearly stated, people might wonder if this course really is worth $297. When they learn that they'll be getting over 80% off, they'll be more willing to spend the money.

The best way to increase the value of your product is to raise it an notch by explaining what percentage you're cutting off from the original price as an offer. This helps prospects to put things into an overall perspective.

Reciprocity

The concept of reciprocity was proposed in the work of Professor. Robert Cialdini in his book, Influence: The Science of Persuasion. It is a simple concept that people are more inclined to do something for the person you are doing it for if they provide them with something in the first place.

In terms of marketing it is believed that you have to give your clients something at no cost first to influence them to purchase what you're offering. This could be anything from checklists for free to hoodies to free blog content or even consultations that are free.

There are two ways to use the principle of reciprocity to market more courses.

It's not just a way to communicate the importance of your paid course, but it also makes your audience feel indebted to you. They'll think, "If this person can share so much value at no cost, their paid course is likely to be a swell-rounded." Therefore, if you're looking to purchase a course in your niche and you're the best choice, they'll choose yours over those who don't offer the information for free on their sites.

Ryan Robinson grew his blog, RyRob.com, from 0 to 500,000+ readers per month through the posting of articles on podcasting, business, blogging freelance writing, as well as writing free of charge. Today, Ryan has a paid course ($497) that explains how to make a living from blogging. Although he has the popularity and info on his blog, Ryan still offers his followers a no-cost 7-day blogging course to prime them for the paid course.

  • Offer exceptional customer service. Nothing is more appreciated by customers than prompt solutions to their issues. However, they'll be enthralled by the brand and you more if you go that extra step to anticipate and satisfy their requirements. If you do this it's possible that you don't have to keep track of reviews and testimonials from them. They'll be willing to give them in exchange for an excellent customer experience.
  • Free trials and discounted rates. If your course is subscription-based, instead of a one-time fee model, you may offer your audience free trials and/or discounts for those who make payments biannually or annually.

Social proof

For example, imagine a middle school dance. As the music begins students may feel uncomfortable and shy initially. But when a couple of students start jamming to the music, other students slowly start joining in, then before you know it the dance floor has been packed to capacity.

This scenario can be compared with marketing. Consider the last time you bought something due to a recommendation from a friend who recommended it to you. Chances are, you might have never heard of this product previously -- or if you've heard of it, but you've not used it. The glowing review of a friend has given you confidence that this product would serve you well if you use it.

That recommendation is social proof.

But social proof in marketing goes beyond word-of-mouth. In marketing, social proof is in the form of testimonials and reviews, logos and more.

  • Make sure to include testimonials on your course's landing page. Contact your beta testers and current customers for testimonials talking about the benefits of your course. Then include those reviews on your landing page for your course. It shows potential customers that they can profit from the course as well.

The homepage of Joanna Wiebe's Copy School is featured in reviews from customers ---- as it should.

Notice how these reviews provide actual figures in terms of value, revenue, and values which show prospective students that attending the school is worth it.

Pro tip: If you are adding testimonials on your website Include the title and headshots of the customers who left the testimonials. This will increase authenticity and emotional value. If you can, create a dedicated testimonials page.

  • Ask an industry professional or an expert who will endorse the course you're taking. Industry leaders are respected because they're knowledgeable and skilled in their field. When these experts endorse your plan, people will be more inclined to believe their recommendation. They think, "It has to be good. If it isn't, this leader won't throw their brand behind it." Their endorsement could also serve as free marketing since their fans will be educated about the course and purchase it.

An influential person in the industry can support your course by leaving an evaluation, or writing a guest post on your blog or holding a live discussion via your social media sites.

  • Include logos in your course's landing page. The inclusion of logos from popular businesses that you've worked or collaborated with will add credibility and help prospective customers be confident that the training is worthwhile. Additionally, you can include logos of the major media outlets which have featured your course.

Pro Tip: Ask permission from the organization prior to include their logo on your site.

  • Include certifications on the landing page of your course. If you've been awarded any awards, or received any certificates or recognition for your work in your field, you should include these on the sales page since they can boost your credibilty.
  • Display the amount of students who purchased the class. When students are faced with buying decisions, they tend to go for something that others have already tried (remember the recommendation of a friend?). This is known as the wisdom of the crowd mindset. Personally, I employ this to test courses I want to buy, specifically on massive open online courses (MOOC) platforms such as Udemy.

Consider, for instance, these two graphic design programs:

What course would you prefer to purchase? A course with more than 200k students and a 4.7-star score from more than 47K individuals or the one that has 119 students and an 4.9-star rating from just 7 students?

I'm sure you chose the one you liked best. Although the second course has a higher rating overall, the number of people who have rated it is minuscule when compared with the amount of individuals who scored the first course.

Scarcity

Ever tried to order something from the web and then see a disclaimer that says, "Only 4 items left at this price!"? It's a sign of scarcity as well as another concept of Dr. Cialdini discussed in Influence: the Psychology behind Persuasion. This principle originates from the concept of supply and demand. the more rare the item, the more valuable it'll be in the market.

A lot of people place more worth on objects that aren't easy to find. In the mid-1800s, aluminum was more valuable than gold. So much so that Napoleon III served his esteemed guests using aluminum cutlery. When miners began to dig for aluminum in massive amounts, prices dropped. These days, expensive stones like rubies and diamonds or commodities like Birkin bags cost a lot because of how difficult it is to find them.

If done correctly If done right, scarcity will leverage the fear of missing out (FOMO) to influence their buying decisions in your favor. What's important is making your audience think that there used to be lots of units in a particular product or service but due to popular demand the supply isn't as high anymore. When this happens, consumers would want to grab their units as soon as they are available to ensure they won't be left out.

If you let them think that you only possess a handful of products total and they should buy one right now, this will not be the case.

Here's how to make use of the concept of scarcity to promote your online course

  • Utilize countdown timers. If you're offering an offer on your course, using countdown timers can aid people in knowing how much time they have to get your course before the price goes back to normal. If you don't want to make use of countdown timers you could set up a popup or slide-in-bar that displays how long is left.

Or you can merge both, as Udemy did this:

  • Access to exclusive features to certain students. Giving upgraded options for membership (online community, one-on-one meetings with you, other features, etc.) along with your course makes your product feel exclusive and premium. If you offer the chance to get access to things that aren't available to everyone else Your existing customers will feel as though they have something exclusive.
  • Run Black Friday sales. Black Friday is a massively well-known day when companies around the world offer their customers massive discounts on popular products -that often result in the products being sold out. The idea of running a Black Friday sale on your most popular courses may increase your revenue that you do when you hold a normal sale.

Loss aversion

In 1979, Nobel Prize-winning psychology experts Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky carried out a series of experiments in decision-making during their research in Prospect Theory. They found that to people, the pain of losing something is two times as strong as the satisfaction of getting the same item. This phenomenon is known as loss Aversion.

According to this theory, the average person who has to take a risk to earn some other benefit would want the benefit to be at least twice as valuable than the risk to be worthwhile. That's why you'll likely not buy a stock you might be able to lose money when the reward is high. It's also due to loss aversion it's harder to make a loss of $20 than if you discover the same amount.

Peep Laja's CXL Institute costs $1,100/year. However, not all people are willing to shell out that much money with no assurance that the courses offered will benefit their lives. Therefore, Peep offers a 7-day trial at just $1.

Once people pay $1 and try the courses for a week, they'll be more likely to pay for the entire year since they want to finish the class they began studying during the trial period.

The effect of decoys

Sometimes referred to as the asymmetrical dominance effect, the decoy effect is the process of optimizing your pricing for your product by including some or all of the options that are not attractive.

A famous example of this is the ad from The Economist that Dan Ariely spoke about during his well-known 2008 TED talk titled "Are we in control of our own decisions?" The ad outlined The Economist's latest subscription packages:

  • Online subscription: $59
  • Print subscription: $125
  • Online and print subscription Cost: $125

Notice how they offered the print-only subscription as well as the online and print subscription for the same amount? It didn't make sense to Ariely who contacted to people from The Economist asking why they had to do this, but did not receive a clear response.

So he ran his own study with hundred MIT students. He showed them the prices of the options and then asked them which they'd buy. When there were three options available students picked the print subscription and the online one as it appeared to be the most affordable option. When Ariely decided to eliminate the print-only choice, students opted for the least expensive alternative (online-only subscription). ).

Even though the print-only subscription appears insignificant at first however, it actually serves an important function. Students were given a reference point for them to see how good of bargain the combination subscription is. Without that option, people would go for the online-only subscription. The Economist won't make as much money.

This is what it is called a decoy effectis a technique to change the tastes of potential clients and force them to choose a more expensive option.

A great way to use the decoy effect with an online class is to give various pricing options. Let's say you're running an online course where you are teaching stock investment to newcomers. Your packages could be:

  • Monthly plan - $20/month
  • Yearly plan: $200/one year
  • Lifetime access - One-time cost of $310

The year-long plan helps people put 0things into perspective and understand that paying a one-time fee for lifetime access is the best option for cost effectiveness. In turn, you'll earn the most money by completing your course.

Theorem of the Information Gap

The year 1994 was when American economist, George Loewenstein from Carnegie-Mellon University developed the information-gap theory of curiosity. Loewenstein claimed that people experience curiosity when we feel that there's a gap in the information we have and what we'd like to know. Also, if there is only the bare minimum of information we would like to know it is likely that we will do something to discover what's missing, so we can close the gap.

Marketers frequently employ this method in their content in order to attract attention of viewers and make them curious. This is done through headlines. Headlines like "How to accomplish X", "10 things to learn about"Y" or "The secret to Z" are intriguing and makes us want to find out more about the topic.

When you offer online courses, this can influence the course's title and your ad copy. It is important to choose language that will make people intrigued enough to come to your sales site (either by way of search engine results pages (SERPs) or social media/search ads) to find out more.

Take note: When you are trying to craft the perfect title, headline, and ad copy to trigger interest in your target audience, you must be cautious not to go to in the wrong direction. If you do, it will become clickbait that leaves the viewer in a state of confusion, which drastically decreases your chances of building trust with customers and getting higher sales.

Color psychology

In 2006 researchers Satyendra Singh examined how colors affect the way people perceive and feel, and how brands strategically make use of colors to distinguish their brand from rivals. In his research, Singh noted that people make a decision within 90 seconds of having first interactions with others or with products. 60% to 90% of the decision-making was based upon colors alone.

It is because of color psychology that we associate green with growth, yellow with warmth gray with balance and white as pure. It's the reason colors are an important part of branding -- they trigger feelings and perceptions in your audience that, with time, they'll associate your company's image.

Consider Victoria's Secret for an example. If you were forced to choose one color that's associated with this brand, which do you think you would pick? Pink, right? Red, maybe.

Here's Victoria's Secret's website.

Are you aware of the frequent themes of reds and pinks? The marketing team at Victoria's Secret know that pink conveys femininity and youth, and red shows sensuality and passion, so they chose to make those shades a central element of their brand.

It's possible to do this with your online course too. Researchers have conducted research into the emotions which different colors may create to assist marketers in choosing the most appropriate colors for their logos and web designs.

Image source

Think about the emotions you want to evoke in your audience as they browse at the sales page for your course and also the content itself (after purchasing it). Then do some research and test with your customers to select colors that reflect these feelings.

Finding the perfect colours for your business can help you reach the subconscious of your target audience. Over time, people begin to recognize your colors as your brand and, with the passage of time, your company will be set apart from your competitors.

The majority of people's opinions about colors are shaped by their culture and experiences. So before you pick colors for your branding of your course, consider the demographic of the target market and the context for your marketing campaign.

Create more courses online using marketing psychology principles

The marketing psychology principles outlined above are not the only ones in existence. There are dozens of psychology principles right now and researchers are continuing to find out more about human behavior in relation to purchasing and selling.

It is not necessary to apply all the principles as you market your course, though. Choose the ones you can incorporate in your marketing strategy, understand the concepts, and then see if they work for your audience.

Keep in mind that the goal of learning marketing psychology principles isn't changing the base purchasing tendencies of your target audience, rather, it's to influence their behaviour for your personal goals. This would be making as much revenue through your web-based course(s) as you will.