Laughter

Several years ago I witnessed an experiment. From what I now understand this is a well known exercise but at the time thought was quite stupic.

There were 6 people randomly picked from the audience and and they had to stand in front of the room and act excited. There were around 100 of us watching.

There was no music, no noise, no real activity – nothing – ant the people in the front had to get really happy and overly excited.

They did.

The trainer then told them to double, then triple it and take the energy even higher…

Eventually they were all clapping, screaming, and cheering. As awkward as it was, the reaction of the people watching this slowly went from the shy man-I’m-glad-it-is-you-and-not-me smile to laughter and then…

…those of us in the audience started cheering too…

For no reason.

While in the middle of the shouting the people in front were given another instruction to take it to the highest level. They started giving each other high fives and hugging and screaming.

… everyone was no longer self conscious, they were just thrilled.

STOP.

Everyone stop, no talking, no cheering – EVERYBODY STOP – the room went dead silent but you could still feel the energy in the air and we all had the itch to keep going.

Instincts are innate and built in patterns of behavior that are not necessarily triggered consciously. You sometimes hear them referred to as tendencies or urges. They have been studied for years and will likely be so till infinity. They are highly studied by psychologists, and marketers. What if you could use your knowledge of human instincts and triggering mechanisms to set off a desirable sequence of behavior in a potential customer or prospect, for example, filling out one of your opt-ins, or purchasing something? Using apprehension, anticipation, premonitions, suspicion, discernment, inspiration, curiosity, perception, and evoking emotions such as fear, happiness, horror, laughter, concern, hate, envy, jealousy, and hunger in your content are key techniques that can trigger these built in patterns of behavior.

You see, the use of psychology plays an extremely important role in determining the correct and instinctive approach to trying to sell someone a product. I feel that if you are able talk about your product and speak directly to a consumer’s need in terms of their own buying motivations you can psychologically make them buy something from you. The classic example is that people buy the sizzle not the steak. They buy the adrenaline rush they get when pushing down the gas pedal, not that it goes from 0-60 in 8.5 seconds.

Another item that captivates people’s attention is that deep down under, people just love stories. They like the drama and the emotions that they evoke. They like the people that are involved in them. They like that life is a stage and they are simply actors. They become involved with the characters. They especially like good endings.

So now that we know that there is psychology behind the instincts and emotions of people and that it’s these emotions that drive them to act; imagine if we could reach into their psyche, involve them into a story that has high drama, and at the end be able to be superman and save their day, with our product.

So I’m hoping that what you come away from this is that it is emotion that drives people to buy, not rational facts. Not all psychological reactions are conscience. Weaving a story that directly involves deeply felt emotions and then positioning you as the hero can result in a tremendous increase in sales. Start incorporating this into all your content and copy.