Archive for April 29th, 2008

Which is a more powerful motivator?

The fear of loss … or … the possibility of gain?

This is a really important question to ponder. It can impact all of your marketing materials.

Knowing which to include into your marketing materials (and when) is one of the keys to writing persuasive sales letters, motivating emails, and cash creating web sites.

Most people who do not understand the unconscious motivating triggers will usually not include either of these which is a mistake.

So which is the more powerful motivator?

According to persuasion expert, and author of the book ‘The Science Of Influence’ Kevin Hogan it is the fear of loss that is more motivating for people.

Kevin says …

‘Fear of loss is a much greater motivator to most than the possibility of gain’.

I think it is important to note though that the possibility of gain is also a powerful motivator to many people.

The key is to build both into your sales letters and websites.

With the fear of loss you want to create a sense of urgency. You can do this by limiting the supply of your product or service. Get creative with this and think about ways that you really can restrict the supply of what you are offereing.

This creates a fear of loss in the reader.

Careful though … it has to be genuine … you can’t create the impression that you are going to limit the supply of your product or service if you clearly are not going to do that.

Make sure you also use the possibility of gain in your sales letters.

This can be as simple as mentally taking your reader into the future and asking them to imagine how great life will be when they are using your product or service.

As an example …

Imagine how different your business will be when we work together to set up the right marketing system for your business and attract a steady stream of new clients to you.

This is a great example of the possibility of gain.

Challenge is … I can only work with 10 clients at any one time ( I have a couple of openings right now) … this is the fear of loss.

If you want the opportunity to take up one of these openings then click here.

You need a balance of both the fear of loss and the posibility of gain in all of your marketing materials. Learning how to use these powerful motivators in an elegant way takes time, trial and error and refinement.

Go back over all of your marketing materials and look for opportunities to build in the fear of loss and the possibility of gain.

You will see improved results when you do.

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