How to set up ‘buying triggers’ to boost sales
Almost all of us are selling something, whether it’s ideas, services or objects so, if you are looking for success, you need to think about 'buying triggers' to get your thing in front of your prospects before the crowds arrive.
Whether you know it because you did a marketing diploma or it’s just something you know in your gut, most of us only buy when triggered. No surprises there.
Those triggers can be:
Biological - eg, hunger, tiredness = food purchases in both cases.
Situational - eg, new job, marriage, new baby, end of a tax year, etc.
Emotional - eg, insecurity/FOMO.
So if you are selling, the trick is to get your product in front of the right audience at the right time. OR, to create your own buying triggers. In either situation, your goal is to get in front of the triggered audience before anyone else.
Getting in front of the right audience at the right time
This may take some thought. A very clever idea quoted in the newsletter I mention below is that new parents often become stressed-out dog parents so if you are offering doggy day care, that is an audience you want to get in front of. #lateralthinking
Hunger was a trigger we leveraged when I worked with a gourmet food company. Our weekly newsletter was sent out at around midday when we knew our clients’ tummies would start to rumble. And the orders flew in.
Creating your own buying triggers
Anyone remember Y2K and how computer consultants creamed in the ££££ ‘fixing’ the Y2K bug? A similar thing happened with the GDPR deadline. Situational and emotional (fear), these deadlines created a lot of business for some people. While these triggers were accidental (Y2K) or government created (the GDPR deadline), it is possible to create your own. Prime Day is a huge example of how a business created its own buying trigger. On a smaller scale most companies will hold sales but too many sales and you’ve lost the surprise/scarcity factor required for such a trigger.
To be a bit different why not create trigger events such as open days or learning experiences which will draw your prospects forwards. Those events can be in a physical location or online - no excuses there.
And they do not have to be dry. ‘Bubbles and Beauty’ anyone? This was a monthly event we ran with a beauty salon client where the client hosted an evening of learning over a glass of bubbles.
She would share styling and beauty tips and this worked so well: it kept the brand front of mind for clients, it gave us something shareable to write about on social media, in the newsletter, on her blog - and we’d even share the event with local news media. The event also leveraged another buying phenomenon - that of reciprocity. But that is another topic.
So how could you create your own trigger? Perhaps it’s as simple as writing a social media post or sending out a well-timed email newsletter.
The thing that triggered me to write this short post was an email newsletter I received from Katelyn Bourgoin in her Why We Buy series. The emails are always jam-packed full of ideas and is a truly useful thing to get in your inbox. I've linked to a recent email above so you can join over 60k other people, and myself, and subscribe. The link to subscribe is in the email.
So how could you create your own trigger? Perhaps it’s as simple as writing a social media post 🙂
Good luck with those triggers.
Speaking of selling…
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