How to Use Psychology to Make More Money by Aron Govil

Some of the most ingenious “hacks” come from taking a complex system and simplifying it. In this case, I’m going to simplify the science of how your brain works so you can use proven techniques to make more money.

…Here’s How:

1) Know What Makes People Click – Influence People’s Brains with “Clickbait” Titles 

The New York Times recently started experimenting with clickbait type headlines?  Did they not know that we’re all sick of them yet? 

Of course not. They’re doing it because 

a) Research shows that they work, 

b) One article has already been written about why they work, and 

c) The hate only makes us want to click even more.  Cool, huh?

So, what makes a good clickbait headline? The answer: fear and sex.

People are wired by evolution to be hyper aware of anything that can threaten them or their loved ones – especially the immediate future. That’s why news headlines like “How One Word Turned Her from Loose Girl to Tight” makes us want to read the article…even though we don’t know what it means.

Studies also show that people crave novelty, variety and surprise. In other words, we freak out if there isn’t a little bit of unexpectedness in our daily lives – which is exactly why you clicked on this article about how you use psychology to influence your finances.

Clickbait titles are far from the only way you can use psychology to get more clicks…which leads me to my next point says Aron Govil.

2) Use Other People’s Brains for Free – Here are 5 Websites that Will Help You 

The average American spends 16 hours per week on Facebook and 8 hours on YouTube.  You don’t have to be an expert in human psychology to know when people are distracted, bored or feeling overwhelmed they’re usually willing to try out new things. This means there is a LOT of untapped information in the minds of your customers, prospects and even employees. All you have to do is find it…or ask them what they want.

3) How to Make Your Emails More Effective – Influence People’s Brains with Choice 

According to research by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, people make decisions based on one of three things:

1) What feels good?

2) What they associate with money.

3) Logic or reason.

Most decision-making experts recommend that if you want to close the sale, you focus on what your customer “feels” because it has a much higher chance of working than logic or reason. So go ahead and tell them why they’re going to feel good about meeting with you today…and watch their brain start imagining all the other positive emotions they’ll experience in the future as a result of working together.  If your emails don’t have to do with closing the sale, this same concept still applies: your customers want to feel good.  So give them one (or more) of the following:

4) How to Get More Traffic and Work Less – Influence People’s Brains with “The Law of Diminishing Intent” 

I’m guessing you had some initial interest in reading this article because it includes one or both of the words “psychology” and/or “influence.”  There is a very strong chance that if I removed these words from the title you wouldn’t be reading this right now. That’s because we’re mentally wired to become desensitized to specific stimuli over time. This means that just like Pavlov’s dogs that started drooling when they heard a bell because they associated it with food, we start to lose interest when we see or hear the same thing too many times.

This is why most people only care about Twitter and Facebook updates every 10-15 minutes (and why you’re probably sick of hearing “influence” and “psychology” already). So how do you get around this law of diminishing intent so your customers want to hear from you more often?  Simple: show them something different. For example, if someone visits your blog for the first time in a day and all your posts are written about marketing…they’ll probably read one and leave. But if they come back tomorrow and instead there’s a post on personal finance, they might be more likely to read it. This doesn’t mean you should write about 5 completely different topics every day; it means you should just switch up the type of post from time to time so your readers see something new and interesting instead of feeling overwhelmed or bored by all the information they already know.

Conclusion by Aron Govil: 

Influence People’s Brains with Choice, Diminishing Intent and Repetition

If you’re interested in attracting more customers, prospects or employees you are probably already using one (or more) of these techniques. But if not, it might be time to start…because there isn’t a better way to make someone want something than by tapping into the way their brain works.