MARKETING: Using The 8 Human Motivations to Make Your Copy Sell More

Everybody buys for a reason, but what you don’t know is there are only 8 reasons why humans buy. As human beings, we usually believe we buy because of rational decisions. Well, not quite true most of the times. Because every time we spend our money on something we don’t need, we think we actually need it and we search deeply into our brains for a rational, occult reason that make us buy that last Call of Duty game.

Unfortunately, most of the times, we buy incredible expensive things without having an immediate WHY to give to our relatives and spouses. Things that makes us think “DAMMIT WHY DID I DO THAT?!”! Sounds familiar? Yes, I know how you feel. But why we all do that? Why we buy like crazy when we should be buying food or something just as important instead of that shiny shoes we don’t need right now?

The reality is that buying is hard-wired with something else.
Emotions and Instincts.
Simple.

Because rationality doesn’t play much of a role on the sale process most of the times when we’re holding our credit cards while drooling for that product that we are window-shopping. So although we try to put REASON and LOGIC into the buying equation, it’s just not there as much as we thought.

The truth is this: We are like A-N-I-M-A-L-S!
ANIMALS who buy based on emotions and instincts!
And animals react to their instincts. They don’t think much, they just TAKE ACTION based on some hard-wired stimulus. And we as humans, react to those clever Ads made by those freaking smart, genius, evil advertisers!

So what does it all has to do with Copywriting?
Everything.

There are 8 human motivators which can determine the amount of CHECKOUT you are getting on your online sales and those motivators are what I’m going to quickly write about for you here. Thanks to Drew Eric Whitman and his book, Copywriting can have a totally different approach and come save the day for those people who don’t get sales much and think selling is always about being an annoying salesman to customers.

Not here, my friend.
Time to introduce you to the 8 human buying motivations.
Let’s begin.

THE SURVIVAL SPIRIT, ENJOYMENT OF LIFE, LIFE EXTENSION
Survival is the basic instinct of a human being. We all want to survive. We live in a World where this is a rule and not a choice. So we must search for ways to do it and make our own life better because living a good life is something everybody wants.

So, everything related to this human motivator focus around the following areas:

• The desire to always have money
• The desire to live a long life
• The desire to live a fulfilled life

Who doesn’t want to own a lot of money to guarantee their life on Earth and stop worrying about paying the bills on time? Or maybe ditching the monthly routine of checking the credit card bills? We all want to survive, but not just survive, but THRIVE! That’s why many “get rich quick” schemes were so successful in the early days of the Internet when nobody knew the truth behind it.

Survival sells. Healthy life sells. A fulfilled life…..sells.
So one point you can focus on when you are creating a copy for a product is to take a copywriting approach based on those motivators that are centered around survival.

Here are a few examples:

• “You’ll never have to worry about money again if you buy our investment course because we are on the market for 37 years now and our clients always get at least a +219% ROI by using our investment methods and strategies”
• “With this new natural medicine that was biologically altered by specialists from Europe, you’ll gain an anti-aging effect of 15 years in your skin”
• “We want to enjoy life because that’s what human beings do. And you must enjoy life because you deserve it. Hire us to build your next epic vacation and stop worrying about all the travelling details.”

You can play around with this human motivator and get absurd results. Remember that PEOPLE have the inner will to SURVIVE and LIVE LIFE! They want to live well and they want to guarantee a good life here on Planet Earth (or Planet Mars if you are Elon Musk). So play with that.

THE ENJOYMENT OF FOOD AND BEVERAGES
Everybody loves to eat. Everybody. People enjoy tasting food even if they aren’t hungry at the moment. That’s why marketing for that kind of business is not that difficult if you know how to appeal to your customer. Since we buy food we don’t like just because we are hungry, using the right words and triggering the right emotions and instincts can make you sell anything. Anything.

This human motivator is obviously related to:

• The desire of tasting great food
• The desire of drinking beverages (as a ritual or just to enjoy it)

Well, so if you can MERGE this human motivator to your words in order to make a sale, it can work like a charm. You can sell food or beverage, oooooooor use this human instinct to sell something else, something not really related to food or drinks.

Here, check these examples below for instance:

• “Do you want to eat something like this but you are lactose intolerant? Relax. Because now you are free. We created something with the EXACT SAME TASTE and that at the same time you — lactose intolerant — can happily enjoy without getting sick”
• “There’s nothing worse for a man than drinking a good cold beer and don’t have the perfect TV to watch The Superbowl. We want you to drink your beverages like a fully happy man, so here’s our complement to one of your best life experiences, a 80′ TV to watch Superbowl like a King”

As you can see, food and beverage are very appealing because humans LOVE TO EAT but you can use it to connect to different perspectives as well! With food & drinks, if you have the right image or video, then you just need to translate that image and video to sensations, through your words.

And with something that you can connect — like the Superbowl example — you just have to connect experiences.

THE FREEDOM FROM FEAR, PAIN AND DANGER
We all prefer to avoid pain instead of gaining pleasure, which sucks. Just like Tony Robbins said: “People are afraid of missing out”. But that’s how humans work and we can’t change it. Likewise, pain and danger are all interconnected too because all of our major problems is always fear-related. Fear of running out of money, fear of rejections, fear of failure, fear of robbery etc.

So this instinct is about:

• The desire of becoming fearless and be able to do whatever you want
• The desire to avoid any danger or pain

BUT WAIT!
What if we can….change how we respond to fear and become….fearless!?
What if is possible to kick away fear itself from our minds and destroy any danger?
What if we can train our minds to fear nothing at all?

Now you are getting the point.
So here’s a few examples to use for your copy:

• “Did you know that mastering your mind is totally possible? Did you know experts do it? Did you know that any fear is only imaginary and all of them can be beaten by implementing in your mind a few powerful techniques? Did you know you can learn all of these techniques within 2 weeks and be a totally different person? That’s why you need us. And our product. You won’t regret”
• “If you are a woman, then you know how terrifying it is to be walking down the street at night. You hate that feeling of constantly wondering if that man who is walking slowly near you, will ATTACK you. But you don’t need to worry with that anymore. We have a tiny and extremely POWERFUL pepper spray that can knock down even a 300-pound guy. And in seconds.”

Can you see how powerful it is to sell something related to fear, pain or danger? This is one of the best human motivator to use in your copy because you can ALWAYS manufacture fear and it’s usually VERY appealing! Every product has ways of exploring fear, danger and pain, so USE IT!

It works very well.
Very well.

THE SEXUAL COMPANIONSHIP
Yes, we enjoy dating and we enjoy having someone to copulate with (ok I won’t use the word “copulate” anymore because it’s weird). This is an instinct that hits every single person on Earth, no matter what they say. Sexual companionship is very important not just for our health but to our life as well.

People like having someone to go back to on the end of the day.
And they enjoy the other part that happens inside the room as well.

This instinct is related to this:

• The desire to meet new people from the opposite sex easily
• The desire to always be dating whenever you want
• The desire to fully understand the opposite sex

Since this is also an instinct that people don’t have the knowledge or can’t obtain the knowledge (unless through experience), if you hand over “the goods” FAST and EASY, you win.

Here are a few examples:

• “Every man lied to you about this, even your ex-boyfriend who you used to trust completely. Is it about sex? Is it about cheating? Is it about your body? You don’t know? Get this 45-page ebook and find out. It’s not expensive because we want to help. By the way, I’m also a woman.”
• “You like a woman. You have dreams with that woman. You want to marry her. But you are weak, but not in your body, but in your mind. You are afraid of being rejected and lose the chance to make things right. But you don’t know what to do, how to talk to her, what she likes, and what women in general likes in a man. And you are not alone. That’s why you should buy this book. Here’s your freedom to this problem my friend, the Definite Guide.”

Every person wants to understand and have the power over the opposite sex. People want to understand their partner, feel what they feel, predict what they will do and master everything about relationships. Give a relationship secrets through your product and you are gold.

Let’s move on, we are almost done.

THE AWESOME AND COMFORTABLE LIVING CONDITIONS
Why we buy a house, or a couch or a bed? Why we invest so much money planning our furniture if it’s all just for sitting or for sleep? Why a house on the field and away from town? Why we want to live close to work? Do you have the answer in the tip of your tongue for all that?

Comfort. The desire to live in very comfortable conditions.
That matters a lot for people. A lot.

So this is all basic related to:

• The desire to live easily and well
• The desire to have everything at your disposal at any time

People enjoy living in those places where they are well-treated.
Period.

Examples? Here:

• “This is not just a house, this is both an investment and a PARADISE. The ONLY reason why you shouldn’t buy this place, is if you don’t enjoy sunny days and the sound of birds singing at 7 am.”
• “We will build the living room of your dreams and you just have to choose how the furniture will be situated in your living room through our software simulator. Test different positions with the furniture you want and create the perfect living room. Build your dream living room from your laptop. By the way, we deliver everything within 3 days.”

We enjoy great living conditions, so use it in your copy and hit the triggers that make the customer remind of “comfort” + “peace” + “nature” + “modern”. This always works if you know exactly what to write.

THE WINNER & SUPERIOR SPIRIT
“I’m better than you”.
“Nobody will beat me on this after I invest on that thing”.
“I want to know everything about this subject”.

This is the Winner or the Superior Spirit. In other words, we as humans tend to be pumped by competition because winning is for some and not for all of us, so that’s a way of making us feel special and important.

Basically, it’s all centered around this:

• The desire to be ahead of other people in something, in advantage
• The desire to be stronger, faster and smarter

People who buy lots of books or people who have a strong desire to be physically strong respond better to The Superior Spirit since the focus here is about building yourself up and transforming you in a whole new human being. A better one. A superior one.

So a few copywriting examples would be:

• “This course will make you SMARTER than everyone else in your field if you successfully follow all the 10 steps we show you that separates winners from losers. It won’t be easy, but it’s possible. Besides, what fun is there in ‘easy’?”
• “This training routine will build your body within 3 months allied to our dieting plan. You become stronger, faster and leaner. But most of all, healthier. And you’ll also look very good too.”

Using superiority as a way of selling a product works better for those who have low self-esteem and lack of confidence. Remember that the people who want to be superior are not feeling superior right now. They WANT to be superior, but they aren’t right now.

Sell the prize, the end goal and build your words with intelligence to lead the path to it and for sure, sales will happen. No doubt about it.

We are almost there.
Stay with me for more 2 minutes.

THE CARE AND PROTECTION OF LOVED ONES
If you are human, you’ll want to protect everyone you love (that’s what normal people do). Hence, searching for ways of making this happen easily and with 100% of precision is a must for the majority of people out there. We want everybody to be OK, we want them all safe, we want our children, our wifes/husbands, mothers/fathers to be taken care of.

That’s hard-wired into our brain.
Protection protection protection!!!

And just to make this simpler, here’s what it means:

• The desire to protect everyone you love from danger, pain and everything that’s bad
• The desire to be able to provide for your family & loved ones everything they need

Understand that this is a very wide field if you analyze it correctly. Think: How can you take care of the people you love? Well…..we have multiple options for that question. For instance:

– Physical security
– Financial security
– Emotional security

And this is only to name a few. We have many more options. Ok, so what examples could you conclude from what I said above? Can you guess? Let’s see here a few options so you can understand the application of this in your copy:

• “Make your car safer for your 1-year-old son and don’t let him jump from the seat or fly away by just using this comfortable, allergy-proof and modern car chair to insert on your back seat.”
• “Your kids are 8 years from going to college? What’s your financial plan for that? How will you take care of that and make them have the best experience and education? Do you have all the money? Are you in debt right now? Relax, we thought ahead for you and we created this financial planning course that only requires 15 days of your time. Take care of your children’s future and subscribe!”

Protect and serve my friend.

SOCIAL APPROVAL
We live in communities that put some people on the spot and others, not so much. In our World, positive and negative opinions about someone can change how people think, act and feel towards that someone because his/her group is pre-defining a status-quo.

And that status is always about reputation which translates into self-worth. That’s why this last human motivator is all about:

• The desire to always have good reputation in your group
• The desire to be praised and complimented by other humans

People who are attention-seekers are the best example for this scenario. The goal of using this is to make people ascend from one place to another, socially speaking. It’s similar to the superior spirit, but with the difference that the person who you are trying to ascend with your product doesn’t have to be the best, they just have to climb up the social ladder.

And here are a few examples:

• “People will LOVE you after you use this car. This is not just a car, it’s a ride, it’s a lifestyle, it’s a way of telling people who you are and what you believe. And don’t worry about the whole environmental discussion, because we covered that too. You’ll rock!!!”
• “This line of clothes is something that just arrived from China and the fabric that were used to make our products are at a whole different level. Nanotechnology that wipes away dirt, IOT-friendly and many other advantages are a few things that come to mind. If you want to be modern and beautiful at the same time, you just found the right place. Your tech friends and your girlfriends will love your new look!”

Make your customer reach the “elite level” of his society and you can sell your product. And you can do this to a pen, or a car. You just have to identify the group your customer cares about and make the product be the social ladder he needs.

CONCLUSION
There’s nothing better than using the right words and the right strategies to generate more sales without having to sell. If you understand people, you can sell with more precision than the average salesman. Use the right words with the right instinct and emotions and claim your prize.

Take care.