We are beginning a new category called Marketing Secrets with a number of articles on Marketing Hot Buttons.
The first one we like to refer to as the Me Too Hot Button!
Simply put it is the tendency we all have that when we see someone else with whom we identify DO something — whatever that thing might be – like BUYING something (like even your product or service) — we all tend to have what many successful marketers call the “Me Too” response some use a more disrespectful description of Monkey See – Monkey Do
It is the reason behind why sitcom TV shows have a laugh track after a joke — or after what the writer’s thought was a joke — is delivered during a show. The audience at home knows that the laugh track is just a recording, but that doesn’t stop them from chuckling along when the recorded laughter “cues” them. It triggers that emotional button we all have deep down that going along with others is more comfortable than disagreeing.
Slightly more powerful Me Too Hot Button of – Someone Just Like Me
Even more magnetic than simply “someone” doing “it” is seeing “someone like me” doing “it.” This well-tested marketing secret has been responsible for the recent proliferation on the internet of the replicated websites we all are suspicious of that have that magical phrase of “12 months ago I was doing exactly what you are doing… looking on the internet…. or some slight variation of that. It then goes on to describe themself as an average Joe or Sally or even a below average version of Joe. People do love to hear about and do what other people just like them are doing. Websites plastered with testimonials (despite recent FTC crackdowns) are Social proof. They have proven to be especially effective when it comes from people we identify with or want to be like. These hot buttons are all designed to get the buyer emotionally involved as say “If it worked for so and so, it will work for me.” The social proof testimonials are trying to pull the old teenage heartstrings of peer pressure. People are deeply affected by what others think whether they’re young, old, rich, poor, male, or female.
People will visit websites that are on “most-visited” lists, that are on social bookmarking sites, Google Page 1 because social proof is also related to people’s desire to be in agreement with “everyone else,” and not have a mistaken belief about what is true and what is not. Not just internet marketers use Testimonials and Seeding. How many times have you looked in the tip jar that has lots of dollars and felt guilty if you didn’t leave a tip?
If done with integrity – it is a long-lasting powerful way to create real hot buttons — based upon real science, real psychology at work that can transform your prospects into button-pushers. Use it when you understand the science behind it and do it the right way for the right reason!
