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Imagine this…

Your workday is coming to a close. It’s been an abnormally hectic day and you can’t wait to plop yourself in front of the TV and relax.

Suddenly your phone dings and you see a text from your spouse.

They’re asking a question that fills you with dread, “What should we make for dinner?”

You’re all decision-ed out for the day.

You want something delicious and healthy, but you don’t feel like spending an hour in the kitchen.

There aren’t any leftovers in the fridge, either. You could order take-out, but you already got UberEats this week.

In a moment of procrastination, you open your inbox. You scroll through emails and see an ad with a subject line that grabs your attention.

It reads: “Fresh, ready-to-cook meal kits at your door — try it free”

You open the email, click the promo link, and before you know it you’ve placed your order.

A few days later, a big green box arrives at your front doorstep. Your spouse asks what it is and you excitedly tell them, “It’s dinner for the next week!”

You both breathe an audible sigh of relief.

Where did you order from?

In today’s issue of Why We Buy 🧠, we’re analyzing a brand you’ve seen promoted across your social media news feeds.

This week, we’re diving into—you guessed it—HelloFresh.

Let’s get into it.
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🤑 A Look Inside HelloFresh

Turns out you’re not the only one struggling to come up with dinner ideas at the end of a long workday.

As of 2023, more than 8.11M customers have walked through HelloFresh’s digital doors.

That’s helped them earn a $4.8B valuation, making HelloFresh the world’s 2587th most valuable company.

They even have over 260,000 Instagram posts tagged with #hellofreshpics (more like hello free marketing…)

People can access hundreds of thousands (millions?!) of free recipes online…

How did HelloFresh become such a massive business?​
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🧠 How HelloFresh Uses Buyer Psychology

HelloFresh’s success isn’t a convenient outcome. The food delivery service has figured out a thing (or 4) about creating a successful business that makes its customers keep coming back for more.

Here are some tasty strategies worth stealing:

Framing Effect

How you say something matters even more than what you say. HelloFresh knows this which is why their checkout page shows the Box price ($59.94) and the Price per serving ($9.99). This is smart framing because $9.99 feels cheaper compared to the $59.94 box price.

Pricing like this also makes it easier for people to conceptualize how much they’re spending per meal using HelloFresh vs. eating out.

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Choice Architecture

The average person makes 35,000 decisions each day. HelloFresh knows that by dinner time people are mentally burned out and ready to unwind. HelloFresh customers can choose their meals ahead of time with recommendations based on their food preferences.

By frontloading a week’s worth of meal decisions, HelloFresh customers avoid the analysis paralysis that often happens at the grocery store or when ordering takeout.

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Choice Architecture

The average person makes 35,000 decisions each day. HelloFresh knows that by dinner time people are mentally burned out and ready to unwind. HelloFresh customers can choose their meals ahead of time with recommendations based on their food preferences.

By frontloading a week’s worth of meal decisions, HelloFresh customers avoid the analysis paralysis that often happens at the grocery store or when ordering takeout.

Urgency

Turning your customers into happy salespeople is low-hanging fruit that HelloFresh harvested early on. Their refer-a-friend program gives customers a kickback for getting people to try out the meal service for the first time.

But HelloFresh doesn’t stop there. Offering coupons that expire creates a sense of urgency and pushes customers to refer a friend before it’s too late.

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Zero-Price Effect

HelloFresh is always looking to sweeten the deal. Their current offer includes “16 free meals and 3 gifts.” They know hesitant first-time buyers need an extra nudge, and free stuff is exactly what they’re waiting for.

​

Authority Bias

If there were influencer Olympics, HelloFresh would be a gold medalist. They strategically partner with A-list celebrities who customers already trust like Jessica Alba and Jamie Oliver.

Jessica and her company Honest Co. targets health-conscious moms and she’s seen as an authority on quality products. HelloFresh can piggyback on that trust by linking themselves to known brands.

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​🤔 Thinking About Your ​Business

You don’t have to be a DTC company to use the buyer psychology principles that have turned HelloFresh into a 7+ million customer company.

Ask yourself:

Q: Can you link your brand to an authority in your industry?

Use influencers in your specific niche to get built-in trust from your ideal audience. Don’t worry—you don’t need A-list celebrities. You can partner with micro-influencers in your niche with engaged audiences.

Q: How can you give away a free taste?

Even if your products are digital, your buyers would love to get a “taste” so they know they’ll like what they sign up for. Get creative about ways you can show your customers just how “tasty” your products are.

For example, we recently launched a free 6-day email challenge, Pre-sell with Pre-suasion. 500+ people have already signed up and apparently, they like it.

​

Q: Are you using your army of free salespeople?

Your buyers want to promote how much they love your products. Don’t make them jump through hoops to do it.

Make it easy for people to refer you by creating a mutually beneficial referral program (like ours down below 👇)
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💥 The Short of It

You could just look up free recipes online and drive to the grocery store to get your ingredients. But, that’s not the same.

HelloFresh proves that convenience sells, especially when you integrate buyer psychology principles like these.

They’ve done their homework and now you can swipe what worked.

Until next time, happy selling!