Sponsored by PAINKILLER

Find the ouchy pains that drive sales—in under 3 minutes

​People buy painkillers. If you don’t understand the painful problems your target buyers will pay to solve, you’re screwed.

I (Katelyn here 👋) built an AI-powered bot to help you better understand buyers by uncovering the deeper, "ouchier" pains they’re struggling with. It's $0.

​​→ Get your FREE Ouchy Pain Finder bot

Imagine this…

For the past month, you’ve seen ads from a company offering “softer-than-a-cloud sweatpants.”

This morning is no different.

As you scroll through Instagram and sip your coffee, you see another ad with a cute model flaunting the oh-so-comfy-looking sweats.

But you don’t pay much attention to these ads because you’re still attached to the sweats you’ve had for 10 years. You’ll never part with them.

You glance at the clock and note you have a Zoom meeting in 8 minutes.

Scroll time is over, you sigh.

So you swap out your pajama shirt for a blouse like the professional you are.

Then you get ready to change out of your pajama shorts.

But because you’re not a sociopath who wears real pants during online meetings, you grab your trusty sweats.

As you put one leg in, you hear the worst sound you’ve ever heard.

*riiiiiiip*

Was that my heart ripping in half or my sweats? Both??? you frantically think.

Deep down, you already know what just happened.

Your foot got caught and tore the crotch’s seam in half.

​

As you mourn the loss, you quickly type in that company that’s been advertising the soft-as-a-cloud sweats and place an order.

There are THOUSANDS of sweatpants to choose from. Why did you buy from this specific company?

In today’s edition of Why We Buy 🧠 we’ll explore Priming—why we’re more likely to choose products we’ve been repeatedly exposed to.

Let’s get into it.

🧠 The Psychology of Priming

Effective marketing primes people to be receptive to your pitch BEFORE they hear it.

Say whaaaat?

World-renowned psychologist Robert Cialdini calls this strategy “pre-suasion.”

It involves creating the right context and cues—and poking at the right emotions—to *subtly* nudge potential customers toward a desired action.

Researchers found when consumers were exposed to words associated with higher-end brands (e.g., “prestige”), they were more likely to prefer a higher-end brand when faced with a buying decision (e.g., Nike for socks instead of Hanes).

The crazy part is, this preference developed on a subconscious level.

Convincing people to buy is 1000X harder when trying to persuade them *before* properly pre-suading them.

And this is a very common mistake marketers make.

As Cialdini says…

“Persuasion is not just about what you say; it’s about what you say before you say it.”

The smartest marketers know that and use it to their advantage.
​

🤑 How to Apply This

Ok. So how can you apply this right now to sell more?

Branding​
​Choose brand colors that evoke the desired response

McDonald’s use red and yellow in their branding because they’re colors known to stimulate appetite and trigger urgency.

This primes customers to feel hungry and act NOW.

So once drivers see this red-and-yellow beacon, they’re more likely to pull into the drive-thru and order a Big Mac.

But this logo we’ve all seen countless times since childhood leaves a deeper neuropsychological mark.

Whenever you see bright red and yellow together, you’re likely to pair those colors automatically with the fast-food chain because your brain has linked them to the brand.

Crazy, huh?​

Product launches​
​Prime your audience to buy waaay in advance

Your launch strategy should start weeks—preferably months—before doors open.

As you know, we’re working feverishly to create a new product. PAINKILLER is a messaging workshop (join the waitlist to get first dibs). We’ll help you fix your messaging so more people reply and buy… in just 3.5 days.

Our launch date is mid-October.

But I started priming people to buy back in JUNE.

​

By creating content that’s focused on the specific problem our target buyer is struggling with (lack of sales due to ineffective messaging), I’m priming them to start noticing—and feeling—the pain associated with that problem more.

So when we launch the solution, their reaction will likely be: “THIS is what I need. Where’s my wallet?!”

But be careful—the key here is to be subtle. Posting 1-2X/week is sufficient.
​

Subscriptions​
​Create strategic partnerships

A way to reach more warm leads (and sell more) is to partner with influencers or content creators your target audience already trusts.

​HelloFresh didn’t *randomly* partner with Jessica Alba.

It was a strategic decision because Alba’s company, The Honest Company, is viewed as trustworthy by a huge, relevant audience: health-conscious moms.

​

There are a ton of meal-delivery services to compete with.

But because HelloFresh partnered with Alba, they primed her audience to think of *them* as the go-to brand.

So when those buyers decide to invest in a healthy meal-delivery service, HelloFresh’s meal kits are likely the first they’ll think of (and choose to buy).​
​

​💥 The Short of It

Odds are, your buyer isn’t ready to buy right this second.

So use the right visuals and words in your content to get your buyer in the right context before you ask them to take action.

And once you do *that,* stick to it.

Familiarity helps your buyers make decisions faster by building know, like, and trust factors. Meanwhile, repetition helps your buyers remember important information.

Win-win.

​Until next time, happy selling!​