I talked about this in An Online Millionaire Plan - the section on copywriting. There, I boiled down understanding how marketing works (and why people buy things) to three authors:
- Cialdini
- Maslow
- Nightingale
Maslow, however, covered it more broadly. He had a "hierarchy" (pyramid) of needs, going from the basic - like getting food - up to the sublime, which is your ultimate expression of who you are and what you're here to do with your specific life.
Earl Nightingale covered additional points to the above, saying that there were three things people constantly strove for: Recognition, Change (Diversity), and Security.
All three of these are describing the same mountain all of us climb - but through their own unique perspective (just as each of us has your own path up that mountain).
Now, here's the bottom line: Once you get everything around you settled and have reached that sublime top spot - you don't really need much to live on, and probably have everything you could want anyway. Those who haven't made it are still grasping to buy things which give them emotional satisfaction.
That's why you have to sell "things" rather than ideas. People have the stuff around them associated with various emotions - instead of realizing that they create the emotions which they then put into those things around them. (While many authors have talked about this, I'd recommend Nightingale's Strangest Secret above as well as my own "Go Thunk Yourself" self-help book.)
Yes, what we experience around us - we actually put all that happiness, excitement, satisfaction, and everything else into that experience.
But marketing takes advantage of that situation. No, marketing isn't exploiting the poor uninitiated, the downtrodden, the victims - (sounds too sad, doesn't it?) Marketing is actually helping them surround themselves with the things they feel they need to build a secure life around them. People are trying to achieve security by building walls composed of flat-screen TV's, fast cars, faster food, lots of Italian shoes, and boxes of chocolate.
This is normal and every person does it. But when you study up on those who tell you how to make this money which can buy you things that remind you of happiness - they'll tell you that money isn't all it's cracked up to be, and that you are better off enjoying the journey to acquiring all that dough instead of worshiping the almighty dollar/euro/yen/etc. as itself.
Now, what marketing does is to take those 6 points of Cialdini and those 3 points of Nightingale to get people to buy their service. To the exact degree that people actually get what they want out of your service (compared to what they think you're promising) - then they will continue to act to get more of your services/product/et al.
What they and you are working to attain is the top of Maslow's hierarchy/pyramid.
You're working, actually, to get at peace with yourself. Now, religion (for example) is a seeming short-cut to this. You can attend services every week and get some peace within yourself - and you tithe to continue to support that group (what the word "church" actually means) which is bringing you that peace.
And yes, this explains why charismatic preachers have through history acquired great personal riches (though the truly great ones retired to obscurity without payment). The incredible service they were providing was emotional appeal and a temporary uplift. Same reason you go to movies - and why entertainment sells even in Depressions and recessions.
We all want our security by building a world around us that reminds us of our own views. At the same time, down deep we know that this is temporary and so still seek diversity in our lives so that we can continue to build that world around ourselves - to find that mysterious thing we are all looking for...
Here is why the person who "has it all together" is lauded and cherished beyond belief. (But whether they actually do or not is another question that they can only answer for themselves.)
People who are "secure within their own skin" apparently have one up on the rest of humanity. Because they have built an internal world-view which can tolerate all sorts of changes to their outward lives and still be at peace with that world.
Because that's one of the key steps in getting to the top of your own mountain. First, get your own physical security. Then get your own emotional security. After that, find that you are creating your own security. And with those tools in your tool-belt, you can then achieve real and permanent personal peace.
Now, the whole time - in order to acquire this peace - you have to be helping others achieve their own. Just the way this world works. (Read the 24th lesson of Haanel's Master Key System, as well as Nightingale's Strangest Secret recording.)
And this is what Yanik Silver, Joe Vitale, and all these guys are doing - they are helping people around them to make their world secure. That used car salesman is working to help you find reliable transportation which also "gives" you an emotional boost. Jay Abraham, Rich Schefren, Tim Knox, and all these others are helping you build a business around your core beliefs - so you can be secure and working at what you really want to (have chosen to) achieve in your life.
You've got examples where this gets out of hand - you could hardly tell a real estate broker that their driving real estate prices out the roof was evil. Or those (bleeping) bankers who took advantage of people who could not/would not read the fine print and so were "trapped" into escalating loan rates.
And perhaps the most "guilty" are the modern TV "news" and "entertainment" producers. All these shows just produce an emotional result. New moguls figure that if something is really perverse, it will get a lot of attention. If you look up what goes for "news" through history, you'll see that it has never changed. Yellow journalism wasn't invented by Hearst - nor did it die there. This type of over-the-top promotion ("news" is only marketing: really, really bad marketing) was found on the walls of Pompeii and in the records of Rome - and in the legends from the Indus and Mesopotamian valleys.
When you listen to politicians being interviewed on "news" channels, you'll just see the pot calling the kettle black - they are both "exploiting" the emotions of viewers to get the same thing: they want the viewer to continue to follow their campaign - and buy into it meanwhile, paying real dollars for the opportunity to be exploited again.
What do people get out of this? Emotional satisfaction.
When someone buys something on eBay what are they getting? Emotional satisfaction - or the promise of this.
All this emotional satisfaction (again - study Cialdini above) will give you (hopefully) emotional security.
And you're after emotional security so you can ultimately acquire unflappable peace of mind.
Those fast cars, closets filled with expensive shoes and clothes, great (high-priced) food bought in expensive and exclusive restaurants - all these things give you an emotional boost and help you build your secure world view.
Now, when you find you put those emotions into those articles - well, you don't need all that anymore. Unless you are trying to "prove" to others that they don't really need all that stuff in order to get the security they want in their lives.
But if a penniless, itinerant ex-carpenter from a rural town could bring down the immense greatness that was Rome with just a few parables - then anyone could.
As you understand these basics, then your own marketing can become incredibly effective. All your copywriting has to appeal to the emotional security people want. Your product has to help build that person's world view into a stronger one.
And if you worked your product-line and marketing campaigns back from helping that person achieve permanent personal peace - then you will have the most valuable and highly paid job on this planet.
That's why you make money online with Internet marketing.
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P.S. That link to an Online Millionaire Plan above is by direct access only. And the price is only just above what it costs to print it (or pay the bandwidth for your download). So buy it now - while you still have this link... ;)
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