Affiliate marketing is about providing the right product to the right customer at the right time. Look at Maslow's Model and learn how to market your products effectively.
Implementing Maslow's Model
Maslow prepared a paper on “A Theory of Human Motivation”, otherwise known as the Hierarchy of Needs. This model is based upon the stages of human growth and the natural curiosity. The interpretation of his work is best portrayed in a pyramid. There are four stages, at the bottom is deficiency, the lowest level of needs. Maslow was aware of the necessity for people to find how to market their products effectively and he started with finding out why psychology was the key to this.
Physiological Needs - These appear to be obvious and are the needs to enable human survival; without the important life-providing needs, the human race would be extinguished. These include, breathing, homeostasis (maintaining a stable environment), hunger/thirst, air, sex and rest.
The second level includes physical needs; security, safety and law and order. These provide protection and ensure a familiar, orderly law and order. Humans have need for a world that is consistent, safe and predictable; providing personal and financial security, health and safety guards against adverse conditions.
Love and Belonging - After physiological needs are met, is the need for social involvement and a feeling of belonging through emotional relationships through friendship, intimacy and family. Humans must be provided with a sense of acceptance, and must love and be loved. Lack of this sense of belonging can lead to isolation, loneliness, depression and illness.
Esteem or Belonging - The fourth stage is esteem, such as recognition, respect, prestige, importance, attention, appreciation. All humans want to be respected, accepted and valued within their society. This promotes a feeling of value which improves self-respect. Maslow formulated two versions of esteem, namely, lower and higher. The lower is the need for respect from other people, recognition and glory. The higher is a need for self-respect; self-confidence, independence and excellence.
Albert Maslow is known as the founder of humanistic psychology. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and was the son of Russian Jews. His childhood was an unhappy one, without friends, he spent his time in libraries. He went on to study psychology in Wisconsin. Since the 1970’s, his ideas have fallen intro disrepute. Nonetheless, his philosophy is broadly in line with other sales psychologies.
Maslow’s Hierarchy is the first theory, understanding consumer motives to purchase, and it is relevant to affiliate marketing. Researching, understanding and implementing psychological techniques will ensure that your products are specifically targeted to your niche markets; master this technique and your business will grow in leaps and bounds.
Sales Psychology
Sales psychology is an intricate model employed to increase sales and earnings potential. The most renown strategy is employed in the tangible business area. Supermarkets obviously know that their shopper are looking for food and hunger drives their need. They employ techniques to stimulate customer senses and encourage them to stay in the store for longer. Sales psychology can be adapted to fit any business model and there are basic principles used to maximize profits, based on customer needs and wants.
An abstract from Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand, et al 2003), the overview of related research defines passion as a “strong inclination toward an activity that people like, find important, and in which they invest time and energy”. Related to the existence of passion; the two types are associated with differing outcomes and experience; harmonious passion sets its origins in autonomous internal identity, thereby, people choose to engage with an activity they love; obsessive passion originates from a controlled internal identity and leads people to display uncontrolled behaviour patterns leading to an urge to engage in an activity.
These two types of passion cause people to search out what makes their lives worth living, through the key behaviors identified as triggers that determine their motivation; these being, fear, greed, guilt, anger, exclusivity, salvation or flattery. These behaviors will govern how people react to satisfy this inherent need to be satisfied; these being;
- Decisions based on emotion – people will make their decisions based on a feeling, emotion and need, but not through a logical thought application. Subjective benefits which cannot be evaluated in monetary terms will be satisfied through persuasion.
- Justification of the emotive decision – people will justify their emotional purchasing need by applying pseudo-valuable arguments regarding the nature of the product, thereby justifying purchase rationale.
- Satisfying egocentric/narcissistic behavior – egocentric means ‘centered around self’ and narcissism (derived from the Greek word for Narcissus) is a personality trait of egotism, preoccupation with issues of personal adequacy and power
- Value searching – value is subjective and as such, is not a fixed number or amount. It applies to the specific product and holds meaning for the specific person to whom it is applied and is relative to what is being offered. Value is demonstrated as being equal to, or added value as being greater than, a comparison offer. The greater the value to the relative price, the more added value is perceived, which can enhance the likeliness of the sale.
- Human brain reacts specifically toward people – in that humans react to people on a socially interactive level. The precuneus of the brain is thought to be involved in the understanding of human perspective, and as such, people are designed to think in human terms, therefore addressing by name, using pronouns to address personally and providing examples of human testimony will lead to increased interaction; use of testimonials and examples of happy customers will lead to success.
- Hierarchy of Human Need – it is a fact that people love to buy, and no matter how many needs they have satisfied, they will strive to attain more. People buy with their hearts, no matter how much their brain screams ‘you don’t need it’, people enjoy being sold to and Maslow, the eminent psychologist, claimed that people buy for two reasons; to solve problems and to make themselves feel good. Maslow also claimed that if you could anticipate every objection a customer has to a product, then research satisfactory solutions, you can persuade the customer to buy anything.
- Marketing to a suspicious audience – the pyramid schemes of the 1970’s created suspicion with every type of network marketing. These days, it is difficult to bypass the plethora of information warning you about click fraud, spam, spyware and adware and people are now naturally suspicious. It is possible to buy some of the credibility back for the affiliate marketing industry by backing up your offer with legitimate reviews and testimonials. If you are going to use such worthwhile resources, then rather start small until your product uptake increases and more reviews are forthcoming and be honest about why you only have a couple of testimonials. Never provide bogus commentary about your products.
- Maslow’s Model – people are constantly in search of products, advice, resources to improve their lifestyles; they have a natural dissatisfaction with their lives and want to tap into anything that soothes that constant hunger to have, achieve, succeed, provide wealth. We return once again to Maslow’s model of the Hierarchy of Human Needs (as above)
- Exclusivity – everyone wants to feel needed, desired and special. Affiliate marketing is the most applicable business to which these principles apply; it demands extensive research to find niche markets and involves carefully targeting your offer to a unique customer. Your are therefore, providing an exclusive product to your customer-base. But just because you have found the ideal product for your customer, doesn’t mean they will buy it. This is where you can close the pre-sell. Inform the customer of key benefits of the product and outline why the product meets their exclusive needs. Provide a review and include testimonials. Make them aware of money-back guarantees and help them to arrive at a positive decision.
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