How to be your buyer's first choice, every time

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Hi there - Jen here :)

Marketing is an investment that compounds in value over time, not an emergency lever to pull when sales dip.

This is one of the Choice Hacking Model’s core principles, and for good reason.

You see, contrary to popular belief, getting people to buy your product or service isn't just about triggering a sale.

You also have to get people ready to buy so that asking for the sale just becomes a formality.

🧠 Today we’re diving into how psychological principles like the Mere Exposure Effect help make the sale before the sale, influencing buyers (consciously or not) to think of your brand when it’s time to buy.

Today you’ll learn:

• Why marketing is more than just asking for the sale

• What is the Mere Exposure Effect (and how do brands like Coca-Cola and Nike use it to influence sales)?

• How to use these psychological principles to 2x your marketing effectiveness (so your sales can 2x, too)

👉 But before we get started, on October 25th I’m welcoming Psychology-Driven Copywriting expert Sue Moore from Virtual Gold Dust to join me in our October Mastermind session.

In this Choice Hacking Mastermind, you’ll learn:

• How to identify the signs that your messaging lacks emotional depth, so you can keep people from ignoring you and buying from your competitors

• A simple approach to figure out what your ideal buyers need to hear, so your messages can resonate and drive more engagement and sales

• How to inject more emotion into your copy, so buyers feel you can read their minds (and they can't help but buy)

👉 You can get your Guest Pass for this workshop here (or join for free if you’re already a Pro Member).

And don’t worry, everyone who registers will get sent a recording of the event, so if you can’t make the day and time you’ll still get access.

Why Marketing is More Than “Asking for Sales”

Getting people “ready to buy” can mean lots of things:

• Building memories of your brand through advertising, so you always come to mind when it's time to buy (mental availability).

• Engaging customers with email to build a relationship with your brand.

• Evoking emotions in your ads to grab more attention and create associations between your brand and these emotional states.

What your customers sees before they get to your "buying experience" subconsciously influences them.

And buyers make up their mind way before they go to your website, visit your store, or download your app.

Keeping your brand on a low hum in the background of peoples' lives makes them more likely to like, trust, and ultimately buy from you.

It’s down to the Mere Exposure Effect.

What is the Mere Exposure Effect?

This principle (sometimes called Familiarity Bias) says when people are familiar with something, they prefer it.

And given a choice of two options, they'll choose the one they've been exposed to the most (even if it's lower quality).

🔍 The Research

An example of this effect in action is the Eurovision song contest.

In this yearly musical competition, teams from different European countries compete for the best performance (as voted by a television audience)

When studying Eurovision voting patterns, a research team at Sheffield Hallam University discovered an interesting insight:

The number of times an audience saw a contestant correlated with how many votes the contestant received. It didn't matter how objectively good or bad the performance was.

That's what Mere Exposure is all about - being consistently and repeatedly exposed to a brand or product (or singer) will make customers more likely to buy (or vote, in this case).

But for Mere Exposure to work, you need two things:

• Single-minded and image-driven marketing

• Consistent messages across your entire customer journey

Here’s a great example of single-minded, image-driven creative from Coca-Cola:

This works because it uses Coke’s logo, tagline, and bottle in a clear, focused way. There isn’t too much going on - the photography makes the cold Coca-Cola look thirst-quenching (especially if it's a hot day).

Get exposed to that combination of elements enough times, and the chances you’ll buy a Coke go up.

How to use these psychological principles to 2x your marketing effectiveness (so your sales can 2x, too)

Want to harness the power of the Mere Exposure Effect? Here are a few suggestions:

Marketing & Advertising

• Great brands are built in decades, not months: Marketers get bored of their marketing way faster than normal people (aka your customers). Don’t go rebranding or making huge changes to how your brand looks, feels, and sounds. In an extreme case, you might have to start getting customers re-familiarized with your new brand from scratch.

• Don’t overcomplicate your messaging: Being single-minded might feel a bit stale after a while, but finding new ways to communicate the same messages is incredibly important to build familiarity. For example, Geico Insurance commercials feature a rotating cast of characters but they ended with the same tagline for decades: “15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance.”

UX, Design & Digital Products

• Use standard design conventions when you design digital experiences. When a digital experience is already familiar, customers are more likely to engage and quickly find what they need.

• Make sure your digital experience matches your marketing and/or store experience: People crave congruent experiences (aka everything looks similar and flows seamlessly). Your brand’s real-life visual elements need to match its online experience or people subconsciously feel something is “off.”

Until next time,
Jen

PS.

This month I'm going to be doing a few 1-1 Calls if you'd like to: 

• Review your Black Friday marketing plan or offers

• Set up your 2025 marketing plan 

• Review your 2025 products and services

I normally charge $1k for a 1-1 like this but I'm offering it at $750 for my Choice Hacking folks. 

If you want one, just rely with the words “Tell me more” and I’ll send you the details.