Nudge, don’t force
Marketing is subtle—like the air around you. Its effect is invisible but you still feel it.
Marketing works on your subconscious and not on your conscious.
This is what a “nudge” is called, as per Richard Thaler.
A nudge is instead an attempt to influence choice in a way that presents all options but steers the chooser toward the option that benefits them more.
However, the key action is to make sure unfavorable choices are still perfectly accessible and no harder to reach than the better choices.
The chooser must actually be able to reject the better choice if they so wish.
This gives the chooser complete freedom to decide for themselves what they want, leaving their destiny in their own hands.
For example, when a person signs up for a newsletter trial and forgets to cancel the subscription in due time, the nudge is his propensity towards the status quo—causing laziness to act to change the situation.
Priming is also a form of nudge where one thing gets connected to another inside one’s mind. For example, when you think of the word “bee”, you get reminded of “honey”. This association acts as a nudge in one making buying decisions too.
As a marketer, your job is to keep nudging until the buying temperature is red hot.
Nudge, don’t force.
That’s when sales happen on their own or with minimal effort.
