Take this political season, for instance.  A bit further out, candidates were focusing on a variety of issues and their respective takes and proposed plans…la-di-da.  Within the past month or so, we’ve seen the focus shift towards one thing: The Economy.  Why?  Well, the mortgage companies provided tremendous fodder for this huge shift, but Bill Clinton did the same thing when he ran against Bush 41 in ‘93 – “It’s the economy, stupid!”

Of course the economy is important, especially in the midst of a global financial meltdown.  But, the real reason it’s effective for politicians to talk about the economy is because it can be used to induce psychological triggers that either a) remove pain and increase pleasure (i.e. promises of a brighter future, turn the economy around, take care of the working class, etc.) OR triggers can be used to anchor the politicians opponent to the opposite b) increase pain and remove pleasure (i.e. suggesting that opponent will raise taxes, get the country into costly and dangerous conflicts, spend on unnecessary programs).  Effectively moving voters either closer to comfort or away from comfort.

Pain vs. Pleasure – It comes down to emotion.

Human instinct is based on emotion.  That’s why pain and pleasure is so important to us.  We either want to move away from pain, or towards pleasure.  And most of the time, we’d be more proactive in staying away from pain than from getting pleasure, especially if getting involves some work!

But the bottom line is that we all, at a very core level, think the same way.  We make decisions based on emotion, then justify them with reason.  Comfort can often be a crutch, an excuse, so you have to tread carefully.

To me, this is what makes the study of psychology, marketing, influence and persuasion all so interesting.  There really are formulas to tap into that work like clockwork once you understand how to apply them.

I’ll leave it at that for now, but let’s just say that part 2 of this post is coming soon – the piece that any one of us can implement to help break these triggers, break out of their comfort zone and get so much more done in a day.  We’ll discuss this success principle can make you a bundle, done correctly, and how, if not followed, the same principle can break you…especially in the world of web 2.0 marketing where there’s a ton of busy work at any given time that can be done.

It’s about an hour and twenty minutes, so grab a cold beverage, some snacks, a note pad and enjoy!

While that sounds all fine and dandy…which it is…traditional marketing and advertising approaches have become much more challenging, as users have grown accustomed to simply tuning out any ad on their screen (many use technology that actually does that for them…ads don’t even show up on their screen). This is cause for concern if you’ve been using PPC campaigns, email marketing, banner ads, or any of the other types of traditional Internet Marketing tactics.

It does not mean that Internet Marketing is a lost cause, quite to the contrary actually.

But the rules of engagement have changed. No longer can you blatantly hit someone over the head with an ad…asking your battered prospect to take some action in their impaired state. I’d venture to say that it becomes more intellectual, in a sense.

What getting an audience and gaining attention requires nowadays is a bit different. Web surfers are looking for value and efficiency. With the sensory overload that is the Internet today, users want the precise information they’re looking for, from a trustworthy source, and they aren’t going to go on a witch hunt to get it…they want it quickly, as time is everyone’s most valuable resource.

Sound difficult? It may, as this is a paradigm shift that all Internet marketers are dealing with.

If you’re looking to learn from the best on this topic, my recommendation for a comprehensive and extremely affordable training is Jack Humphrey’s Social PowerLinking Program. I just wrote a review of the program at MarketingProductReview.com, in case you’d like some more details on the program.

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