What Motivates People to Buy? (Part II)

Continued...

What are the variables? An interruption, a lost internet connection, a distraction, sleepiness, pain, nature calls, a black-out, your favorite show is on, you name it. There are numerous reasons why a perfectly good sale might be abandoned by an interested buyer. But these variables are not set in stone and account for only a small percentage of lost sales.

Because of the many potential variables that can deter sales, however, all the more reason to design your advertising for impulse buying. Impulse buying is when a prospective buyer turns into a paying customer without too much reasoning behind the purchase. Simply put: the purchase is based on desire over affordability or accommodation of the product. That’s just a fancy way of saying that someone will buy your product (book) without worrying about its consequences. (For example: Where will I fit this new exercise machine? (or) Do I still have enough shelf space for more books? I’m about to move out of this house, shouldn’t I wait to move into the new house and avoid moving more stuff?

The reasons (objections) can go on forever. The point is that your goal is to make the sale right now, not later, because later might be too late.  Okay, so how do you go about designing an impulse sale? Glad you asked, because we’ve already reviewed most of it.

Buying on impulse (coming soon, article on impulse purchases) is like having all green traffic lights. It’s like hitting not just a home run, but a grand slam. Everything must be in place. The right product at the right price with the right offer at the right time in the right venue, just when the moon and all the stars are perfectly aligned: Boom! They hit the PAY NOW button and you get paid, out of the blue, on impulse.

This is the event you want repeated on an ongoing basis. Over and over, plus you want everyone who has bought your book to buy more of your books and to spread the word so others can buy it as well, and so on, and so on. Repeat business, which is to say that your book might sell to millions of people, maybe more than once. (As a hardcover, eBook, mass market paperback, a gift, etc.)

Although, in order for your book to make such an impression on buyers (potential readers) YOU MUST WRITE AN AMAZING BOOK TO BEGIN WITH. Yes, your book (product) must be a winner. What makes books great? If it’s a non-fiction title, it must offer many tangible benefits (solutions) to readers in an entertaining manner. It must have a commercial hook.

A book of fiction, a novel for instance must offer an amazing story that is familiar but notably different from everything else. It must promise to entertain you, dazzle you, and most importantly, it should surprise you somewhere along the line or at least by the end. Literature is very subjective and therefore everyone’s response to any particular story is different, personal and unique, although, there will be a majority of similar opinions and vice versa.

Once you have written your masterpiece, you must make it available to the general public, which means you must advertise in mass media outlets (the largest book related venues) for optimum exposure. But exposure is just the beginning, the sharp tip. Your marketing must go beyond the obvious. Beyond presentation. It must reach out and penetrate into the psyche of potential buyers. You must seek common ground with readers, common experiences through metaphor, quotes, graphics and music. These are the things that move, stir and motivate people to make impulsive buying decisions.

Book Teasers are a big part of that formula because they provide all the magic elements of setting off emotional triggers in reader’s minds.  Visuals are powerful and effective tools for inspiring and motivating people to take action. To stir their desires and reach for something they believe will enrich their lives in some way. You must make sure your book does all those things and position it in such a way that readers will feel that they must get your book because if they don’t, they will be missing out on something very useful and beneficial to their lives. Something that will bring them happiness.

When you really break it down, it all comes to one thing. The search for happiness is a constant need for every human being on earth. The search for happiness is global, which means your book can have a global audience in search of a story like yours.

Does your novel offer a story that promises to intrigue readers with the unexpected? Does your marketing play-up your story’s themes, its emotional aspects that connect with readers? If not, it’s never too late to tweak in all the elements that can take your story to another level. A level where emotion is at its epicenter, because without an emotional connection, your book has very little chance to make a difference and very little chance to make any money.

My next Post will continue with this discussion about building that all-important emotional content within your story and how to include it in your Book Teaser by way of strong imagery and powerful music. Two necessary components that motivate people to click, and buy.

This article was swiped from Alberto’s upcoming book, tentatively titled, “Don’t Freak Out” Fearless Marketing: Proven Techniques For Promoting Your Novel