Hey 👋 The Crew here.
Whoa. Feels like we’ve blinked and time jumped from January to May.
Does anyone know where the pause button is?
Reading time: 4 minutes, 22 seconds
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Valence effect
In a 1966 study by Rosenhan and Messick, participants were asked to pick between two cards. One card depicted a smiley face, and the other card a frowning face.
They found that, all other things being equal, participants were more likely to pick the card depicting positive emotions.
That’s because we gravitate towards positive outcomes even if they don’t always feel positive.
And that’s what we call the Valence effect.
In psychology, valence refers to the positive or negative emotional value associated with a particular stimulus, event, or object.
And the Valence effect is our tendency to overestimate the likelihood of positive things happening and, in return, underestimate the probability of negative consequences.
Which, of course, skews our decision making. Especially when the odds are balanced.
For example, if someone told you there’s a 50% chance you could win a grand prize, you’d probably like those odds, even though there’s a 50% chance you’d lose.
That’s not always a bad thing.
This kind of wishful thinking helped humankind survive, thrive, and develop in the face of adversity. And it can help your campaigns get positive ROI as well!
Let’s see how.
Three ways you can leverage the Valence effect
1) Highlight positive peer reviews
This is nothing new to marketing. People like and need to see reviews from other people.
But if you want to make the most out of the Valence effect, you should highlight positive reviews before anything else.
Numerous recent studies—including this study of e-commerce websites—suggest that positive reviews greatly influence purchase decisions.
So running ads that specifically highlight positive reviews, or placing a happy customer opinion at a visible position on your landing page, can boost your conversion rate.
We’re doing it too. And guess what—it’s working:
2) Evoke mental images of success
Want your customers to buy your product? Try to showcase the positive consequence of using your product or service.
It can trigger wishful thinking, inspire action, and tap into the Valence effect.
Teeth whitening brands do this a lot by showing the before and after effect of their service:
It just makes you think “that could be me.”
This can make your customers likely to envision themselves experiencing similar success, and drive them towards purchase.
Especially since it doesn’t only appeal to the desire for improvement—but also touches the innate human inclination towards positive outcomes.
3) Frame concerns in a positive way
Concerns are like fallen trees, blocking the customer’s route to purchase.
Luckily, it doesn’t take much to “de-concern” your audience.
If you’re selling an expensive product, focus on the overall value it brings to the user, or the savings they’ll see in the long run.
The same goes for complex software. Don’t talk about the learning curve, but about what users will be able to do once they master it.
Focus on the outcomes.
Notion, for example, is feature-packed and takes time to master. However, their landing page makes it sound easy and fun:
Why not take a notion out of their book?
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MUST-KNOW B2B BENCHMARKS: So it’s been weeks and you still haven’t closed that B2B deal. No worries—the average journey typically takes six months. Dreamdata’s report shares insights like this and more based on 414 B2B companies they analyzed. Download the free report now.*
ADVERTISING: There’s an ad channel that is steadily growing—and you probably haven’t used it. Yet, at least. We’re talking about video game ads. And this article shows why you might be hearing more success stories coming from this niche channel. Worth a look.
INSTAGRAM: It’s not over for the little guy. Instagram is apparently changing the algorithm to help smaller content creators get their fair share of reach—and is cracking down on meme profiles and “reposting” profiles which won’t be shown in recommendations. Interesting.
TIKTOK: No plans to sell. That’s what ByteDance said in response to a law that forces the company to sell their social platform or get banned in the US. If this stance doesn’t change it will lead to only one outcome—no more TikTok. Uh-oh.
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ICYMI, last time we looked at the Nirvana fallacy.
The “Positive” Crew
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