Dirty Marketing Secret To Triple Your Conversions

Have you ever received an email from a marketer saying “Sorry…I screwed up..I sent an email yesterday saying is $297 where as it is just $97. I stupidly typed an extra ‘2’ in the original price. Right now I’m busy sending out a gazillion $200 refunds. So – sorry about that. But the correct price for the is $97 – not $297.

What’s happening here?

This is a secret “anchoring technique” that slips into your mind so silently that your mind is bound to take an action…

Here the marketer is giving your mind a starting point to think that his product is really worth the $297 price tag, by showing you a social proof that many of his other customers have already bought the product at a higher price ($297). But he is still refunding many extra $200s so it is a “huge steal” for you to get his product at a bargain price now.

Your brain instantly got attracted to this product now and it wants to buy the product before it is too late.

Let me give you another example to prove this:

Let’s say you and I go to a party where there are lots of people in a room. If I ask you “What do you think, how many people are there in this room?“, your mind will start thinking and you will make a guess. But if I ask you a different question “Do you think there are 100 people in this room?”

Now your mind got a starting point to think and you will automatically make a guess around that number.

So how you can use this pricing? Well, if you say something is worth $297 you anchor your customers’ minds to that price point. And when you send our a follow-up email saying, “It’s really only $97 and I’m making lots of $200 refunds” that tells people that they are getting a steal because the price is not only much lower than their anchor point but it’s also got the social proof aspect, that if the marketer is issuing a lot of $200 refunds then he must have sold a lot at $297 which means a lot of other people thought it was worth $297 too.

Let me share my own example – I built a membership software and I posted up the demo and informed about 500 people of my mailing list to try it out. Inside the demo, I posted just ONE question “How much you are willing to pay for this software?” and the options were $99, $129, $199, $299, $499.

So what did I do here? Yes, you are right..I gave them a starting point of $99. So now, no matter what, they knew that the price is not going to be less than $99.

But wait…I did something else too…

When I beta launched the software, I set the price as $0 (free). And then I posted one little add-on to it for 40 bucks.

Guess what – From those 500 people, 141 people ended up buying that forty bucks add-on and downloading the free software (for which they answered $99 as the best price). That’s 28.2% conversion (believe me, it’s a high number)

WHY?

Because by now, in their minds, the value of the base software was $99 or more and they got it for free, plus they got an amazing add-on for just $40…which is half the price of what they have guessed for the main software.

See…how POWERFUL it is? Give it a thought and I am sure you will come up with something similar for your own business.

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Image Credit: Martoulette

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29 comments

Web Developer January 24, 2011 - 12:50 pm
Awesome post, every marketer needs to learn such techniques to sell their products or services. I
Pablo Edwards January 24, 2011 - 4:51 pm
Awesome secrets... I'm glad you guys let us in on some of them. We would be lost without help from you guys.
Deep Arora January 24, 2011 - 11:19 pm
Glad you enjoyed it. Many more secrets to come... just hang on tight :)
Alex@Jocuri January 25, 2011 - 3:42 pm
Psychology at work, I was really starting to wonder when people that play with people's mind will start to join in the IM frenzy. This are some great tips that will work everytime because of this reflexes are embed deep in the people psychic. I wait forward for your other secrets ;)
Bali Hotels January 25, 2011 - 5:36 pm
Great article, there is so much information out there irs hard to know hwat is going to affect your website in a positive or negative way! keep up the good work.
Bradley Nordstrom January 25, 2011 - 7:07 pm
Very powerful technique.Never knew that I would come across this.People e-mail things like that all the time. Thanks ZK, Bradley Nordstrom
Jasmine January 26, 2011 - 1:34 am
Wow, this trick is dirty just like you have said, but it works like a wonder! Superb... and I love dirty tricks like that! Haha.
Armel@term deposit January 26, 2011 - 4:41 am
Huge thanks for sharing your secret with us. Indeed, it's a big help. I need this and I will surely apply this to triple my conversions. :D
realtek January 26, 2011 - 5:41 am
Really good article. thank You for sharing those informations. I am planning to open an Internet shop and I'm looking for tips like that.
Car Rental January 26, 2011 - 2:05 pm
Normally if an email comes from non intended sender and it includes products that i am not interested in. I would obviously mark it as spam. But this dirty secret can work sometimes if you are a genuine business and not a spam site.
Daniel January 26, 2011 - 7:01 pm
It seems to be a great tactic for make conversions. However this is kind of dirty. I have received those mails and instantly send them to the spam folder because in my opinion, that is what they are: Spam. This is just my point of view.
ZK January 27, 2011 - 12:24 am
Hi Daniel, If you do a mailing activity to users who are not a part of your community then this will be regarded as spam, but if you have built authority and trust with your comminity then you will be heard and respected for your thoughts and opinions.
Daniel January 27, 2011 - 12:47 am
You are right. And that is the point there. Many marketers do not respect whether we want to receive their e-mails. For example, I make public some of my emails on my sites for contact purposes. However, some marketers use them for advertising purposes. On the other hand, if our "Brand" has a well defined authority then that is a change of scenario.
Deep Arora January 27, 2011 - 12:51 am
In no way I meant to use this strategy as a spam..lol. This strategy works best if you have a mailing list with double opt in. Because they know you, and buy from you. So once you have a list, try these strategies, they work wonders. Again, I am not talking about blasting such messages via some email spam..never..I hate spammers..lol.
iphone 5 February 9, 2011 - 4:57 am
spam or not.... keep them in whatever category you want to... but great post i could've never imagined that marketing is such deep a thing
Deep Arora January 27, 2011 - 12:53 am
Readers - please read the post again..it says I tested this strategy on people who opted for testing my software, gave me their email id and wanted to hear/buy the software when it's launched ...so please do not abuse this by doing email spam :)
Software Development Company January 27, 2011 - 6:31 am
It's reallly unique strategy for selling products and increase the conversion of the site.
Piyush January 30, 2011 - 12:39 pm
This is something called quality article, thanks for sharing the tips and tricks. The tactic you told about the conversion is a good technique. This would really increase conversion rates.
Deep Arora January 31, 2011 - 12:37 am
Glad you enjoyed it Piyush :)
iPhone 5 January 31, 2011 - 12:18 am
superb dude.... where do you people come up with such ideas... i mean i would, surely, have fallen for it...
Seo company Kanpur February 1, 2011 - 11:01 am
That's a nice Dirty Marketing with have a good advice.I will try to follow this steps... Thanks Raj.......!
Aluminum Cases February 1, 2011 - 2:46 pm
This is a sneaky trick, but I do not recommend this for an established company. Some people will see through your tactics and to others it might just make your company look sloppy and unprofessional. I could see it resulting in a rush of sales when done correctly though.
Dodge Neon SRT4 February 2, 2011 - 11:57 am
Nice Trick, But sometimes it made users to believe it really that product is getting at cheap. Really you are sharing nice trick man.
p90x February 3, 2011 - 3:30 pm
I never personally was able to achieve triple my conversions. I usually have a pretty low conversion rate to be honest. These are some great tips SiteJerk. Thanks for sharing them. - Robert
Windows 8 February 5, 2011 - 11:26 am
Awesome article and indeed a great way to sell your products on internet.
dedicated cpanel February 8, 2011 - 7:40 pm
Ohh wow that is a really clever. I am interested in checking this out.
semmy @ Make Money Online February 9, 2011 - 8:26 am
Hi ZK you give me an idea! thank you man!! I think I'll try it on my niche list
Leaflet Printing February 10, 2011 - 6:10 am
it works like a wonder! Superb… and I love dirty tricks like that! Haha.
vacancies in nigeria February 27, 2011 - 11:03 pm
Wow! This is psychologically influencing the mind of the buyer. This is one great discovery. Should I announce that I'd have to try it?
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