marketing-psychology

Marketing Psychology Skill

People don't decide rationally — they use mental shortcuts. Marketing psychology applies those predictably and

honestly: real social proof, true scarcity, sensible defaults, clear framing. This skill diagnoses an asset

or decision through behavioral principles and gives concrete, specific applications — while drawing a hard line

at manipulation and dark patterns (which win a click and lose the trust).

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:

• The asset or decision — the page/email/offer/pricing/CTA you want to make more persuasive.
• Audience & context — who it's for, their mindset, where they are in the funnel.
• The goal & the friction — the action you want, and what's holding people back (cost, risk, effort, trust, confusion).
• What's true — real proof points, actual constraints (so applications are honest, not invented).

Output Format

Marketing psychology: [asset]

The decision & the friction — what you want the person to do and the specific barrier (risk? effort? trust? price?). This selects the principles.

Principles that apply (ranked) — the few most relevant, each with a specific application to this asset:

| Principle | Why it fits the friction | Concrete application here |

|---|---|---|

| Social proof | | (e.g. "show '2,300 teams use this' near the CTA") |

| Loss aversion / framing | | |

| Anchoring | | |

| Scarcity / urgency (only if real) | | |

| Commitment & consistency | | |

| Reciprocity | | |

| Reducing friction (defaults, fewer choices) | | |

(Pick the relevant ones — not all of them. Friction-reduction often beats adding persuasion.)

Rewrites / changes — 1–3 concrete before→after edits applying the top principles.

Ethics line — flag anything that would be a dark pattern (fake scarcity, forced continuity, confirm-shaming, hidden costs) and why to avoid it. Real beats manufactured — it converts and retains.

Quality Checks

• [ ] The principles chosen are matched to the actual friction, not a generic checklist
• [ ] Each principle has a specific, concrete application to this asset (not theory)
• [ ] Scarcity/urgency is only used where it's genuinely true
• [ ] At least one friction-reduction move is considered (often higher-leverage than persuasion)
• [ ] An ethics line flags dark patterns and keeps applications honest

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not invent fake scarcity, countdowns, or fake social proof — it's a dark pattern and it backfires
• [ ] Do not list every principle — pick the few that fit the specific friction
• [ ] Do not stay theoretical — every principle needs a concrete application to the asset
• [ ] Do not use confirm-shaming, forced continuity, or hidden costs — short-term lift, long-term trust loss
• [ ] Do not ignore friction — sometimes the fix is removing a step, not adding persuasion

Based On

Behavioral economics & persuasion research (Cialdini's principles, Kahneman framing/loss aversion, Fogg behavior model) — applied ethically.