Even if you have a solid handle on your Audience Personas & Brand Messaging, there’s a good chance your website copy and product descriptions are written to appeal to the way you like to be sold. The problem with this is that there are four types of buyers with different psychological buying triggers. The 4 Buyer Types framework is a way of profiling your entire audience and identifying how your warmed-up leads like to be sold to based on their internal buying psychology. You need to address all four if you want your copy to convert. By not writing sales copy for each buyer, you’re potentially leaving money on the table by ignoring up to 75% of your readers’ mental checklists.
For example, let’s say your digital product page ONLY contains an image of your workbook and a bulleted list of features.
→ You just lost The Thinker who needs more information to calm their fear of buyer’s remorse.
Is your services page 10,000 words of emotion-filled empathy statements?
→ The Director can’t figure out the immediate ROI of a fluffy offer and just bounced.
Or maybe you’ve just spent hours perfecting your sales page but…
→ The Socializer thinks your lack of social proof means your process isn’t proven and no one can vouch for your expertise.
And if you’re banking on your high-ticket offer or service to sustain your business but…
→ Your rigid approach puts The Relator in a box when they want payment options or ways to customize the engagement to fit their specific needs.
What is “Buying Psychology”?
You can think of buying psychology as an invisible checklist of wants, needs, and proof your reader needs to see written out on the page before feeling confident enough to pull out their credit card and make a purchase.
The crazy thing is, most of us aren’t aware of our selling style and the triggers that make us “Add To Cart” or say “Thank You, Next.”
(On that note, stop right here and go take the quiz, Which Buyer Type Are You? now.)
Readers come to your website or landing page with a different set of experiences and expectations that affect their buying decisions. As a marketer and copywriter for your business or company, it’s your job to understand the cues each type of buyer is looking for as they scroll the page you can start to layer in compelling copywriting that appeals to each type’s buying triggers.
Here are the four main Buyer Types and what you need to know about them:
The Director
The Director is a big-picture thinker who is able to consume information quickly. They’re keen to make a decision and move on to the next. They are categorically allergic to fluff and will home in on the features and benefits relevant to their immediate goals and desired ROI.
Depending on where they are in the sales funnel (awareness – consideration – decision – loyalty) they’re likely to make their decision while reading the top half of a sales or services page. They skim the bottom half looking for headlines, bulleted sections, and testimonials that validate their decision.
Goal-oriented and competitive, they’re looking for partners and solutions that will help them overcome a challenge with the least amount of resistance or the most certainty possible.
Directors prefer numbers-based (quantitative) testimonials, infographics, and price anchoring to convey complex information succinctly.
es them feel special, or in the know, they become an incredibly loyal brand ambassador.
The Socializer
The Socializer loves getting to know the personality behind the business. When it comes to the know/like/trust factor, they’re all about the LIKE. They run their most important decisions by their peer groups because their opinions are the ones that matter to them most.
The brands and businesses they follow all carry a similar vibe or aesthetic. It’s important to them that a brand comes off as authentic but they’re also a total lover of creative imagery and “world-building”. They like feeling like a part of a brand family and being a part of a community.
Socializers don’t like feeling isolated or just a number. When a brand or personality makes the effort to reach out and makes them feel special, or in the know, they become an incredibly loyal brand ambassador.
The Relator
The Relator is highly empathetic, highly intuitive, and doesn’t like to be put into a box. They focus their attention on the emotional costs of their problems and roadblocks. They need to feel assured that a brand or business understands their problems and is focused on helping them find a unique solution that will improve their day-to-day life.
Rinse-and-repeat marketing tactics and cookie-cutter solutions are a huge turnoff. When it comes to the know/like/trust factor, Relators are all about TRUST. They’re looking for high-touch solutions that will solve both a business and a lifestyle problem, as their worldview is that the two are inexorably intertwined.
Relators crave feeling centered and aligned in everything they do. If they were asked to choose between more time or more money they would look the questioner straight in the eyes and choose “peace”.
The Thinker
The Thinker needs to know every.single.detail about a product or service before making a commitment. They tend to follow a very logical thought process, weighing the pros and cons of every situation before handing over their credit card details or reaching out for a consult.
Their biggest fear is buyer’s remorse. When it comes to the know/like/trust factor they are all about TRUST. They need to be assured that moving forward is the absolute right decision.
Thinkers will read every word on the page and pour through the FAQs. They will even come back to a sales page several times before making their final decision.
When it comes to making a decision, they don’t like feeling rushed or pressured. Scarcity tactics are a turn-off while return policies or free trials de-risk the decision.
Why Knowing The 4 Buyer Types Is Critical To Your Copywriting
When you understand the cues each type of buyer is looking for as they scroll the page you can start to layer in compelling copywriting that appeals to each type’s buying triggers.
After all, most people come to your website or landing page with a different set of experiences and expectations that affect their buying decisions. Your job is to convincingly appeal to all of them.
So how do you keep track of whether you’ve ticked all the boxes for each type of buyer?
“Copy Sweeps” are individual read-throughs you perform on your copy, that focus on one goal at a time. You can apply the same principle to your sales copy by reading through your page and looking for the cues and triggers relevant to one buyer at a time. As you become aware of any existing gaps you can layer in or edit sections of your copy that speak to a particular buyer’s needs.
Buyer Sweeps are a surefire way to identify areas of opportunity that can help you engage more eyeballs and increase your sales.
Download the 4 Buyer Types Checklist & Cheatsheet
Quickly implement the major copy edits and actions you need to make to convert The Director, The Socializer, The Relator, and The Thinker. No website overhaul necessary.
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