Triggers in Marketing: How to Encourage Your Audience to Take Action

Triggers are powerful tools that can influence buyer behavior, prompting them to take certain actions. They are one of the key elements of sales funnels, as they effectively influence the audience.

Marketing triggers are used to attract consumers' attention, create interest, and move them to further actions, such as purchasing a product or service, subscribing to a newsletter, or filling out a form. They can be emotional, logical, time-based, or contextual, depending on your audience and the goals of your advertising campaign.

Understanding the psychology of potential buyers and using the right “hooks” can significantly improve the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, increase conversions, and customer loyalty.

Marketing Trigger Tasks

• Get a conversion - “buy”, “order”, “leave contact information”, “repost”, “comment”, “subscribe to the newsletter”, “download the application”, and so on.
• Remove an objection, a barrier from a representative of the audience, and free him from fear.
• Increase sales.
• Track user behavioral factors.
• Build long-term relationships with the client.
• Attract additional traffic based on customer recommendations.

Types of triggers

Here are some more general and strategic categories of triggers that can be useful for building effective marketing communications:

Emotional triggers

These triggers appeal to basic human emotions and desires, prompting people to take action based on psychological factors:

Urgency and scarcity: A sense of limitation, whether it’s a time limit (e.g., “Only 24 hours!”) or a shortage of stock (“Only 3 left!”). Selling trigger words in time-sensitive marketing include phrases such as: “order now,” “before the sale ends,” “only today,” “last chance,” “limited time,” and others.

Social proof and belonging: People want to be part of a group or follow those they trust (for example, when a brand mentions that many people buy the product or displays testimonials).

Hope and Dreams: Appealing to people's aspirations and dreams ("Helping you achieve your dreams," "Become the best version of yourself").

Example of an emotional trigger (time limit)

Triggers based on needs and goals

These triggers activate action based on specific customer needs and goals that the brand can meet:

Value and benefit: the desire to save and benefit (discounts, coupons, special offers).

Comfort and convenience: People strive to simplify their lives and save time. Mentioning simplicity and comfort can be a trigger (“Simple ordering process”, “Free delivery to your door”).

Support and care: Customers appreciate attention and have a positive experience when they feel cared for by the brand (e.g. welcome emails, gifts for new customers, personalized offers).

Example of a Needs and Goals Based Trigger

Trust triggers

These triggers are aimed at building customer trust and loyalty to the brand:

Guarantees and promises: giving the customer confidence in the reliability of the product or service (“Money-back guarantee”, “100% satisfaction”).

Transparency and honesty: People want to understand what they are paying for, so companies that are open about their products and prices are trusted.

Authority and professionalism: Use expert testimonials, awards, certifications and experience to give clients confidence.

Social triggers

These triggers help people feel part of a social group or elicit a response based on social perception:

Influence of opinion leaders and recommendations: People are willing to follow those they trust, be it celebrities, bloggers or opinion leaders.

Desire for self-expression: Customers want a brand that allows them to express themselves and supports their values ​​and interests (e.g. environmental initiatives, social responsibility).

Individuality and uniqueness: People like to feel special. For example, personalized recommendations, subscriptions and exclusive offers.

Example of a social trigger (exclusive offer)

Relevant and contextual triggers

These triggers respond to the context and the customer's current situation, offering relevant solutions and opportunities:

Seasonality and events: Promotions or offers tied to holidays and important events create a sense of involvement and a “festive” atmosphere.

Life stages: These triggers refer to events in the client’s life (e.g. wedding, moving, New Year’s).

Geographical and cultural relevance: Triggers tailored to specific regions or cultures to help customers feel understood.

Triggers of significance and involvement

These triggers are designed to create a sense of significance and involvement, which encourages action because people want to feel like they are contributing to “something important”:

Social and environmental responsibility: Many customers buy products when they know their money is going to support good causes or environmentally friendly solutions. 

Mission Engagement: Triggers that show that a customer's purchase helps achieve a specific goal, such as donating to charity.

This trigger is especially popular now. Appealing to society, exploiting the message "You are part of the whole" plays on a person's perception of themselves as part of society. Behind them lies the desire to lead a socially approved lifestyle, to support common undertakings.

By using this often unconscious desire as a trigger, a business can achieve good results. 

Supporting small businesses and local producers: appealing to a sense of support and investment in the local economy and small companies.

An example of a trigger of significance and involvement (social approval)

These high-level triggers create a platform for more detailed marketing tactics that focus on fundamental human motivations and needs.

How to implement triggers correctly

It is important to be able to implement effective marketing triggers.

To do this you need:

• Conduct research and analyze your target audience. Only by knowing their emotions, needs, and motivations can you create attractive triggers for your product or service.
• Depending on the target audience profile, you can create messages based on customer data. This helps to strengthen the effect of triggers and elicit a reaction from consumers. It is also important to create urgency by using phrases that call for immediate action (e.g. “limited offer” or “today only”).
• Use social factors. These can be customer reviews or recommendations from friends. Such factors help to build trust and convince consumers of the quality of the product or service you offer.
• Diversify the formats and types of content. This includes videos, images, infographics or animation. This allows you to create a trigger that will attract attention and also evoke an emotional response from customers.
• Writing effective SEO copy, using marketing triggers, and following the guidelines above will help you create content that is optimized for search engines.

Channels of use

• Email Marketing: Send personalized emails with offers based on previous purchases or product views.
• Website: Display a message with an expiration date or limited quantity of the product to encourage immediate purchase.
• Advertising: Using compelling images or stories to evoke an emotional response in consumers and attract them to your product or service.
• Social Media: Post customer reviews or success stories that convince consumers of the quality of your product.

Briefly about the main thing

1. Triggers in marketing affect human emotions, work successfully in advertising and draw consumers into the sales funnel. 
2. Psychological triggers do not affect everyone in the same way. They can also cause a negative reaction. Study your audience and use appropriate triggers for each segment of the target audience.
3. Using more than two triggers in one message is a big mistake. Don't be intrusive and don't irritate your customers.
4. All triggers must be truthful. If you promise a discount, give it; if you talk about your expertise, show real diplomas and certificates.

We've covered in detail what marketing triggers are and how they work. There is no universal list of triggers that would be suitable for all situations. Each product requires its own methods of influence, based on the target audience and circumstances.

Use triggers in advertising campaigns so that the client makes a decision based not only on logic, but also on their own feelings. Basic human feelings and emotions that motivate them to act can and should be used to capture a person’s attention and convert them into a buyer.

It is important to remember that triggers are just one marketing tool and should be used in conjunction with other strategies to achieve maximum effectiveness.