Psychology of "Sexy Selling" -- Pt. 3 of 3
So how can you use the “sexy factor” to your advantage on your website? First, it’s important to think about marketing demographics. Since everyone has a different target audience, it’s important to look at who your potential buyers are and to think about what makes them “feel sexy.”
If you’re pushing X10 wireless cameras on your website as a way to help deter auto thefts, then your target market would probably revolve around males age 20 to 50. What do people in this demographic find sexy? Well, you guessed it, women and cars. But not just any cars, it would be good to focus your site on displaying images of muscle cars, exotic imports, and other high end vehicles. Setup your site in a way that catches the eye and makes your audience want to stay at your site. Afterall, keeping your surfer’s interests is one of the toughest things when it comes to operating a website.
If you’re pushing X10 alarm systems on your site as a way to deter home invasions, then using images of fancy and expensive houses works well. Your target audience are homeowners, and while maybe some of your customers may already live in nice mansions, many others are dreaming about it, and they would have a tendency to be lured by the images of a nice huge house with a well-maintained yard and large gate in front of it. Now that you have their attention, use images of younger to middle-aged couples on your site and include testimonials from actual buyers of the product. This would conjure an image in my head of some hard working young couple who became successful enough to buy a big house and now uses a great alarm system to protect their investment. The younger you can make the couple the more effective, however, not too young! As then it would seem unrealistic.
“Isn’t this deception” you may be asking? Well, yes and no. Yes, in the way that you are creating a world that doesn’t exist, with the exception for a very small few; but no; because everyone dreams of having things that are attractive, and if you can’t have the actual “thing” at this very moment then why not have what you believe that they "endorse"? For this allows you a feeling of being closer to these things, or feeling that you may actually have them by purchasing them.
So with these thoughts in mind, how do I feel about sexy marketing? I think it’s effectiveness is very powerful and one that shouldn’t be overlooked. Marketing your sites in a way that keeps your viewers interest and makes them want to come back is a great way to help your site make sales.
Comments
Interesting stuff...I wonder how much research has been done on what sort of "sexy" marketing appeals to women.
Posted by: Sara | December 4, 2006 06:22 PM
That's an interesting topic that I may have to research on. =) I'll see what I can find, then come up with a future blog post.
-Mike
Posted by: Mike | December 5, 2006 04:34 PM