Learn Marketing Through Subliminal Sounds While You Sleep

Join a community of authors unlocking the secrets to perfecting Amazon Ads by listening to dolphins while sleeping.

Just kidding! Kind of. This was to make a point.

If you clicked here, you fell for the foot-in-the-door strategy, the first step of a rationalization trap.

Before I explain what a rationalization trap is, let’s be clear on what my article was all about.

I used a series of strategies from Anthony Pratkanis on how to sell a pseudo-science.

I’ll now break down these strategies and explain how they influence emotion and sentiment. Marketers, gurus, and cult leaders use these same methods to influence individuals and get them to abandon the rational for the emotional.

The first step is to create a phantom. 

In the case of the indie author, it’s earning a living as an author—making it big.

The rationalization trap

Some folks could resist clicking the link, but you were driven by curiosity.

You may have been skeptical, but you still clicked.

Your first tentative step onto a slippery slope.

It’s what’s called a foot-in-the-door strategy where, if this were trying to get you to buy into my miracle marketing program, I would continue to drop breadcrumbs so you could “do your research,” and I could indoctrinate you further.

I would slowly draw you away from the rational to the emotional.

You may have wondered why a cult member would willingly drink poison-laced Kool-Aid.

It takes years of indoctrination and regular requests for further commitment to get a small, devoted group to that point.

Depending on how far you want to go down the rabbit hole, you can listen to Jim Jones’s last speech as he convinced his followers to act out a mass suicide. It’s not for the fainthearted, and it is chilling to hear all of these tactics being used.

Many of his followers never went that far. Most never left the United States to go to their paradise in Jonestown. It all starts with an action, even tentative, and then repeated requests to get further commitment.

Understand, if we are going to get a group of devoted fans, there will need to be repeated opportunities for your group to commit further to the group’s ideals.

I used my credibility and alluded to others to manufacture credibility in the program. In that process, I focused on the phantom and how you could get the ever-elusive results you seek.

I attacked opponents and facts before those facts or experts got a chance to present their case or cause you to question those facts. Over time, this strategy can get you to perceive reality differently and question any authority.

Establishing a granfalloon is a critical strategy. Kurt Vonnegut invented the term to describe human beings’ proud and meaningless association. This is foundational to our work at the group level and building a social connection between a group of people around your brand.

To get a deeper association with the granfalloon, we can use a subset of tools.

Rituals and symbols

Prathanis calls them “jargon and beliefs.” I have used the idea of sacred words. We’re talking about the development of language that designates you as a member and believer in either case.

Do you get your readers to open or close an email with a book-based salutation?

Do you invent a language and get them to speak it?

Shared feelings

Begin to define shared feelings as a fiction author. This begins in your books by getting readers to have shared feelings with characters through story experiences. Then, bring readers together through this shared experience by creating scenes of belonging and acknowledging social status to reinforce those book-based feelings in your brand cult.

Specialized information

In a situation with a pseudo-science, this information tends to be disinformation. That’s not our purpose when thinking about unique information. Providing members-only information makes the group feel special. You can control and influence those in your group through access to your plans and cannon from your world.

Enemies

A group defines itself by who it is and who it is not. Having an other helps craft who we are. In the case of my article, I highlighted the bad guys—big tech and trad pub. While both are not enemies and can be argued to be important for the success of an author, they are easy pickings as the boogie men of publishing. 

The other part of this process is attacking enemies to bolster the group members’ ability to repeat those same attacks and resist information that may lead them to question the pseudo-science.

Self-generated persuasion

The group should be designed to self-reinforce beliefs and identity. Creating a process that uses peer support to persuade other members is helpful. The idea that the best way to learn is to teach is a similar ideal. When you work to indoctrinate another, you indoctrinate yourself further.

Construct vivid appeals

In all cases of the group, the appeal should be rooted in the emotional. You look to drive a strong feeling that will incite action. This is appealing to the type one thinking of the lizard brain, not the logical type two thinking of your pre-frontal cortex. Simplified calls to action like “Save the [fill in the blank]” or “The war on [fill in the blank]” are all framed in a survival situation and leave little room for contemplation or rationalization.

Who doesn’t want to save the children or stop the war on Christmas?

But stop and think about the propaganda mechanisms. Snap out of the type one thinking and evaluate how those using these statements are looking to exploit the group to do their bidding.

Next week’s article will show you how conscious this type of manipulation is in product sales and influencing your voting.

Until then, why not invest in marketing material based on research with proven results?