Understanding marketing psychology and buyer behavior is crucial for gaining a competitive edge

Traction. Growth. Scale.

None of these happen without a firm grasp on psychology, behavioral economics, and psychographics.

Launching a campaign, new design, or even developing new products takes a detailed understanding of who the buyer will be and how they’ll react to your marketing. True Product/Market fit happens here.

If you don’t start with psychology, you’ll end up burning cash and resources trying to get an ever elusive buyer.

This Marketing Psychology Sourcebook compiles the best the education, books, theories and real-life application you need to gain the advantage over your competitors.

Marketing Psychology Education

The 20 Best Lessons from Social Psychology

Why drop everything and take a college course on social psychology when someone’s already done it for you (and gives you the notes)?

The Complete Guide to Understanding Consumer Psychology

Yet another epic 30,000-word guide from Neil Patel of Quicksprout—giving you a great basic, full-coverage look at consumer psychology 101.

Psychology for Marketers

9 basic principles of human behavior you can apply to your marketing by Hubspot’s Ginny Soskey.

3 Neuroscience Secrets for Persuasive Marketing

The most effective marketers are those who can really understand the motivations behind why their customers buy. Go a little deeper with these “secrets”.

Persuasion Case Studies

Ramit Sethi is a master of understanding persuasion and marketing. Here are two fantastic examples he goes as case studies.

The Psychology of Sales Marketing and the Human Mind

Approximately 80% of all buying decisions are made based on emotions. This infographic takes a deep, yet quick look at the psychological approach to selling.

The 5-Part Series on Increasing Online Sales

A very actionable and rich guide from Derek Halpern at Social Triggers. Five-parts equal a great educational series on how to use psychology to increase sales online.

Psychology Marketing for Bloggers and SEOs

Anice solid overview for bloggers who are new to the psychology of marketing and how they can use it to connect with readers in a way that grows loyalty.

Marketing Psychology Articles

15 Psychological Studies That Will Boost Your Marketing

Buffer takes a look at the psychology of human interaction and how marketers can successfully apply it to social media.

5 Psychological Tactics Marketers Use to Influence Consumer Behavior

Five quick and easy techniques marketers can use psychology to understanding consumer behavior.

5 Psychology Studies on Pricing

A really intricate look into five studies that marketers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs can use to have a better understanding of pricing products and services.

4 Ways to Influence People’s Actions

An interesting piece showing how marketers can look at using merchandising, mindset, messaging and promotions to influence buying behaviors.

12 Facts About the Human Brain That Will Make Your Marketing More Successful

Another infographic that gives you straight facts on psychology and how they can be applied to sales and marketing.

Understand and Harness the Power of Archetypes in Marketing

Explaining the power of designing a brand around a specific archetype. Doing so can help marketers connect with buyers on a very deep psychological level.

4 Lessons From Psychology That Will Help You Grow Your Blog

Lessons that can be applied from psychology to help brands not only bring users to their site, but keep them during the onboarding process.

How Digital Marketers Can Tap Into Social Media Psychology

Four studies on psychology social media and digital marketers can use to really connect with their followers.

Six Tips for Using Psychology in Online Marketing

A nice primer looking at some of the most basic psychological tips marketers can use to trigger the buying impulse in potential customers.

11 Marketing Psychology Tips to Tap Into Buyers’ Minds

For marketers looking for some quick tips to improve conversion rates and customer engagement, this post will cover the basics.

12 Tips for “Psychological Selling”

A nice post from the folks over at Copyblogger to help copywriters get over their fear of selling and understand the psychology behind improving sales.

8 Tips for Using Psychology in B2B Marketing

A quick, but valuable interview with Vann Morris on how B2B marketers can use psychology to help influence buying behavior.

6 Psychological Triggers that Win Sales and Influence Customers

A nice short overview of the six psychology triggers covered by the book “Influence” and how they can be applied to customers.

How These Consumer Psychology Tips Will Amplify Your Marketing

A look at the three most important psychological tips marketers can use, in conjunction with technology to really improve marketing efforts.

Psychological Marketing Tips

A few well known and ever-effective psychological principles—not only use in marketing—but stakeholder influence and for driving organizational change.

6 Psychology Studies with Marketing Implications

A great super-fast synopsis of six major psychological studies on human behavior and how they can be directly applied to marketing.

4 Psychological Principles That Will Make You Better At Content Marketing

Some of the basics of psychology to improve content marketing. Particularly when reaching out to editors and publications.

Psychology of Ecommerce Sales: Tapping Consumer Nostalgia

An interesting look at how marketers can look at nostalgia in influencing consumer buying behavior in the e-commerce market.

How to Use Social Psychology to Improve Your Marketing

Showing how the ALS ice bucket challenge went viral (because of the social psychology triggers it hit). Plus, how marketers can use those techniques.

The secret science of shopping: Why we buy what we do

Here’s a great look at consumer buying behavior and how brands use psychological studies to market to consumers.

Marketing Psychology of Color

The Psychology of Color & Marketing – What Actually Works?

A slight change of pigment can cause a noticeable bump in your metrics. Color can actually affect the psychology of how consumers make product choices and buy.

The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding

A couple of influential studies of how the use of color can affect marketing and especially branding for further study on the subject.

Color Psychology In Marketing: The Complete Guide

If you’re still digging color psychology, here’s all you need to know about the background of color psychology as well as providing a couple of case studies that highlight results.

Marketing Psychology Conversion

10 Ways to Use Psychology to Convert More Customers

Another fantastic, detailed infographic and article from Unbounce. Ten ways marketers can approach using psychology to convert more customers.

Persuasive Writing: 4 Copywriting Techniques Swiped from Psychology

A look at how writers can tap into psychology and apply it to using persuasive writing in order to get customers to convert.

The Psychology of Anticipation and What it Means for Your Conversion Rates

A close look at one of the more powerful psych tactics by Neil Patel for Unbounce. This post specifically focuses on how using psychology to target the anticipation of customers can increase conversion.

15 Psychological Triggers to Convert Leads into Customers

Understanding the main mental triggers that all humanity shares and applying them to marketing can dramatically increase a site’s conversion rate.

10 Ways to Convert More Customers Using Psychology

The more marketers know about the psychology behind buying, the better they will be able to use it to increase conversions. Here are yet 10 more ways to use it.

12 Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Tips Based on Human Psychology and Behavioral Economics

12 tips brands can use to improve their conversion rate optimization that is rooted in human and behavioral psychology.

Using Psychology in A/B Landing Page Testing

Thinking more like your customers can make a big difference when it comes to landing page conversion rates—especially during split tests.

The Psychology of Storytelling: Transportation Leads to Persuasion

Conversion is all about persuasion, and few things can hit those important psychological trigger points like a great story.

Persuasion and Psychology in Boosting Conversion

Another take on how conversion can be boosted by pulling in information from the six principles of persuasion from Robert Cialdini’s Influence.

5 Ways to Improve Your Marketing Using Conversion Psychology

Case studies galore showing how brands and marketers can increase customer conversion rates by tapping into psychology.

10 Ways to Convert More Customers Using Psychology

HelpScout shows how marketers can and should turn to established scientific studies on psychology to get into the mind of what customers really want.

The 9 Psychological Tricks That Make Visitors Convert

The power of persuasion can be harnessed. These nine tricks have been proven by consumer behavior to help drive an increase in conversion.

7 Social Psychology Studies to Help You Convert Prospects into Paying Customers

Virtually all humans respond in a similar manner to certain psychological triggers. Marketers who understand this are seeing higher conversion rates.

The Psychology of Conversion Optimization: Freedom

An up close and personal look at one aspect of psychological motivation, freedom. And how marketers can apply that to their sales process.

The Psychology of Lead Conversion: Why CTAs and Landing Pages Work Read

This one deal specifically with calls-to-action within inbound marketing funnels and an emphasis on how to tap into psychology to make it work well.

Marketing Psychology and Conversion Blogs

Quick Sprout

Neil Patel runs a couple of sites that are amazing at tapping into the pragmatic growth hacking behind successful marketing. Quick Sprout looks specifically at increasing traffic and conversions.

KISSmetrics

Another site run by Neil Patel. This one takes more of a deep dive into how to optimize marketing with analytics and testing.

SiteTuners

Tim Ash runs this site and it’s one of the best when it comes to learning more about the inner workings and psychology behind conversion rate optimization.

Perry Marshall

The man behind the concept of 80/20 Marketing. Marshall’s blog covers a number of topics from increasing conversion to improving landing pages and the reasons behind it all.

ConversionXL

A sole focus to help anyone and everyone increase conversion rates. Pulls in a lot of studies and research on marketing psychology to show you how to do it.

WiderFunnel

Very deep-level, hands on marketing funnel. This one also devotes a lot of time and effort to understanding the psychology behind marketing.

Social Triggers

Run by Derek Halpern, who is a vocal proponent of just how important understanding psychology and human behavior is in becoming a better marketer.

Dan Ariely

Dan Ariely is one of the top experts and authors out there in behavioral economics, so anything he writes is recommended reading on the subject of buyer psychology.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich

The mastermind behind IWTYTBR is Ramit Sethi, who has turned a simple personal finance blog into one of the most interesting and actionable takes on psychological motivations out there.

Farnam Street

Run by Shane Parrish and features posts on a number of topics centered around psychology and human behavior to explain how people tick.

Nir and Far

Run by author and speaker Nir Eyal, this blog is built around taking a focus on the intersection of business, psychology, and technology.

PsyBlog

The PsyBlog is the brainchild of Dr. Jeremy Dean, author and expert on the science of how the mind works, marketers can learn a few lessons here.

Marketing Psychology Talks

John Gerzema: The post-crisis consumer

A thoughtful TED talk, Gerzema looks at how the financial crisis provided a unique opportunity to take a new look at consumer behavior.

Dan Ariely: Are we in control of our own decisions?

Author and behavioral economist expert Dan Ariely gives a great talk where he dives into some of his own research to show how unpredictable consumer behavior really is.

Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce

Author Malcolm Gladwell looks into spaghetti sauce. All to illustrate the behavior and psychology behind consumers when faced with choices. Very interesting.

Marketing Psychology Books

Influence by Robert Cialdini

This book is regarded by many as the tome on understanding behavioral psychology and how to apply it to marketing and consumers.

Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini

It’s this book that will take you deeper into the behavior of your leads and actually help you begin influencing them before they even interact with your marketing efforts. A dynamite follow-up to Influence and I’ve reviewed it here.

Decoding the New Customer Mind by Kit Yarrow

Yarrow shows exactly what the consumer climate is today and how brands and marketers should be using psychology to understand the behavior of shoppers.

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Ariely is an expert in understanding and explaining just how irrational the behavior of consumers can be. Thankfully, he also shows how marketers can benefit from understanding that.

Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having and Being by Michael Solomon

More of a textbook than the others, it takes a very close look at why people end up buying things and how they ultimately contribute to people’s experiences.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

A classic read for decades. This book has been cited by thousands as the key to their success in being able to interact and eventually win over other people.

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin

Godin has been highlighted for his unconventional thinking and this book it’s no different. He showcases how marketers can build long term trusting relationships with customs.

Triggers: Creating Behavior that Lasts by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter

Author and coach Goldsmith will teach you that human reaction and behaviors are driven by triggers and how to understand and overcome them.

Brainfluence by Roger Dooley

This book looks, not only at developing an understanding of neuroscience and behavior research but also how marketers can apply that directly to consumers.

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value by William Poundstone

Poundstone takes a look at the psychology behind value, what drives people to understand fair pricing, how consumers can be tricked to be paying more for less.

The Branded Mind by Erik Du Plessis

Du Plessis dives into neuromarketing with a specific focus on how branding can trigger certain emotions and behaviors in the consumer’s brain.

The Buying Brain by A.K. Pradeep

The human subconscious has been under study by the biggest brands and corporations in the world. All in hopes of getting cutting edge information on consumer buying behavior.