Simple Marketing for Smart People by Billy Broas is a great primer on marketing psychology.
When you hear “marketing psychology,” if your gut reaction is ‘I already know this’ or ‘must be all boring theory;’ hear me out. This book teaches marketing psychology like it’s never been taught before—in a practical way full of actionable steps.
Actionable steps to do what? To figure out what marketing messages (yes, plural!) you need to be sending your customers through everything you do, before you get bogged down by all the “implementation details,” as the author calls it (what voice to write in, which marketing channels to use, which tools to use, how many times to post, etc.).
Let me summarize what this book can do for you (with a bit of paraphrasing from the author’s own words) -
We all believe something before we buy, regardless of whether it’s eggs or a software product/service. Your job is to figure out what your customers need to believe in order for your eggs/product/service to be a no-brainer, and instill those beliefs.
This book will help you do that.
I’ve found the concepts I learnt so versatilely useful that I use them in all my writing now (landing pages, web copy, blog posts, case studies, you name it). And even in real-life situations. The author’s helped people like Ali Abdaal and Tiago Forte (the original second brain guy, if I’m not wrong) launch digital products, and the book’s foreword is written by Ali Abdaal himself. (Note: What we think of these two dudes and the stuff they’re promoting is outside the scope of this review. We’re only talking about the marketing method they use, and it’s evident that its effective, given how successful they both are.)
If you buy from the Amazon link on the book’s website, the Kindle edition’s only $5, and this was hands-down the best $5 I’ve spent on teaching myself marketing (if there’s a book that gave you similar thoughts, I want to hear about it!) I liked it so much that I bought a (limited) signed physical copy, which is what you see sitting on my desk..
I took notes too! 👇
The one question that simplifies marketing
“What does my prospect need to believe in order to buy?”
Belief Building
- Belief building is a sophisticated way of objection handling.
- If you removed all the prospect’s objections to buying, they would have no logical choice but to buy from you.
- But it goes beyond that—it’s about educating prospects on the value & relevance of your offerings.
- Belief building gets you buy-in.
Identifying Your Prospects’ Beliefs
- Ask about their current case study practices, what steps they’re taking, and the results they’re getting.
- Give your prospects better questions to ask
- Listen closely to the questions they ask—it will clue you into their beliefs.
- Ask freedom questions:
- Create a space where customers feel comfortable sharing.
- Instead of asking: “Why did you do that?” ask:
- “What were you trying to accomplish?”
- “How did you go about making that decision?”
Cycles-Based Approach
You need to:
- Meet the client where they are.
- Make them feel seen & heard, so you can better—
- Help them understand the true cause of their problem.
- Introduce the solution.
Steps:
A. Peek into the cycles of your customer’s life & observe their behavior.
B. Understand their current beliefs.
C. Only then can you create a lasting transformation.
The cycles-based approach is a great tool for market research.
This exercise shows where you’ve been assuming your prospect knows or believes something, but your assumption has been mistaken.
Equipped with new insights, you’ll be able to align your offering with your customers’ beliefs & desires.
Steps for Belief Building
- Establish a shared reality between you & your prospect.
- Find one thing you agree upon, and start from there.
- Don’t begin your marketing efforts from a place of disagreement or misunderstanding.
- Systematically identify shared truths and use them as stepping stones.
- Guide prospects from simple, undeniable agreements to the logical conclusion that your product/service is not just a good choice, but the inevitable one.
Anchor Beliefs to the Customer Journey
1. Awareness (Customer realizes there is a problem)
- The customer looks for acknowledgment that your business understands their problem.
- Beliefs you instill at this stage should help customers learn more about their problem (they often can’t articulate it yet).
- If you can help them find the words to describe their problem, they’ll think: “Wow, they get me—maybe they can help me.”
2. Consideration (Customer explores solutions)
- At this stage, customers see options.
- You’re raising your hand and saying: “I can help you too.”
- Beliefs you build here position your product as a viable solution.
- At the same time, beliefs you build here should invalidate other options—making yours the only real choice.
3. Decision (Transition from marketing to selling)
- If your marketing worked, selling becomes smoother.
- Instead of forceful persuasion, you just open the door for prospects to confidently step through.
- At this crucial stage, reinforce trustworthiness and assure them they’re making the right decision.
Boldly make your claims—otherwise prospects will go to competitors who do.
Break down Belief Building for each stage of the customer journey
Questions to ask yourself:
- What does my customer need to believe in the Awareness stage?
- What does my customer need to believe in the Consideration stage?
- What does my customer need to believe in the Decision stage?
Or in other words, for your product y, at each stage, ask yourself:
- If my prospects don’t believe x1, how can I sell them y?
- If my prospects don’t believe x2, how can I sell them y?
- If my prospects don’t believe x3, how can I sell them y?
You need to find out your x1, x2, and x3—the dealbreaker beliefs that your prospects need to hold at each stage.
There’s an important observation we can make here: Without the mental acceptance of x1, it doesn’t matter how much you sweeten the offer. Even a 50% discount won’t matter if your prospects don’t believe in x1 itself. What’s your x1?
