The SEO They Didn’t Tell You About: Psychological Priming
Have you ever purchased a sweet car off the lot? And you pull out onto the street proud of your new purchase, happy to show it off as you ride down that Boulevard. Your Chin just a little higher than a few hours prior.
And you start noticing that lots of people are driving your very unique ride?
Because of a part of your lizard brain called Broca. You notice these things.
This by the way, flipped the other way is why reviewing your goals often works so well for them happening..
Priming is often unnoticed stimuli that we put aside in everyday life that causes us to accept it as normal.
But if you go back and watch old clips — and by old, we mean decades-old — you hear a young Donald Trump sounding very much like the current Trump. Common themes include his view that trade wasn’t fair, that the world has long laughed at America and countries have taken advantage of U.S. generosity while refusing to pay their “fair share” for all the U.S. does globally.
Trump does something else in these interviews. Talking to Playboy magazine in 1990, for example, he accurately predicts where his strongest support would come from should he ever decide to run for office — the working class. https://www.npr.org/2017/01/20/510680463/donald-trumps-been-saying-the-same-thing-for-30-years
I recall buying that Playboy issue at LAX prior to a trip to New York. For the article!
So when he announced his candidacy, it was somewhat of a shock, but not so much since he had been talking about it since the late 80’s.
The SEO
As someone surfs the net on websites and socials. And see your brands and sub-brands. You are subtly priming them as associated to their needs, now or later.
So the more pages that your brand is on that is in the Google results and socials. The better. Why pushing your persona sub-brand is also important.
Why my Coach Tim Persona works for this purpose since even when I talk about coaching football, it is also mentally tied to coaching and consulting businesses.
The Google pages are not the only reason this psychology works.
Priming is cumulative and works in conjunction with other messages or primes.
A couple of books that I mentioned in the podcast was Clam Bake Orgy, and Pre-suasion.
The former was my first exposure to subliminal messaging.
The latter is by who some say is the godzilla of persuasion and is rumored to have consulted Trump between the Democrat convention in 2016 and the election.
In a liquor store, people bought more French wine if the store played French music instead of German music, even though no one paid any attention to what music was playing. If you ask a girl for her number, she’s more likely to give it if you’re standing outside a florist (we associate flowers with love and romance) than if you’re standing outside a bakery. One study also found blokes were more successful when asking a woman on a date if they were first asked directions to Valentine Street than if they were asked how to get to Martin Street.
A nice “book report” on Pre-Suasion:
Some of my favorite primes on video:
How did you know the number he would pick?
We told him:
Remember that these are movies and TV. However, the process works.