What Can Freud Teach Us About Email Marketing?

Many resources can help teach us about email marketing. It may be a surprise that some of Freud's theories can do just that. However, when you reduce things to their fundamental essence, email marketing experts always try to understand what motivates human beings to purchase or engage with an online seller.

What makes humans desire something enough to click on your marketing information and provide their payment details? How can marketers exploit our deepest instincts to maximise their click-through rate?

These are difficult questions, and there's no shortage of marketing gurus offering their unique answers. However, when you rely on conversions to keep your business alive, why not go straight to the founder of psychoanalysis himself, Sigmund Freud?

So, What Can Freud Teach Us About Email Marketing?

Tap Into Subconscious Desire to Maximise Your Sales

No one is better qualified to tell us how to appeal to humanity's deepest desires. Freud made a living by convincing patients that they thought it was an illusion. Instead of making rational decisions, Freud found that people were manipulated by their subconscious.

The conflict between the modern brain and the old subconscious results in constant anxiety; still, by offering products that help ease this anxiety, marketers can easily win the attention of stressed-out consumers.

Don't Give Your Customers Too Much Freedom.

Freud saw a world in which people were confronted with more choices than ever but didn't have the emotional ability to make sensible decisions. Instead of embracing freedom, he noted that patients would flee from it, seeking refuge in anything from drugs or alcohol to religion.

In this instance, what does Freud teach us about email marketing? You shouldn't offer open-ended, general options for customers and don't just link to long catalogues full of products. Channel readers' attention on specific deals and try to tailor them to their personal needs.

Liberate Your Sales With Childlike Creativity

Freud was also concerned with how the creativity and imagination of childhood were strangled, resulting in what he saw as armies of bland, anxious adults. He saw children as more intelligent and emotionally balanced than adults, who had become strung out by education and work.

In this case, Freud can teach us about email marketing and how we approach it. Marketers need to think like children, not adults. Sure, there's a need to plan, budget and brainstorm, but at the core of every successful email marketing campaign is a youthful passion for your products and a playful touch.

Analysis Can Lead to Paralysis Or Liberation

Freud is probably best known for his pioneering psychoanalysis to treat patients. He aimed to give patients a chance to talk through their issues, thus finding their route to a cure. Instead of forcing drugs or other treatments upon them, Freud would lead his patients to find an answer.

There's a parallel between psychoanalysis and marketing analysis. When email marketers are running campaigns or after they have finished, it's vital to analyse their successes and failures. Ask the right questions, but don't be tempted to manipulate the data produced by marketing software from firms like Flowbird. Let the data speak for itself, and don't force your ego onto it.

Was Freud the godfather of email marketing? His insights make him an excellent resource for teaching us about email marketing. If you want to put his ideas into practice, check out the CRM and marketing automation software offered by Flowbird and ease your marketing anxieties in the process.