# Marketing psychology Human Guide ## What This Is For Provides expert guidance for guidance for applying psychological principles and mental models to marketing. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for marketing psychology: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return. Use this as a human-readable version of the Marketing psychology agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions. ## When To Use This - Use this when you need a repeatable process for marketing psychology. - Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt. - Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact. ## When Not To Use This - Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer. - Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant. - Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review. ## What You Need Before Starting - The goal or business outcome you want. - The audience, customer segment, or market context. - Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance. - Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements. - A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like. ## Step-By-Step Workflow 1. State the job clearly: "Use the Marketing psychology guide to help me with..." 2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints. 3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output. 4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below. 5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed. ## Skill-Specific Guidance - Identify which mental models apply to their situation - Explain the psychology behind the model - Provide specific marketing applications - Suggest how to implement ethically - What specific behavior are you trying to influence? - What does your customer believe before encountering your marketing? - Where in the journey (awareness → consideration → decision) is this? - What's currently preventing the desired action? - Have you tested this with real customers? - **cro**: Apply psychology to page optimization - **copywriting**: Write copy using psychological principles - **popups**: Use triggers and psychology in popups ## Decision Points And Nuance The original skill emphasizes: How to Use This Skill, Foundational Thinking Models, First Principles, Jobs to Be Done, Circle of Competence, Inversion, Occam's Razor, Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule), Local vs. Global Optima, Theory of Constraints. Use these questions to steer the work: - What is the intended audience or buyer? - What source material must be preserved? - What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion? - What examples represent the desired quality bar? - What should the assistant avoid? ## Common Mistakes - **Marketing application**: Don't assume you need content marketing because competitors do. Ask why you need it, what problem it solves, and whether there's a better solution. - People don't buy products—they "hire" them to get a job done. Focus on the outcome customers want, not features. - **Marketing application**: Don't chase every channel. Double down where you have genuine expertise and competitive advantage. - Instead of asking "How do I succeed?", ask "What would guarantee failure?" Then avoid those things. - The simplest explanation is usually correct. Avoid overcomplicating strategies or attributing results to complex causes when simple ones suffice. - A local optimum is the best solution nearby, but a global optimum is the best overall. Don't get stuck optimizing the wrong thing. - Models and data represent reality but aren't reality itself. Don't confuse your analytics dashboard with actual customer experience. - **Marketing application**: Don't bet everything on one campaign. Spread risk and plan for scenarios where your primary strategy underperforms. ## Copy-And-Paste Prompt ```text Use the Marketing psychology human guide. My goal: [Describe the business outcome] Audience: [Describe who this is for] Context and source material: [Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy] Constraints: [Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items] Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result. ``` ## Final Checklist - [ ] The output matches the original goal. - [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer. - [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved. - [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit. - [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person. ## Source This guide was generated from the coreyhaines31/marketingskills skill entry for `marketing-psychology`. ## Source Skill Notes These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic. # Marketing Psychology & Mental Models You are an expert in applying psychological principles and mental models to marketing. Your goal is to help users understand why people buy, how to influence behavior ethically, and how to make better marketing decisions. ## How to Use This Skill **Check for product marketing context first:** If `.agents/product-marketing.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or the legacy `product-marketing-context.md` filename, in older setups), read it before applying mental models. Use that context to tailor recommendations to the specific product and audience. Mental models are thinking tools that help you make better decisions, understand customer behavior, and create more effective marketing. When helping users: 1. Identify which mental models apply to their situation 2. Explain the psychology behind the model 3. Provide specific marketing applications 4. Suggest how to implement ethically --- ## Foundational Thinking Models These models sharpen your strategy and help you solve the right problems. ### First Principles Break problems down to basic truths and build solutions from there. Instead of copying competitors, ask "why" repeatedly to find root causes. Use the 5 Whys technique to tunnel down to what really matters. **Marketing application**: Don't assume you need content marketing because competitors do. Ask why you need it, what problem it solves, and whether there's a better solution. ### Jobs to Be Done People don't buy products—they "hire" them to get a job done. Focus on the outcome customers want, not features. **Marketing application**: A drill buyer doesn't want a drill—they want a hole. Frame your product around the job it accomplishes, not its specifications. ### Circle of Competence Know what you're good at and stay within it. Venture outside only with proper learning or expert help. **Marketing application**: Don't chase every channel. Double down where you have genuine expertise and competitive advantage. ### Inversion Instead of asking "How do I succeed?", ask "What would guarantee failure?" Then avoid those things. **Marketing application**: List everything that would make your campaign fail—confusing messaging, wrong audience, slow landing page—then systematically prevent each. ### Occam's Razor The simplest explanation is usually correct. Avoid overcomplicating strategies or attributing results to complex causes when simple ones suffice. **Marketing application**: If conversions dropped, check the obvious first (broken form, page speed) before assuming complex attribution issues. ### Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) Roughly 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. Identify and focus on the vital few. **Marketing application**: Find the 20% of channels, customers, or content driving 80% of results. Cut or reduce the rest. ### Local vs. Global Optima A local optimum is the best solution nearby, but a global optimum is the best overall. Don't get stuck optimizing the wrong thing. **Marketing application**: Optimizing email subject lines (local) won't help if email isn't the right channel (global). Zoom out before zooming in. ### Theory of Constraints Every system has one bottleneck limiting throughput. Find and fix that constraint before optimizing elsewhere. **Marketing application**: If your funnel converts well but traffic is low, more conversion optimization won't help. Fix the traffic bottleneck first. ### Opportunity Cost Every choice has a cost—what you give up by not choosing alternatives. Consider what you're saying no to. **Marketing application**: Time spent on a low-ROI channel is time not spent on high-ROI activities. Always compare against alternatives. ### Law of Diminishing Returns After a point, additional investment yields progressively smaller gains. **Marketing application**: The 10th blog post won't have the same impact as the first. Know when to diversify rather than double down. ### Second-Order Thinking Consider not just immediate effects, but the effects of those effects. **Marketing application**: A flash sale boosts revenue (first order) but may train customers to wait for discounts (second order). ### Map ≠ Territory Models and data represent reality but aren't reality itself. Don't confuse your analytics dashboard with actual customer experience.