The Importance Of Intrinsic Motivation As Part Of An Online Marketing Campaign

By Chance Hoggan

There are many documents online that talk about the psychology
of the searcher and how understanding this psychology can
further the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts. Few
cover the subject of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and of
those less than a handful impart any real understanding of the
subject.

Human motivation falls in two categories, intrinsic and
extrinsic, intrinsic motivation comes from within and extrinsic
from without. Intrinsic motivation manifests itself when you
are motivated by inner things like purpose, passion and
mission. People who are motivated intrinsically do not quit
easily and are most likely to succeed. Albert Einstein talked
about intrinsic motivation as 'the enjoyment of seeing and
searching.'

Extrinsic motivation is an attempt to motivate through external
rewards like money, grades and recognition. Rewards associated
to an activity can undermine intrinsic motivation because of
the negative feelings that extrinsic rewards can cause such as
performance anxiety.

Searchers are intrinsically motivated

When someone arrives at your website they are intrinsically
motivated to find information or a solution to a problem they
may be experiencing, not primarily to make a purchase. Although
the long term goal may be to make a purchase the greatest part
of a searchers time is taken up by research and comparison
shopping prior to any transaction taking place.

It has been understood for some time that motivation and
achievement are synonymous so are ability and achievement. It
therefore makes sense to concentrate on the primary goals of
your site visitors, offering objective information that feeds
intrinsic motivation and brings sense of achievement to the
visitor, i.e. enable the visitor to make an informed decision.
By starting out with an offer based on price (extrinsic
motivation) or using sales hype in an attempt to coerce the
visitor into purchasing from you defeats the primary purpose of
the searcher. Price is a factor, however price becomes
meaningless unless the consumer fully understands what the
price includes, what benefits will be derived, what support is
offered and for how long and what guarantees are offered ...

Intrinsic satisfaction (pride) comes from enjoying an activity
and doing it well or by making the correct decision. By
answering questions and addressing concerns promotes trust, one
of the greatest hurdles to overcome online. If this can be
backed up by impartial third party evidence i.e. official
reports, reviews from recognised sources or government
statistics you can create an even greater level of trust and
credibility. All of this builds a sense of intrinsic
satisfaction in the consumer because he feels that he has
discovered an organisation that puts his interests first.

The internet becomes more powerful every day; conventional
advertising media like TV, radio and print are experiencing
massive reduction in advertising revenue while mobile
technology and the internet are enjoying a massive increase in
advertising revenue. There are many reasons for this, primarily
the internet offers the consumer a channel that only shows
products or information he is interested in, hence intrinsic
motivation. From the retailers point of view the internet draws
consumers to their online property that are already showing
interest in their product and services, hence the requirement
to provide intrinsic satisfaction.

Addressing intrinsic motivation correctly by writing objective,
usable content that scans well builds trust and fosters
intrinsic satisfaction. Ensuring that your call to action is
intrinsically beneficial and meaningful to the visitor will
bring you much closer to your commercial goals. Furthermore
people who buy under these circumstances are more likely to buy
from you again and again.
The internets ability to touch and communicate with consumers
in this way can’t be matched by any other advertising channel.
This will further the demise of conventional advertising and
some TV channels are already talking about product placement
and brand altered content as a means to increase their
diminishing returns.

Over the next few years the actual spend on internet purchases
is set to soar to unprecedented levels. Some retailers are
preparing for this by creating websites that work on every
level, some are just creating websites. What camp are you in? [http://www.design-insite.co.uk]Internet Marketing

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chance_Hoggan http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Importance-Of-Intrinsic-Motivation-As-Part-Of-An-Online-Marketing-Campaign&id=181092