7 Ways to Harness the Power of Psychology to Grow Your Business

Whether you're just beginning on your entrepreneurial journey, venturing into content creation, or contemplating a career change, leveraging the knowledge of cognitive behavior psychology can help you better connect with your target audience and find potential prospects.

1. Provide solutions instead of options.

Research shows that providing too many options often leads to decision fatigue. If your primary goal is to draw subscribers to your newsletter or sell your product, use a direct link instead of a linktree on your social media biographies.

2. Keep your message brief and concise.

The dilution effect explains how extraneous information muddles the main point because our brains process the average of all the material we consume. As a brand, don't dabble in too many extra areas that detract from your primary focus.

3. Focus on being the best rather than being first to market.

The myth of the first mover advantage says you can be late to the game and still succeed as long as your product or service is better than existing options. Consider the case examples of how Facebook outperformed the social media platform MySpace or how Amazon overtook Borders in the bookselling space.

4. Keep standards high to leverage your team's full capabilities.

The Pygmalion effect is a psychological phenomenon whereby high expectations lead to improved performance. If you raise the bar and assign greater responsibility to colleagues, they will rise to the challenge.

5. Stay in your lane & forge your own path.

The media is rife with entrepreneurial success stories, but every single one is subject to survivorship bias. Success in any given case is contingent upon factors that may not apply to you. Discover your own unique advantages and apply them.

6. Be prepared to abandon your original blueprints.

The sunken cost fallacy describes the tendency to continue investing time, effort, and money into endeavors that no longer serve you. If market research suggests that your product or service isn't highly valued, don't be afraid to cut your losses, reorient, and revise your plans as necessary.

7. Embrace transparency, and build with your audience in mind.

The Streisand effect describes the paradoxical result whereby an attempt to suppress the spread of information leads to greater dissemination. Operating in stealth mode for too long can backfire and lead to missed opportunities. Rejecting censorship and allowing your audience to follow your creative journey fosters trust. Building in public also offers the additional benefit of real-time engagement and feedback.

Whatever your goals are for this calendar year, applying the strategies above can help you scale and reach your milestones faster. Stay curious, stay creative! 💡