Marketing Psychology
Apply mental models and behavioral science—anchoring, social proof, scarcity, loss aversion—to marketing decisions for a specific product after reading product-marketing context.
Overview
Marketing-psychology is an agent skill most often used in Grow (also Launch and Validate) that applies mental models and behavioral science to ethical marketing and buying decisions.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill marketing-psychologyWhat is this skill?
- Expert framing for ethical persuasion, cognitive bias, and why people buy in marketing contexts
- Checks .agents/product-marketing.md (or legacy paths) before recommending mental models
- Explicit routing: page-level tests → cro; pricing tactics → pricing; copy framing → copywriting
- Triggers on psychology, mental models, social proof, scarcity, loss aversion, framing, and nudge language
- Version 2.0.0 marketing-psychology skill in the marketingskills bundle
- metadata version 2.0.0
Adoption & trust: 89.3k installs on skills.sh; 32.4k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You are writing offers and campaigns from intuition and cannot name which cognitive principles should shape messaging, pricing presentation, or trust.
Who is it for?
Founders with a defined product who want structured psychology for positioning, conversion, and lifecycle messaging.
Skip if: Isolated UI A/B test plans, raw price-table math, or generic copy rewrites without a marketing decision to frame.
When should I use this skill?
User mentions psychology, mental models, cognitive bias, persuasion, behavioral science, why people buy, anchoring, social proof, scarcity, loss aversion, framing, or nudge in a marketing context.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get tailored mental-model guidance grounded in product-marketing context, with clear handoffs to cro, pricing, or copywriting skills for execution.
- Mental-model recommendations tailored to product and audience
- Pointers to cro, pricing, or copywriting for downstream execution
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Psychology framing most often pays off when you are shaping ongoing messaging, lifecycle, and conversion narratives after you have something to sell. Content and persuasion mechanics live in Grow, while the skill also informs landing and pricing conversations earlier in the journey.
Where it fits
Pick anchoring and risk-reversal frames before you publish a waitlist page.
Choose scarcity and social-proof cues for a Product Hunt or newsletter launch without crossing into manipulative tropes.
Map loss aversion and identity-based messaging into a lifecycle email sequence.
Explain decoy and anchoring effects when presenting three-tier pricing on a pricing page brief.
How it compares
Mental-model strategy layer in the marketingskills family—not a CRO experiment runner or a standalone copy generator.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is marketing-psychology for?
Marketing-psychology is for solo builders and indie SaaS founders who want behavioral-science and mental-model guidance tied to their product-marketing context, not generic persuasion tips.
When should I use marketing-psychology?
Use it in Grow for lifecycle and content strategy, in Launch for distribution messaging and social proof choices, and in Validate when framing landing pages or early offers; pair with cro, pricing, or copywriting when execution is page-, price-, or word-specific.
Is marketing-psychology safe to install?
Review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page; the skill advises on persuasion ethics but does not replace your compliance review for regulated claims or deceptive patterns.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Marketing Psychology
# 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**