Anchoring

is perhaps the most powerful tool in the hands of a marketer. It ensures that you see things their way.

I have been writing this blog for the last two years. In this time, I have written over 400 blogs. I had also imported over 200 blogs from the past 7 years into this Substack. Altogether, as a reader, you have access to over 600 articles and two more get added each week. In addition to that, I record every weekend edition as a podcast for those who are not “readers”. 

It takes time and commitment to deliver this consistently.

To have someone go through multiple sources of news, pick out a good story, find the past context to it and then add their own perspective shaped by reading over 200 blogs a day is valuable.

What you receive each week is the distillation of the most essential out of over 1400 articles. 

It would be fair that I charge 20 dollars a month to bring that to you. But instead, I have decided to price it at only 5 dollars a month.

What I did right there is called Anchoring.

If I had asked you what is the right price for this blog, you would have probably said a dollar a month, maybe two. Maybe even that, it is not worth any money.

By outlining everything that goes into it and placing the cost of that work at 20 dollars, I anchored you at that price. I set the starting point for the negotiation at that price.

Anything lesser will now look like a discount. Maybe not actually but notionally your mind feels that I am taking a hit.

Many businesses use this technique to make you pay amounts that you would definitely not pay if you had to guess the price first.

I am not starting a paid subscription. But if I do, this will be the pitch that goes out.