marketing-psychology
by coreyhaines31marketing-psychology helps apply behavioral science and mental models to marketing decisions, especially pricing, messaging, onboarding, and conversion work. It emphasizes checking product-marketing context first, naming relevant models, and giving ethical, scenario-specific recommendations from SKILL.md and eval examples.
This skill scores 78/100, making it a solid directory listing candidate for users who want reusable marketing psychology guidance rather than a narrow one-off prompt. The repository gives agents clear trigger terms, substantial written workflow content, and eval-backed examples, so it should help an agent apply named mental models with less guesswork than a generic prompt, though adoption is somewhat limited by the lack of companion resources or executable support files.
- Strong triggerability: the frontmatter description explicitly names many activation cues such as psychology, persuasion, cognitive bias, social proof, scarcity, framing, and why people buy.
- Substantive operational content: SKILL.md is long and structured, with guidance to identify relevant models, explain the psychology, give marketing applications, and recommend ethical implementation.
- Credible evidence of intended use: evals include concrete scenarios like SaaS pricing-page conversion and ethical scarcity, showing expected behaviors and specific models the skill should apply.
- Mostly document-only: there are no scripts, references, resources, rules, or install instructions, so users must rely on the markdown alone.
- Scope appears broad and principle-heavy, which may leave some edge-case execution details to agent judgment despite the extensive theory coverage.
Overview of marketing-psychology skill
What the marketing-psychology skill does
The marketing-psychology skill helps an AI apply behavioral science, persuasion principles, and mental models to real marketing decisions. It is designed for situations where the user is not just asking for copy, but for a better explanation of why people buy, hesitate, compare options, or convert.
Best fit for this skill
This skill is best for marketers, founders, growth teams, product marketers, and consultants who need sharper reasoning for:
- pricing page conversion
- offer framing
- positioning and messaging
- onboarding and trial activation
- trust and risk reduction
- ethical use of persuasion
Real job-to-be-done
Most users do not need a list of biases. They need the model to connect a specific marketing problem to the right mental models, explain the psychology in plain English, and turn that into actionable recommendations. That is where marketing-psychology is more useful than a generic “write persuasive copy” prompt.
What makes it different
The strongest differentiator is that the skill explicitly tells the agent to check for product marketing context first, then map relevant mental models to the situation. It pushes toward:
- diagnosing the decision context
- naming the model being used
- showing how to apply it in marketing
- keeping the advice ethical rather than manipulative
What to know before you install
This is a thinking framework skill, not a plug-and-play automation tool. It has no scripts or assets; the value is in the guidance inside SKILL.md. If your team wants explainable conversion reasoning and better prompts for persuasion strategy, it is a good fit. If you want channel-specific playbooks or direct integrations, this skill is lighter than that.
How to Use marketing-psychology skill
Install context for marketing-psychology install
The upstream SKILL.md does not expose its own install command, so use your normal skill manager flow for GitHub-hosted skills. A common pattern is:
npx skills add https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill marketing-psychology
After install, confirm the skill is available in your local skill environment before relying on it in production workflows.
Read this file first
Start with:
skills/marketing-psychology/SKILL.md
Then check:
skills/marketing-psychology/evals/evals.json
The evals are especially useful because they reveal what good outputs should include, such as checking for product context, naming specific models, and tailoring recommendations to concrete pricing or messaging situations.
The first usage rule that matters
Before using marketing-psychology, check whether .agents/product-marketing-context.md exists. The skill explicitly asks for this. In older setups, also check .claude/product-marketing-context.md.
That file matters because the same mental model can lead to very different recommendations depending on:
- audience sophistication
- deal size
- SaaS vs ecommerce
- self-serve vs sales-led funnel
- category maturity
- trust barriers
What input the skill needs
The marketing-psychology skill works best when you give it a decision context, not just a vague request for persuasion. Include:
- product type
- audience
- funnel stage
- conversion goal
- current page or asset
- constraints
- ethical boundaries
- known friction or objections
Weak input:
“Use psychology to improve my landing page.”
Strong input:
“We sell a B2B SaaS analytics tool to RevOps leaders. Our pricing page has three plans at $49, $129, and $299. Visitors understand the product but hesitate at plan selection. Suggest ethical marketing-psychology ideas for increasing plan confidence and reducing comparison friction.”
How to turn a rough goal into a strong prompt
A practical prompt structure for marketing-psychology usage is:
- State the business goal
- Describe the audience and product
- Name the asset or funnel step
- Share the current friction
- Ask for named mental models
- Ask for ethical implementation guidance
- Ask for concrete changes, not theory only
Example:
“Apply the marketing-psychology skill to our onboarding emails. We run a PM tool for small agencies. Trial users sign up, but few create their first project. Identify the most relevant mental models, explain why they matter at this activation stage, and suggest email and in-app changes that use them ethically.”
Where marketing-psychology is strongest
This skill is especially strong for:
- pricing and packaging decisions
- comparison-table framing
- trust-building near conversion
- objection handling
- CTA framing
- scarcity and urgency used ethically
- explaining why one message may outperform another
The eval examples point especially toward pricing psychology, scarcity, social proof, loss aversion, anchoring, and Good-Better-Best framing.
What good output should look like
A strong response from marketing-psychology for Conversion should:
- reference relevant mental models by name
- explain the buyer psychology briefly
- tie each model to your exact scenario
- recommend ethical implementation
- avoid fake urgency or manipulative dark patterns
- prioritize a few changes instead of dumping dozens of theories
If the model only gives a list of biases without applying them to your funnel, the skill was not used well.
Suggested workflow for real teams
Use this workflow:
- Gather product and audience context
- Ask the skill to identify the top 3 to 5 relevant models
- Have it turn those into page, pricing, email, or onboarding recommendations
- Ask for testable variants
- Turn the best ideas into experiments
- Validate with real conversion data
This keeps marketing-psychology guide output tied to execution instead of staying theoretical.
Prompt pattern for pricing pages
For pricing work, ask the skill to inspect:
- price anchoring
- tier order
- recommended-plan framing
- plan differentiation
- discount presentation
- loss aversion language
- social proof placement
- default effects
Example:
“Use the marketing-psychology skill to review our pricing page. We have Basic at $29, Pro at $79, and Scale at $199. Recommend psychological improvements for conversion, but separate ethical, low-risk ideas from higher-risk persuasion tactics we should avoid.”
Prompt pattern for ethical persuasion
The repository signals that ethical use matters. Ask for guardrails explicitly:
“Explain which persuasion principles fit this campaign, which ones risk manipulation, and how to apply the useful ones transparently.”
This is important for scarcity, urgency, social proof, and default settings, where poor implementation can damage trust fast.
When ordinary prompting is enough
If you only need faster copy variations, marketing-psychology may be more structure than you need. Its value shows up when the task is diagnostic:
- why users are hesitating
- which behavior principles fit this stage
- how to frame a choice architecture
- how to improve conversion without random copy changes
marketing-psychology skill FAQ
Is marketing-psychology good for beginners?
Yes, if you want the model to explain the reasoning instead of just using persuasion jargon. The skill encourages named models and practical applications, which makes it easier for beginners to learn while shipping work.
Is this just a copywriting skill?
No. marketing-psychology is broader than copy. It is useful for pricing structure, offer design, decision friction, onboarding flow, trust signals, and other conversion mechanics where buyer behavior matters.
What is the main limitation?
The skill is guidance-heavy and repo-light. There are no helper scripts, reference libraries, or implementation assets. You are installing a reasoning framework, not a software package with automations.
Does marketing-psychology replace user research?
No. It helps interpret and act on behavior patterns, but it cannot prove what your users believe. Use it to generate stronger hypotheses and experiments, not as a substitute for customer interviews or analytics.
When should I not use marketing-psychology?
Skip it when the real problem is not persuasion but:
- weak product-market fit
- poor traffic quality
- broken onboarding
- missing core information
- compliance-sensitive claims that require strict review
In those cases, psychology framing alone will not fix the underlying issue.
How is this different from a generic marketing prompt?
A generic prompt usually produces surface-level persuasion advice. The marketing-psychology skill is more likely to:
- check for product marketing context
- select models that fit the situation
- explain why they apply
- keep implementation ethical
- connect recommendations to actual conversion mechanics
How to Improve marketing-psychology skill
Give richer product-marketing context
The biggest quality lever is context. If you have .agents/product-marketing-context.md, keep it current. Add:
- ICP details
- category language
- pricing model
- competitors
- buying objections
- proof points
- brand constraints
This improves every marketing-psychology usage output because the skill is built to tailor advice from that context.
Ask for fewer models, applied more deeply
A common failure mode is getting 12 mental models with shallow advice. Ask for:
“Pick the 3 most relevant models for this page and show concrete implementation ideas.”
That usually yields better conversion guidance than broad but thin lists.
Force scenario-specific recommendations
If the output feels generic, add real details:
- exact prices
- CTA text
- audience role
- trial length
- conversion step
- current drop-off point
The evals show the skill performs best when the scenario is concrete enough to support named, specific recommendations.
Ask for ethical and non-ethical options separately
This is one of the best ways to improve trustworthiness. Request:
- ethical tactics to use now
- risky tactics to avoid
- why those risky tactics can backfire
That sharpens the skill’s usefulness in conversion work without drifting into manipulation.
Use iteration after the first answer
After the first output, do not stop at “looks good.” Ask follow-ups such as:
- “Which recommendation would likely have the highest impact?”
- “Rewrite this for skeptical enterprise buyers.”
- “Turn these models into 3 A/B test ideas.”
- “Which of these depends most on strong social proof?”
This turns the skill from an explanation engine into an experiment-planning tool.
Watch for these common failure modes
Poor outputs usually come from:
- no product context
- no audience specificity
- asking for “more persuasive copy” without a funnel stage
- overusing bias terminology without implementation detail
- ignoring trust, legality, or brand constraints
If you see those symptoms, tighten the prompt before judging the skill.
Improve marketing-psychology for Conversion results
For stronger marketing-psychology for Conversion outputs, ask the model to organize ideas by:
- conversion impact
- effort
- confidence
- ethical risk
That makes the result easier to turn into a testing backlog instead of a theory memo.
Use evals as a quality benchmark
Open evals/evals.json and compare your output against what the repo expects. Good answers generally:
- check for product context first
- apply specific named models
- tailor recommendations to the exact scenario
- stay practical rather than academic
If your result misses those elements, your prompt likely needs more structure.
Pair it with evidence after generation
The skill gets better when you feed it:
- analytics screenshots
- page copy
- pricing tables
- onboarding steps
- customer objections
- test results
Then ask it to revise its recommendations based on evidence. That is where marketing-psychology guide usage becomes materially more valuable than a one-shot brainstorm.