We know as marketers, understanding customer behavior can help us customize our marketing campaigns to match our ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). Which in the long run will help our customers reach their goals through our products and service meanwhile growing more trusting towards our positioning and brand. While I’m certain we may put a lot of energy and strategies together to understand what makes them tick, such as implementing the traditional A/B testing and usual NPS, CSAT methods through customer surveys and outreach platforms, there are other techniques worth considering in such a noisy digital world and it might be worth discovering and relying occasionally on the techniques of Neuromarketing.
These psychological insights and strategies can help you reach deeper into the customer’s mind and improve your product or service. What makes this effective is that it doesn’t involve any fancy technology and instead is built on the idea of human psychology but the practices are more common and doable than you might expect.
Whether you’re using neuromarketing strategies or not, it’s important to be aware of the research behind them so you can measure their impact on your business’s success.
What is Neuromarketing
Neuromarketing is the process of using brain-based research to understand consumer behavior. This information can be used to develop marketing campaigns that are more effective and relevant to the individual consumer. Neuromarketing strategies can take a number of different forms, including market research, consumer surveys, and neuropsychological testing. By understanding how consumers think and feel about products and brands, companies can create more effective campaigns that target their specific needs. You can also use neuromarketing strategies to better understand your competition. By understanding the psychology of your rivals, you can develop strategies that are more likely to defeat them in the marketplace. For example, by understanding how they target their customers, you can create marketing content that is more relevant and engaging than what they’re using.
How Does Neuromarketing Work?
Human brains have a so-called primal brain, which is shared with animals. The primal brain controls our survival instinct, for example when we instinctively react to or run from something like say a lion or a cheetah. We’re aware of knowing what will happen if we stick around. However, humans are more advanced than most animals due to the fact that they use their primal instincts as a “primary leader” and then have an additional prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex allows for abstract concepts such as empathy or self-awareness, this includes emotional intelligence, memorable anchoring, visual images, and even interactive media. When it comes understand neuromarketing you have to realize it’s about not dismissing what we already know about the brain. It’s about being more empathetic and personal and considering others emotions.
So without further ado, I’ve outlined some practical ways to incorporate neuromarketing into your next B2B digital marketing campaign. Let’s get started.
Hick’s Law and The Paradox of Choice
The Hick’s Law Paradox of choice is a cognitive bias that suggests that people have a limited number of choices and are therefore more likely to make decisions based on those options they have been given. The paradox was first observed by the American psychologists Harold Hick and Barry Schwartz in the early 1970s and has since been widely used in research on consumer behavior. The paradox is named after Hick, who noticed that people seemed to make fewer choices when given more options. Typically, this occurs when people are faced with a choice between two or more options, but it can also occur when they are faced with multiple tiers of options or when they are presented with a large number of potential solutions to a problem.
The paradox is evident in laboratory experiments as well as real-world settings. For example, researchers have found that consumers tend to choose fewer items from an array of options when they are asked to choose between two rather than ten items and that this tendency is even greater if the number of available items is increased to twenty or thirty. Similarly, shoppers often limit their selection at the grocery store by choosing from only a few brands rather than from dozens or hundreds of products. The more choices available, the longer it is likely to take for a decision-maker to select one. This time can overshadow any time that would be saved by having additional choices. There are many ways to apply Hick’s Law in your digital marketing campaign. Think about what the campaign goal is, and how to make it clear for users to follow through with that goal.
Considering Landing Page and email call-to-action (CTA) buttons. How are you guiding your prospects through their journey? How clear is your CTA, and what does it offer? Make sure whatever you put together is presented to your prospects to take their next action. Keep it simple and very focused on just that one step. Don’t offer too many options.
Universality, Mutuality, Reciprocity
Human motivation over time has suggested that the actions we take are often motivated by the desire for a type of reinforcement or incentive offer. There are many theories about why people do the things they do but some experts suggest that humans act because they want to be rewarded on a conscious or subconscious level. We can therefore use the idea of reciprocity to gain the attention of our audience by offering them incentives in return. For instance, if your marketing goal is to get your audience to subscribe to a service, you could provide valuable assets such as e-books and webinars in return. It’s very important to understand now more than ever that you must provide something truly valuable that aligns with the needs of your audience. So don’t create material for the sake of creating. Think of what type of value and form of media you can go about providing value to your end users. Give an impression of who you are, don’t downplay quality.
Color Me Surprised
When it comes to increasing brand recognition, color is king with a staggering 80% of consumers finding brands memorable solely due to their use of consistent colors. Furthermore, research has shown that 93% of people find products more visually appealing if they used a different color than the rest of the packaging. With 85% of shoppers making buying decisions. Think about it, color is a very important factor when it comes to making a good first impression on potential customers. What colors are you wearing right now, and why? Ask yourself.
There are many variables when it comes to color choice for your business, but the most important is to think about which colors will help you stand out from your competition. For example, purple is an excellent color choice for any type of business that sells luxury items or services because it’s seen as upscale and sophisticated. Conversely, blue can be a great color choice for businesses that sell products related to water sports or nature because it’s associated with coolness and relaxation. By taking these into consideration and choosing colors that match your brand’s personality, you can create a more memorable and favorable impression with your customers. You need to understand the psychology of colors. Color is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to businesses, and there are many different ways to use color to create a positive impression with your customers. One of the most important things to keep in mind when choosing colors for your business is how they will impact customer sentiment.
The Hedwig ‘Von Restorff Effect’
The Hedwig ‘Von Restorff Effect is a phenomenon in which people are more likely to do something if they are given context for the behavior. The name comes from a study in which participants were asked to rate how attractive different faces were. The faces with lower ratings were those that did not have accompanying descriptions (e.g. “This is a face without a name”). When the faces were accompanied by brief descriptions (e.g., “This is Hedwig von Restorff, an actress” or “This is John Lennon, one of the most famous singers in history”), the ratings increased significantly.
Context can influence behaviors in many ways: it can make goals more attainable, increase pleasure, or improve performance. For marketers, this means that giving customers relevant information about your product or service can lead to better outcomes for both you and them. Contextual marketing strategies include providing helpful guides and instructions with products, creating engaging content around your brand, and using social media platforms to create an interactive experience with customers. By understanding how context affects our behavior and using targeted marketing strategies accordingly, businesses can increase their chances of success!
Dual-Coding Theory and Mental Imagery
Dual-Coding Theory (DCT) was first proposed by Hofstede in 1980 and is a model that explains how cultures influence individual behavior. According to the theory, people from different cultures assign different values to different aspects of life. These values are then reflected in people’s behaviors and attitudes. The model posits that culture is stratified into four components: individualism vs. collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity vs. femininity. These four components encompass various features of society and how those features impact individuals’ behaviors. Take an example, Americans typically place a high value on individualism while Europeans place a high value on collectivism. Mental Imagery is another concept that was first proposed by Hofstede and refers to the way that individuals mentally represent themselves and their surroundings. Mental imagery can help us to process information faster, make decisions more accurately, and feel emotions more deeply. Combining Dual-Coding Theory and Mental Imagery can create powerful marketing tools! By understanding how different cultures view behavior and how mental imagery affects our actions, we can create campaigns that are specific to the needs of our target market geographically and socially.
Principle of Least Effort
The principle of least effort (PLE) is a psychological principle that states that people (Not You) will try to do things with the least amount of effort possible. When it comes to marketing, this principle can be used to persuade people to take action by making the task seem easy. For example, a website might have a BMW logo next to one of its buttons that reads “Click Me To Learn More!” This button is designed to make it look like the user has no choice but to learn more about the product. By making the task seem easy, the website is attempting to persuade the user to take action. Creating a low cognitive load when it comes to presenting information is the goal you want to accomplish. In other words, when you’re presenting your audience with information, they should be able to retain it easily and quickly. This is where using a digestible format comes in handy. Stay away from providing TOO MUCH information at one given time.
Ensure your campaign is clear and instructional to guide your audience’s attention in terms of where they need to go next. One neuromarketing strategy that can be used to achieve this is using visual aids or visuals within your copy. By providing context for what you are saying, you can help your audience better understand how they can benefit from the information. Additionally, making sure that all of the components of your marketing campaign are working in synergy will help you achieve the desired results.
Visual Hierarchy: I See You
Lastly, visual hierarchy is a key aspect of design that can be used to increase conversion rates. The goal of a visual hierarchy is to make the most important elements stand out and the less important ones recede into the background. This can be done through color, size, spacing, and placement. By measuring the direction and duration of eye movements you can improve your landing pages and content for maximum effectiveness. The eye movement pattern is known as the saccade. This is when a person’s eyes move from one point in the visual field to a different point. The duration of the saccade will tell you how long people take to read on a page and which parts of the page are interesting or engaging for them.
Heat maps are a valuable way to get a sense of how people interact with your site. By tracking where people look on a page, you can see which areas are most important to them. This information can help you redesign your site’s layout and content to better appeal to your audience. Heat maps also provide valuable insights into user behavior. For example, you might be able to see which parts of your site are generating the most traffic and which sections have the most potential for growth. This information can help you target your marketing efforts more effectively and generate more leads from your website.
Just remember to think outside the box occasionally. Incorporating tactics such as Neuromarketing has its place in campaign development and helps with your audience’s journey. By following the consumer’s journey from the point of view of the consumer themselves, you can better understand how they consume and respond to your brand. By simply understanding what drives consumers in general, you can develop creative campaigns that will resonate with them.