6 prompts to start decoding how buyers make decisions

We have three brains and the one marketers must be concerned most about is the old brain. Let’s ignore the other two. 

You can call that brain the CEO. He takes all the major decisions. The other two brains are important but you know the CEO is the one you should try to convince. 

Things you should remember about the old brain:

1. The Old Brain is highly selfish. It is only concerned about its own survival.
2. It likes to make fast decisions. It seeks clear contrast in order to make instant decisions and avoid confusion that results in delayed decisions.
3. Because of #2, it likes simple, straightforward, and no-brainer type information. Anything that is complex, gets delegated to other parts. 
4. It is attracted to creativity, ingenuity, and new experiences. It ignores everything that is alike and boring or anything that it has too much exposure to. 
5. It is very visual. 
6. It pays heed to emotions. 

I'm sharing some of my learnings from CXL's People and Psychology course by Peep Laza. It is one of the 33 courses in Conversion Optimization Minidegree. 

If you want to ask - how was the course? I'll say it is fantastic. Peep first introduces you to a psychological phenomenon. Then he discusses its use cases in marketing. A pretty fantastic way I must say. 

Now let’s find how the old brain impacts buyers’ decision-making.

It likes simple, straightforward, and no-brainer type information.

The old brain is lazy. It wants to spend as little energy as possible in making decisions. That’s the reason it runs away from anything that it declares a drag. 

It picks the default actions wherever possible, and concludes ‘that’s all’ when it sees no instruction to scroll on a page or an app. 

That’s why simple and concise value proportions work. Writing free of jargons and pleasantries works. And designs free of unnecessary cognitive loads trump. 

It pays heed to emotions 

The old brain likes to make fast decisions within milliseconds.

It arrives at conclusions without a complete and extensive search for information. So how does it do that? 

It relies on how it feels and takes decisions accordingly. If it associates a word, a picture, a sound, or a message on a landing page with a negative feeling, it judges it to be high in risk and low in benefits. Vice versa for the positive association.

Goes without saying: Like a scuba diver checks his oxygen cylinder, we marketers must check the emotional association of our buyers for our marketing material. 

Which butter you would like to purchase: One with 3% cholesterol or the one that’s 97% cholesterol-free?

The Old Brain is highly selfish

Not only is highly selfish, but it is also a hedonist as well. It likes to make decisions that will give it a sense of pleasure. It will avoid everything that could lead to discontent.

Avoid jargon and complex sentence structures. This is writing tip 101. Clean and simple writing makes a reader feel smart. He understands. He is content. So, it works 100% of the time.

Too simplistic writing also hurts at a time. Especially in a context where your reader is a person of authority and doesn’t want to get perceived as someone who is less smart.  

Simple writing fails there because most decisions of the old brain are based on self-interest. It is a selfish desire to get accepted as part of a peer group, community, and society in general.

And that’s why ‘write for your reader’ is a golden piece of advice. Your reader is a hedonist and self-centered, so give them exactly what they want. 

If they want to read jargon, so be it. It should be focused on them and their goals, and benefits. 

It is highly visual

It sees a picture and makes a decision within 2 milliseconds while the main part of the brain responsible for visual processing takes 500 milliseconds. 

And we have only 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression and users take 17 milliseconds to decide whether they like you or not. 

Isn’t it so fast? 

This makes it all the way more important to use a good design, right fonts, and spend good time on the visual appeal of a page or article.

Does this information strengthen your belief in “a picture is worth more than a thousand words”?

It’s a fast decision-maker

The old brain likes to make complex decisions instantly. You know this by now. 

So it is clear as filtered water- in order to get desired results, our job as marketers is to help the old brain of our readers make fast decisions.

The goal of our writing, designing, copy, and everything under the sun that shines on marketers, should be only one-- helping a buyer in fast decision making. 

But how do we do that? Here are two ways to begin with:

Contrast: A clear contrast helps the brain make decisions faster. Brain Clark of Copyblogger explains it well here.

Designing for Behaviour: Studying Fogg’s Behavior Model is taking the right step forward. The model helps in driving behavioral changes. Peep explains the whats and hows of the model here.

Attracted to creativity, ingenuity, and new experiences

I should instead say - the old brain is "distracted only" when something breaks a pattern, gets highlighted due to contrast, or is a totally new thing.

This is the reason we scroll past ads and have banner blindness. Once our brain recognizes a pattern, it stops getting attracted.

So how do we break patterns? Pattern interrupt is one way. It breaks patterns and provides new stimuli, and grabs the mind's attention.

The old brain associates ‘new’ with better. Aren't we always looking for a "new" way to do old things?

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Reached the bottom? Want to know a step-by-step approach to pick the best campaign ideas like our moms pick the best five tomatoes from a sea of tomatoes? Dig in: How to select marketing campaigns that give the highest return for the least amount of effort?