Conversion Uplift = Amount of Behaviour Change

Why do visitors/buyers behave as they do? How do I convince and move them to the next step?

I tried achieving these objectives by appealing to the logical side of our visitors’ brains. And there is where I went wrong. 

It has already been figured by Aristotle way back in 380 BC. I think we can call him the first marketer. He knew the game. 

As per Aristotle, human beings make decisions based on 7 factors. The reasoning or logical thinking is just one of them.

Speaking mathematically, appealing to visitors' logic will give a success rate of 14.28% in convincing your buyers. That too when you hit the nail right on the head in appealing to their logic.

So when I only relied on logic or reasoning to persuade our visitors, I had a sure shot chance of failing to convince our visitors by 85.71%.

Not bad haan! 

Uplift = amount of behavior change

André Morys discussed this equation in his talk on Five Neuromarketing Hacks to Dominate Your Market at Elite Camp 2015. The event video was part of the Fundamental of Neuromarketing course under CRO Minidegree by CXL. 

There is no exact answer to how to change the behavior of your visitors or buyers. Science is also not going to come up with any formula soon that decodes human decision-making completely.

It may happen but I think that's will be after you and I are long gone on our trip to heaven. 

But- and this one is an important but-- understanding how our buyers make decisions, can any day help us better manage their behavior on our website or a brick-and-mortar store.

Daniel Kahneman in his two-system theory divides the brain into the system-1 or unconscious and system-2 or conscious brain.

The system-1 is the old brain (I talked about it here) and it makes most of the decisions. Do you know who is always late to the decision-making party? Your conscious brain. And how much late? A whopping 10 seconds. 

A 2008 study by a team of neuroscientists found that our subconscious makes a decision 10 seconds before the conscious brain becomes aware of it. 

So, it is clear as the sun in the summer skies, you have to target system-1 or the old brain. If you are not optimizing copy, website design, or your survey for system-1, you are dancing on hot coals.

It might be fun for a short while. But it will hurt. Sooner or later. 

5% of our decision processes are conscious and 95% are non-conscious.

~HBS Professor Gerald Zaltman

How to appeal to System-1 or Old Brain?

One way to appeal to the old brain is to focus on the below five factors. Because I’m not including very practical examples in this post, I suggest you also read 7 ways to engage the reptilian brain. 

Pain

The old brain has roots way back in the stone age. It is concerned with its own survival and wants to avoid any kind of pain. 

You can use the framing effect to activate pain in system-1. It is a cognitive bias where people make a decision depending on the feeling of loss or gain associated with the decision. 

Another one is the Prospect theory. It says that for us humans, the pain of loss is always going to be more significant than the joy of gain. 

Caution: Beware when you use cognitive biases in your copy. They are contextual. You have to select the one that goes with your copy. This list will come in handy in selection: list of cognitive biases

Fear

The old brain was there when our ancestors donned leaves and chased a gazelle with a spear in hands, and got chased by a pack of wild boars. Our brains evolved while witnessing and surviving horrible environments for centuries. 

The fear of being chased by a boar though doesn't exist now but didn’t you find yourself getting distracted due to any movement on your screen? It’s always alert to changes to detect any potential threat.   

So, its constant scans for signs of danger make it susceptible to many cognitive biases. 

You can take the person out of the Stone Age, not the Stone Age out of the person.

~ Gardiner Morse, Editor, Harvard Business Review

Emotions

The old brain relies on how it feels to make decisions.

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

Contrast

The old brain likes to make fast decisions within milliseconds. Anything that can take more time to understand, will be sent to system-2. And you don’t want to activate that part. 

Contrast is a way for the brain to make fast decisions. That’s why statements like car accidents take more lives than plane crashes or before and after pictures work so well. 

In an instant, your brain knows what is good and what is bad. It can decide really faster

Ego

It likes to make decisions that will give it a sense of pleasure. It will avoid everything that could lead to discontent.

That’s why clean and simple writing works as it makes a reader feel smart. 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. 

This is why value proportions focusing on your buyer’s goals and benefits work better than the one focusing on the seller.