"Digital Persuasion" review

INTRODUCTION

Recently I enrolled for a Mini-degree in "Digital Psychology and Persuasion" from CXL Institute. I would love to share whatever I will learn from this Mini-degree through a series of articles.

This is my 3rd "Digital Psychology and Persuasion" review article in a series of a total of 12 articles. I will be posting an article on each weekend for consecutive 12 upcoming weeks in which I will cover all the tactics and principles of Digital psychology and Persuasion and Neuro-Marketing which will surely help anyone passionate about marketing.

Digital Consumer Persuasion Techniques:

1. Focusing effect :

We as Human beings can pay attention to a few things only. The brain is part of a comprehensive network of organs and their associated nerves that branch out to communicate to our entire body; the brain and its entire network are called the nervous system. The nervous system is responsible for processing, interpreting, and distributing millions of messages that help us sustain life, move, think, reflect, plan, and so much more. We tend to assume that many of our behaviors are guided by consciousness, intention, or free will. So it is very useful if we do not put any extra and useless content in posts for advertisements for our product. Maximum 3 USPs are preferred.

2. Paper Ads have an edge:

Direct mail is so last millennium, right? Ultraefficient (and comparatively lowcost digital marketing seems all but certain to supplant physical paper and ink marketing delivered by actual humans. Hold on, though. As per the outcomes of a study conducted by a marketing agency. Their research project used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans to show that our brains process paper-based and Digital Ads in totally different areas of the brain and they differ in various factors like the memory for a specific banner or poster. And Individuals tend to remember them for a much longer period of time. The studies clearly state that paper-based or physical ads do much better than soft ads which are seen through various social media on our screens. even after controlling for the increase in sensory processing for tangible items. From the brain areas activated by the paper ads, the researchers concluded that physical material (like paper) is more “real” to the brain. Since it has a physical place, it engages with the brain’s spatial memory networks. The study also found that the tangible materials involved more emotional processing in the subjects. The memories of the paper-based ads were likely to be more vivid and associated with emotions.

3. Well designed Magazines are an outstanding source of trust for your product:

Particularly in the context of a mailing piece that you control all aspects of, or in a glossy magazine surrounded by other upscale ads and content, paper can pack a bigger punch than a similar digital ad. Don’t give up on paper, and be sure to take full advantage of paper’s benefits. Digital marketers also need to take full advantage of their medium—simple ads aren’t that engaging. Animation, sound, interaction, and precise targeting can boost digital out of the less-engaging-than-paper range.

4. Vibrant HD Colors: 

The research suggests that it’s worth taking the time to create superb images— mouthwatering, well-styled close-ups for food products, for example. For other products, images that emphasize the products’ sensual aspects, such as textures and scents, would likely work best, even though the sensory experience will be in the mind of the viewer. Since we experience the world in color, I predict that color ads will beat black-and-white ones for creating a sense of having experienced the product. These findings are good news for magazine publishers, who can offer excellent quality and realistic reproduction of vivid ads.

4. Use Simple Fonts:

Do you need to convince a customer to complete an application form? Or, for a nonprofit, do you need volunteers for a charity event? In both cases, you will be more successful if you describe the task in a simple, easy-to-read typeface. For years, we’ve been hearing about KISS: Keep it simple, stupid! It turns out the KISS proponents were right. Since the perception of lower effort is related to the concept of cognitive fluency, you should also make the type size easy to read and use simpler words and sentence structure. These steps will minimize the perceived effort needed to accomplish the task, and your success rate will increase. There’s no reason why the same approach won’t work online, too. Need someone to complete a form? In addition to the obvious step of making the form itself less daunting, be sure your instructions are short and displayed in a simple font.

5. The complex font might also be needed:

 If we have to convince our customers that our product involves tedious steps to make or that great skill is required to deliver the service we provide, we have to slow the reader down with a harder-to-read font and big words.

Caution!

One danger in trying to exploit cognitive fluency using fancy fonts and complicated text is that the reader may attach the complexity to the wrong product attribute. So, you might have spent thousands of programming and testing hours making your software exceptionally user-friendly, but if you go into a long, fancy-font description of that effort, the customer takeaway may be “hard to use.”

The other danger is that your potential customers won’t be motivated enough to struggle through hard-to-read text. People at a restaurant are likely to read the price and complex names as well because they have to order food and know what they will get. On the other hand, customers looking at a product brochure. Could a lingering sense of complexity still remain, even from a brief glance? Perhaps, but I’d recommend using this approach sparingly; overdo it and you might lose the customer’s attention completely. Use a difficult font to boost recall of important marketing information. But, don’t overdo it; use it for a tagline or a phone number, but not for lengthy ad copy. Too much complexity and your brilliant copy won’t get read at all!

6. Add Pictures of Babies:

But don't overdo it, use only at relevant areas and picture must fit into the context. It is always presumed that small children and babies are a good attention grabber. This has led advertisers to stick baby pictures in ads for every kind of product or service, whether or not infants are remotely relevant. As it turns out, all those advertisers are right on the money: our brains are wired to respond to babyfaces, and even baby-like characteristics in adults. Human babies are vulnerable creatures, and their chances for survival are greater if they tug at the emotions of not just their parents but also of other adults. Studies show that men prefer female faces with baby-like features. Women’s preferences are more complex, and depending on their stage of ovulation, may prefer faces that are either more masculine or more baby-like.

As a conclusion, we must not underestimate the powers of human behavior and marketing psychology in order to get success as a good marketer and to grow our business exponentially.

Congrats! You are now one step ahead in the competition after understanding Marketing Psychology and Consumer behavior.

Stay tuned for the next Article!

 (This article is a review for the mini degree, "Digital Psychology and Persuasion" from CXL institute".)

Thanks :-)

Gaurav Panwar