Being more aware of the potential of this discipline is definitely a competitive advantage.
Always in the marketing world we have been looking for innovative strategies to sell more. Today we can do this ethically by knowing how our brains work. And to help you learn more about this topic, I asked @lopsicologodelmarketing, creator of the Community on Instagram that deals with marketing and neuroscience issues. Not to mention his recent afterword in the book “The Impossible Brain Map.”
Let’s go straight to the interview to find out how to apply Neuromarketing to the web.
What is neuromarketing?
Neuromarketing is the application of neuroscience and cognitive science to marketing. It is a way of shedding light on all those mechanisms in our brains that affect our purchasing decision making.
Despite being very closely related to disciplines such as neuroscience and psychology this subject originated as a sub-branch of neuro-economics.
Research that seeks to uncover the needs, motivations and preferences of customers that traditional methods such as surveys and focus groups cannot reveal, in fact one of the first discoveries of the subject was precisely seeing that a person’s stated is different from their perceived, not everything happens consciously in our brains, in fact I would rather say the opposite.
Neuromarketing can include evaluating a TV commercial, advertisement, marketing funnel, packaging, websites, content, etc. to understand as clearly and faithfully as possible how customers react when faced with certain stimuli on a nonconscious level. It includes the application of knowledge obtained from neuroscience and cognitive science research to make marketing more effective and to make more targeted and predictive choices.
From my point of view, neuromarketing can be considered marketing that is more attentive to people and their emotions. Giving the right message, in the right way, to the right person.
Can neuromarketing be useful for a website?
Too often we take one thing for granted and overlook it.
Behind a visit to one’s website, on the other side of the screen for that matter, is a user.
Yes, but that user is a person.
We are all different individuals but in our brains there are so many mechanisms in common, including having our emotions influence most of the decisions we make, running into mental shortcuts to make decisions sooner, etc.
Imagine now being able to see and understand what is going on in a person’s head as they browse a website, see what they look at, and what they don’t, what they are impressed by, or bored with, what they like, in short, you would have bingo.
Neuromarketing, thanks to some technologies, does that, getting insights like these:
- understand the unconscious behavior of your consumers as they spontaneously interact with your website
- seeing where the user experiences usability problems and how that affects their behavior
- do A/B testing, i.e., which version of a web page, screen, CTA, works best
- detect the ’emotional and cognitive impact caused by the entire browsing experience
- reveals the distribution of visual attention elicited by pages or specific areas of interest
- understands which areas require more effort to understand and where instead navigation is smoother
- identifies the path the user takes to acquire the info/product they are looking for
What are these tools that you use?
A premise must be made in the meantime, in addition to the use of certain technologies, interdisciplinary skills are needed in the team that will perform the test to go and process the data and find the most appropriate solutions.
The tools involved during the test are:
- The Eye Tracker, eye tracking, undoubtedly an important resource in this kind of testing, in fact it is the process of measuring the point of gaze (where one is looking), to measure the position and movement of the eyes, providing a map that indicates the items at the site most looked at, for how long and how often, and in chronological order;
- Galvanic skin response (GSR), is the measurement of continuous changes in the skin’s electrical characteristics, e.g., conductance, which varies with a physiological response of the body, sweating. The theory of GSR analysis is based on the assumption that skin resistance varies with the state of sweat glands in the skin. Sweating in the human body is regulated by the Autonomic Nervous System. For example, if the sympathetic branch of the Autonomic Nervous System is highly excited then the activity of sweat glands also increases, which in turn increases skin conductance. Skin conductance may be a measure of the responses of the human sympathetic nervous system. This system is directly involved in emotional behavioral regulation.
- Further studies have shown the relationship between GSR signal and some mental states, such as stress and involvement.
- Electroencephalogram (EEG), is an electrophysiological monitoring method to record the electrical activity of the brain, it consists of a helmet with electrodes placed at certain points on the scalp, each mental function is the result of electrical communication between neurons in the brain, brain waves in a particular area of the brain of a particular band could be associated with specific cognitive processes and mental states (relaxation, sleep, stress, etc.).
- Usability software, facial coding (primary emotions of the face), interviews
Any relevant best practices and insights?
Obviously every website and context is different from another, it can change based on the objective of the site, the industry, the products, based on brand positioning, but it is also true that among the many researches and studies some considerations emerge that can be made for everyone.
When it is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, it is because and so. In fact, our brains in a single second can process dozens and dozens of images. While a block of text may not be seen, an image is perceived immediately, communicating with images is very important for a website. From Victoria University, some studies also confirm that websites with relevant text+images were more trusted by users than websites that favored text only.
The first impression is everything, and studies confirm that a person gets an idea of the website he or she is browsing as early as the first second, what his or her brain will think in that tiny amount of time will affect everything that comes after (priming effect), we are talking about spontaneous and immediate associations that our brain unconsciously makes, varying according to the socio-cultural sphere of the person, the priming effect also has consequences on memory and is therefore difficult to change. Recent studies also show that the first second within a website affects the perception of professionalism. Knowing about these aspects is the first step in being able to deepen them and make them positive for your business.
Less is more, a Columbia University study revealed that too many choices can actually be a deterrent to potential customers, decision paralysis can be caused, and when in doubt a person is more likely to make no choice at all, loss aversion is always around the corner, so no purchase. This is based on several psychological and neuroscientific principles, e.g., if there are too many choices, the fear of not having made the right one increases, insecurity about being able to evaluate all of them in the best way increases, our short (working) memory cannot process more than 7 (+/- 2) pieces of information at a time, and our brain in any case would do everything to save energy and not overload itself.
Cognitive fluidity, one enters a website for a reason, such as looking for information, it is a need that seeks immediate satisfaction, there should be no obstacles along this path, therefore, accompany the user to find what they are looking for, this also means giving them what they expect. Let’s take an example, the Call to Action, you are used to finding them right away, to know that they are distinguishable among everything, used to finding them by scrolling quickly through the site, so putting them in an unusual place, with colors that blend in with the rest, will be an obstacle for those who are browsing, you have to be original me you have to give what the user expects, and this applies to everything. The search bar? At the top at the beginning, contacts? In the footer.
How to increase a website’s conversion rate?
The decision-making process of a consumer (in this case visitor) is constantly
victim of certain cognitive biases, such as biases and heuristics, with neuromarketing we have come up with
some best practices to be applied on websites to leverage these biases.
Let’s look at some of them:
Numbers and statistics
Numbers come across as scientific and quickly build credibility (especially if odd). In addition, the
numbers stand out in a block of text made letters, attracting attention. Find the
statistic that emphasizes the importance and results of what you do and highlight it on your site.
If you can’t find one, create one! Even a short survey of 100 people can help you find
a more than compelling statistic.
Bandwagon Effect (social proof).
In a time of choice and uncertainty, and in the absence of other information immediately
available, people tend to do what other people do.
You go out to dinner with your partner, you have two restaurants ahead of you, you don’t know either of them
but you have to make a good impression, in one there are enough people, they are eating, laughing, chatting, the other
is empty, where do you go?
Social proof is a sign of legitimacy. You simply have to show that so many others have
chosen your product or service. The goal of social proof is to make it seem unfair to
any other choice than buying from you. If you have so many customers who speak highly of you
why do I have to take a chance and go somewhere else?
And I’ll also tell you a secret, don’t do the classic testimonial page, people today
are more and more careful, they see when something is artificial and put there on purpose. Rather
for each product/service page put in a few reviews, preferably one inherent to you
and one specific to that product.
Seals of trust: certifications, memberships and awards
Certificates, industry awards, membership in associations, chambers of commerce, are all
credentials that reinforce trust.
Put them all together by creating a small “trust space” on an important page of your
site, the home for example, but not in a forced place and in a bursting way, it is fine
even in the footer (people love to scroll then).
Endowment effect
People will pay more to keep something they already have than to get
something they do not already own. This is called the “endowment effect” and works both online
and offline.
The idea is to put the product or service in the hands of the customer, knowing that once they
has it, he or she will feel ownership of it and somehow be lost in the idea of giving it up.
It is because of the endowment effect that subscription Web sites offer free trials.
Sites that sell books offer free chapters. E-commerce sites offer free samples. And so on.