Do you need to improve your marketing conversions? Understanding the principles behind neuromarketing and applying them through some simple hacks can help.
The book Neuromarketing by Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin introduced marketers to the concept of three brain parts that can be scientifically tested through functional MRIs and by other means in 2006. They based their research on studies done at Harvard University in the 1990s, which discovered that the three parts of the brain work together before making a buying decision. The research shows that you must appeal to the emotional side of the brain, called the reptilian brain, for your marketing to be successful. Employ these hacks to appeal to the reptilian brain.
Prove Value to Your Target Audience
The reptilian part of the brain is very self-centered. Therefore, you must feed it with thoughts that you have its best interest at heart. One way that you can do this is to use “you” often in your marketing. You also need to use short sentences and images that allow the customer to see themselves using your product. Since the reptilian part of the brain focuses mainly on surviving, you should make your marketing connect with a person’s desire to survive.
Speed Up the Buying Process by Using Contrast
The reptilian area of the brain understands contrast very well. Therefore, you need to find ways to show the contrast in your marketing. You can show contrast through:
- cross-selling
- selling add-ons
- showing a poor-quality product compared to yours
- showing an ultra-expensive model compared to yours
Concentrate on showing as opposed to telling because the reptilian area of the brain comprehends photos and images, but very few words. One essential place that you need to use contrast is in your call-to-action buttons. Take a look at your website design to determine its prominent color. Then, choose the exact opposite color on the color wheel for your buttons.
Improve User Experience by Doing the Thinking
Since your target audience needs to make an emotional connection before they follow your call-to-action, tell the viewer exactly what you want them to do. Skip the big words and the jargon. It does not matter if you are selling directly to consumers or a person behind a business, use simple direct language to convey ideas because the reptilian part of the brain is continuously searching for the familiar.
Grab Attention and Finish Strong
You need to grab the viewer’s attention in your opening. An easy way to do this is to tell them in a few words that you understand their pain. Then, close your marketing copy with a strong finish showing them that you have the answer to their pain. The content in the middle is less critical. This is especially true for internet marketers as viewers are very likely to skim the middle of your content as opposed to reading every word.
Create an Emotional Connection
There are many different emotions that you can invoke that will enhance the buying decision. Research, however, shows that anxiety, awe, sadness, and anger are the strongest ones to invoke to drive customer behavior. Again, visuals are the best way to drive your target audience’s emotions because the reptile part of the brain understands what it sees before it understands words and triggers the rest of the mind when it needs to pay attention or when it can drift away.
Count on the Five-Second Test
If you want to know if your marketing is making an emotional connection with your viewers, try the five-second test. Show your website to a market group. Then, ask them to describe it in five seconds or less. If you are not getting the feedback that you want, then do a usability analysis to decide where your material is failing and get it fixed. Pay particular attention that your website shows happy users, your product, and has examples of how your product works.
There is no need to make things complicated when striving to increase your conversion rate. Just engage the reptile brain. It is far easier and faster than you think when you remember these simple hacks. Prove value to your customers. Use contrast to show that you have the right product to solve their pain. Keep your presentation visual and straightforward so that your audience does not have to think. Start with a strong introduction and end with a forceful conclusion. Be sure that your marketing evokes strong emotion. Finally, use the five-second test to be sure that your marketing is succeeding.
