5 Useful Psychology Effects You Can Use To Improve Your Digital Marketing

‍

Why Psychology And Why Use It In Digital Marketing? 

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behaviour. As marketing at its core is about trying to influence the mind and behaviour of existing and potential customers, psychology is indispensable and often overlooked or forgotten as a heuristic or tool that can be used to improve a business’s online presence. Different colours, words, logos, and websites all evoke different emotions, thoughts and behaviours and the inability to capitalise and implement psychological effects, whether as cognitive biases or phenomena, should be seen as underselling how well your business can succeed. Consumer behaviour is generally influenced but not limited by psychological factors such as motivation, learning, attitudes, and belief systems, which can be tapped into and harnessed if the psychological concepts are grasped. 

What Are Some Psychological Effects That Apply To Digital Marketing? 

So you’re probably asking yourself, what are some psychological effects that I can apply to my digital marketing and how do I do this? Below you’ll find several effects with examples that will put you on the path to incorporating psychology into your digital marketing campaigns.

1. Colour psychology
   

Have you ever wondered why certain brands use certain colours? Different colours and hues elicit and evoke different feelings and there is a huge field that explores and studies how colours influence human behaviour. For example, it’s unlikely that you would ever see a vegan-friendly website or product with ‘meat-red’ packaging or colours. Just as it’s unlikely that you would see a bespoke, luxurious ring store with a mud-coloured logo or website. The reason for this is that the colours do not match the product or brand and when incongruencies occur, people are less likely to engage with or buy from the brand. This is why considering what colours you’re going to use for your logo, brand, website and creatives is paramount for success. 

2. Social/ proof psychology
   

Social Proof or social proofing is a great tool and technique to influence and convince people that your brand and product are as great as you think they are. Humans love to follow a crowd or what others are doing, and fear missing out on the next ‘big thing’ that could benefit or enhance their lives. If you can show on your website, social pages, or product pages that others believe and rate your product as fantastic, then others will mimic this cognitively and find it easier to engage with your brand or purchase your product. The easiest way to do this is through testimonials and reviews so always try to capture positive feedback when you can. 

‍

3. Emotional vs Rational Copy
   

Have you ever considered two different copies for the time of the day? Research has shown that people are more rational in the morning and more emotional in the afternoon. This is something you could look at split testing on a landing page or ad with a specific ad schedule. Also empathising, and putting yourself in the shoes of your potential customer is a great tool for selecting or coming up with copy. Imagine you're writing copy for a divorce lawyer. A great split test could be that one copy is orientated towards the person who wants to read rational value points. Whereas, another copy could be about the emotions of someone getting a divorce and the law firm is there for them. All these things are important when considering how you want your brand to be positioned, how you want to appeal or relate to your potential customers, and what works best for where you’re targeting. 

4. Decoy effect
   

The Decoy Effect is great for e-commerce stores, or anything that sells products or subscriptions online. If you think back to when you were a child, how often would you go to the movies and see that the small popcorn was $4, the medium was $7, and the large was $8? This exemplifies the decoy effect in that the medium price of $7 is anchoring the price so that you believe you are getting more value for money from the large. The reason you would use this is so that you offer multiple choices to your customers but really, you only have the intention to sell one which they perceive as giving them the highest value. 

‍

5. Grounded cognition 
   

Grounded cognition is a theory based on the principle that people relate to a story and feel like it is happening to them. For example, the above paragraph about the Decoy Effect shared a story that unless you lived under a rock for all of your childhood, most people would be able to relate to. In doing so, you were able to synthesise the message and concept by having it told in an easily relatable story. Utilising stories in this manner is a great way to increase your conversion rate optimisation by having relatable content that your audience can empathise with which in turn, creates a bond of familiarity and something by which they can remember your brand. 

If you want to see how you can improve your brand or website with psychological effects, or even find out more about conversion rate optimisation or digital marketing, please reach out to us at Mensa Marketing. Call us on (+61) 488 822 234 or send an email to admin@mensamarketing.com.au for more information.