The brain controls everything, from how your body processes things, to your emotions, even how and when you move. It is crazy to think that everything we do is flawlessly done in split seconds seemingly without thought at times. However, your brain is also always trying to find ways to streamline jobs or objectives.
This is also true for cognitive functions like problem-solving, remembering, and decision-making. When it comes to a person making a judgment or performing an act, your brain relies on past information to quickly decide what the best decision is.
When it comes to a consumer's purchasing decision being aware of these shortcuts can help you predict and leverage their behaviors in your favor. By leveraging this you aren’t trying to manipulate a customer, just influence them to perform an action.
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The idea behind this is that people tend to follow others in situations where the “appropriate” behavior is unknown to them. Let’s go over some ways this can influence behavior.
Adding Testimonials on Landing Pages
Testimonials are the most common way to bring confidence to consumers on landing pages. Consumers will feel more comfortable getting feedback from existing customers' judgments based on reviews. Would you rather use something that has a one-star review or a five-star review? Many people use testimonials/reviews to help make judgments on products and services.
You can even create a page solely for reviews so that there is a plethora of insight for consumers to use to inform their decisions.
Highlight Endorsements From Well Known Brands
If you are servicing or providing products for big-name companies, leverage it. Use their logo, face, and name of the company (with permission of course). If people recognize these brands it provides more credibility and confidence in your products or services.
Partnerships
If you have won any awards or accreditations make sure to flaunt them. This is just another way to show your credibility as a company. Again, this delivers confidence in your products to your customers.
Anchoring
Anchoring bias occurs when people rely too much on pre-existing information or the first information they find to inform decisions. However, this is a great way to present your pricing.
Mark-downs
A great example of this is on e-commerce websites, specifically Amazon. A consumer sees the original price and then sees the new discounted price. In most cases, consumers will see it as a deal, because of the price drop and that is it is of higher value to them. Just make sure that you understand that price drops can also affect the perceived quality of a product. If your price drop is very drastic, instead of assuming they’re getting a good deal, the consumer might think there is something wrong because the deal price drop is so large.
Amount Saving
Amount saved is typically found with subscription-based products or services. Typically you will see all rate options, monthly vs quarterly vs yearly. With this display, there will usually be some sort of discount for purchasing the longer amount of time of the description base. These discounts usually are quite large, but in the grand scheme of things, it is less expensive and gives you saving for a longer time-based subscription.
The Pygmalion Effect
The Pygmalion Effect, aka the Rosenthal Effect, is a psychological phenomenon wherein high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area. As an example, if a coach of a football team holds his players to a high standard and shows belief that they can achieve their goals, the team will have a higher probability of performing better.
Create A Positive Feedback Loop
You can create the Pygmalion Effect directly on your audience or customers. If you convey a higher level of performance is possible, or that they can be the best in their field, you can encourage them to align with those beliefs.
This can be started by having consumers download your content through social media. This will build more confidence that they can achieve their goal with your help. Each time they do this, there is a higher chance of landing a customer. If the customer then achieves their goals, they will become more loyal to your brand and become returning customers.
The Mere Exposure Effect
The Mere Exposure Effect is also known as the “Familiarity Principle” and this effect is the concept that the more often people have previously been exposed to something, the more they like it. For example, the first time you hear a song you might feel indifferent about it. However, the more times you hear the song, you appreciate it more and more, and eventually, the song becomes your favorite song.
Display Ads for Brand Awareness
Display ads are known to have lower click-through rates compared to other ad-type campaigns. But one of the main reasons to use them is to create brand awareness campaigns. This is the same basic concept as the example above: the reason behind this is to keep exposing your brand to consumers so that you raise brand awareness among them.
Retargeting Ads to Increase CTR
Another great strategy to leverage the Mere Exposure Effect is retargeting potential prospects. Retargeting ads have a 76% higher chance of being clicked on compared to regular display ads. One thing to watch out for is how often you display them. The reason being is if you are too aggressive with them, your brand might be looked at as annoying. Make sure you provide enough time in between retargeting ads so that your company's reputation doesn’t take a hit.
These psychological theories are based on cognitive functions that involve “errors in thinking” so if you use any of these you have a responsibility to uphold them. Make sure that you are not forcing a product or service on someone else if you know it isn’t a good fit for them. Make sure the customer doesn’t feel cheated or swindled and keep in mind the principle of reciprocity can also be used in a bad way. Make sure you give yourself time to achieve results and in time the data will come in.