To be successful, Digital Marketers often have to be excellent Psychologists. Knowing what makes people look again and placing certain stimulants efficiently, can be extremely helpful to increase conversion rates and reach higher marketing results.
Digital Psychology is a fairly new term. It combines Digital Marketing with the theory of Behavioural Economics and Psychology to create a form of communication that is persuasive to our unconscious mind.
Digital Psychologists look into online behaviours, to give an explanation about why online customers behave the way that they do. If you are able to understand those behaviours in a better way, you can figure out how to position yourself digitally.
To move efficiently into digital transformation, it’s important to have a psychological insight. Companies everywhere are trying to change the way people behave online and their response with different products/services.
There is research being conducted to discover the impact of social psychology with digital interventions. It will show if we can change the behaviour of a consumer or not.
What can be considered as consumer behaviour?
Consumer behaviour consists of:
- Needs: A customer decides that they ‘need’ something
- Search: A customer discovering and researching products
- Purchase: How a customer decides to buy something
- Loyalty: Why a customer would stick to a product and repeat purchases
- Technology Adoption: Why customers make the decision to try out new technology
These are crucial to understand consumer behaviour in a better manner, similarly how ‘Consumer Power’ is another concept you should be aware of.
When one talks about consumer power, it refers to a customer’s buying capacity of certain products. If you had ‘high’ consumer power this would mean you have high income and that your purchasing power is relative to the supply and price of the goods available.
This leads us to figuring out ways by which we can use consumer behaviour and consumer power for effective digital marketing. Here are 5 effective methods that can be used to influence your consumer base through Digital Marketing.
5 Effective Methods of Digital Marketing
1. Emotional Marketing
Emotional marketing approaches consumers on a personal level and focuses on the tone, lighting and mood to increase loyalty and boost conversions.
It’s been proven that consumers base their purchase decisions around feelings and emotions rather than the rational information of products’ features and attributes. So, it’s worth remembering that customers will more likely be loyal to brands that evoke a positive emotional response.
For example, designing a campaign around something that reminds the audience of a special moment or sparks a conversation, exactly how Paper Boat does by invoking childhood nostalgia.
2. Social Proof
It refers to reassuring that the actions of others can justify a certain response.
One of the best examples of social proof is a customer review/testimonial or social media influencers using and reviewing a product.
Other examples include earned media, where the press have published positive reports. Word of mouth and recommendations by trustworthy friends and colleagues are also valid.
Social proof is based on the fact that people love to follow the behaviour of others. We tend to adopt the beliefs or mimic the actions of people we trust and admire. That is why most people end up purchasing products that are endorsed by movie stars.
3. Grounded Cognition
Grounded Cognition theory is based on the principle where people can experience a story that they read, hear or watch as if it was happening to them. It also states that people tend to forget dry facts and figures when they are engaged in a good story.
The goal here is that if you want your customers to remember your message, you have to incorporate it into a story. For example, speaking to an audience in a friendly manner, narrating a relatable story or sharing personal tales.
To explain it further, High Brew Coffee provides a great example of a personal story that enables the audience to connect with the brand. The founder of the company, David Smith, together with his wife have shared their story of coming up with their business idea which has in turn gained them many customers.
4. Paradox of Choice
Shockingly, too many choices make people nervous and can negatively impact conversion rates.
According to psychologist Barry Schwarz, providing people with a limited range of choices, reduces their anxiety and leads to better marketing results.
Therefore, you should follow certain practises like:
- Creating clear CTAs
- Emphasising few points at a certain point of time
- Giving maximum 2-3 paths to your users (more options might confuse them).
5. Commitment and Consistency
This theory states that if you make a small commitment to something, you are more likely to say yes to a bigger commitment in the future.
It means that if you get your customers to make a small commitment towards your brand, like signing up for a newsletter, they are more likely to make a larger commitment in the form of a purchase or a membership.
Small but effective steps you can take as a business:
- Always ask for contact details from users
- Invite users to subscribe to newsletter or follow social media channels
- Offer them something free and useful like E-books, webinars, etc.
Using psychological theories is a great way to improve the success of your marketing messages without any additional technologies or big budgets.
These theories can help you better understand your customers and ‘How they think?’. Accordingly, you can create content which cuts through the information overload that we’re usually bombarded with.
However, only gauged experimentation and testing regarding these theories can help achieve improved conversion rates.
We hope this blog will help you do Digital Marketing more effectively. To begin your Digital Marketing career, check out our Digital Marketing course here.
