How to Apply Neuromarketing to Increase Conversions | CXL Minidegree Review

This is the third in a 12 part blog series, where I review CXL Institute’s ‘Digital Psychology and Persuasion’ Minidegree. Today we will explore two new courses I took this week: i) Intro to Neuromarketing, and ii) Applied Neuromarketing. We will build an understanding on principles of Neuromarketing and how to use them to appeal to a user’s entire brain and consequently increase conversions.


CXL Institute comes through again with amazing top-notch instructors. The ‘Intro to Neuromarketing’ course is taught by Roger Dooley, author of popular books ‘Brainfluence’ and ‘The Persuasion Slide’. The ‘Applied Neuromarketing’ course is taught by Andre Moreys who’s a co-founder of a global optimization group.

Let’s explore some ideas of Neuromarketing that you can use to improve your conversions.

Roger Dooley’s Framework for Increasing Conversions

Dooley created a framework to resolve decision making for optimization by creating a ‘Persuasion Slide’ analogous to a children’s slide. It incorporates persuasion psychology and has four elements. Each element has both: a non-conscious and conscious component to it.

Gravity

It represents the customer’s initial motivation, needs, wants and goals. Just as a child can’t slide down without gravity, a conversion can’t be made without motivation. This is what the customer comes with, not something we create in them. Try asking yourselves, why the customer has come to you? We should focus on how we can help them and align with our customers’ needs and wants, i.e. work with gravity! Our aim is to enhance the natural intrigue in our product.

Nudge

It is the initial step of encouraging the customer towards conversion. The two key elements of a nudge are: it has to be seen and it must start the process. For example, with pop-ups, CTAs, etc. Always remain focused on the customer’s needs as a nudge without motivation will be ineffective.

Angle

The angle of the slides is what brings the movement in the child. Similarly, it is the external conscious and non-conscious motivation we provide to further encourage the conversion. Conscious motivators can be discounts and gifts, and nonconscious motivators can be the trigger of emotions and biases. 

Friction

The friction in a slide works against the movement towards conversion. It can be a real or perceived difficulty in the conversion sequence. Minimizing friction always costs less than increasing motivation.

Are You Still Optimizing for Conversion?

Though eventually we want to see our conversions improve, it isn’t what we should direct our focus at when optimizing. Consider this common conversion sequence:

Traffic to a website —> Perception —> Limbic System —> Behavior —> Conversion

It is the change in customer behavior that results into a conversion change. So, it is the behavior that we must focus on and optimize to result into favorable conversions.

When optimizing for customer behavior, it is imperative that the changes made should be perceived by the customer. When people perceive differently, they will think differently and consequently, behave differently.

Which part of the customer’s brain are you appealing to?

As I discussed in my previous blog, our brain can be seen as two systems. System 1, the automated emotional part of the brain and System 2, the conscious, logical part of the brain. 100% of the decisions are made by the non-conscious, old brain – but some decisions will be ‘post-rationalized’ more than others using the conscious, new brain. So as marketers we need to ask ourselves what part of the brain are we marketing to. Since, behavioral decisions almost always are made by the emotional brain, we need to improve our communication with it.

The question you need to ask yourself is:

What is the most important thing my customer needs to know?

Your answer must include both logical and emotional motivators.

Customers Can’t Control Their Attention, But You Can!

Attention of the customer isn’t something  that they can control but something that you can control. By controlling the attention, you control what people perceive and what they think about you. You can only change the behavior of customers if you are able to control the attention and make sure the right message is perceived.

Draw attention by using the following graphical principles: contrast, space, people/faces, movement, breaking rules, directional cues, user’s name or image.

Optimize for Customers’ Emotional Relevance

Beyond the visual aspects, you also need to identify what resonates with and motivates your target customers on an emotional level. We have to aim for relevance in content, value propositions, implicit codes and provide emotional resonance. So how do you explore and understand different emotional systems to appeal to them?

The Limbic Map

André shared a model popularized by German neuroscientist Dr. Georg Häusel:

  • Save
All human motives, desires, and values can be represented and related to one another within this map.
(Image Source)

Developed by German research group, Gruppe Nymphenburg, the limbic map provides a framework for identifying the values and emotions that resonate most strongly with your target audience.

Create Limbic Personas

The Limbic model allows you to categorize a target customer segment by psychographic profile, rather than just demographics or geographic. Use the following steps to create an emotionally focused Limbic persona:

  1. Identify basic characteristics of your target customer and turn them to core values.
  2. Allocate the core values on the Limbic map.
  3. Eliminate conflicting values and focus on most coherent values.
  4. Assign corresponding Limbic type.
  • Save

Understanding your target customer by Limbic type means that you can design marketing experiences that resonate with them at an emotional level. Incorporate these motivators to match their emotional preferences.

Why you shouldn’t rely on customer inputs for their emotional drivers

Although receiving feedback from customers is always a good idea, but it might not be the most authentic description of their mental processes. Customers like to believe they are rational beings and justify their decisions with logic. However, almost all of the decisions are made unconsciously by the emotional brain. They aren’t even aware of these implicit processes happening inside their brain. Consider the following excerpt:

Identifying and measuring emotional motivators is complicated, because customers themselves may not even be aware of them. These sentiments are typically different from what customers say are the reasons they make brand choices and from the terms they use to describe their emotional responses to particular brands.

Scott Magids, Alan Zorfas, and Daniel Leemon, “The New Science of Customer Emotions“, Harvard Business Review

Oftentimes, the cause of poor conversions is due to the difference between what you want to say to your customer and what they are actually perceiving. Bridge this gap, by optimizing target-group specific communication using Limbic personas. And begin to explore the “why” of customer behavior and create emotionally resonant marketing experiences.

Next week, I will further discuss my learnings and opinions from the next few courses I take in the Minidegree. To stay updated with my weekly blogs and explore the ‘Digital Psychology and Persuasion’ Minidegree with me, subscribe to my blog.

Until then, explore the various programs offered by CXL, by clicking on the link below:

Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap