Good marketing is often about using skills associated with the right side of the brain: storytelling, imagination, intuition, etc. But great marketing includes the other hemisphere as well. Show
We’re talking science, of course. A closer look at human behavior and why it is we do the things we do reveals a number of concepts that can be applied to marketing messaging and content. The results not only manifest a strong sense of creativity, but also trigger inherent behaviors in consumers that can work to a business’s benefit. Luckily, you don’t need to be a psychologist to understand these behaviors. In this guide, we’ll review a number of behavioral principles and show you how one of a leading e-commerce store has successfully applied them to their marketing efforts for greater conversion rates. We’ll walk you through the buying process step-by-step in a real-life case study. By using concrete examples of strategies and insights, you will learn both how and why they work. You’ll walk away with knowledge of how to use marketing psychology to boost your e-commerce sales and ensure your customers keep coming back. These learnings are based on how human psychology works and you can replicate them in any e-shop. Along the way, we’ll also give you specific tips on how Bloomreach can help you get started. What is Marketing Psychology?Before we dive into the analysis, you should understand how and why marketers use psychology to influence consumers. Let’s start with the basics. What is Marketing Psychology?To give you a proper definition, marketing psychology is a branch of applied psychology which studies the factors that influence consumers’ attitude toward products or services. Simply put, it looks at how presenting a product affects the consumer’s behavior. Marketers use it to predict how consumers will act and to find ways to influence their decisions. Making a product seem desirable or attractive is one example. Marketing psychology closely relates to consumer behavior: the study of how and why we purchase goods or services. Borrowing insights from behavioral sciences, such as neuroscience and cognitive sciences, marketing psychology looks at how people’s feelings and perceptions influence their buying habits. Heuristics & Cognitive Biases — What They are and Why We Need ThemMarketing psychology borrows a lot from behavioral sciences, such as neuroscience, cognitive sciences, and other fields that study how the brain works. Although people like to believe that they make rational, well-thought-out decisions, the opposite is often true. The amount of information that your brain absorbs in a day is just too much to analyze. To help us make faster decisions, our brains developed shortcuts that help them process information selectively. These shortcuts are called heuristics. You can think of them as rules of thumb. For example, let’s say a freshman in college is shopping on his own for the first time. He heads down the detergent aisle and passes 15 different detergents he knows nothing about in order to get to the Tide section, which is a brand he trusts simply because it’s what his parents use at home. If he knew more about the 15 different brands he ignored, there’s a good chance he’d choose to try one of them over his old standby, but this mental shortcut prevents that. Unfortunately, heuristics often cause errors in our judgments and result in cognitive biases. Cognitive biases describe irrational tendencies in decision making. They can affect how consumers buy your products and perceive your brand. By understanding cognitive biases, you will be able to read your customers’ minds better and design your product or your marketing strategy accordingly. What is the Value of Marketing Psychology for Marketers?There is a huge value for marketers in using these approaches for their marketing strategies. But it’s not as simple as copying out-of-context strategies and throwing around popular buzzwords. The key is knowing how these strategies can work together. Understanding what goes on in your customers’ minds and how they make decisions enables you to create a strong, targeted marketing strategy that brings conversions. You can use it to improve your marketing campaigns and reach your customers faster. The application of psychology to marketing is by no means a new enterprise. Business organizations and professionals from all over the globe have endeavored to use behavioral patterns to their advantage over the years. The difference now, of course, is that there’s technology sophisticated enough to support these initiatives in a much more effective way. Introduction to Case Study: In-depth Behavioral Analysis of One of Central Europe’s Largest E-shopsNow that you have a basic understanding of marketing psychology, let’s dive into the actual application of it. In the following chapter, we’ll walk you through a typical online buying process:
Our case study focuses on one of the largest online computer and electronics stores in Europe. It sets the direction for its competitors in the region. In 2019, this fast-growing store more than tripled their annual income from the previous year. Their secret weapon: exemplary marketing strategies rooted in consumer psychology. These principles are based on human behavior and they apply across the board, whether you are in the US or elsewhere. When used well, they can boost your sales and make buyers never want to shop anywhere else. Despite the differences between the US and European markets in terms of buyers’ expectations and online shopping behavior, you’ll still find many practical tips by studying what this e-shop does. To show our findings as clearly as possible, we’ll share a simplified, anonymized version of their site with you. Are you ready? Let’s dive right in. Practical Application of Marketing Psychology in E-CommerceIn this chapter, we’ll take you through the purchasing process in our chosen e-shop, pointing out insights along the way. These insights will show you how to influence consumer behavior and your customers’ choices while making them feel empowered. Here’s our scenario. Imagine you set out to buy a new mobile phone. Your buying process will consist of five steps:
We’ll take a look at each of these steps in detail. Throughout the process, we will analyze the strategies our e-shop uses to nudge you toward purchase, and explain how and why they work according to marketing psychology. Let’s get shopping. Applying Marketing Psychology to the Homepage» The First Visit: Building Credibility with Social Proof «Welcome. You just landed on the e-shop’s homepage. Most likely, your search engine has taken you to the e-shop’s page for your home country. Though Fresh Electronics is a global company, the first thing you see is a landing page tailored to your country, including reviews from customers in the local language. Even if it’s your first time on Fresh Electronics' site, you won’t find it hard to trust its offerings if you see positive reviews from like-minded consumers. Marketing psychology refers to this principle as social proof. It says that to decide what is correct, people look to others to see what they think is right. The more you see others do something, the more you perceive it as correct behavior, because your brain judges that they might know more about the situation. In Fresh Electronics' case, the more positive reviews you read, the likelier you are to trust the e-shop with your purchase. Applying Marketing Psychology to the Category Page (Part 1)
|