Using Neuromarketing Research to Boost Conversions - Review

Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash

What is Neuromarketing

In order to understand the Neuromarketing research, we should first understand neuromarketing.

It can be understood in terms of spectra.

At one side, we have the behaviors and the other side the Neuroscience.

It has a lot to do with fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) studies and EEG (Electroencephalogram) studies.

In order to understand neuromarketing, one has to know the fundamentals of brain.

In Anatomy sense and then how each section of brain responds and behaves.

So the spectra ranges from the role of behavior scientists to neuroscientist.

So when it comes to neuromarketing, we can either apply things that are general.

For example, Social Proof works so let's apply social proof.

Or, we can dig deeper how each element makes a difference and design accordingly.

So if we just apply things in general from behavioral science or neuroscience, we can call it "Passive" Neuromarketing.

Neuromarketing Research

Daniel Kahlemann designed the two systems approach for this research.

System 1 is fast, intuitive, emotional and rule-based.

System 2 is logical, which one grinds it out analysis.

If we as marketers, do not realize these two systems, there is possibility of failing as marketers.

Then we also have the BJ Fogg Behavior Model.

According to this model, three things result in a behavior:

• Motivation
• Ability (or lack of difficulty)
• Trigger

Common Methods of Neuromarketing Research

The tool that provides detailed insights is the fMRI.

With this, we can peer into people's brains.

The machines are large and expensive. The time to be put on This is also costly.

But they are able to produce 3D images almost in real time.

Images of which part of people'e brains light up when they view content or make decisions.

EEG is a more commonly used tool for neuromarketing. It is cheap and you can conduct a larger studies quickly.

EEG can be combines with further tools like eye tracking and biometric measurements.

Biometrics are useful in measuring heart rate, breath rate, and even galvanic response.

Even how much we are perspiring and other factors.

One of the interesting part is that these biometric sensors can become a part of our daily gadgets like Apple Watch and Fitbit.

Another method is facial coding.

With this method, the expressions and micro expressions of face can be gauged to measure the exact emotion of the person.

This is already being used to measure the emotions of professional athletes to check if they are a good fit for a team.

For commercial large scale marketing studies, it is best to combine the various techniques.

The reason being, each method can give information that is different from other.

When we combine them, we can really get a deep insight.

Neuromarketing Research for Conversions

Conversions are tied to behavior of customers.

As a marketer, you can change the behavior of customers if you are able to control their attention.

Also, it is important to ensure that the right message is conveyed.

People usually do not control their attention.

So, as a marketer, we have to control their attention on our website or platform.

If we are able to understand how people perceive our websites, aka customer experience, we become able to control this perception.

So, in order to make customer experience result in growth and conversions, no need to focus on great, or fancy, or cool content.

Rather, the content should be "Relevant".

Even the Value Proposition and implicit codes need to be relevant.

The website needs to be emotionally relevant. In other words, it should resonate with the customers emotionally.

Implicit codes are practices implemented on a website to create a perception.

Example can be:

• Black color header
• Minimalist Design
• Lots of Space

Perception Leads to Interpretation

As per a study, if you want to convey something 100% or should be saying, you end up:

• Saying only 20% of it.
• Only 5% is what Customers perceive.
• And only 1% is what the customers are able to interpret.

In order to control the attention of customers, you have to make sure it reaches their mind.

Or else, it won't have any effect.

7 Principles of Controlling Attention

1. Contrast

Our eye works with contrast. So we come to know what is important and what is not.

2. Space

Similar to Contrast, the text with more space around it, would be considered important.

3. People or Faces.

The users on your website tend to focus on the people or faces you have put.

This is in line with the old rule.

The people try to ensure the faces or people they see are friendly or to check what kind of people are there.

4. Movement

Our eyes focus on things that move. Hence, the things that move seem to be more important than the ones that don't.

5. Breaking the rules.

If in a line or content, one thing is out of place or odd, breaking the rule, our eye focuses on that.

6. Directional Cues.

If on your website a person in an image is looking at something, our eye tries to focus on the that thing.

7. Your name.

If your name or your photo is on the website, the eye tends to look at that.

This is common on an e-commerce website or any membership website.

These are 7 easy to apply principles for controlling attention.

Booking.com very well exploits these seven principles on its website.

Conclusion

The insights and reflections about Neuromarketing are from the learnings in Conversion Optimization Minidegree at CXL Institute.

The topic of Neuromarketing is explained in much more details by the experts of practice.

With a step-by-step approach and many more examples to relate and understand.

In this article, we discussed:

• Meaning of Neuromarketing and common usability
• Neuromarketing Research
• Using this research for Conversions
• Common methods used in the Neuromarketing.
• 7 principles of Controlling the attention of Customers.

Additional Readings:

Neuromarketing Ethics: How Far is Too Far?

10 Recent Neuromarketing Research Studies (and Their Real-World Takeaways)

6 Neuromarketing Stimuli That Speak to the Old Brain

The author of this article can be reached at Linkedin.