Understanding the way customers process information helps marketers and small biz owners to create more effective and personalized marketing campaigns!
Consumer Psychology: 3 Tips To Better Understand Your Customers
Hey, y'all! Hannah here.
This week I'm sharing 3 consumer psychology tips I use every single day!
Before we get started - a quick textbook recap of consumer psychology per Wikipedia (Oh yes, I did just cite Wikipedia as a source! Pick your jaw up off the floor LOL).
Consumer behavior consists of how the consumer's emotions, attitudes, and preferences influence their buying behavior.
TL;DR
You don't have time to dive deep into behavioral science because you're a busy biz owner juggling the world, so you came here to learn these consumer psychology hacks in under 5 minutes!
Tip #1 - Use language people can VISUALIZE
In 1972 psychologist Ian Begg conducted a study (Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior Volume 11, Issue 4, August 1972) where he read a list of 22 phrases to people.
These 22 phrases were made up of concrete phrases (easy to visualize) and abstract phrases (things that can't be pictured).
By the end of the study, Begg found that when he asked participants later on how many of the phrases they remembered - on average, only 9% remembered the abstract phrases while 36% remembered the concrete phrases.
Conclusion: the most powerful sense we have is the sense of vision! When generating your content, ads, message, or whatever use language people can visualize to create a lasting impression.
Using language that people can picture = easy to remember.
Using language that people can't picture = easy to forget.
Avoid corporate talk at all costs.
Tip #2 - Remind Customers They're in CONTROL
The University of Texas conducted a study monitoring the effectiveness of two signs: one passive and one aggressive and judged the results by the accumulation of graffiti between the two.
One sign politely read “Please don't graffiti” and the other read in bold letters with exclamation points “DO NOT GRAFFITI!!” and were then monitored for graffiti over a short period of time.
They found there was 2x as much graffiti on the more aggressive sign than there was on the more passive/polite sign.
The discovery is if you remind people they're in control, they are more likely to agree to go along with what you’re asking. This can be translated to business in the sense that customers value a sense of control - whether you're asking for a page follow, a purchase, subscribing to a newsletter, visiting a website, etc.
Tips #3 - Make It EASY
When Behavioral Economist and 2017 Nobel Prize Winner Richard Thaler was asked about the most prominent results across the many behavioral sciences studies he has conducted he said "Make it easy".
Experiment after experiment shows often the most effective way to change behavior (especially in our customers) is to think about the small barriers that are stopping them from behaving the way you want. When we put more effort into removing little hurdles (that may seem inconsequential to us) it makes a huge difference.
Try putting yourself in your customer's shoes - go through the customer journey. Did you encounter any blockages along the way? Consider investing more resources into fixing them!
Closing Notes:
Use language people can visualize, remind customers they're in control, and make it easy. If this post was helpful to you, and you want to keep seeing these short reads feel free to give my page a like and follow!
Thanks for reading!
Have questions? Drop a comment and I'll try to get back to you asap.