Persuasion Economics 3: Emotion, Perception & Attention Principles.

It’s the third week of my Digital Psychology training by CXL and I would be sharing my take home from these learnings. I would share tips from my learnings and experience as a Copywriter and Mindset Coach.

This week, I would focus on emotions and how people make decisions, visual perception and how to grab attention by inspiring trust.

Each piece of content would contain my thoughts and/or learning from CXL’s teaching and a personal “How Can I Brand This” section, where I would share tips on how you can use the information for your brand success.

Emotional and Rational Decision Making

People make decisions using the old brain. And the old brain is triggered by emotions. Then they justify their action with reasons reasonable to them. First, they want something based on how they feel about that thing, then they justify their reason for wanting that thing by defending why they think it is important to them.

For example, if you sell a product that enhances a person’s outlook appearance, perhaps, a beauty product. A customer may buy the product because it makes her feel good and confident in herself. While customer B may buy the same product because it makes her feel good and beautiful for her romantic partner.

We buy with emotions, we justify with logic.

I like it because it makes me feel satisfied. I feel satisfied because I care about healthy eating and good health in general.

How People View Websites

The visual perception of a product page creates the user’s value perception of that product. Large product pages result in a higher value perception compared to smaller product images on the same page.

People view websites in an F-shaped model.

Here are some tips to consider when building a website for user consumption and retaining attention.

• The top left corner gets the attention first.
• People read in F patterns.
• Use visibly bigger introductory paragraphs for improved attention — Dominant headlines and catchy subtitles.
• People won’t look past the first search result on search engines.
• Use high-quality large images.

How Can I Brand This?

• Put the most important messages at the top left corner of your website page.
• Take professional, high-quality product pictures or take quality studio pictures for personal shots.
• People see the big texts first. Make your important texts in the first header.
• Optimize your website for SEO ranking so you can get on Google’s first page.

Cognitive Fluency

Cognitive fluency refers to the tendency of the human mind to prefer things that are familiar and easy to understand. Our brain prefers to think about things that are easy to remember or understand.

The easier it is for people to understand your offer, the easier it is for them to take action.

Make your website easy to read. Hard to read = Hard to buy.

People’s previous experiences matter. That is why people stick to a particular meal at a restaurant where their previous experience was great.

How Can I Brand This?

• Use simple, easy texts on your website, instead of big jargon.
• Make everything on your website easy…easy to navigate, easy to read and easy to buy products as well.
• Give customers a good first impression.

Digital First Impression

They say first impressions matter, and this is the same in the digital world as in the physical world. There are certain factors that could trigger oxytocin in your buyer’s mind. Oxytocins are hormones that trigger a certain high level of emotions.

If your first digital experience with your audience is bad, it would be difficult regaining their trust. This is why leaving a good first experience for your audience is important.

Here are 4 Factors That Could Influence First Impression on a Website.

1. Visual Design: Poor interface design is particularly associated with rapid rejection and mistrust of a website. When your audience does not like an aspect of your design, the remaining parts of your website was often not explored. Invest in building a stunning website.
2. Value Proposition: Your value proposition tells your customer who you are, what you do and why you are better than your competitor in a sentence or two. To structure a valid value proposition, you should have:

• Headline: State the end benefit in one sentence.
• Subheadline or 2–3 sentence paragraph: Explain what you do, whom you serve and why you are better than your competitor.
• 3 bullet points: List the key benefits or features.
• Visual: A solid image that increases people’s perception of you or the product.

3. Compelling Imagery and Graphics

• All images and graphics should complement the nature of your product. Don’t use a teenager’s picture on an adult’s website and vice versa.
• When using images of people, they should be smiling…and if you have a copy on the website, they should be looking towards it.
• Don’t go overboard, there should be no distracting images or graphics on your website.
• Go for professional pictures: Don’t settle for low quality, unprofessional pictures.

4. A personal touch that exudes “trustworthiness.”

• Use simple, common language.
• Avoid cheesy stock images.
• Use photos of realistic-looking people.

How Can I Brand This?

• When building a new product or creating a new website, always strive to create an impressive first impression.
• Outline your value proposition and craft it such that it passes the message as swiftly as possible.
• Always put yourself in the buyer’s mind and consistently ask yourself questions like: Would I trust this with my time, money, etc?”
• Don’t try to make things more difficult than they already are. Think visual rather than verbal. Communicate your message visually instead of using colloquial verbal texts.

That’s it on this week’s learning on Persuasion Economics. My personal take home from the learning sessions at CXL on Digital Psychology and Persuasion. Thanks to CXL for the learning opportunity. You can check out their website for details on these digital courses and many more as well as how to get your optimization and your digital game going and become a better marketer.