The process of fostering a growing, thriving business always falls back on marketing. Sure, there are myriad other aspects to a business – accounting, production, account management, customer service – but sales and marketing  departments are giants that feed the funnel. Conversions mean revenue, and that’s sort of the whole point, right? Because marketing is so critical to success, it’s an incredibly dynamic discipline. Our collective marketing knowledge is constantly growing (hence the need to explore neuromarketing), companies are forever running split tests, and metrics are scrutinized ad infinitum in the race to perfect the art of turning a lead into a sale.

Your marketing/sales pitch is nothing without data. Bear that in mind with whatever new online marketing program you choose to do.

Just like any type of race, we’re always looking out for the next idea that will give us an edge. Competition is about finding and leveraging advantages. Such innovation often comes from the merging of two unrelated disciplines, and what we’re going to discuss in this article is a perfect example.

We’re going to discuss a couple of cutting-edge digital marketing disciplines known as Web Psychology and Neuromarketing. As you can probably discern from their names, these concepts focus largely on the psychological relationship between an internet user and the market that they encounter online.

Needless to say, when the art of marketing and the science of the mind collide, it can produce some pretty powerful results. Let’s take a closer look:

So How About That Neuromarketing?

Imagine hooking a consumer up to a machine that measures how they respond to various stimuli. (Mythbusters did a lot of episodes in regards to this experiment!)  You show them your advertising material, and precise computer calculations are able to determine which aspects appeal to them, and which ones don’t. You can then adjust your marketing based on that information, honing it to a fine edge.

This is an exaggerated illustration of how neuromarketing works, but it’s not far from reality. Scientists actually use MRI and EEG equipment to monitor reactions to marketing material, but analysis is a bit more complicated than watching a needle dance on a meter. The prevalent analytical method is called the ZMET – Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique – and it’s been in use since the 1990s. It revolves around a process called “priming”- defined as the electrochemical response to the first time a new stimulus is introduced.

What all of the research and medical equipment boils down to is quite straightforward; Neuromarketing is a sort of “lie detector” for marketing effectiveness. Whereas polls and customer feedback forms can be loaded with erroneous data, their biological responses can’t be forged.

…and Web Psychology?

The term “web psychology” emerged in 2011, coined by psychologist and web designer Nathalie Nahai. She defines the discipline as “the empirical study of how our online environments influence our attitudes and behaviors.” In other words, it’s an application of psychological principles and research – including neuromarketing – to web design and digital marketing to increase their effectiveness.

The bulk of web psychology relies on long-established principles of persuasion. It’s really just a matter of configuring these established ideas to work in an online environment. Studying your analytics/metrics and any campaign data can help you establish your strategy & tactics.

How Are These Different Than Regular Ol’ Marketing?

Persuasion. Selling. Sounds like the normal stuff you talk about when discussing marketing, right? Well, neuromarketing is a subset of marketing proper, but with a few key differences.

Marketing is focused on branding, developing and delivering messages, and those sorta things. You think of marketing, and you think of something that’s in-your-face: a billboard, TV commercial, sales pitch, banner-ad, etc.

Neuromarketing is more focused on the back-end work. Rather than dealing with the specifics of the message, it’s more concerned with how people react to various marketing ideas. What emotional responses are triggered? Will the image be forgotten, or will it stick in memory? Where does a person’s eyes go on the page? Where do they click next?

These are important – and measurable – points of concern for neuromarketing.

How Can These Ideas Improve My Marketing?

Let’s start with a flashback from 2010.

When I first started out in Digital Marketing I learned about something called “neurolinguistic programming.” It was a blend of concepts, but NLP is mostly based on computer programming, persuasion, and – believe it or not – hypnosis. The techniques involve body language, speech patterns, and even subtle tricks involving putting inflection on certain words while you speak. One of my key takeaways from learning all of this stuff involved the idea of reaching people through their preferred sensory channel, be it visual, auditory, or kinesthetic.

As I learned, each one of the three sensory channels has its own “language” of words and gestures that elicit better results when you use them appropriately. Use visual language with a kinesthetic person and you won’t get very far, but speak “visual” to a visual person and you can gain an almost eerie level of persuasive ability over them. Needless to say, I applied these techniques to great use over the years. Both in video and web.

NLP is an example of what can accomplished when you combine scientific rigor with something as natural and human as face-to-face communication. Web psychology is essentially the same idea, albeit applied to the interfacing of a person with online content.

In much the same way that NLP made me into a selling machine, web psychology and neuromarketing can:

• increase the effectiveness of your ad campaigns considerably.
• improve traffic flow on your website.
• lower your site’s bounce rate.
• enhance the user experience (UX) of your site.
• result in more sales, more conversions, more fans, or whatever else you’re seeking to accomplish with your digital marketing.

The possibilities are really limitless, as applying hard science to consumer behavior gives you tons of advantages to leverage.

How Do I Use Neuromarketing and Web Psychology?

Now that you’re sure that it’s a worthwhile avenue to explore, you probably want to know how to put web psychology to work for your business.

Rest assured that there is plenty to learn about these techniques (I added some recommended reading to the end of the article) but there are a few quick ideas you can start using right away:

•    Talk about the customer’s pain point and how you’re going to solve it. Many business will start off with a long story about their company history, including a bio of the CEO and photos of their pets. This information has a place, but there’s a reason why most sites have an ABOUT page that’s separate from the home page. Focus on the customer first. (Actually, focus on building customer trust first — but ya know..)

•    Use visuals to make your point. Images and videos are more engaging, and they deliver information far more quickly than words. The internet is a mixed-media platform, so use it to its full potential.

•    Try to elicit emotional responses. Why do TV commercials try so hard to make us laugh? It’s because neuromarketing has proven that emotional responses are almost impossible to ignore. People tend to “space out” and drift through the internet without paying much attention. When something surprises them or makes them laugh, it brings them back into the moment. That’s why funny commercials are the ones people remember the most.

•    Hit ’em fast. Your customers (or potential customers) should not have to work to figure out what you’re trying to say. Deliver your message quickly and get to the point!

•    Bookend your material. If you have a video ad or an image slideshow, open and close with your main message (CTA) or company name/logo. People tend to remember the beginning and end of an ad more easily than all of the content in the middle.

•    Know who you’re targeting. Persuasiveness is not a “one size fits all” affair. To make sure you’re applying the right psychological tools, you need to clearly define your target audience. The more you narrow it down, the more effectively you can tailor your approach.

•    Does your product appeal to the deliberate, thinking part of the brain…or the emotional, intuitive part? Make sure you’re creating marketing that works with that in mind.

As I said, there are almost unlimited ways that you can use web psychology and neuromarketing to improve your digital marketing. With attention being such a scarce resource (especially among online users), it’s crucial that you understand the science behind making a strong first impression.

If you’re interested in learning more about the techniques, the following books will help:

Recommended Reading

Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion by Nathalie Nahai
Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
Contagious by Jonah Berger
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Neuromarketing: The Emotional Goldmine
Neuromarketing & The User Experience 
Neural Sense Introduction to Neuromarketing