The same applies to word choice as well as color, it connects to our neurons and drives us to make a decision subconsciously. According to Quick Sprout, there are some most commonly used words that should be avoided or used to drive readers decisions.
When we start to design a blog or website, we tend to just find one that is pretty. What we need to investigate is that every color appeal to users in different ways so depending on the theme of your website, the colors used need to match.
(Source: http://pamorama.net/)
The impact of colors is simply the result of our brain. There is nothing to do with the childhood or some tragic trauma of an individual. That means if you know to use color, you can appeal all the readers who browse your site.
Color decides the major theme of the site. It impacts readers emotion thus their decision making process. Kissmetrics created this infographic to explain how each color influences readers.
Bottom line is that do not overuse many colors as it will not serve its purpose. Pick a theme of colors and focus on it. Use some a few other colors that serve your marketing goal only if needed.
A lot of marketers, especially those new to online marketing, often fall into a thought that they should create new contents on their own if they want the best engagement rate. But when we look closer, original content often requires tremendous amount of time to create and deliver. It may not necessarily justify the effort. So here it comes curated contents.
Curated contents are those that you leverage from others to enrich the context of your posts. Most likely, these contents are in the form of video or picture.
Curated content marketing is well supported by strong evidence even though some of them are in contrary to the general belief:
Argyle Social data discovered curators link to third-party site 75% or more; balanced marketers link to third-party site 50%-75%; self-promoters link to third-party site less than 50%.
Put into it into perspective, balanced marketers achieve 10X conversion rate with a lot less effort than self promoters who generated their own contents.
In long run, curated contents also support your SEO if you link back to the original sources as shown by a research from Bruce Clay.
Bottom line, take advantage of curated contents while others think this does no good. You will achieve the results faster and easier.
Reading takes time and does not promise benefit – let’s face it. So you want to make your point explicitly and give people expectation as to how much time it takes to read your posts.
Like HR skimming through a pile of resumes and cover letter, readers look for numbers too because numbers stand out among all the alphabets. Remember a time when you try to read a document or post in rush, what you do when you see a number. You pay attention around the number first as you think it may be important to know. That being said, do not use English words such as one, two, three. Use Arabic letters like 1, 2, 3.
Consider the following 2 examples: (Source: http://datacenterfrontier.com/)
Which one is easier to catch the key points. I bet my money that you pick the first one. People are psychologically programmed to look for difference. In the ocean of English words, you check for numerical values first. Indeed, this is right way to go because the numerical values tell the key points that the writer wants the readers to know.
Lead magnet is the “free” offering of contents and tips on websites. This is free because you will receive it in exchange of your contact information such as your name, email and phone number. Once you receive the offers, your contact information will be used for the website to send you all other information related to the topics on the website.
To reveal the power of lead magnet, you will need to prepare a consistent calendar to send material in both subject matter and marketer perspectives that potentially convert your readers to buyers (because the ultimate goal is to convert sale.)
So what would be some good ideas for lead magnet? Typical material such as daily tips and how-to guides on a subject are a decent type of content to appeal to users. Whitepaper is another idea for lead magnet but it requires a lot of effort to manufacture one (this is like a book.)
Toolkit is another good lead magnet as it is usually practical and ready-to-use. When users download it, they do not need to dive in for long before they understand. Toolkit then is a more promising lead magnet that generates recurring users, thus converts to sale.
Bottom line is that people have very little time. So all the contents of a lead magnet should be straight forward, specific, easy to understand and practical. When people see the values by actually applying the contents, they are likely to become loyal to your advice.
Human psychology is always an interesting topic for virtually everyone as we try to understand the decisions behind your friends, family, partners, colleagues and the general public. When it comes to online marketing where we try to influence people on a mass scale, we should understand how people would be influenced by multitude of factors.
Cognitive biases are psychological biases that we do not consciously recognize, thus they exist in everyday of our life. By avoiding them at our best, we can be a better decision maker and thinker. But it does require extremely seamless, conscious attentions to them at any moment. This is very difficult. But when we put into an online marketing perspective, we have a lot more buffer time to alertly avoid it – or even utilize it to achieve our marketing purpose. Research on this topic is quickly developing. Now, more than dozens of cognitive biases are recognized. But we can start with the most common 5 cognitive biases to see its strength on impacting our decision making process.Confirmation bias – It happens when you look for supporting evidence for your ideas and beliefs.
1. It limits your ability to look outside the support evidence. You dismiss subconsciously all the evidence that negates your ideas because of your passion and bias.
2. The bandwagon effect – We like to do what others are doing. As it becomes more popular, more people try to do the same.
This is the main contributor to group behavior. When something is seen on a small group of people, others would subconsciously build up the desire to do the same.
3. Loss aversion – It happens when you have already put a lot of time, money or effort into a thing.
This bias tricks you into a vicious cycle. Because you have already done a so much on it, you insist on completing it regardless even though the chance is slim or it is just not worthwhile anymore. It happens particularly in entrepreneurs.
4. Framing effect – How things are framed in a positive or negative way will impact the reception of audience.
Consider this scenario:
A) This investment offered positive return 7 out of 10 years.
B) This investment only exposed to negative return 3 out of 10 years.
Both statements imply exactly the same meaning. But most people would choose option A because of how it is framed to appeal investors.
5. Social proof – we tend to believe this is right to follow the patterns of majority, especially when we are undecided.
The fact that the majority does something does not mean to do it is right. But many people just follow it because we are social animals.
Mastering cognitive biases will definitely help you to make it to your advantage when preparing online marketing strategies. If you can master it in daily life, people will see you from an entirely new angle. (Do be devious though!)