Neuromarketing is the answer

WHEN YOU think: ‘how to grow my company?’, neuromarketing is the answer. Why? Because neuromarketing teaches you this:

1. Make me something I need (even if I don’t know I need it). Customer approach? Good. Human approach. Better!
   
2. Look nice. Humans are superficial, we cannot help it.
   
3. Simplify your purchase process because we are lazy creatures; too lazy to think and too lazy to invest a lot of effort.
   
4. Sell to me with empathy. I’m willing to pay more if you do so!

Neuromarketing influences the intuitive, automatic and unconscious part of the brain, which is also known as ‘System 1’ (Daniel Kahneman’s fast and slow theory). This part of the brain is very efficient; we don’t have to spend time on all the 35.000 decisions we make throughout the day. Very useful, but tricky as well. Marketers (yes, I’m guilty too) make use of your brain’s efficiency, or should we say lazyness.

If you think your gut is something in your soul, your DNA; you’re wrong.

If you think your gut is something intrinsic, you’re wrong. It can be manipulated in many ways! We are emotional creatures, programmed by nature and nurture.

1. Make me something I need. If you haven’t heard about behavioural design yet, please search for it now. It will open your eyes tremendously. We are always busy trying to sell more. But we need to sell better. You can do so by looking at your customer as humans. Not as customers. Forget the selling for a while. Do you know the ‘job to be done’ of the product/service you are selling? Because if you do, you can make your product or service better.

Watch this video about a job to be done case at McDonalds; it’s really amazing.

I’ll write another article on ‘job to be done’ seperately later. For now, please follow this link to Google to read more about the topic.

2. Look nice. And you know what also works? A beard. Let me explain: our brain processes visual information much faster than text and colors and design can trigger emotional responses (both positive and negative). So by making your product or communication assets visually appealing you get my attention, you leave a lasting impression, influence my perception and decision. What about the beard? It has been proven that we trust salesmen with a beard more than with other facial hair.*

*Now don’t go and fire all your sales ladies and force all the men to grow a beard. It was just one example how visuals in many ways influences our subconciousness.

3. Simplify your purchase process (through the whole channel, all channels). It cannot come as a surprise that human by default are lazy. And then we are not talking about being active in the gym or going on a hike. We just love it to spend very little energy on things that are not important to us. We are dedicated to have those new shoes, but not to buy them from you if your order process is cumbersome. So if you are smart, make every step to purchase as simple as possible.

Want to understand impulse behaviour better? Have a look at B.J. Fogg’s behaviour model and dig into the theory!

4. Sell to me with empathy. We are human. We love a purpose we identify ourselves with, we love to be approached in a caring way, we love it when you thought about things we didn’t think about. The best you can do is reach my imagination. Don’t just sell a product: connect with me. I’m alive and I have emotions!

More neuromarketing tips you want to know about >> click to unfold.

1. Images with people in it or relatable scenarios grab viewers’ attention first. Making eye-contact is even better.
2. Simplify and declutter your design. Less is more in neuromarketing. Don’t use excessive informatio and guide the viewer to important elements by making them outstanding.
3. The power of repetition: be consistent in your brand elements. It creates familiarity.
4. Be social proof. That doesn’t mean you have to be on TikTok or Snapchat. It means we are more likely to trust and engage with your content when others have had positive experiences with you or your product. So yay to reviews, ratings and endorsements!
5. We don’t like to miss out. We get a stress-reaction which activates system 1. So make your offers temporarily, use countdown timers (iew! I know..) or ‘while supplies last’ triggers.

Neuromarketing is my favorite scope of marketing. Mainly because of the potential of better results. There is a lot more to discover! If you are enthusiastic, maybe the SUE Behavioural Design course is something for you.

Many of the lessons are also very suitable to apply in private life ;).