How to Influence Consumers’ Decision-Making Processes
Brands looking to expand in their respective markets have to
consider tailoring their strategies to account for psychological factors.
Marketing and psychology have always gone hand in hand. The behaviors, habits
and biases of current and potential clients need to be considered when
preparing marketing plans – collectively known as behavioral economics. When
addressing these elements, consumers would be more susceptible to a
‘well-crafted pitch’.
How do we make decisions?
As humans, we tend to make many of our choices in a prompt
and automatic manner, relying on the mental shortcuts that our brain is wired
on. Our opinions and choices are ultimately influenced by reasoning, emotional
factors, biases and memories. Take for example, why people tend to buy more of
an item priced at USD0.99 versus USD1 (called the left-digit effect), why most
of our gym memberships remain unused (optimism bias) and why we purchase items
that we don’t really need (post-purchase rationalization).
And so, to market products or services in an engaging way,
people need to either be persuaded to make a decision, or helped to change
their minds.
So how can we influence decision-making?
- When someone can’t decide, they imitate. When faced with a
decision over which restaurant to choose, which product to buy, or which
service package to subscribe to, they usually refer to the one that has more
followers, reviews or people. Create the ‘delight effect’ for your clients, and
then work on increasing positive testimonials, reviews and star ratings can
inspire people to take action.
- Make it simple. When people are unable to make a decision,
due to too many factors that need to be considered, they typically go for the
‘default’ or easiest option. If you set up default options on your website,
newsletters or in-store, it will typically entice people to accept that option.
- Limit their choices. When someone has an array of options
before them, and a decision needs to be made, their brains will likely shut
down. A variety of products, services, subscriptions and choices can overwhelm
the customer and drive them to make a bad decision. Instead, offer them a
tailored choice based on the data at hand.
- Data at your fingertips. With the magnitude of data at hand,
businesses should use it to their advantage. Track a consumer’s journey on your
website, understand social media behaviors, see who interacts with your
newsletters. You can even ask for more information, when people are signing up.
This way, tailored communication and marketing materials will be better
received.
- Overwhelmed in a world of information. In today’s world,
people are overloaded with information and getting their attention is a great
challenge. Try to stimulate their curiosity to learn more about ‘what they
don’t know.’ Think about this when writing headlines, preparing posts for
social media, or devising the content for your website.
- Use words wisely. Some words drive people to make choices.
When speaking to the consumer directly, use ‘you’ – it creates a more personal
connection with them. Using the word ‘Free’ creates an automatic incentive and
gets a person’s attention. And of course, people want to be reasoned with.
Using the word ‘because’ can allow you to give your target markets a reason as
to why a choice should be made.
on September 19, 2019
by Beirut Digital District