What Is Neuromarketing and How Is It Useful in Marketing Research?

After experiencing MozCon Virtual for the first time in 2020, I jumped at the chance to sign up for MozCon 2021. I knew the sessions were going to be great and I eagerly awaited the first day. I wasn’t disappointed. The lovely Flavilla Fongang took the “stage” for the first session and opened my eyes to neuromarketing. I had heard of it before, but not like this. Two of my greatest loves, psychology AND marketing, working together? I was hooked.

Naturally, I decided to go down a rabbit hole of what neuromarketing is and how it’s useful, specifically for SEO. Let’s jump right in.

What is Neuromarketing? 

The name speaks for itself. Neuromarketing is the combination of neuropsychology and marketing research. It’s where marketers, like me, take consumers’ cognitive responses to marketing stimuli and apply them to digital efforts. But, how do you collect and measure someone’s cognitive response to something online? 

Understanding Your Audience

The most important aspect of neuromarketing is understanding your target audience. If you don’t know who you’re talking to, the content you create online isn’t going to get you anywhere in terms of goals and conversions. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What is your consumers’ need, pain, or desire? The consumer should always, always be the hero of your story. Humans can be self-centered creatures – especially when it comes to purchasing a product or service. How does your product or service make their life easier? How does your product fix a problem they might have or fulfill a need? Once you answer these questions and are ready to create, make sure your CTA (call-to-action) focuses on the customer and their needs. 

• What makes your product different? It’s crazy how something so small can make a big difference. The human eye can spot these little differences and it can impact our purchasing decisions. When highlighting your product or service online, use contrast. Consumers want to see a “before and after”. What was their life like before your product and what can it look like after? You can showcase this through imagery and video. 

• What does your consumer gain from choosing your product or service over a competitor? Why should they trust you? Consumers need to be able to see what makes your product or service valuable. What are they going to get out of it? Showcasing value establishes trust, and the best way to do this is through testimonials and reviews. Consumers want to hear from other people who have invested in your product or service, not just from you. 

Starting off with these questions can help you begin to incorporate neuromarketing into your digital strategy. It’s important to remember to always, always focus on your target audience and their needs. Don’t make it about you!

The Power of A/B Testing

There’s a lot that goes into understanding your target market and the science of purchasing behavior, and you can certainly gather a lot of this information from talking directly with your consumers, holding focus groups, etc. 

But one of the best ways to start to understand your audience better is by A/B testing. What tactics align better with your consumer? Do they respond better to email or text? Would they rather make a purchase on their desktop or their phone, directly on your website or through social media? Answering these questions will take time but it’s important to test these out. 

Google Optimize is a great tool to A/B test content on your landing pages. You can also A/B test directly on ad platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Advertising, etc. Google Analytics and HotJar also give great insight into how users journey through your site and where they exit the most. 

Neuromarketing Tips

Before you go, I wanted to share some simple yet effective tips and tricks for implementing neuromarketing strategies within your digital space.

Be strategic with where you place your most important information.

Whatever content or CTA you deem as most pertinent to a consumer should be placed both at the beginning of your content (i.e., the header) and should be repeated again at the end. This reinforces the importance to your user. 

Appeal to all five senses.

We’ve all heard this saying a million times: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Include imagery in your marketing that makes your audience feel something. Think about what kinds of pictures will resonate with your audience the most. Don’t just throw in a stock image and call it a day. People purchase products and services that make them feel something. When creating a landing page or ad, direct users to an important CTA through images that use “the gaze”. A user is more likely to be drawn to whatever the person in the image is gazing at. 

In addition to sight, incorporate the senses of hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Do this through descriptive language and video.

Don’t underestimate the power of surprise.

Keep your marketing spicy! If you commit to innovation and are consistently going above and beyond to surprise your customers, their loyalty to you will be unmatched. If you’re too predictable and you only do the bare minimum, they’re more likely to wander off to a competitor. Go beyond what’s expected of you to meet your customers’ goals. 

There’s so much more that goes into neuromarketing but I hope the above sparked your interest in how you can incorporate psychology into your digital marketing tactics! Partnering with an agency like Ironistic can take this type of heavy load off of your plate. Contact us today and let’s chat about how we can work together to incorporate neuromarketing into your digital strategy.