The psychology behind creating successful marketing

Transcription

1 Whitepaper Improving results together Whitepaper 1

2 Contents Introduction... 2 Psychology and why it s important... 3 Understanding how generates an emotional response Colour Images Summary... 6 Introduction At Pure360 we are fascinated by the various ways of increasing our clients engagement within their campaigns, and the one topic that seems to be getting increasing attention is how to use psychology to drive this. Of course, the topic of psychology in marketing has been around forever, from TV adverts to billboards to magazine ads - however, in our experience people often neglect to factor in this critical subject when designing their campaigns, which seems strange as with inboxes becoming so saturated with information, we should surely be trying to do anything we can to engage with people? Therefore, we have put together a selection of research to help you understand and utilise psychology when designing campaigns! 2

3 Psychology and why it s important First thing s first; it s important to understand how people engage with one another. There are two main ways of doing this: intellectually and emotionally. Intellectually engaging with people is best described as when you re able to present them with lots of information; allowing them to make an informed decision based on all the facts available. Next there is emotionally engaging with people, this is when people s emotional responses are used to allow their brains to make decisions easily. The reason we work like this a lot of the time is because there are so many choices and decisions that our brains have to make all day, every day, that it would simply be impossible for us to make a fully intellectually informed decision each time; our emotions give us a helping hand so that we can concentrate on more important things. To put this into the context of , imagine your inbox: there is so much information flowing around that there is no way we d be able to digest everything, weigh up the pros and cons of each individual and decide. Instead, a lot of our responses will be made by our emotions, where we will look at an for a few seconds and decide whether to delete it or to continue reading. The key to making sure that people engage emotionally upon receipt of your messages is not a simple one, but there are a few key areas below that you can look at. Understanding can generate an emotional response The AIDA marketing model is something that those of us who studied marketing at college or university probably remember all too well! However, when applied to it can be a really useful tool for understanding which parts of our s are important to focus on. Essentially, it describes a common list of events that may occur when a consumer engages with an advertisement and the journey that they go through before fully engaging. A Get people s attention! - Use your from name, subject line and the pre-header text to get attention I Raise their interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits pre-header text, headings, titles, images and videos D A Convince them that they desire what you are offering them and that the product or service will satisfy their needs use your subject line, images, videos and body of the to achieve this Lead them towards taking action! Links, buttons and icons arranged properly will allow people to act Also consider that there are some key ingredients to emotional connections with recipients, such as authenticity, transparency, personality and a sense of community. Without these it ll be hard for your brand to stand out against everyone else. The last thing we ll look at is the language that you use in your s - with all the above in mind, it s important to consider this in relation to your audience and what is likely to trigger an emotional response with them. 3

4 Whitepaper For example, if you were selling home security systems, what would be more likely to trigger a click out of the following: Home alarm systems: click here! Protect your family with a new home alarm system You can see where I ve gone with this: rather than just telling the recipient what the product is and having a horrible click here link, we ve made the recipient think more about why they should purchase and the consequences if they don t. Colours The next section that we are going to look at is how different colours can influence what people think about your s and how they engage. Sight is the strongest developed sense in most human beings. It s only natural that 90% of an assessment for trying out a product is made by colour and visuals alone. So what sort of emotional response do different colours generate? Black is seen as powerful, classy, sleek, formal and serious. Therefore many luxury brands will use a lot of black in their advertising and branding. Yellow is seen as optimistic, cheerful, positive and youthful and can often be used to grab attention. Orange is seen as aggressive, enthusiastic and lighthearted, so is often used in call to actions. Think about the colour of the add to basket button on Amazon. Blue is associated with a sense of intelligence and is sedate, focussed, professional. This creates the sensation of trust and security and so is often seen with banks and large companies that rely on people trusting them. Purple is seen as elegant, mysterious and exotic and so is often seen in beauty or anti-aging products. 4

5 Pink is soothing and it s supposed softness and tranquility means it is used heavily in baby products or romantic purchases. Red means energy; it creates a sense of urgency, vitality and danger, so you ll see a lot of red in clearance sales. Green symbolises wealth, calming, harmony, and being social. It s also the easiest colour for the eye to process, so is often used in shops to calm and relax people - think about the interior of Starbucks and their branding! Its also worth remembering that these can change everywhere in the world - for example while black is the colour of death here in the West, in Asia this is white. Another great example is that in China, red has always been a very lucky colour, so marketers will use that to their advantage there. Therefore, make sure you consider where you are sending your s to, as what works in one country might not work so well in another! Another interesting point is that there are major gender differences in colour perception. Studies, such as this one published on Kissmetrics, have proven that while men and women have the same general preferences when it comes to light and dark colours, women prefer soft colours while men prefer bold ones. Men also tend to be far more tolerant of anochromatic colours; so blacks, whites and greys. When designing your s, you need to consider who your target audience are, what the image and feeling you re trying to convey is, and what are the best colours to use to trigger this. Images It s generally assumed that 80% of people who open your s are only scanning rather than properly reading them. Therefore the images that you use are absolutely crucial to triggering the emotional response you want from people. Bear in mind that images that don t directly serve or illustrate a purpose will look out of place. In marketing try and use images that will generate the desired emotional response in your audience. One of the best ways of doing this is by using images of peoples faces. Researchers now believe that there is a part of the brain called the fusiform face area and its job is just to process images of faces. Interestingly, it s located right next to the part of the brain that processes emotion. Therefore, our brains are wired to generate an emotional response when we see images of peoples faces. 5

6 Try and make sure that your images all relate to each other and fit together cohesively, in relation to their size, theme and style to create a nice flowing look to your s that is easy for people to digest and engage with. The last great tip is that people s eyes naturally drift down when they see an image, so make sure that you ve got a clickable caption underneath each image that takes them to the product or page that you re referring to. Summary To conclude, make sure that you know everything you can about the people you re ing. Now obviously this can refer to making sure that you re using your data correctly and segmenting properly, but it goes deeper than that; try and understand your recipients and what is going to trigger an emotional response with them. Think about the call to actions you are using and how these will be perceived by your audience, and what they are more likely to click on. Consider the colours of your branding and your s and whether they are conveying the message you want. Also, make sure that the images you are using compliment your text and are not just an afterthought. If you can do all of this, you ll see your engagement rocket up! 6

7 About Pure360 Pure360 is an & SMS marketing provider who specialise in helping businesses get the best results from their campaigns. Pure360 work with over 1000 organisations including brands such as Rightmove, Virgin and innocent drinks. Our customers stay with us through choice, not contract, and they tell their friends about us but never their competitors. We ll work with you to improve your marketing and SMS results. You ll get the best from your campaigns without being tied into a long contract, because your success is our success. You ll get full training, support and regular free advice supported by marketing and SMS software that s developed in-line with customer feedback. Pure360 customers have access to the largest UK-based customer support team of all marketing providers because our whole focus is on improving your results by working together. Members of the DMA, we ve recorded a 10% higher open rate for our customers than the DMA average, leading to higher clicks and conversions for your marketing campaigns. You can find the team working to improve our customers campaigns, down in Brighton, pop in or give us a call to discuss how we can help you get excellent results from your & SMS campaigns. Pure360 Improving results together web: call: contact@pure360.com 7