Understand the Psychology of Digital Marketing


Are you looking to develop new digital marketing strategies and plan for your business? Read more to understand the psychology behind digital marketing strategies in the new era of the digital world.

There are hundreds of resources out there from books, online courses, college courses, articles, videos, etc that teach you how to do the best digital marketing for your brand, through various hacks, techniques, money-based strategies, sales funnels, etc. But in the end, the essence of digital marketing or any type of marketing comes down to human psychology. Marketing is basically part art and part science. Let's discuss in this blog some facts and tips taken from the psychology behind digital marketing to help grow your business. Your target audience or your ideal customer, whatever you want to term it is in the end just people. It all comes down to the people. And people are very complex beings. Most of the marketing managers out there have a very superficial approach to digital marketing.


Digital Marketing

They are dedicated to following the latest trendy hashtags, hacks, tricks, and other shortcuts. Like use this hashtag in every post, or change the button color to red, or use this platform more, or change the font, etc. All these things may be important and may work on a certain level, but it has no strong base and it cannot be used as a methodology that you can continually apply to your business. . So it's almost like spinning a wheel of luck when you do such things. Let's just discuss some pointers that you can pick up from psychology and apply it to your marketing strategies!


The first thing that you need to understand is that human beings are emotional creatures! Most of our decisions are based on our emotions, we try to go with our gut feeling a lot of times. Even our most logical and calculated decisions are somewhere based on our emotions. So it is very important to understand that the buying behavior and purchase patterns of people are based on their emotions and backed up by logic and reasoning. So while writing your ad copy or deciding on images, keep this in mind. Really let them know the emotional benefits that come from choosing your brand from the rest out there. For this, you need to understand everything about your ideal customer and their persona which is the first step of any digital marketing strategy. Know their age, standard of living, job profiles, relationship status, locality, etc. When you really get into your ideal customer's shoes you will closely understand what problems they are going through and the solutions they are looking for. Also their dreams and desires, and how your brand or product will get them closer to that.


Keeping everything above in mind, it is also important to add some facts, statistics, and other radical elements to your marketing strategy because even though they make all decisions emotionally they have to back it up by logic to justify it to themselves and people around them.


Understanding Attention Spans


Well very new and surprising news here: our attention spans are getting shorter by the day. So many kids are suffering from ADHD right from the age of three. So it all comes down to understanding your perfect consumer and knowing what exactly will make them stop and pay attention to what you're trying to communicate. Attention is one of the most valuable resources that you can get in today's world. Forget reading an entire article, some cannot even last to read a caption on a photograph. So if you have still stuck around so far, thank you and congrats! Your main goal while making an ad or designing a marketing strategy is to make your consumers stop scrolling. You have won half the battle there. After you achieve this, all you have to do is present them with something that they really want, something that they are craving, or something irresistible.


One of the most common occurrences of this mistake of not having a strong enough proposition for the consumer (content consumer) is when the marketer is selling the vitamin instead of the painkiller. What this means is that the marketer tries to sell them something they need which they don't know they actually need. Instead of trying to sell some vitamin, which is good for their health and will be highly beneficial for them in the distant future, sell a pain killer which will help them solve the problem they are facing right now and are actively looking for a solution.


The Buyer Beware Phenomenon


Essentially your customer's radar is on high alert. Most consumers are incredibly skeptical. Depending on the industry they are in, the higher the volume & consistency of marketing they have been exposed to, the higher their defenses are going to be. Your ad copy will have to really differentiate and cut through the clutter. Again, once you have got your ideal customer in mind, put them on a scale of 1 to 10 from most aware to unaware. This basically means that your unaware target audience will not know a lot about the kind of service or product you are offering, they might not even be looking for a solution to any problem which your product will solve. While on the other hand, your most aware target base is the people who have been marketed with similar products before, they know your competitors, they have probably compared all the services before. So for such people, you will need a new creative angle to your service which they haven't heard before. And for the unaware kind, you can pretty much put anything ahead of them, because they haven't seen anything or heard about anything like that before.


It is also important to note, that in today's time almost no consumer is unaware of anything, with the increasing amounts of ads that we are exposed to every day. This means that all of them will be skeptical about your product, they are not going to believe you. At least not right away. And this should be the main agenda of your marketing, to get to know your target base very well, helping them understand your product and gaining their trust.


So how is one supposed to trust your brand when they have already seen all the other ads, heard all the sales pitches, got all the sales calls, read customer reviews, etc. The only thing you have to do is be different and stand out. Everybody keeps saying they are better. "We have better delivery speed" or "we have better customer support." etc, people have become deaf to the word better by now, they do not want to know. You need to come up with a different angle, different offer, different hook, whatever you need to differentiate yourself from the masses. A great example is a face cream ad I saw recently which in their ad communicated the message of what their face cream will not do first. Something on the lines of, 'This cream will not make you fairer or make your skin 'glow' instantly, but it will clean your pores and help you avoid pimples." So just a refreshing new angle towards marketing will help your product. When your customer hears something different, it will produce dopamine because they are presented with a new stimulus.


Understanding the difference between Search and Discovery


This is a very important point that I think is not talked about enough among marketers. The strategy of search vs discovery comes down to buyer intent. How your customers are showing up on different platforms and with what intent, and basically know how to mold your strategy accordingly to get the best results. Digital marketing essentially consists of two main camps, one is the discovery group with websites like Facebook or Instagram, where people are shown random content based on their likes and dislikes. The second is the Search camp, with sites like Google or even Youtube, where people will be putting in certain queries or keywords, which will specify their buyer intent. You see, nobody logs into Facebook or Instagram with a credit card in hand ready to buy something, you have to have your marketing angle based on that. While on platforms like Google, people may be searching for something specific to buy so you can be more direct in your approach. Just give them a straight solution to their problem and tell them to buy your product. This approach will never work on Facebook and will come off as off and irritating.


To understand this more clearly, know if you are selling a want or a need. Let's say you are a key-maker, so when you get a client who is stuck out of their house and loses his keys, they will be needing your services right away. But on the other hand, if you are someone who designs high-end security systems for doors, then it is not something that would be a want, something they don't have to immediately buy. So for the key-maker search platforms will be more beneficial but for the security system, designer facebook will be more beneficial. This example is just food for thought, for your business brainstorm and understand what your marketing needs are!


Know the Importance of First Impressions


Even with people, first impressions matter a lot, right? The first time we meet any new person, we make a strong judgement about them, if they are fit to be associated with you or if you would like to spend more time with them in the future, etc. Brands and businesses work in the same way. So no matter what you are marketing to anyone, you need to be sure that you are well represented. The first time a consumer comes across your brand, they will be making a split-second judgement if they, in general, like you or do not like you and this is on a very subconscious level. So your outer appearance in terms of design, brand colors, brand values, etc is very important because all those things are very important for the first impression of your brand. So it is recommended to pay a lot of attention to these minor details about what kind of attitude you want to portray, what values you support, what images you use, etc.


An important rule while trying to perfect the branding of your business on different social media platforms is to try to fit in while standing out! Basically, you should obey all the rules of the platform. Your content and design should look like it belongs on the platform by understanding the culture and aesthetics of the platform. On the other hand, you should also do your best to stand out, by differentiating yourself from your competitors.


Frequency is Equal to Trust


It is a basic human tendency that the more we see things the more we trust them. This is why you should do everything in your power to show up in front of your target audience again and again and again, without annoying them. This is why everything we discussed in this article is so important here because if you don't have a consistent theme, consistent color schemes, consistent message because if it is not like that, every time somebody sees your brand it will be like the first time they are seeing it. So if your branding looks the same every time you post something, all the frequency and touchpoints we discussed above will be achieved with more ease. So with consistent branding, when you show up again and again on different platforms you will make a place for your brand in your consumer's minds and they will associate with you more smoothly. Retargeting is very important. Some statistics show that brands may need up to 33 touch points before they make a purchase decision. So in this case retargeting can be much more cost-effective.


So there we go! Just a couple of pointers on how you can use some basic psychology tips to make your marketing strategy even more successful because as mentioned earlier, marketing is all about the people. Understand them, and all your marketing efforts will magically bring you a lot of success!




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