[Editor’s note: Happy Holidays! This week, the editorial team at Content Marketing Institute wanted to share some of the best content marketing blog posts we’ve seen from the CMI Online Training and Certification program’s roster of expert instructors. Today’s post is an updated version of one that originally appeared on Andy Crestodina’s Orbit Media Studios blog in May, 2013.
Content marketing isn’t brain science, but if you know a bit about the brain, you’ll be a better content marketer.
The brain is specialized, each part with its own function. Planning, emotion, and language are all managed by different lobes. They each have their own natural tendencies, and these tendencies are common to all of us.
As we look at the research, we find that there are at least five content marketing tactics that align with different parts of the brain.
The amygdala: Basic emotions
Amygdalae are involved in emotions and storage of emotional memories.
- Tactic 1: Headlines — Emotion and sharing: In the words of Antonio Damasio, “We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think.”
Headlines are the fastest ways to tap into emotions, since they are the most prominent element on any page. Eye tracking studies show that headlines aren’t just the first thing visitors see — they’re looked at more than anything else.
They also have a lot to do with sharing and virality. Headlines that trigger emotions are much more likely to be shared — especially headlines that trigger very positive or negative feelings. More specifically, there are three types of emotions that get shared the most: anxiety, anger, and awe (inspiration).
Notice how sadness is the emotion people share the least? Never write a sad headline.
The frontal lobe: Logic and motivation
The frontal lobe handles motivation, planning, and short-term memory. It weighs options and consequences of actions.
- Tactic 2: The order of lists: List posts are a popular format for content for bloggers everywhere. You’ve probably written a few yourself. But how carefully did you consider the order of the list?
The order is important because of what’s called the Serial Position Effect. Our brains are best at attention and retention at the beginnings and ends of things. So when writing lists (or even organizing the navigation of your website), put the most important items first and last. The items in the middle are least likely to stay in your visitors’ short-term memory.
- Tactic 3: Scarcity, loss and marketing copy: The human brain is generally not very good at calculating costs and benefits. We tend to undervalue gains and overvalue losses. For example, the pain of losing $5 is greater than the pleasure of gaining $5. This is called “loss aversion.”
Knowing that your audience has a biological fear of losing something or missing out, you can write your marketing content accordingly. Here are a few examples:
o Write about the costs (and risks) of not using your service: “Companies without a documented content strategy have lower return on investment.”
o Use limited-time offers to create urgency: “Early bird discount ends today!”
o If the product is scarce, say so: “12 copies remaining in stock.”
- Tactic 4: Social proof and testimonials: This one might not surprise you. All things being equal, people will do what other people are doing. Behavioral scientists call it “herd behavior.”
This is why it’s so important to give some evidence. Your marketing needs to show that other people have made the choice that you want your readers to make. Make it obvious that other people have used your service. The goal is to make any decision other than hiring you seem abnormal.
This “social proof” can take many forms:
o Testimonials from current clients
o Product reviews from customers
o Endorsements from respected people in your field
o Logos of media sites that have mentioned your business “As seen in…”
o Facebook and Twitter widgets showing the size of your following
o Awards, memberships, security certificates, and other “trust seals”
The temporal lobe: Language
The temporal lobe plays a key role in language comprehension and processing meaning.
- Tactic 5: Readability and choice of words: Great marketing is easily understood. Complicated sentence structure, long words, and technical jargon are bad. They force the temporal lobe to work harder.
Use common words and simple sentences. Avoid jargon. Content that works well for “low literacy” readers is good for everyone.
In a study by NN Group, a pharmaceutical website was rewritten to bring the reading level down to an 8th-grade level. Not only was the site more successful for lower-literacy visitors, it was also more successful for the higher-literacy visitors.
Don’t “dumb down” your content. Just do the temporal lobe a favor and use the simple words that everyone understands.
Keep the brain in mind
Your readers have brains and those brains have certain tendencies. For best results, create content that aligns with those tendencies. Test these tactics and measure the outcomes. Content marketing is like brain science. It’s all about research and experimentation.
Resources
- Eyetrack III
- Order Effects Theory: Primacy versus Recency
- What makes online content viral?
- Lower-Literacy Users: Writing for a Broad Consumer Audience
Stay tuned for more details on the CMI Online Training and Development program. And if you are looking for more content marketing inspiration, Read CMI’s Content Marketing Playbook: 24 Epic Ideas for Connecting with Your Customers.
