You might expect that after going to a digital public relations summit, I’d have plenty of new insights to share about PR, social media, or content. Surprisingly, what really impressed me at the conference wasn’t related to any of those topics. Instead, it was a keynote by Amy Africa on neuromarketing (which looks at how our brains react to marketing messages), web design, and how to encourage online visitors to take action. I doubt there were many serious designers in the audience, but it made sense to discuss this subject at a marketing event. After all, ultimately, everything leads to conversions and actions that impact the bottom line, right? Africa argued that most of our choices are made automatically by our primitive brain, also known as the “reptilian brain.” This part of our brain is focused solely on survival, posing questions like:
- “Is this familiar?”
- “Am I safe?”
- “Can I see it?”
- “Do I need to act now?”
- (Also: “Can I eat it?” … But that’s for another blog)
According to research in Africa, our reptilian brain will only allow emotional and rational thinking to occur when it feels secure about our survival. This brain function can greatly influence how we create websites and online experiences to encourage specific actions. How does your website respond to the instinctual questions of your visitors and potential customers?
“Is this familiar?” The reptilian brain is designed for efficiency and likes things that are familiar and easily recognizable. Encounter something new, and it’s hard-wired to assess for danger, potentially resulting in a less-than-seamless experience. (Although, see how this can work to your benefit in the next point.) Do your visitors see themselves or people like them in the first six seconds after they land on your website? Do you “talk” in their language? Or do you change your home page all the time so that when repeat visitors come back, you’re not delivering what they expect and might potentially confuse them?
“Am I safe?” According to Africa, our brain is programmed to notice differences and changes in our environment; it’s a survival technique. Things that interrupt an expected pattern are like huge flashing red alerts to our reptilian brain. Does your page layout and website navigation follow an expected pattern? Navigation accounts for 60 percent of online success, and for mobile sites it accounts for 80 percent, says Africa. There’s a reason why most company logos appear on the upper left hand side. Do you have call-to-action buttons? How many? Where? How about a perpetual cart/lead form? Do these take your visitors where they want and expect to go? That said, sometimes switching on that red alert can work to your advantage. For example, most people hate pop-ups; they totally interrupt an expected experience. But our eyes are instinctively drawn to them (even if we don’t want to) to make sure they’re not dangerous. If that pop-up offers a truly compelling offer or enriches the online experience, the brain will remember that in its decision-making process. Something to think about!
“Can I see it?” 
About 50 percent of the brain is dedicated to processing visuals. You only think that you think; you really just see, says Africa. And once you see something, you can’t “unsee” it. Here’s a question: How many windows do you have in your house? Think about it for a sec. I bet you started to picture your house in your mind, and went through it – room by room – to count the number of windows. People understand things much faster when they visualize them. Do you use plenty of visuals on your website? If you sell products, do you have lots of product photos in environments that your visitors can relate or aspire to? If you sell a service, do you show photos of your employees providing the service? If you have a retail location, do you feature photos of your store so that when people visit, they recognize their surroundings (see point No. 1)?
“Do I need to act now?” If you haven’t figured it out by now, the brain can be pretty lazy, so a sense of urgency moves us to action. People also like what’s first and what they can get now; the fear of loss overrides the possibility of later gain. Are you asking your website visitors to act now? Are you asking enough? Do you have an email opt-in form on every page? Your website should present the most important, most popular and most actionable things first, because by the time readers scroll all the way to the bottom, or click through to the third or fourth page, they’ve lost interest. Is 90 percent of your effort focused on selling through the top 10 percent best-performing products or services? Sometimes, we get so caught up in how our website “looks” that we forget about why we have one in the first place – to get people to do something.
Hopefully these “brainy” neuromarketing questions got you thinking about how you can improve your website (don’t forget to test any big changes before implementing them) and capture more customers! Want to learn more? Check out Amy Africa’s full presentation for free, courtesy of PR News.