Do you often ask why people don’t take action on your website?
Let’s take a look at NeuroMarketing:
Our reptilian brain only cares about keeping us alive, asking 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 time)
Only when our reptilian brain is assured that we’ll survive will the emotional and rationale thinking then kick in. The way the brain behaves can have a fascinating impact on how we design websites and online experiences in order to get people to act a certain way. How does your website answer the following instinctual questions from 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.
“Am I safe?” 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. There’s a reason why most company logos appear on the upper left hand side. Do you have call-to-actionbuttons? How many? Where? How about a perpetual cart/lead form? Do these take your visitors where they want and expect to go?
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. And once you see something, you can’t “unsee” it.
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?
“Do I need to act now?” People 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?