A while back I did a book review of the book Neuromarketing, a great book about how our brains process information, and how marketers can use that knowledge to hone their strategy and their message.  Last week, I was turned on (no pun intended) to a book that brought these concepts to the web.  Neuro Web Design takes Neuromarketing one step further by discussing psychological concepts, which can then be applied to your website.  It’s a fascinating (and quick!) read that I recommend for anyone working on the web in any capacity.

The book starts off by discussing the three different brains:

1. The old brain – Concerned with survival.  Appeal to it by indicating danger, food or sex.
2. The mid brain – Where emotions are processed.  The root of impulse buying.
3. The new brain – Where language is processed.

These distinctions are important, since the only part of the brain that we are conscious of at any given moment is the new brain.

“The estimate from neuroscientists is that our five senses are taking in 11 million pieces of information every second.  And how many of those are we processing consciously?  A mere 40!”

This means that, while we think we make decisions based on careful thought, most decisions actually come from the unconscious.  Here are some of the ways that you can subconsciously reach to your audience by appealing to the old and mid brain:

• Use the word “you” – The old brain is all about YOU and will unconsciously tell YOU that a school is better for YOU if that school’s website uses the word YOU more on its pages than its competitors.
• Use hot people – Since one of the major things our old brain is concerned with is our ability to reproduce, even subtle implications of sex can grab our attention.  Think about this when you’re selecting the photos for your website.  Which is going to help you more – a picture of the library or a picture of a hot girl walking out of the library?  Attractiveness also bleeds over into the product the person is associated with, meaning in this case that the hot girl is going to be associated with the library, which means the library is going to be more appealing to your user than if it were just a picture of the building alone.
• Use people like your audience – People are more likely to buy from people who are “like them”, so you have to make sure you know your audience and feature imagery on your site of people that look and dress like them.  You can also use this if you feature reviews or comments on your site – people need social validation, and that validation will be even stronger if it comes from “people like them”.  Have your users fill in a few optional fields when they submit their review, like what type of user they are, how frequently they use the product, their occupation and gender and display that info alongside their comments.
• Give things away for free, no strings attached – When we’re given something, we feel an emotional need to pay that gift back.  You can encourage people to purchase your product by offering free shipping on everything (ala Zappos).  What can you offer your users to make them feel indebted to your institution?
• Scarcity makes a difference – If something is limited or hard to come by, we automatically want it more.  Are you having an event on campus and want to encourage online registrations for it?  Consider putting a sentence on your website about the limited number of seats available.  Better yet, say there are only one or two slots left.  That makes it more valuable and increases the likelihood of your users registering since (as far as they are concerned), they might not be able to tomorrow.
• Limit Choices – People like to think that they want a lot of choices, but the truth is they clam up when they have too many.  Don’t overwhelm your users with options or you’ll risk driving them away from your site entirely.
• Order matters – If you want your users to visit a specific page on your site, list it first.  I can’t tell you how many admissions pages have “Meet the Staff” listed as one of the first links in their navigation – is that REALLY the more important thing you want your users clicking on? Even more important than, say, APPLY ONLINE?

The book is filled with all this and more.  It should be on every web (and marketing) person’s required reading list.

This post was written by Karlyn Borysenko