The theory and practice of Nudge Marketing and Behavioral Economics may not be as widespread as thought, but it is used by many successful companies in the field of Marketing and especially in Digital Marketing. Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz spoke at the New Media Expo (#NMX) in Las Vegas in order to introduce some of the Nudge Marketing tactics.
Here are 4 of them with some additional explanatory commentary based on Behavioral Economics.
1. A ton of people can’t be wrong.
When a company presents statistics of its customers in its site, visitors believe that if they do not become customers, they will not be part of the successful “majority”. 4 out of 5 social media specialists use innoblogs as an additional tool in their blog.
In order to have web presence, one should present behavioural data, which means to show visitors that others use his/hers services and products. A good example is Facebook and how many “likes” and “shares” are shown to the public.
Said differently, it is what we call Social Norms in Behavioral Economics.
2. The Name-Game
If the way of presenting a situation (or in this case the way of presenting your web content in terms of “development”) is imprinted in the minds of users, they will want to ‘grow’ and will aspire to reach the next level. This will possible result in raising money rates that will provide for this purpose.
In Behavioral Economics this is called Framing Effect and refers to the different conclusions people reach to, based on the choice architecture of the same content.
3. Less is More
Having many options can be confusing, which in turn leads to the so-called ‘market paralysis’. This happens in digital icons sharing. Overexposing anchors can lead to reduced sharing of the content. For one to reduce the options from 5 for example 2 or 3, can dramatically increase the conversion rate and therefore, increase the users.
The paradox of choice, as explained by psychologist Barry Schwartz in his book The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less (2004), can lead consumers to confusion, indecision and ultimately, inaction.
4. Keep pathways simple
Instead of having a long contact form with many fields to be filled, it would be more beneficial to break down the form in its simplest items and let the user navigate through many pages. That may seem unusual to what we are used to, but statistics show that this way is more effective.
So, someone can keep the forms real simple and use a series of landing pages. Each page will be displayed swiftly. People like quick and simple procedures and they tend to dislike the time-consuming, complicated ones.
Conclusions
Content Marketing, or in this case Nudge Marketing, is definitely more important than companies with digital presence believe, but that does not mean it is difficult to apply correctly.
The aim of this article – but also the aim of behavioral economics and Nudge in general- is to bring change in human behavior with simple and cheap ways. Furthermore, as seen above, simplicity usually is better that complexity.
Do not hesitate to contact us to discuss and create simple Nudge marketing solutions, in order to alleviate your problems.
Anthi Mastorostergiou, Innovation & Nudge Researcher για το Nudge Unit Greece
~Explaining Behavioral Economics Simply~
Sources
Tom Williams (2016). 15 Nudge Marketing Tactics | SEO Meets User Experience Part One, blog post at www.innogage.com.
Barry Schwartz (2004). The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less
Levin, I. P., Schneider, S. L., & Gaeth, G. J. (1998). All frames are not created equal: A typology and critical analysis of framing effects. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 76, 149-188.