CXL Digital Psychology And Persuasion Minidegree Review Part 8
I am back again with my 8th review of CXL’s minidegree in Digital Psychology and Persuasion. In this post, I would be covering the course Influence and interactive design.
Here’s what you can expect from this post,
1.A short recap of last week
2. Light breakdown of AIM (Audience Influence Model)
3. How to use design to
• Direct Attention of Users
Disclaimer: Since the course that I am going to cover today has an exhaustive list of knowledge only a few of the key areas will be covered and I will provide an honest review of the entire course at the end of the post.
The Recap
Last week, I found out that, BJ Fogg’s 10 Credibility Factors is a great website checklist that every marketer should have. The checklist is given below.
1.Apropriate Design
Your website design should be a mirror of your brand values and the type of audience it serves.
2.Easy verification
Just make it as easy as a button click away, for your web users to check any of your claims. Let’s say that you are featured in media such as Forbes, then try to include a live link. This will build an incredible amount of trust among web users than just slapping a logo on your site.
3.Show them that you are real
Humanize your brand with real-life stories, user testimonials, and your employee’s image.
4.Prove your expertise
Display those hard-earned certifications strategically to reduce doubts and build more trust.
5.Show the human behind your product or services
Connect with your audience on a deeper level with your photos and personal background story that displays your unique character.
6.Easy to contact
Make it easy for them to contact you. Include your social media links or better use a live chat whenever possible.
7.Easy to use
Make your web so easy to use that even a 5-year-old can use it. This is because research shows that ease trumps trust in increasing usage of websites when compared together.
8.Update often
Show them that you are always there and always informed by updating frequently and consistently.
9.Limit ads
This is practically a no brainer.
10.Avoid all errors
Try to avoid any technical error that can distort your page viewing error. This will make you look more professional.
Now let’s proceed to some of the important lessons learned this week.
AIM (Audience Influence Model)
I chose this part of the course to start my review due to its importance in effective marketing. The outcomes mentioned in this model are the end result you need to create for high conversion and influencing the behavior of your customers.
Concentrating (aware)
At this point, you need to get their attention. Only if you can capture their attention, you can proceed with your marketing efforts.
Comprehending (informed)
Make it easy for them to understand any service or product you are offering. Don’t be vague. Convey your USP with the shortest sentences you can come up with. Don’t drown them with jargon that is unnecessary. The goal here to help them understand your brand and the product/service you are offering with as much as little effort as possible from their side.
Desiring (motivated)
Play with their emotions to provoke them into taking the action you want them to do next. Sounds brutal? You can’t help it. It’s marketing 101. You can’t close or convert without emotions.
Deciding (Intent)
This is where the information paralysis kicks in as the buyers are confused. Although they wanted to buy your product or even do something you wanted to they will still hesitate. Why you may ask? Blame it on the paradox of choices.
Trusting (confident)
One of the most important moments in decision making. It can either make or break the conversion.
Acting (short-term)
Mostly considered as the first step towards conversion or any action you want your customers to do. This includes signing up for your newsletter in exchange for a free yet detailed industry report.
Maintaining (long-term)
Sometimes it’s easy to get people on with their first commitment. However, to maintain the same behavior, you need more rewarding rewards. Success in doing so can get you your customers to proceed with the action you like them to continue with.
Abandonment
This is a bummer. Despite all of those carefully designed messages and UI, people still opt-out.
Directing Attention
Directing attention is the most important skill a marketer needs to master as it’s the major friction in the process of conversion. To tackle this, Dr. Cugelman encourages the use of pre-attentive processing, a design technique that directs viewers' attention by manipulating patterns.
Are you wondering what are those patterns and how can you break them to grab attention?
Here I have listed some of them for you with its breakdown.
Breaking patterns that you need to pay attention to disrupt and grab attention:-
Numbers
Grab user’s attention from the number of clusters with an odd cluster breaks the pattern found in other patterns.
Enclosures
If all the elements are somewhat in an enclosed manner such as within a border, you can grab attention; by using an element that is borderless within the elements.
Sizes
In the case of elements that are the same in size, direct attention with an element that is different in size.
Orientations
In a sea of fixed orientation surprise and grab attention with an element of different orientation.
Additional elements
Grab attention by adding an extra element to the original pattern.
Contrast
They say the opposite attracts. That is why you can direct attention with an element that is different from the rest with an element of that is different from the rest
Conclusion
With all that been settled, I would like to give out my personal verdict on this week’s lesson. Has it achieved its aim to educate marketers on how to direct attention, educate, and use the emotions of your customers while removing the friction in decision making while simultaneously build trust and credibility via design? Yes, it does. In fact, much other valuable knowledge I had gained from this week is not covered in this post. However, I would like you to check it out yourself to find out what you are missing out.
See you next week!
