Did you know that around 7 million blog posts and 500 million tweets are sent out every single day?
That equates to almost 5000 blogs per minute and 6000 tweets per second. In addition, you also have over 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
That’s a dizzying amount of content to compete with, and if you’re a content marketer, you’re at some point going to ask yourself the exasperating question, how am I going to cut through the noise and reach my target audience?
One thing to remember while creating content for your audience is that, in the end, they are human beings. To cut through the noise you can tap into human psychology. Here are 5 actionable strategies that can help you do just that.
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1. Social Proof Theory
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that consciously and unconsciously persuades you to adopt a belief or mimic the actions of a group of people you happen to like or trust.
According to Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he states “we view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.”
How to apply it in content marketing?
Social proof can be incorporated in several ways to boost your content marketing, you can either add social plugins or provide sharing buttons to your blog that displays the number of shares your content has generated. If your readers can see that some people have shared your post already, it’s quite likely that they will follow suit. Another quick way to apply social proof to your content marketing strategy is to highlight milestones on social media.
User-generated content like testimonials, reviews, and social media mentions each offers amazing avenues for leveraging social proof. Why? because they all highlight positive experiences and effectively signal to others that your content is trustworthy. Therefore, if you are lucky enough to boast these or any other forms of social proof, you should not shy away from it!
2. Information Gap Theory
Characterized as a disparity between what is known, and what needs to be known to make a comprehensive and reliable decision. This strategy can be used tactfully, to impact your content marketing.
Human psyche is such that when an individual identifies a gap in his/her knowledge or on a topic they care about, they will take the necessary course of action to find out what they need to know. This sort of behavior is fueled by natural human curiosity, which when tapped into strategically works wonders for content marketing.
How to apply it in content marketing?
You can leverage this theory by making your target audience more interested in your business. To help create an information gap, make sure to use gripping headlines and select engaging topics that pique your target audience’s interest. All your headlines must be ultra-specific, unique, and useful, they need to be able to fuel a sense of need and curiosity, take a cue from Neil Patel’s content.
Therefore, when you fashion a headline, try and test out a variety of options until you find a blend that encompasses all the attributes mentioned above. Then, the main too should do justice to the headline and provide the reader with valuable insights they desire. You can also utilize this psychological strategy to determine the answers your prospects are looking for and create content that addresses those topics.
3. Theory of Reciprocity
Within social psychology, reciprocity is described as the tendency of human nature to want to offer something when something is received. Essentially, when your content can offer individuals copious amounts of value, they might be fuelled by gratitude and might choose to return the favor. The key to this strategy lies in using the principle tactfully to trigger customers to behave in the way you desire.
How to apply it in content marketing?
When you think about it, with every blog post that you create, you give away valuable insights to your readers for free, but why just stop at that! You can go a step further to take advantage of reciprocity, you can create a few free podcasts, webinars, e-books, etc too. These insightful freebies, when used for performance support can get you a mention or a shoutout on their social media or a link back to other blogs. They also act as amazing lead magnets that lure readers and potential customers to share their contact details. In short, if you can ingrain a sense of gratitude in your content, reciprocity will help you secure loyalty.
4. The Nudge Theory
Developed by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, this theory suggests that indirect suggestions and positive reinforcements play a pivotal role in influencing people’s decisions and actions. The success of this strategy relies on clever placement and timing to reinforce the prospect’s momentum. This approach guides prospects towards your content by launching them from other related services or products.
How to apply it in content marketing?
You could tactfully place call-to-action buttons or suggested articles on relevant content and advertising platforms with related products or services. A nudge can provide suggestions of what other converted users did or clicked next to streamline the customer journey. If a nudge towards an action happens to pop up at a natural point during the user experience, they are more likely to take the cue. Embedded nudges are useful for getting people to sign up or subscribe to your content.
5. The Frequency Illusion
The frequency illusion, or for many the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, is a sense of analytical bias wherein after you notice something for the first time, there is a tendency that it starts cropping up everywhere. The trick about this illusion is that your selective attention goes into overdrive. When it comes to content marketing, you can use it strategically to retarget your consumer.
How to apply it in content marketing?
To trigger the illusion, you need to make potential customers aware of your content through integrated campaigns. Distinctive headlines and short sharp hooks within the content supported by attention-grabbing visuals are crucial. You should create multiple pieces of content across several platforms that can reinforce the marketing message conveyed in each, which in turn creates the feeling of frequency.
Parting thoughts
At its core, marketing is in fact psychological manipulation, from color palettes to hook phrases to streamlining the user experience, psychology helps marketers anticipate and even influence behavior.
The reason behind using these psychological tactics is that it helps create a competitive advantage by providing audiences with valuable content that speaks to their wants, needs, and challenges.
You too could utilize these strategies to unravel the minds of your target audience and better grasp the universal motives that fuel human behavior and desire.
Guest author: Aditya Kathotia is the CEO of Nico Digital and the founder of Digital Polo. A polyglot of the digital marketing business, he has powered 500+ brands through transformative digital marketing strategies. His work has been featured on Entrepreneur, Hubspot, Business.com, Clutch, and many more. You can find him on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn