Blog Psychology Archives

Written by Sonia Simone | February 9, 2017 | 5 Comments

Get Engaged to Your Audience and Customers

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Valentine’s Day is Tuesday
Why is content marketing so hard?

Welcome to the week before Valentine’s Day! As it happens, it’s connection and engagement week at Copyblogger — and the content this week is all about how you can create a more profound bond with your audience.

On Monday we had a fun day, because we got to finally let you know about something cool we’ve been working on behind the scenes — StudioPress Sites. This new product was conceived and shaped based on our in-depth conversations with customers, and we’re super proud of it. If you’re looking to launch a new site with all the flexibility of WordPress — and without the irritating parts — check it out.
Read More…

Written by Jerod Morris | February 8, 2017 | 5 Comments

5 Cognitive Biases You Need to Put to Work … Without Being Evil

All writing is persuasion in one form or another.

This is more obvious in some types of writing than others, but it is nonetheless true for all.

When it comes to copywriting, it is clearly true. Every piece of copy we write should drive a reader toward a specific action.

“Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it’s just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it.”
– David Sedaris

But even the best piece of copy in the world doesn’t actually control a reader’s actions. Well-written copy only provides the “illusion of control.” What a reader does after reading is dependent on the “stuff” they brought into it.

That “stuff” includes past experiences, preconceived notions, and, above all else, cognitive biases.

Let’s discuss a helpful handful of these cognitive biases — some you’ll know well, some you may not — and how understanding them and structuring your content in a way that acknowledges and appreciates them will help you connect, compel, and serve better.
Read More…

Written by Rainmaker.FM | June 16, 2015 | 0 Comments

Meet the Tragic Poster Boy for the Emotional Brain

While Enlightenment-era thinkers like Denis Diderot, Benjamin Franklin, René Descartes, David Hume, and Thomas Jefferson — giants from the age of reason — would like you to believe otherwise, we are not as rational as we think we are.

Recent books like Irrational Exuberance, Emotional Intelligence, and Descartes’ Error teach us that even the most analytical among us make decisions with emotions.

They can disparage the emotions as much as they want, but the fact remains that without emotions we can’t make a decision in the first place.

And strangely enough, the one incident that seemed to break the influence that the age of reason had on the Western mind occurred on September 13, 1848.

How to Create a Deep Connection with Your Prospects and Customers

When my son was about two and a half, he developed a funny habit of walking around the house from time to time, chiming out, “I’m here.”

Although this little boy was strongly connected to his family and his small class of school friends, he still had that need to express it.

I’m here. I exist. I want to be seen, and heard. I want to be recognized.

And as human beings, we never quite lose that. We might get a little more sophisticated about how we say it, but ultimately we all want to let the world know:

I’m here.

The 8 Types of Images That Increase the Psychological Impact of Your Content

The importance of using images in blogging goes far beyond “looking nice.”

It’s actually deeply psychological.

For one thing, your brain (and your reader’s brain) is better at processing visuals than text. In fact, 90 percent of the information that our brain gets is visual, and it processes that information 60,000 times faster than text.

And visuals, when they complement your text, help your message connect: 40 percent of people will respond better to visual information than to text.

Read on to learn about the eight most effective types of images, and where to find them online.
Read More…

Written by Vanessa Van Edwards | May 15, 2014 | 0 Comments

6 Nonverbal Hacks for Your Website So it Captures Attention and Converts

You have 0.05 seconds to make a good first impression online.

That’s only 50 milliseconds to hook someone — according to researchers at Carleton University.

Most important, this happens before a user reads any of your content. So, you have to capture their attention with your website’s nonverbal cues.

Do you have any of the following?

Low conversions
High bounce rate
Short average visit duration
Low sales
Slow traffic

Then you need to optimize your website’s nonverbal first impression.

I’m a human behavior hacker, and I’m going to show you how to use science to optimize your website.