My 10th week in the CXL Institute Mini Degree of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) — A Review

So I started with Peep Laja’s course on “People and Psychology” a couple of weeks back and this week was the third week of the course where I completed half of another BIG lesson. This lesson is called “A Big List of Persuasion Techniques”. This blog is about what I learned this week in the lesson. This is the 5th course of the “Foundations” section in the Conversion Optimization Mini Degree from CXL Institute.

In this lesson, Peep talks about key persuasion techniques that have scientific studies to back them. For each persuasion technique, Peep has used explanation, examples, a scientific use case, and application tips (telling us how to apply the science).

Indeed, these persuasion techniques were something new and exciting for me to learn.

Lesson 4: A Big List of Persuasion Techniques

This chapter focuses on important persuasion techniques outside the purview of Cialdini’s 7 Principles of Persuasion.

The Focusing Effect

When we have to make a choice based on too many factors, our brain tends to naturally focus on things that are most obviously in our view. This reduces the number of factors to consider when making a choice.

A study by Schkade and Daniel Kahneman explored why Californians seem much happier than midwesterners. The results were shocking; In reality, when all factors were considered, people from California were not happier than or less happy than people in the Midwest.

It was an illusion because the assumption was drawn based on commonly visible factors like sunny weather in the state and the easy-going stereotype for the people in California. But other factors (beyond the cosmetic and obvious ones) weren’t considered.

This study demonstrates how the human brain can’t handle too many inputs as one and also how it tends to focus on things that stand out more. This means without visual hierarchy we can’t leverage this focusing effect.

Context-Dependent Memory (CDM)

This means when we learn something, we don’t just learn the information. We learn the information + context around it. This context comes in various forms: colors, smells, location, objects, positions, and even emotional state (which is called state-dependent memory).

To help us remember the information better, help us remember the context that was present when we first learned the information.

When people come to our websites to buy something but leave quickly, they are likely to forget their intention of buying when they leave. Through retargeting, we can help buyers remember the context of your store on other websites (through graphics, copy, etc). Their brain immediately recalls their intention and desire of buying, if they forgot. Their desire gets renewed if they didn’t forget. This way our brand stays on top of their minds.

Self-generation affect effect

People like something more when they create it themselves. It becomes their “ thing”. It belongs to them and they feel responsible for it. If people create a part of your product or simply assemble it from an existing bunch of disorganized, illegible ideas, their agency over the product would increase!

Its effect on persuasion would be magical! People can’t say no to things that they own i.e a competitor would have to work hard to make them change their decision. Branding would also play a key role in it.

Ask customers through short feedback questionnaires so their “self-generation affect” effect gets stronger. Make them invest cognitive effort.

Affect Heuristic (People decide based on the general effect of their mood)

If people are feeling good, they tend to make bold, risky decisions or generally try new things.

If they are going through a bad mood, they make conservative choices chosen to preserve their current state (because they don’t want it to go bad!).

People tend to use the Affect heuristic while assessing the risks vs benefits of a choice depending on whether they interpret the outcome of those choices positively or negatively. The choice for the person feels equivalent to “going with your gut instinct”.

Affect Infusion Model (AIM) developed by Joseph Fargas suggests that our reliance on the Affect heuristic is more likely the more complicated and the more sudden a decision is.

Facial Distraction

People are hardwired to notice faces in their surroundings. Our brain has evolved separately to have the ability to detect faces. As kids, we develop this ability to start recognizing our close ones and feel safe with them.

Now that we know this, we can take advantage of it and make changes where this might be a disadvantage.

Attentional Bias

When we see something that affects our emotions i.e. emotionally-dominant stimuli (whether negative OR positive), we pay more attention to it. It’s almost like we are observing to see how it develops i.e. get more of the positive emotion or hoping to avoid the negative emotion.

This may not mean too much on its own. But it has widespread application in branding.

For example, life cover is sold with children in the picture to trigger the strong emotion related to “making your kids’ future secure”. Kids in the picture help remind the audience what their actual goal is.

This technique refocuses their attention from the nitty-gritty of the product to their core reason. This is necessary especially for outbound ads where users have focused their attention on the content of the platform. So your emotionally-dominant imagery can help them focus on your ad instead of scrolling past your ad without reading anything.

It can be combined masterfully with Facial Distraction. It can also be applied without facial distraction. For example, show the highest possible value of a key stat that your audience truly cares about in a picture. Source the “most valuable stat” from “voice of customer (VoC) data.

To my surprise, this isn’t the most visual section so it becomes an abstract concept. There is some thought that might be required to understand this.

Fear-inspired Motivation

Fear can be a powerful motivator for different types of audiences, regardless of the industry. But putting a scary message/picture is not enough. People can easily explain it away. They may also associate your brand with fear if the resulting graphic/copy is too strong for them. Similarly, your brand would be perceived as “ineffective” if the graphic/copy uses a weak fear or communicates fear weakly.

It’s important to motivate people after scaring them if we truly want to convert them. The best combination is telling people they can overcome this fear themselves (self-efficacy or self-assurance) but also telling them they don’t have to try to overcome this fear alone (response-efficacy or product assurance).