What makes people click? Not in the dating sense, but on social media posts, emails or website listings.

Why did you click on this blog?

Maybe you’re curious about behavioral science and how it pertains to your job. Maybe you thought the title was catchy. Maybe a little bit of both, which is to say you responded to the substance and style.

If you have a great product or service (substance), but you can’t position it in a way that makes someone click (style), then you lose out.

If you rely on clickbait-y tactics (“You won’t believe the transformation!” “My jaw dropped at number 15!” — aka style), you might get a click, but your audience will likely be disappointed or annoyed if you fail to deliver on your “amazing!” promise (substance), and you’ll lose out.

But if you have a bit of both — a great product and great positioning — you win!

Using cognitive and behavioral principles can infuse your marketing with style to make your content more enticing and encourage users to click. Let’s dive in!

1. Always provide value

A link click is the reciprocity principle in action. Users provide something of value to your company — say, a click — in exchange for something of perceived value — helpful information.

Don’t let your audience down. Whether you deal in information, products or services, always provide value.

How to use this:

• Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What are they going through? What do they need? Frame your messaging from their perspective.

2. Social proof positive

People are more likely to buy a product or service that other people rave about. This concept is called social proof, and you can see it in action every time you read testimonials, reviews, influencer endorsements and the like. The more trusted a source, the more someone will consider that recommendation.

How to use this:

• Solicit and feature testimonials, five-star ratings and positive reviews. Showcase logos of awards you’ve won or media outlets that have covered you on your website and social media pages.
• Frame your messaging around your “most popular” or “top-selling” products and services.

3. Last call for procrastinators (and everybody else)

Sales are a common way companies try to earn our business, but with so many emails and ads inundating our inboxes and feeds, even sales have a tough time slowing our scrolls. But when discounts are about to expire, we’re more likely to act because we don’t want to miss out on the savings.

Research shows that people respond to ads and emails with “last chance” messaging. Deadline-driven language creates a sense of urgency. Suddenly, a sale you’ve been ignoring demands your attention (and maybe your money).

Bonus tip: Keep your overall timeline short. Studies have shown that people respond more to “limited time” offers than extended promotions.

How to use this:

• Incorporate deadline language such as “final day” or, better yet, “final hours” in your ads and emails (less time = greater urgency).
• Use a countdown timer showing the time left to act.

4. How does that sound?

We’re big fans of alliteration around here. Alliterative content is fun to write, fun to read and fun for our brains.

Processing efficacy is our inclination to favor information that’s easier for our brains to understand. Alliteration and rhyming help us process and retain information (“plop plop fizz fizz,” anyone?), which in turn can influence our decisions.

By positioning your products and services in a way that appeals to this neurological tendency, you give your marketing a leg up.

How to use it:

• Make your marketing more memorable.
• Users will click on a concept that sticks.

(See what I just did there?)

5. Me, me, me!

You’re at a party making small talk with a stranger. You light up when you discover you share a hobby. Suddenly, you identify more closely with this person. They are like you. And you like that. This is called implicit egotism.

We react more positively and are more likely to engage when we see ourselves in a brand’s content.

How to use it:

• Segment your audience by separating it into groups based on interests or demographics.
• Personalize your messaging accordingly, such as “Hello, fellow Libra” or “For all the dog lovers out there.”

6. Overexposure

Social media campaigns have a metric called frequency. It’s the average number of times a person sees an ad. Too seldom and people won’t recall the ad. Too often and they’ll get sick of it (what we in the marketing biz call “creative fatigue”).

The mere-exposure effect is when greater familiarity leads to a more positive reaction to stimuli (aka your product or service). It’s like the Goldilocks of frequency — just right.

How to use this:

• Monitor frequency metrics for your social media campaigns.
• Adjust frequency caps, budget and targeting.
• Refresh ad creative periodically.

One more thing …

For fun (spoken like a true marketing nerd!), let’s consider some alternative titles for this article to see a few of these principles in action — and get a few bonus ideas to boot!

• Consumer Psychology in Marketing: This tells you what the piece is about, but it’s not compelling — substance over style. Not bad for search engine optimization, but there’s no oomph to it, no value proposition. Nix!
• Cognitive Shortcuts* and How They Affect Your Marketing: Better. This tells readers what they’ll get out of the article. But it seems academic and complicated. Remember, we want to make it accessible. This title doesn’t convey “easy to understand.” Nix.
• Six Behavior-based Principles Every Marketer Should Know: The focus around six concepts promises to break the subject down into understandable bits and isn’t overwhelming. (The paradox of choice shows that having fewer options — say, six instead of 63 — makes information easier to process and act on.) The target audience — marketers — sees the information will be relevant to their work. “Should” creates a sense of urgency. (The fear of missing out might make you wonder, “Do I have this important knowledge? Let me be sure …”) Pretty good, but a tad long.
• Six Behavior-based Strategies for Smart Marketers: This has a good balance of substance and style like the previous option, but with the bonus of alliteration. The target audience of marketers wants to identify as being on top of their game (not every marketer, but smart marketers). Also, the tone aligns better with our business — more aspirational, less finger-waggy.

Chances are, you’ve been using some of these principles in your marketing tactics already. Play with more of them. And remember, rules are helpful, but when you incorporate them in a way that’s authentic to your business, they become even more powerful.

For more phenomena and examples, check out our podcast on cognitive shortcuts.

Want to boost your marketing efforts? We’d love to partner with you!