Nathalie Nahai - The secret psychology of persuasive copy (Conversion Conference)

All material © THE WEB PSYCHOLOGIST LTD. 2015. No unauthorised reproduction or distribution.
#CONVCON @NATHALIENAHAITHE WEB PSYCHOLOGIST LTD.
THE SECRET
PSYCHOLOGY
PERSUASIVE COPY
of

1  Introduction
2  Persuasive copy
3  Engaging images
4  Viral videos
5  Key takeaways
TODAY’S TALK
@THEWEBPSYCHTHE WEB PSYCHOLOGIST
bit.ly/persuasive_copy

1  Introduction
2  Persuasive copy
3  Engaging images
4  Viral videos
5  Key takeaways
TODAY’S TALK
@THEWEBPSYCHTHE WEB PSYCHOLOGIST
INTRODUCTION

HELLO!
@NathalieNahai
TheWebPsychologist.com
HumaniseTheWeb.com
Nathalie Nahai

WEB PSYCHOLOGY
I coined the term ‘Web Psychology’
in 2011 and defined it as…

“ ”
WEB PSYCHOLOGY
The empirical study of how
our online environments influence
our attitudes and behaviours

HOW IT HELPS YOU
Provides a psychological toolkit
to help design more persuasive websites,
apps, and user experiences

WEBPSYCHOLOGY

WEBPSYCHOLOGY
HCI
neuro-
aesthetics
user
experience
social
psychology
cognitive
psychology
neuroscience
cross-cultural
psychology
behavioural
economics
persuasive
technology
personality
psychology
digital
humanities
marketing

THE PROBLEM

IT’S THREEFOLD
Your message isn’t getting heard because:

IT’S THREEFOLD
1  Too much competition

IT’S THREEFOLD
2  Limited attention & time

IT’S THREEFOLD
2  Limited attention & time
3  Shift in upcoming generations’ motivations

THE SOLUTION

Understand your customers and
be the best at giving them what they want

BUT HOW?

KNOW WHO YOU’RE
TARGETING
1

YOU PROBABLY KNOW…
•  Age
•  Gender
•  Location
•  Device
•  Browser & OS

BUT
Basic analytics & demographics aren’t enough

DIG DEEPER
You have to understand why your customers
are behaving the way they are

PERSONALITY

“ ”
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Oxford Dictionaries, 2015
Study and classification of people
according to their attitudes, aspirations,
and other psychological criteria

“ ”
PERSONALITY MATTERS
Hirsh, J. B., Kang, S. K., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2012). Personalized persuasion tailoring persuasive appeals to recipients’ personality traits.Psychological science, 23(6),
578-581.
Adapting persuasive messages to the
personality traits… can be an effective
way of increasing the messages’ impact

THE BIG 5

QUICK QUIZ

DO YOU HAVE…
A high degree of intellectual
curiosity, creativity and a preference
for novelty and variety?

THE BIG 5
1  Openness
Costa, P. T. Jr., and McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) Professional Manual. Odessa, FL:
Psychological Assessment Resources.

ARE YOU…
Organised, dependable, self-disciplined
and dutiful? Do you prefer to plan
and aim for achievement?

THE BIG 5
1  Openness
2  Conscientiousness

DO YOU HAVE…
The tendency to be compassionate
and cooperative rather than suspicious
and antagonistic towards others?

THE BIG 5
1  Openness
3  Agreeableness

ARE YOU…
Energetic, positive, assertive and sociable?
Do you tend to seek stimulation in the
company of others?

THE BIG 5
1  Openness
3  Agreeableness
4  Extraversion

DO YOU HAVE…
The tendency to experience unpleasant
emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety,
depression, and vulnerability?

THE BIG 5
1  Openness
3  Agreeableness
4  Extraversion
5  Neuroticism

HIDDEN DRIVERS

There are many ways we make
decision-making easier for ourselves

SOCIAL NORMS

SOCIAL NORMS
Socially shared and enforced
attitudes specifying what to do and
what not to do in a given situation
Prentice, D. A. (2012). The psychology of social norms and the promotion of human rights (pp. 23-46). Oxford University Press, USA.

PSYCHOLOGICAL HEURISTICS

HEURISTIC
Mental shortcut that eases the
cognitive load of making a decision

HEURISTIC
1
anchoring
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. science, 185(4157), 1124-1131.
The first piece of information offered
(the ‘anchor’) influences the rest of our decision

EXPERIMENT
Think of a country beginning with the letter ‘U’
2

EXPERIMENT
2
What is it?

2

YOU COULD HAVE CHOSEN
•  United Arab Emirates
•  U.K.
•  Ukraine
•  USA
•  Uzbekistan
22

HEURISTIC
2
availability
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive psychology, 5(2), 207-232.
When evaluating a decision, we rely on the
immediate ‘available’ examples that come to mind

GUESS THE BRAND

HEURISTIC
2
availability
‘Sticky’ copy is key to leveraging this
principle and increasing brand salience

HEURISTIC
3
peak end rule
Kahneman, D., Fredrickson, B. L., Schreiber, C. A., & Redelmeier, D. A. (1993). When more pain is preferred to less: Adding a better end. Psychological science, 4(6),
401-405.
We judge experiences based on how they were
at their peak and at their end, rather than the total
sum or average of every moment of the experience

3

HEURISTIC
3
peak end rule
Even simple copy that acknowledges an interaction
can create a positive peak end experience

COMMUNICATE
PERSUASIVELY
2

PERSONALITY BASED KEYWORDS

Who does this appeal to?

EXTRAVERSION
Strong
Outgoing
Active
Excitement
Attention
578-581.

OPENNESS
Innovation
Intelligence
Sophistication
Imagination
Creative
578-581.

NEUROTICISM
Safe
Reduce the anxiety
Uncertainty
Security
Protection
578-581.

KEYWORDS
Specific words engage specific traits

PERSONALISE
Know the psychography of
your audience and adapt your
messages accordingly

TOOLS
•  Big 5 (IPIP-NEO) personal.psu.edu/j5j/IPIP
•  Visual DNA visualdna.com
•  MyPersonality mypersonality.org

TRIGGERS & HEADLINES

HEADLINES
What do you notice about the
words in these headlines?

TRIGGER
They all use psychological trigger words

TRIGGER WORDS
Weird
Bizarre
Strange
Mystery
Effortless
Painstaking
Secret
Free
Creepy
Amazing
Absolute
Essential
Incredible
(It’s not what
you think)

HOW TO PUT IT TOGETHER?

FORMULA
You can use this approach

Number / Trigger word
+

Adjective
+

Adjective
Keyword
+

Adjective
Keyword
Promise
+

Adjective
Keyword
Promise
KILLER HEADLINE
+

EXAMPLE
Subject:

EXAMPLE
Subject: Frying eggs

EXAMPLE
You could write an article entitled:

EXAMPLE
“How to fry an egg”

EXAMPLE
“How to fry an egg”
“Why I love frying eggs”

OR APPLY THE FORMULA:

“13 unbelievable ways you can fry a small egg with a sock”

number

number
trigger word

number
trigger word
adjective

number
trigger word
adjective
keyword

number
trigger word
adjective
keyword
promise

SO, FOR ‘BORING’ INDUSTRIES…
Subject:

Subject: Home Insurance

“Why you should insure your home”

“Why you should insure your home”
“Home insurance for the whole family”

“3 bizarre ways our bespoke insurance could save your life”

number

number
trigger word

number
trigger word
adjective

number adjective
keywordtrigger word

number adjective
keyword
promise
trigger word

ISN’T THIS JUST CLICKBAIT?

ONLY IF…
You’re not offering value, or if you’re
promising more than you can deliver

“ ”
ASK YOURSELF
What are the tangible benefits my
customers will get from this content?

SELL WITH INTEGRITY
3

TRUST
Lack of trust is one of the biggest
impediments to successful ecommerce

VALUES
One way to establish trust is to anchor yourself
in your values & express them business-wide

“ ”
VALUES
Oyserman, D. (2001). Values: Psychological Perspectives. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, pp. 16150–16153.
Priorities, internal compasses or
springboards for action

“ ”
VALUES
The subjective judgments that help
us ascertain how important something is
to us relative to something else

GEN Y
More than 81% of millennials expect
companies to make a public commitment to
good corporate citizenship
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larissafaw/2014/05/22/millennials-expect-more-than-good-products-services-to-win-their-loyalty/

GEN Y
•  Values-based brands & messages

GEN Y
•  From CSR to ethical business models

GEN Y
•  From CSR to ethical business models
•  Identity & lifestyle brands

“ ”
B CORP
A new type of corporation which uses the
power of business to solve social and
environmental problems
http://www.bcorporation.net/

FINANCE
“Loans that change lives”

FASHION
“Buy one give one"

INSURANCE
Using values to create emotional arousal

BUT
There’s another key element to consider…

WHO ARE YOU
DESIGNING FOR?

WE ARE THE USER

WHERE DO YOU SIT?

WHERE DO YOU SIT?
Facilitation

WHERE DO YOU SIT?
Facilitation Coercion

WHERE DO YOU SIT?
Facilitation
persuasion
Coercion
manipulation

“ ”
THE SILVER RULE
Do not do unto others what you
would not have them do unto you
Hillel the Elder in Talmud: Shabbat 31a

HOWEVER

ACCOUNTABILITY
•  Good intentions aren’t enough

ACCOUNTABILITY
•  We all need a system of checks & balances

ACCOUNTABILITY
•  We all need a system of checks & balances
•  Quality assurance is key

As CROs, designers and developers…

ARCHITECTS & USERS
you are both the
of our future web

WHAT KIND OF WORLD
do we want to build?

REFERENCES
Degree Deodorant Men (2014) http://www.degreedeodorant.com/en/men/
AXE (2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tGLIEuud3A
Salon (2015) http://www.salon.com/
PsyBlog (2015) http://www.spring.org.uk/
3-word phrases with most FB shares in Buzzfeed Article titles (2015) http://minimaxir.com/2015/01/linkbait/
Humanise The Web (2015) http://humanisetheweb.com/tickets/
Bathstore (2015) http://www.bathstore.com/
Social Examiner (2015) http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/thank-you/
HubSpot Unsubscribe Video (2013) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt8p0_Cp76c
Kiva.org (2015) http://www.kiva.org/
Tom’s Shoes (2015) http://www.toms.co.uk/
MetLife Insurance: My father lies, what about yours? (2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1eYebq3nWs

THANK YOU!
@NathalieNahai
TheWebPsychologist.com
HumaniseTheWeb.com
Nathalie Nahai

Nathalie Nahai - The secret psychology of persuasive copy (Conversion Conference)

Nathalie Nahai - The secret psychology of persuasive copy (Conversion Conference)

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot(20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked(20)

Similar to Nathalie Nahai - The secret psychology of persuasive copy (Conversion Conference)

Similar to Nathalie Nahai - The secret psychology of persuasive copy (Conversion Conference)(20)

More from Nathalie Nahai

More from Nathalie Nahai(10)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded(20)

Nathalie Nahai - The secret psychology of persuasive copy (Conversion Conference)