This document discusses how neuromarketing research can help improve content marketing results. It notes that 95% of decisions are made subconsciously, so marketers need to understand how the brain works. The brain has two minds - the conscious, rational mind and the subconscious, emotional mind. To be effective, content must grab attention, engage emotions, and aid memory. Some key ways to do this include using novelty, eye contact, stories, and rewards which the brain cannot ignore. The goal of content messages should be attention, emotional engagement, and aiding long-term memory.

1. The Brain Science of
Content Marketing
What can we learn from
neuromarketing studies for
better content results?
Dr. Patsi Krakoff
www.WritingontheWeb.com

2. (Content Marketing Institute Survey 2010)

3. Dr. Patsi Krakoff, psycho-journalist
 pkrakoff@gmail.com
 WritingontheWeb.com
 ContentMarketingwithBlogs.com
 @PatsiBlogSquad
 www.PatsisonFacebook.com
 ContentforCoachesandConsultants.com

4. Neuromarketing
 What do brain scans
reveal?
 3 ways to prime brain for
action
 3 ways to frustrate the
brain
 3 things brain can’t
ignore
 6 ways to talk to the
brain…

5. 95% of decisions are made subconsciously

6. The wrong questions to the wrong
brain…
• U.S. Market Research: $12+ billion
asking consumers what they like and
why they buy…

7. People are irrational and unconscious
 I am master of my own destiny

8. The Subconscious Mind Defined
 Our 5 senses process 11 million pieces of
information per second…
 Only 40 of these enter our conscious awareness
 ~ Timothy Wilson, Strangers to Ourselves

9. 2 Minds
 Conscious
 Aware of what we’re
aware of
 Thinks
 Reasons
 Slow
 Reflective
 Plans
 Imagines future
 Uses up energy
 Subconscious
 Alert without knowing
it
 Feeling
 Instinctive
 5 X More Rapid
 Responsive
 Habitual
 Automatic
 Conserves energy

10. Marketing to the caveman’s brain…

11. Same Brain, Different Day…

12. Brain Scans –
This is your brain on advertising

13. Neuromarketing Instruments
 fMRI:  EEG

14. How the brain and marketing works…
Something grabs our attention…
We react emotionally and physically
We are driven to act
… but first we have to remember
where we saw it.
Attention, emotions, & memory…

15. Emotions control the mind…
“Evolution tends to favor action over thinking. That
hasn’t changed. Emotion controls the mind as it did
when humans first came on the scene.
People react much more emotionally than companies
dare to think. Purchasing decisions are never driven
by logic alone.
Emotion and narrative are key, they are the very
structure of mind and of human nature.”
~ Dr. Bob Deutsch, cognitive anthropologist
www.BrainSells.com

16. Your brain:
 “Brain: an apparatus with
which we think we think.”
~ Ambrose Beirce, author
Occupies 2-3% of your
body space
A small organ of 1,500 cc
Uses 20% of your body's
energy supply of glucose
Weighs 6 kilograms
Contains 100 billion cells
1 million kilometers of
interconnecting fiber

17. 3 Brains: Old, middle, new
 New brain thinks
 Mid brain feels
 Old brain decides

18. Right, Left, Male, Female
 Left hemisphere:
language, logic, math
 Right hemisphere:
abstract concepts, art,
music, creativity
 Female brain has more
neurons connecting two sides
w/ Corpus Collosum
 Men say 2,000 words/day
 Women 7,000 words/day

19. Female Content Marketing
What do you wish you’d known at 13?

20. What Women Want

21. Male Content Marketing

22. What Men Want

23. What can you do for me?

24. The Boomer Brain Is Buying…

25. How do you reach the subconscious mind?

26. The Secret Language of the Brain…
1.Visual
2. Self-centered, WIIFM,
danger/ pleasure
3. Concrete, contrasting,
tangible (likes stories)

27. The Secret Language of the Brain…
4. Attracted to faces,
eye contact
5. Emotional
6. Social

28. Monkey See…
Monkey Do Mirror Neurons

29. Connect with Individuals
 Sensory and emotional experiences through
mirror neurons…

30. The Frustrated Brain
 Too many choices
 Tasks that take too
long
 Clutter
 Distractions
 Long blocks of text

31. What the brain can’t ignore
1. Novelty

32. The Gecko, the Duck and the Bunny

33. What the brain can’t ignore
2. Eye Contact

34. Come fly with me…

35. What the brain can’t ignore
3. Pleasure/ Rewards

36. What content marketers can do
• Entertain (stories)
• Educate
• Engage (emotions,
personalities)
• Enrich lives (save time,
energy, money; create
community)

37. Content Marketing Focus
1. Community Focus
2. Personality
3. Core Beliefs
4. Stories

38. Review: 3 Goals for Content Messages
1. Attention
2. Emotional engagement
3. Memory

39. Review: 3 Ways to frustrate the brain
1. Task that take too long
2. Clutter
3. Distractions

40. Review: 3 things the brain can’t ignore:
1. Novelty
2. Faces
3. Pleasure/ rewards

41. The Language of the Subconscious Brain
 Visuals
 Self-centered
 Contrasts, stories
 Faces, eyes
 Emotional
 Social

42. Your brain and marketing
 Neurofocus.com
 Salesbrain.net
 Neurosense.co.uk
 SensoryLogic.com
 Emsense.com
 Sandsresearch.com

43. Content Marketing World 2011
www.contentmarketingworld.com

44. The Brain Science of Content
Marketing
Dr. Patsi Krakoff
www.WritingontheWeb.com
www.ContentMarketinwithBlogs.com
pkrakoff@gmail.com