Digitally Next

“Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology,” said Brian Solis, the world-renowned digital anthropologist and futurist.

According to the award-winning author, using upscale technology alone would not ensure engagement and purchases. Moreover, technology keeps changing and can only function in the capacity of a mere springboard or platform to showcase your produce to the world.

Nonetheless, one cannot bait the audience without optimizing customer experience in a fashion that floors them even in the age of information overload when the user’s focus shrivels in the face of a thousand distractions.

Yep people, digital audience are hard nuts to crack!

So what is the key to corner your market? What is the secret sauce?

Most importantly, what’s the mantra to make digital campaigns change the narrative in your favour?

 

1. Optimizing user experience. Keep their comfort your top priority!

The answer lies in hacking and decoding the psychology of your prospective customers!

For this reason, there’s been an overt shift towards mobile-first strategies. As mobile devices continue to dominate internet usage, businesses are increasingly adopting mobile-first strategies to ensure digital marketing efforts are optimized for mobile and mobile applications offer seamless customer experience.

To further make operations minimalistic, introduction of voice search such as Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa has cranked up the user comfort by several notches. With the increasing use of smart speakers and voice assistants, voice search is becoming an important area of focus for digital marketers.

Today’s social e-commerce platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram, Facebooks know how the regular digital native thinks when he/she is out on their daily retail tour. Marketers understand the psychological factors that influence user behaviour such as usability, navigation, and visual design to optimize the user experience and drive conversions.

That is why video and visual content are becoming increasingly popular in digital marketing, with short-form videos, live streaming, and interactive content all gaining traction to upgrade the user comfort level by leaps.

• The pins, the reels, the sudden upsurge in video content marketing is indicative of current digital marketing models leveraging on the short attention span of the average social media user.
• The Youtube shorts are deliberately curated as capsule size videos for quick consumption and have become a huge hit amongst users due to their rhythmic and fluid design structure. The whirpool structure of Youtube shorts is so arresting that people end up addicted to scrolling, unconsciously getting sucked into the vast ocean of news and data for hours at a stretch.
• Due to the influx of consumable bite-sized unfiltered content online, the phenomenon called “DOOMSCROLLING” or “DOOMSURFING” has become a real issue where people are constantly fed bad news and events due to uncontrollable scrolling over and over again.

 

Apart from this, podcasts and audiobooks have become a popular way for people to consume audio content. Their portability and convenience of consumption has added to their preference appeal. Since this form of content can be clubbed in with other activities such as working out or running on a treadmill, an estimated 104 million people in the US alone are listening to podcasts regularly due to their viable packaging design.

 Hence, understanding the psychology of how people interact with digital interfaces certainly gives the edge to create a more intuitive and engaging user experience.

 

2. Building trust and credibility. Loyalty and Fraternity never gets old! 

The rise of Influencer Marketing is one of the most prominent developments in recent digital marketing trends.

A 2023 study by Deloitte on Digital Media trends testified to the power and effectiveness of labels cashing in on this aspect of human psychology to drive successful campaigns.

Influencer marketing has emerged as a powerful tool for reaching younger audiences and building brand awareness, with businesses partnering with social media influencers to promote their products and services.

As a matter of fact, content creators and influencers on instagram can establish and build trust, grow communities, and drive awareness and excitement for brands, products, and content. Notably, the trust that creators accrue can transfer to the brands they represent.

Nearly half of consumers say that if an online creator they trust has reviewed a brand’s product, they are more likely to trust that brand.

These sentiments are especially strong for Gen Zs and Millennials, showing the importance of brand-creator partnerships for reaching and building relationships with these youngest cohorts so used to socializing online.

The 2023 Deloitte report states that around 40% of those in these generations are more influenced by being part of community of followers of a creator or brand than by reviews on a shopping site.

 

3. Personalization and customization. Shape up or Ship Out!

This is a cardinal rule of digital campaigns and marketing as a whole. In the digital age, businesses have become more streamlined in their courtship ritual, aiming to provide singular attention and services to their customer base.

For instance, increased use of artificial intelligence and machine learning is being generously added in digital marketing plans to improve targeting and personalization, automate processes, and optimize campaigns.

After the towering success of Microsoft’s ChatGPT, Google launched Bard having recognized the humungous potential of AI in terms of personalized and interactive digital chatbots doling out fast-paced solutions to incoming queries and service requests.

Not only this, the 2023 Deloitte report had an interesting insight regarding the consumption behaviour of User-generated content (UGC) by millennials.

It found that half of Gen Zs and Millennials prefer user-generated video feeds to streaming video services: “Unlike TV, they deliver endless streams of shorter, user-generated videos that are personalized, interactive, and social, at no cost.”

Across all generations, a majority say they watch user-generated videos because they are free to watch, videos they see are about topics they’re interested in, they’re convenient to watch, and there’s always something new.

Hence, there’s been ample proof that catering to the human psychology of users by providing tailored content has been received with exceptional response.

 

 

In summary, marketers must unpack the mental factors that reinforce trust and credibility, such as social proof, authority, consistency, and use them to build intimate relationships with their audience. Because digital campaigns that are designed without any psychological backing seldom hit the bull’s eye. While technology is an essential component of digital campaigns, it is the understanding and application of psychology that ultimately dictates success.