How to Optimize Your Amazon Listing with Neuromarketing using 4 Simple Principles to Increase Sales

GUIDE OUTLINE

• Principle 1: Identify the consumer’s needs or problems

• Principle 2: Demonstrate the value of your product as a solution to their needs or problems

• Principle 3: Evoke an emotional reaction

• Principle 4: Evoke a subconscious primal response

INTRODUCTION

Advertising has come a long way from the early days where merchants would nail paper messages on to wooden post to the modern day techniques of neuromarketing.

So what exactly is neuromarketing you ask?

Well, it’s an approach to advertising which combines two scientific disciplines, the first one is neuroscience, the second, marketing. To put it simply, it’s a psychological approach to sales.

Here’s a brief history of how advertising and neuromarketing were developed.

Back in the early 20th century, advertising was simply seen as a means to communicate the features of a product to consumers.

It was widely believed at the time that consumers based their purchasing decision on facts and information.

At the time, consumers were regarded as rational subjects who made rational decisions.

Then came along Edward Bernays, a hotshot marketer who would revolutionize marketing.

It’s worth mentioning that Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud, one of the founding fathers of modern psychology.

To revolutionize marketing, Bernays would draw upon many of Freud’s ideas and findings.

Bernays and Freud didn’t see people as rational subjects who made rational decisions, quite the contrary.

Bernays and Freud believed that people were fundamentally irrational so you had to appeal to them on an emotional and subconscious level.

Bernays and Freud’s insights would later lay the groundwork for modern-day advertising and neuromarketing.

Bernays was the one who came up with the idea to pay celebrities to use products and to use culture and events as a means to advertise products; common marketing practices you see today.

The goal of neuromarketing is to identify elements, topics, and narratives which evoke strong emotional and subconscious responses from consumers to craft more persuasive ads.

Neuroscientists do this by studying the physical responses of focus group subjects to stimuli. They monitor physical responses such as brain activity, heart rate, breathing, and eye movement.

For the sake of being practical with crafting an online product description, we won’t be dealing with any complicated science or extensive research studies which can take years and a fortune to undertake.

Instead, we will deal with a simplified but just as effective version of neuromarketing.

We can optimize your product description with neuromarketing using 4 simple principles, they are:

• Principle 1: Identify the consumer’s needs or problems

• Principle 2: Demonstrate the value of your product as a solution to their needs or problems

• Principle 3: Evoke an emotional reaction

• Principle 4: Evoke a subconscious primal response

PRINCIPLE 1: IDENTIFY THE CONSUMER’S NEEDS OR PROBLEMS

It’s important to identify the consumer’s needs or problems as a first step because, what you’re essentially doing is, finding out what their motive is for buying your product.

It’s all about putting yourself in the mind of the customer.

When customers look for products, they do so in an attempt to fill a need or to solve a problem.

An example of a need can include the need to be beautiful or the craving for delicious food.

An example of a problem can include cooling a hot house or the problem of gingivitis.

PRINCIPLE 2: DEMONSTRATE THE VALUE OF YOUR PRODUCT AS A SOLUTION TO THEIR NEEDS OR PROBLEMS

You will demonstrate the value of your product as a solution by highlighting its features and benefits. Afterward, you will explain how those features and benefits will solve the customer’s needs or problems.

For example, you can explain how the aloe vera (feature) in your hair conditioner will improve the silkiness (benefit) of one’s hair to become more beautiful (need or problem).

PRINCIPLE 3: EVOKE AN EMOTIONAL REACTION

Nothing is more boring and uninteresting than a product description that’s only filled with facts and information, that’s it!

To make your product listing more interesting and impactful, you will need to add some emotion in your sales copy and product photography.

Emotion comes in many forms such as joy, sadness, fear, excitement, or curiosity.

Your task is to figure out which emotions are the most appropriate and best suited to sell your product.

For example, the emotions of excitement and joy would be most appropriate and best suited to sell children’s toys. The emotions of sadness or anger would not be appropriate.

PRINCIPLE 4: EVOKE A SUBCONSCIOUS PRIMAL RESPONSE

Neuroscience has made many groundbreaking discoveries and insights into the structure and function of the human brain.

The most groundbreaking insight in regards to advertising is how decision making is processed.

Neuroscience has discovered that we actually have 3 brains that work together to make a decision.

We have the reptilian brain, which is the oldest part of the brain in evolutionary terms and can be found in all animals, including reptiles. According to neuroscientist Paul McLean, this part of the brain is responsible for our subconscious primal needs which ensure our survival and that of our species.

Then we have the limbic brain, which can be found in all mammals. This part of the brain is responsible for directing our emotions, mostly, subconsciously. This is where our value judgement originates such as the perception of whether a product is good or bad.

Then we have the neocortex which can only be found in humans and is the newest part of the brain. This is the part of the brain that’s responsible for complex thinking, analyzing, logic, creativity, and math.

As humans, we like to think of ourselves as an evolved species that thinks rationally and makes decisions logically. Neuroscience studies show otherwise.

Neuroscience shows that we actually make decisions based on the fulfillment of primal needs first (reptilian), place an emotional value judgement second (mammalian), and then justify our decisions rationally last (neocortex).

World-renowned advertising consultant Drew Eric Whitman has identified 8 primal needs which are biologically hard-wired into every person. He refers to them as the “Life Force 8.” They are

1. Survival and enjoyment of life

2. Enjoyment of food and beverages

3. Protection from fear, pain, and danger

4. Sexual companionship

5. Comfortable living conditions

6. To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses

7. Care and protection of loved ones

8. Social status or approval

These needs are what people subconsciously seek out for and are the primary influencers of what they decide to buy.

By incorporating any one of these primal needs into your sales copy, you will be appealing to the reptilian brain and subconsciously influencing your customers’ purchasing decision.

It’s important to note that neuromarketing isn’t some new secret; many popular brand name such as Apple, Nike, or Mercedes Benz regularly use neuromarketing strategies in their ads.

With neuromarketing, car commercials are transformed from a fact-based approach of, “come by our car, it has a top speed of 350 km/h and runs on 8.9L of gas per 100km” to a more persuasive emotional and primal approach of, “come by our car, it’s a prestigious car that can cheat death.”

Let’s take a product listing for a power bank as an example.

Average approach:

Come by our power bank, it has a 10,000 mAh capacity battery and two USB ports (boring!).

Neuromarketing approach:

Come by our power bank, it has a 10,000 mAh capacity battery to extend the battery life of your phone so you can capture more exciting memories to show-off to your friends (excitement, social approval).

By appealing to all 3 parts of the brain instead of just one, your ad will become more persuasive and impactful which in turn will drastically improve your sales.

This concludes our short and simple Amazon listing optimization guide.

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To learn more, read my other guide “How to Optimize Your Amazon Listing in 11 Simple Steps to Increase Your Sales.” <-- CLICK THE LINK.

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