Behavioral Cues in Digital Marketing

Kare Anderson is a writer for Forbes magazine. She had an interview with Brian Solis on his show "Revolution". In the show they talked about social interaction and the importance of it in business organizations.



Behavioral Cues in the Offline World

Kare Anderson believes that behavioral cues influence the way people connect with each other. She says that people are projecting their own feelings on people they meet. I think it's true. When people meet each other there is no way that they can see or understand 100% of the other person in a few minutes, so whatever feeling they get from each other is influenced from their own assumptions or feelings depending on their background and personality. For example, when I meet someone I have a feeling that they're good that's not based on anything that they've done but I assume that they'll be kind and honest. She also talked about other cues that are not behavioral but they also influence how people feel about each other. For example, if I meet a person on a warm sunny day when I feel energized maybe I will like them better than if I meet them at night after class when I'm tired. 

Anderson also talked about mothers who change the tone of their voice to appeal to their kids and when they bring it to work they get more eye contact and response. I totally agree with that. For example, when I'm in the class and my professor is speaking with a nice melody in their voice, I pay attention to what they're saying and I like to hear more.

Behavioral Cues in the Online World

These ideas can work in the online world too. I'm seeing examples of this focus on social cues in the three companies that I'm following for my Digital Marketing class project. I think every webpage should have personality and a webpage without personality is useless. People should be able to see that personality and hear the voice of the brand through the webpage or social media.

McDonalds

This is the McDonalds webpage for their new premium McWRAP.  They are using a lot of cues to attract the customer. The webpage is very colorful and interactive. It makes you want to click to learn more. It's not visible in this picture but there are people walking and cars going by like a real city. 

In this commercial for the McWRAP, McDonalds is using behavioral cues. When you see how much other people are enjoying the food, you want to have this experience too and maybe you'll try it.

Shake Shack

This is a post on Shake Shack's Facebook page where they are sharing one of their fans painting of Shake Shack's food. In this post they're encouraging other fans to go to her Instagram page. This is showing a high level of engagement with their fans.

Mark Burger

Mark Burger has a unique design on its webpage that when you scroll up and down the items on the page look 3D. I found it interesting and it's more exciting than a normal webpage. It has a specific style and its own personality which makes it attractive to customers.


People Want to Interact!

Just like in social interactions in the offline world, marketers need to pay attention and use behavioral cues to connect with their customers. People want to feel they have a personal connection online like when they meet someone in real life. If brand webpages are ugly and boring no one will want to engage with that brand or use that webpage. Customers have higher expectations of a brand now and they want a high level of engagement so brands have to use social media effectively to be successful.