The design of our physical surroundings can impact how we interact within them. We know this to be true of places like grocery stores and casinos; both designed to keep people inside as long as possible. It’s also particularly true in an environment where there are several options to choose from, say for example, a cafeteria. The layout of a cafeteria can subtly, albeit it substantially, affect the outcome. If the salad bar is front and center, while pizza is tucked away in the back corner, a good portion of people who may have opted for pizza instead leave with salad. Convenience is often the determining force, and there is power in harnessing that knowledge.
The underlying concept of nudging, a term coined by Nobel economist Richard Thaler, is that choices are not made in isolation. In his book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Thaler and his co-author Cass Sustein introduce the concept of choice architecture, which states that people want and need structure around their decisions. This, in turn, opens up opportunities to create frameworks that lead to better decisions.
While more traditional economists rely on theory and see people as homo economicus—perfectly rational beings—behavioral economists examine the effects of psychological, emotional and cultural factors, amongst others, on the often very irrational decisions people make. I had the pleasure of interviewing Thaler last year, and while he gave a long list of examples of nudges taking place in sectors like healthcare, energy, and technology, nudging is something that can be incorporated into your marketing efforts as well. That is to say, nudge marketing can offer new ways for you to encourage people into engaging with your content or purchasing your work.
The art of nudge marketing
Limited-time offers
By using language that expressly tells your audience that time is ticking and via artificial scarcity, you can activate their loss aversion, economics speak for, in this case, a version of FOMO, the fear of missing out. The loss-aversion bias means that people experience losses more profoundly than gains. Saving $5 on an album pre-sale will be motivation enough for a lot of people to purchase it, even if it doesn’t mean early access. Or, paying a premium price for a limited-edition piece, such as merch, can have a similar effect. Knowing that once sold out, the piece will never be for sale again acts as an incentive to make the purchase while they can. You can use countdown clocks or calendars to amplify excitement and anticipation, and to increase customer action as deadlines near.
Special offers
Offers don’t need to expire to spur action. If you have a mailing list, you can offer a one-time discount or promo code by subscribing to the list. Your email marketing list can be used for further nudges down the road too. This can be the vehicle with which you announce pre-sales or special events which further incentivizes others to sign up.
Listen or purchase counts
The majority of people want to know what other people are doing, and for those who may be less familiar with your work, your most popular pieces will be the first ones chosen. By including these numbers wherever possible, you’re pointing people in a direction that, statistically, has proven to be your most successful.
This is also the Customer as a Teacher model, which lets your existing fans educate new fans. The suggestion of what to listen to first is coming from them, not you. You see this particular tactic often in e-commerce, whether it’s labeling items as Best Of or Most Wanted or staff pick sections.
Placement
To highlight a piece of work that you don’t feel is getting the attention it deserves, reordering the placement and putting that piece at the top of a tracklist can translate into more plays. It may sound simple, but nudging often is.
Having an autoplay feature on your website is also a direct way to increase plays by highlighting a particular song or video. It’s important to note however that this particular tactic is not always a popular one, both among marketers and fans. Sure, many people may close the window but a portion of visitors will hang around long enough to listen or watch. It can be a controversial move, so consider the user experience of your site before adding this feature.
Reviews
Showing that people within your community are engaging and interacting with an event or experience, be it online or offline, will inspire others to get involved. You can offer rewards to encourage this, for example asking people to provide some sort of feedback or testimonial with a hashtag, which you then share on your channels. Also referred to as social proof, this is the Architecture of Participation model in a nutshell; you create a space, but let the people build the community around it.
Nudge, don’t shove
It’s important to remember that nudging should never be seen as a mandate, but rather a suggestion. If you try to be forceful or too gimmicky, it won’t work. People do not lose their autonomy with nudging; the choice is still up to the individual. You don’t take the pizza away, you just don’t make it the first thing a hungry person sees.
Photo by Hayes Potter on Unsplash
