I was fortunate enough to attend the Insights Marketing Day event presented by Greenbook; the full day event included eight guest speakers, two panel discussion groups and networking opportunities covering marketing trends and opportunties including: 

• why we should look to move to in-house marketing and PR
• the most effective ways to improve start and open rates on email campaigns and getting the communication right
• what marketing automation can do for you
• what clients really think of marketing
• the future of social media
• how people can be influenced and persuaded

Without a doubt my favourite two presenters were The Cat's Lifejacket: Thought Leadership in a Thoughtless World presented by Tom Ewing (Brainjuicer) and 7 Ways to Nudge Your Company Towards More Conversions by Dan Brotzel (Sticky Content Ltd.)

Dan Brotzel brought the presentation to life, opening our eyes to the simple manipulations and tricks, used by copywriters designing websites, to sway users in a certain direction. The result being higher conversion rates and number of purchases made. It was interesting to see how simple things such as wording, layout and display of options or offers can influence us to think and act differently. The fear of missing out on a good bargain or not having to make a decision/form an opinion is all subtly producing the desired outcomes.

The principles are simple, make it easy on the brain, believable, provide credible options and make it fun/gamified where possible. Outside of the online environment, where exclusivity, social proof, anchoring, offers and discounts can help persuade a user to convert from browsing to purchasing, another effective method is story telling. Telling a story that the purchaser can identify with can help with purchase conversion. For example, if you are deciding between two types of trainers, which would you buy? The cheap one or the slightly more expensive trainer that is the choice of pro-athletes?

Tom Ewing's presentation started off by paraphrasing Daniel Kahneman, “Thinking is to humans as swimming is to cats: they can do it if they have to, but they try to avoid it.” That set the scene to how most of us make decisions on a daily basis. The presentation talked around the emotional part of the brain, which is used most often when making decisions, to help understand how to plant a seed and grow it.

Here are a few simple principles that can be applied in the work and social environment.

• repetition, to as wide an audience as possible
• positive messages, ideas and stories stick better
• do not try and introduce an entirely new idea, instead package it up with something that’s already familiar. Others will identify with this, recognize the subject matter, can process it faster and already have feelings towards the subject.

Marketing researchers have adapted Mobile First best practices; but are we also looking to benefit from the same engagement, openness and flexibility that marketing initiatives offer? The art of storytelling and making content relatable to others is a skill anyone seeking to influence or persuade should practice and polish, marketers and marketing researchers alike. Whatever we decide to do, in order to succeed, we must be committed, focused, make it simple and be bold…if we can learn from our failures, commit to a purpose and try something different every so often, the end result can only be positive.