Humans have an attention span less than that of a Goldfish, approximately 8 seconds, and it’s getting shorter.
This means that any marketer has 8 seconds to make a consumer tap on their product or move ahead. Predicting consumer behavior and creating marketing strategies based on market research is one of the crucial aspects of running a successful business. One term that has reshaped marketing strategies is ‘Neuromarketing’, a discipline that delves into the subconscious of the human mind by using neuroscience methods such as eye tracking, brain imaging, facial coding, etc.
Another transformative force, AI, can identify consumer patterns and showcase exactly what a consumer wants on their feeds. For students, AI’s predictive analysis can study past data and recommend online bootcamps to students based on their preferences. The collaboration of AI and Neuromarketing provides a wider view of consumer analysis and marketers can tailor a product depending on the needs of the student.
Research by a Harvard Business School Professor, Gerald Zaltman, shows that 95 % of our purchase decision-making is controlled by our subconscious brain. AI-powered Neuromarketing holds great potential for captivating the student audience by providing them with a personalized experience. Marketers use several neuromarketing strategies that help create successful online bootcamps and boost student enrolment in online courses.
- Visual Storytelling
A Forbes article says that 90 % of the information processed by our brain is visual. Considering the paucity of time, marketers can take advantage of this fact and create engaging visual elements that drive students to enroll in online bootcamps. People engage more when there’s a story involved, so marketers can make use of visual elements like videos, infographics, animations, and images to increase student engagement and brand awareness. Having relevant display ads also helps in maximizing clicks if seen by the right people at the right time.
- User-generated Content
Incorporating user-generated information in the form of testimonials, reviews, and real-time feedback can be effective for increasing the conversion rate of an online bootcamp. An article bylinearitystates that 79% of consumers believe that user-generated content highly impacts purchasing decisions.
This strategy works because the reviews come from a trusted source, which helps in building a sense of credibility among students and attracting prospective candidates. Websites can also provide networking opportunities to students by interacting with students already enrolled in the course.
- Optimizing Mobile Experience
With the increased usage of mobile devices among youth, it is imperative to give students a seamless user experience across all devices. By making online courses mobile-friendly, the chances of online traffic engaging with the content are higher, as people can access these courses on the go too. Adding techniques like simple navigation, resizing images and videos to fit different phone screens, and using readable fonts can help increase conversion rates on websites.
Chatbots are also one of the methods to increase student engagement. Having a tool that is available 24/7 helps students to ask direct queries and reduces the waiting time to connect with an actual representative.
As the subconscious mind is responsible for most purchasing behavior, many ways can be implemented to understand the motivations and behaviors of online bootcamp students. Neuroscience data can use various tools like fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), EEG (Electroencephalogram), [Tracks the live action of the brain to understand when is the customer responding to stimuli]; (Eye tracking (gaze and pupillometry), [captures where and how long is the customer’s gaze on a certain product is fixated]; and facial coding [tracks the facial expressions of customers via data that measures various emotions], which help in evaluating and refining their marketing strategies.
Knowing your audience is the first step towards building a strategy, and by understanding the psychological factors of the brain by using AI+ neuromarketing, marketers can make an informed decision, which can help them design courses according to the audience’s appeal. There are many advantages of using Neuromarketing in online education:
- Neuromarketers can use multi-sensory methods to see which stimuli create more engagement.
- They can also provide customization based on students’ personal user experience by learning from gaps and polishing their online curriculum and then recommending courses according to students’ needs.
Neuromarketing offers more than traditional market research methods as it delves into the minds of the customers.
- It presents the unfiltered responses from the subconscious, which makes it an authentic source.
- Identifies the emotional triggers of consumers.
- Gives specific insights/relevant feedback.
- Helps develop pricing strategies.
These benefits of neuromarketing help develop a deeper understanding of consumer behavior, which ultimately leads to improved products and services.
Many successful neuromarketing campaigns have been used to bring more students to online bootcamps. Some of them are:
- SEO
Most digital-age students rely on Google to learn about a topic. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website’s search engine traffic. Keyword research and backlinks are some of the crucial elements that derive organic traffic to a particular website. Integrating SEO-friendly terms ensures a larger volume of students reaching your website. But the most crucial aspect is the quality of the content. SEO can guide the student to the website, but it is the quality of the content that will help in customer conversion and retention.
- Boosting Email-marketing
An article by MailBulter reports that, on average, consumers spend 10 seconds reading brand emails. Email marketing is a powerful tool to reach a wider academic audience, as it is known to be a reliable method of communication. It is cost-effective and builds a personal relationship with the students. Marketers can use compelling subject lines (as subject lines catch students’ attention first), visual elements, and interactive elements such as polls and quizzes to gather first-hand information from students. They can also use CTA (call-to-action) methods [any action that you want the students to take after reading emails] such as adding a download button or a subscribe button at the end, so that the students are prompted to engage more after reading an email.
- Creating a social media presence
A Forbes article reports that approximately 4.9 billion people use social media across the world. Active monthly users according to Statista reports 3.03 billion users on Facebook, followed by 2.49 billion on Youtube, and 2 billion on Instagram as of October 2023. This huge data creates endless possibilities for marketers to use these platforms to derive customer engagement. Neuromarketers can also use social media to inform students about the latest courses and limited time offers available for them. By using social media analytics, neuromarketers can gauge the latest trends and update their online presence accordingly.
Online bootcamps will always be relevant from a student’s perspective, as they are easily accessible and give students the flexibility to learn from anywhere. The interplay between AI + neuromarketing will continue to evolve and will be a crucial part of contributing to a business’s revenue. At the same time, it is important for neuromarketers to be mindful of the information they procure, keeping ethical considerations in mind. By reaching the right customers at the right time, this evolving field of neuromarketing will develop the most innovative and personalized products over time and optimize the learning experience of students.
Author Bio:
Anjani Vigha is a technical as well as creative content writer at Thinkful, a Chegg service. She is an outgoing person, and you will find her near books, arts and explore the miraculous world of technology. Connect with her onLinkedInorTwitter.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
