{"id":63315,"date":"2020-05-07T14:15:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T14:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rockcontent.com\/blog\/how-to-trigger-your-users-behaviour\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T00:40:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T03:40:51","slug":"how-to-trigger-your-users-behaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pingback.com\/en\/resources\/how-to-trigger-your-users-behaviour\/","title":{"rendered":"How to trigger your users\u2019 behavior: the psychology behind content"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to trigger your users’ behavior is crucial in marketing. This may sound counterintuitive but success in marketing strategy<\/a> does not start with strategy. <\/p>\n

Rather, it should start with the context, being the context a deep understanding of your business objectives and your audience. <\/p>\n

There are no tactics without a strategy. And there is no strategy without a clear understanding of your audience. <\/p>\n

Here is where psychology \u2014 better, comprehension of basic psychology principles \u2014 can help.<\/p>\n

Psychology and Persuasion<\/h2>\n

Psychology is the study of mental processes that lead to human behavior. It affects everything we do. <\/p>\n

As a content marketer<\/a> or designer, it’s helpful to understand psychological principles, whether you’re working to make an existing website more intuitive or building a digital experience<\/a> aligned with how users make decisions.<\/p>\n

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Via Google<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Psychology can help us answer questions like: “Why do users behave the way they do?”, “Which elements of design will facilitate the behaviors I want users to engage in?”.<\/p>\n

Yet, psychological principles mostly reside in the realm of academic research and literature, which are often inaccessible for marketers.<\/p>\n

Before we start, a note on persuasion<\/strong>. This post covers a few principles focused on persuading users. <\/p>\n

Although persuasion has a bad reputation \u2014 and I understand why \u2014 it isn’t an inherently negative action. It is just a way to influence, for better or worse. <\/p>\n

Victor S. Yocco, author of “Design for the Mind: Seven Psychological Principles of Persuasive Design<\/a>,” put it well<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Utilising dark patterns or tricking a user into doing something they wouldn’t otherwise do is not persuasion. It’s being an asshole<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

That’s exactly the point. This post is not about that kind of persuasion. <\/p>\n

What I’ll present here is a collection of principles, examples, and best practices that will make your content and design more persuasive, in order to trigger behaviors users were already considering. <\/p>\n

In other words, you’ll learn how to increase conversions by understanding psychology, engaging readers in specific behaviors, and creating calls to action at the right time.<\/p>\n

Applying the Elaboration Likelihood Model <\/h2>\n

Persuasion is part of every aspect of our lives. Businesses want us to buy their products. Politicians desire our votes. And people want us to like them. <\/p>\n

The same ideas hold true for websites, apps, content destinations, and other digital properties. <\/p>\n

Good design persuades users to engage with your product or content in the way you intend, leading to your desired outcome. <\/p>\n

Persuasion involves more than words. Aesthetics and user experience<\/a> can make a website or application more persuasive. They can reinforce your audience’s attitudes. <\/p>\n

A digital experience can also dissuade users. If someone encounters nine pop-ups, a long loading time, or three pages of disclaimers to get to your core message, there is a high probability they will leave your site<\/a> before you get your point across. <\/p>\n

Distractions, whether physical, visual, or intangible, can temporarily halt the whole persuasion process.<\/p>\n

Academics have attempted to explain how persuasion works on individuals for decades. <\/p>\n

The Elaboration Likelihood Model<\/a> (ELM), one of the most frequently cited models of persuasion, explains how shaping attitudes also shapes behaviors. <\/p>\n

Incorporating the principles of the ELM into your message and design will maximize your influence on user attitudes and, therefore, behaviors.<\/p>\n

Central and peripheral routes<\/h2>\n

When someone is presented with information, some level of “elaboration” occurs. To elaborate on something means to take the time to really think about it. <\/p>\n

If you have to buy a car, for instance, you will spend a lot of time thinking about which car is best for you. You will search on Google, talk to friends, and visit car dealers. <\/p>\n

This is what the ELM is about: how likely are we to elaborate, and on what level? <\/p>\n

The level of elaboration determines which processing route the message takes: central or peripheral.<\/p>\n

Central route processing (high level of attention) means your audience cares more about the message. They’ll pay more attention and scrutinize the quality and strength of the argument. <\/p>\n

Any attitudes formed or reinforced this way are thought to be more resistant to counter-arguments. <\/p>\n

Attitudes formed through the central route tend to be hard to change \u2014 either they are positive or negative attitudes.<\/p>\n

Peripheral route processing  (low level of attention) happens on a more superficial level. <\/p>\n

Your audience will pay less attention to the message itself while being influenced by secondary factors, such as source credibility, visual appeal, presentation, and enticements like food, sex, and humor. <\/p>\n

Attitudes formed or reinforced this way are thought to be less enduring, subject to change through counter-arguments, and in need of continual reinforcement.<\/p>\n

A view of the two routes<\/h2>\n

To illustrate the difference between central and peripheral route processing \u2014 and how messaging and design can address each \u2014 let’s look at an example.<\/p>\n

Imagine two potential customers, both in need of a new compact car. <\/p>\n

Abby is a car expert who often reads car magazines. Joe barely knows about cars; he’s interested in finding a quality car, with good design (he loves design products) at a good price. <\/p>\n

While both users will have some level of central route processing (i.e. pricing), it is more likely that Abby, with her interest in cars and mechanics, will be attentive to the messages. <\/p>\n

Abby searches for car details, specs, and comparison information. Her process will likely follow the central route.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Central Route<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Joe, instead, looks at different sites before deciding on a new Mini Cooper model. <\/p>\n

He’s not really interested in technical details. He likes the way the website presents the car. He loves the design, and he’s attracted by large images and customizable color combinations. Joe goes the peripheral route.<\/p>\n

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miniusa.com<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Promoting the Central Route<\/h2>\n

This example leads to our next area of exploration: what promotes central route processing and high elaboration? How can we push visitors to the central route? <\/p>\n

Researchers have found two main factors influencing a shift to the central route: motivation and ability.<\/p>\n

Motivation (relevancy) is often influenced by relevance. A user who feels directly impacted by a topic is more likely to process a message through the central route.<\/p>\n

Ability (capability) is a straightforward concept. For central route processing to occur, your message must align with your audience’s thinking capabilities. <\/p>\n

If people lack the mental ability to process your message, they will not be able to critically evaluate it and are guaranteed to process it through the peripheral route.<\/p>\n

In other words: if you want people to pay attention to your content, make it relevant and easy to understand. <\/p>\n

Fogg’s Behavior Model<\/a> can help you connect motivation and ability.<\/p>\n

Fogg Behavior Model: motivation, ability, and prompts<\/h2>\n

Dr. BJ Fogg<\/a> founded the Persuasive Technology Lab<\/a> (now renamed Behavior Design Lab<\/a>) at Stanford University and has done some amazing research on behavior design. <\/p>\n

Behavior design is where psychology, design, and technology meet \u2014 a systematic way to influence the desired behavior. <\/p>\n

Fogg defines behavior design as a way to “computerize behavior change” <\/strong>and “computerize persuasion”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Behavior design is where psychology, design, and technology meet: a systematic way to influence the desired behavior.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

BJ Fogg <\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Fogg’s model explains that three elements must come together at the same time for a behavior to occur: motivation, ability, and prompts. <\/p>\n

If one of those elements is missing, then the action won’t happen. In short:<\/p>\n

B = MAP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ability and motivation have a trade-off relationship when it comes to performing behaviors. <\/p>\n

That’s what the curved line on the Behavior Model represents. <\/p>\n

You can see the point when we should ask users to engage in a behavior (check our site, click this button) because they’ll be most likely to say “Yes!”. <\/p>\n

We must design our content to increase motivation and ability to the point where a prompt will be successful. <\/p>\n

If a design presents the prompt (trigger or call to action) before motivation and ability reach sufficiently high levels, the behavior won’t occur.<\/p>\n

Here’s how you can account for each in your content and design.<\/p>\n

Motivation<\/h3>\n

The most effective way to increase motivation is through strong messages that show why your product and content are relevant to your audience. <\/p>\n

Several factors can also boost motivation, like:<\/p>\n