How to Leverage Human Psychology and Research to Craft Better Marketing Messages

The average American’s attention span is now 47 seconds. We unlock our phones on average 144 times per day. 95% of Americans ages 18 to 40 browse multiple screens at once. And how many ads does the average American experience per day? A very conservative answer would be 1,000.

We all know that we are marketing to distracted, hurried, and forgetful people, because we are the same distracted people ourselves. It can seem like the most impossible of tasks to craft a message that resonates with our membership. But don’t despair; there are several tried-and-true methods you can use to capture your member’s attention and convince them to take action.

A healthy credit union has a hearty marketing mix. A combination of emails, web, print, in-branch, and paid media—like Google ads, TV, and radio spots—create a bounty of opportunities to use what we know about modern consumer behavior in our messaging.

Use Emojis in Email Subject Lines to Improve Open Rates

Check your email: do any of your visible messages include an emoji in the subject line? And if so, did your eyes go straight to them? Incorporating emojis into your emails is one the single most impactful actions you can take to improve recall.

Scientists at MIT discovered that Americans process emojis in just 13 milliseconds, proving that these young symbols are already deeply ingrained in our culture. The proof is in the numbers: Experian reports that the open rate of emails with emojis in the subject line is over 50% higher compared to plain subject lines. Emojis also improved in-message click rates by 6.28%.

Adding just one well-placed emoji in your subject line can make a big difference in your marketing messages. But don’t overdo it. More than one emoji at a time can be detrimental.

Homework: Add one of 2023’s most popular emojis in your email subject line and see how it performs. Better yet, do an A/B test: one subject line with an emoji, and one without.

Use Images of People to Improve Ad Performance

If you’ve ever seen a face in a cloud or a power outlet, you’ve experienced the phenomenon of pareidolia. Scientists have just recently uncovered why pareidolia happens, i.e. when we see faces in inanimate objects, and it links back to our evolutionary roots. Humans are so incredibly social that we are not only compelled to find images of faces, we yearn to understand what the face’s expression is. Use this knowledge to create more memorable messages by incorporating images of people’s faces along with your text.

Recent studies show that over 90% of ads that included a person’s face performed better than those without a face. Even swapping a phone icon for a photo of your loan officer’s face in an email signature can have massive results – upwards of 50% more engagement. Leverage eons of human psychology to your advantage and incorporate faces in your marketing and outreach efforts.

Homework: Replace an image on your site or ad with a human’s face, like swapping a face for a car in an auto loan promo.

Use Humor to Create Memorable Marketing Messages

If there is anything the Super Bowl can teach us year after year, it’s the sheer power of the funny ad. Hear this: A 2023 study from the tech giant Oracle found that 90% of people were more likely to remember an ad more if it was funny and 69% of people would open an email from a company if the subject line were funnier.

But what place does a credit union have to be funny, right? Money isn’t a topic to be joked about. Think again. More and more financial institutions and fintechs are moving away from stodgy brands of the past and are embracing a more light-hearted tone. Today’s consumers want to bank with people they trust and have a connection with, not a cold organization. Isn’t that what the credit union mission is all about, anyway?

Over the past few years, I’ve seen both very small and very large credit unions use humor in their messaging, both with strong success. The key is to keep the humor specific to the credit union—an inside joke, if you will. Focus on your location or your member group’s “truths” and use the community to drive the humor. It creates a psychological experience called tribalism that is very powerful in buyer behavior.

cartoon of butterfly emerging from cocoon

Homework: Try out a marketing message that uses regional humor. I recently created a website headline for a Denver client that referenced the 300 days of sunshine Coloradans enjoy.

Yes, your members are inundated with marketing messages on the daily, no way around that. But arming yourself with stats and facts can help you craft messages that break through the clutter. Use these methods in Q2 and see what the results bring. And don’t forget, next time the power outlet looks sad, remember that it’s just pareidolia.

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