How Psychology and Digital Marketing Come Together

    What if you could tap into people's thoughts and influence them to buy your product? Now, what if you could combine the power to do that with today's technology?

    In today's blog post, I decided to write about how psychology and digital marketing go hand in hand. As a college student majoring in Psychology, I plan to go into the digital marketing field after I graduate. Oftentimes when people hear that I am a psychology major with a concentration in mental health, their first thought is that I plan to become a therapist - and they are not wrong! I do want to work in the counseling field after I receive my Masters degree in Social Work, however, before doing so, I would love to go into marketing. Many people may argue that a Bachelor's degree in Psychology is not flexible, but I disagree; Psychology is a writing intensive major that focuses on the study of the mind and behavior. This opens up opportunities to multiple career paths, a few being, lab assistants, teaching, writing, market researching, advertising agents and digital marketing. 

    Digital marketing and psychology compliment each other well because knowing the psychology behind social media today allows a more effective approach to digital marketing, this leads to better engagement in your products and positive interactions. In today's day and age, if you market your product well, people may even advertise it for you (for free!). Take Wendy's for example, whoever is running their Twitter account knows what they are doing. Many Twitter users positively interact with the account, often promoting their 4-for-4 deal. Sure, their product is fast food but their marketing strategy is genius. They are funny, relatable, and interactive while promoting their products and deals. Wendy's is a prime example of how brands on Twitter have evolved with the help of social media psychology and digital marketing. 

    In an article called "The Role of Digital and Social Media Marketing in Consumer Behavior" written by Andrew T. Steve, they talk about five distinct research themes. The first being consumer digital culture, the second is advertising, the third being the impacts of digital environment, the fourth is consumer behavior in mobile settings and lastly, online word of mouth and reviews. The article used psychology to gather these research themes. 

1. Consumer digital culture refers to how people have multiple personas online. This leads to consumers deciding what to share depending on how it may contribute to their online persona. Knowing this information, brands can look into what aesthetic their target audience favors and cater to them in hopes that the megaphone effect occurs. 
2. Advertising refers to re-targeting ads to be more personalized based on web-browsing history, however it is important to note that ads should still allow the audience to be in control of their private information or else the ad will be less favorable, according to research. 
3. Impacts of digital environment refers to how other people view the product may affect how the consumer views the product, therefore taking reviews into account is major and that includes how people online talk about your product (on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc). Although similar to number 5 (online word of mouth and reviews), this leans more towards who the audience is following on their social media platforms, specifically their peers/friends.
4. Consumer behavior in mobile settings refers to how mobile settings have changes the way we consume products. In a study done by Brasel and Gips, it is found that "shopping on mobile devices (e.g., tablets) and specifically on how touching products (instead of clicking with a mouse) can increase feelings of psychological ownership and endowment". This information can help brands build a better mobile website. 
5.  Online word of mouth and reviews refer to how linguistic styles used in reviews affect the way consumers view it. For example, in a study done by Hamilton, Vohs, and McGill, it is found that using softening language while sharing a negative opinion made the reviewer seem more credible and likable.
   

    With these five distinct research themes, brands can optimize their decisions and market their products successfully in the digital world, all thanks to psychology. A ton of web pages on the subject of psychology in digital marketing can be found through a simple Google search. As long as you are keeping the search simple, using the right keywords and overall using the search tool efficiently, you can find credible tips and tricks to apply to your brand's marketing strategies. If you want to step it up, you can even look into research articles on Google Scholar. Even so, there are many more research studies to be done on the psychology of digital marketing since it is still new and ever-evolving. Learning the behavior and thoughts of consumers play a huge role in successful marketing. This is how psychology and digital marketing come together.