“Priming psychology is the study of how the brain makes unconscious associations and decisions. Priming is one way that our brain connects our memories; when we see or hear a certain “trigger,” we make associations based on that trigger without even realizing it. Priming affects the actions and behaviors of every human being – and most of us don’t even know it.”
A psychological phenomenon, Priming refers to an influence at the unconscious level of one stimulus (also called the “prime”), which is perceived as the response outcome on another stimulus (also named the “target”). Priming occurs when one stimulus is exposed to the response related to a subsequent stimulus, even in cases when an individual is consciously unaware of the initial stimulus.
For instance, if you see a picture of a dog, there is an increased likelihood of recognising the word “puppy” compared to seeing a picture of a flower.
Priming can occur through sensory modalities, including auditory, visual, and olfactory stimuli. Here take a glance at an experiment led by John Bargh in 1996.
“Researchers experimented to see if he could influence behaviour with a simple activity. The researchers had three groups of participants. The first group had the
“Rude Condition” and had to unscramble a list of rude words like bold, aggressive, and disturb.
The second group, called. “Polite Condition” had a series of polite words like patient, respect and respectful.
The last group, the “Neutral Condition”, had words that were neither polite nor rude.
When a participant was done unscrambling words, they were instructed to walk down the hallway and tell the researcher they were finished. The researcher would be in a long fake discussion with another researcher when the participant arrived. The experiment was to test how long it would take for each group to interrupt the researcher to tell him that they were done.
Within 10 minutes, 60% of the rude group interrupted, while only 40% of the neutral group and 20% of the polite group had interceded. This is a straightforward experiment with a very powerful lesson. It teaches us that people can be subconsciously primed to act differently.”
So when it comes to using Priming to grow your business through Email Marketing or any other tactics, YES, it is very much doable and helpful in increasing conversions.
Here take a look at the two different types of Priming Mail to
gain more clarity on Priming Psychology.
BAD PRIMING EMAIL:
“Hi All,
As usual, we have the weekly call tomorrow, Tuesday. Again, we are a little stressed for time and might have some trouble getting through the tasks on the agenda. I need everyone to please tighten up their points and avoid asking slow or lengthy questions on the call—you can send them out in an email later if you need. I attached the agenda.”
GOOD PRIMING EMAIL:
“Hi Team,
Tomorrow is our weekly goals call. I’m hoping we can be really efficient because we do have a lot to discuss. If everyone can take a look at their points and prepare a well-organized overview that would be great, because then we will have plenty of time for succinct questions, if people have them. Remember you can also easily send them in an email after the call. I attached our agenda.”
The first example is of bad priming since it creates a negative emotional response. While the second example is a more constructive dialogue between the email sender and receiver. Thus, we can understand the importance of priming in various areas of memory, psychology, perception, social cognition, and neuroscience.
Do share in the comments how you plan to integrate
Priming into your Email Marketing and other areas of life.
