Left brain, right brain digital marketing

By: Mark Patron | July 1st, 2009

Database Marketing Magazine – July 2009

Direct, data and digital marketing is mostly a left brain activity. We data driven marketers see the World as something that can be targeted, segmented and put neatly into boxes. Left brain thinking is all about logic, numbers, patterns and detail. Right brain thinking on the other hand is more about feelings, emotion, imagination and big picture possibilities. Being male and left brain dominant I have only recently begun to understand the power of also engaging right brain thinking. This has led me to conclude that data driven marketers are missing a major opportunity to improve their results. Let me explain.

TV advertisers have long embraced right brain thinking. Next time you watch TV look out for how the ads tap into your feelings to anchor their message. When the emotion resonates with the brand the campaign works better. The web is far behind TV when it comes to tapping into our emotions, and yet the Internet is potentially the media that can provide the richest user experience of all. Most websites offer a predominantly left brain user experience with very little emotional resonance. This may be due to digital marketing being led by more technically minded people, and therefore dominated by left brain thinking. If the web is more technically led then TV advertising is more creative led. With websites the designers may be lower down the food chain and have less freedom to express themselves. Hence many website homepages look like lists of content with little appeal to right brain thinking. For a good example of this compare the two leading jobsites, Totaljobs.com and Monster.co.uk.

Research we did at RedEye recently showed that websites appealing to the right brain as well as the left generate a more engaging user experience and typically generate 50% greater average user time on site. This difference could be due to the fact that to develop a website that appeals to the right brain requires thinking from the user’s point of view. This prevents, or at least balances, a product led, more left brain approach. In the end it does not really matter whether it is due to right brain, or thinking like a customer; anything that can produce greater customer engagement should lead to better results.

Navigation is another area where a balance between left and right brain is important. The usability consultants I work with have found through many years of experience website users have two distinct ways of viewing site navigation and organisation. The first is traditional website navigation, typically the bar at the top of the page. The second category is based around processes, objectives, and a big picture approach. Examples of this second category could be featured topics, offer boxes or simply links in the body copy. These alternatives offer users other ways into the website content to appeal to more right brain ways of thinking. More importantly they also lead to greater customer engagement. So website design and organisation should not just rely on the navigation menu. Homepage links should include interesting issues that convey objectives and goals in an imaginative, big picture, emotionally engaging way, thereby offering an alternative more intuitive gateway into the site. Allowing homepage visitors to navigate themselves around a website using links other than the traditional navigation bar increases customer engagement by 50%. And improvements in customer engagement will ultimately achieve better results on the website.

Probably the best example of the imbalance between left and right brain thinking is to do with measurement. Most metrics and KPI’s are left brain orientated. For example, most web analytics metrics relate to reach and targeting. Engagement is one of the few right brain metrics and measuring it is a good way to try to redress the balance between left and right brain thinking. Measuring engagement does not have to be complex; it can simply be measuring the total time someone spends on the website over time.

Websites that appeal to the right brain as well as the left generate a more engaging user experience. Appealing to the right brain requires thinking from the user’s point of view, which can only be a good thing. TV advertisers have done a good job of engaging consumers’ right brains as well as their left. Digital marketers armed with such a rich media should try to do the same.

2 Responses to Left brain, right brain digital marketing

Francoise Thurnreite says:

August 16, 2010 at 8:52 pm

Thanks Mark for this interesting article. Since some time I am working with the training the right brain. Therefore, know that adults are often left brain. With the right methods, I think it is very easy to interact with our right brain. Luckily there then our left brain that protects us from mistakes.
Francoise

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Sam Orchard says:

April 29, 2011 at 7:02 pm

I’ve got to be honest, I’ve never really considered any of this in the past. After doing a bit of googling though, it seems that you’re not the only one who’s saying it matters.

Research we did at RedEye recently showed that websites appealing to the right brain as well as the left generate a more engaging user experience and typically generate 50% greater average user time on site.

I’d be interested to see how this research was conducted – and how do you define a website that appeals to the right side of the brain?

I’m not picking, I’m genuinely interested.

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