Want to increase your revenue? Then it's time to understand how your customers' minds work.

There's a new book out, called BRAINFLUENCE by Roger Dooley, in which Dooley offers several ways to use "neuromarketing" to do a better job persuading consumers to buy.

He offers 5 brain tricks. I'll do my best to paraphrase what he has to say.

1. Clean up your font.

Are you using a stylish, elegant font on your signage? Dump it. When people see an ornate font, they assume a task to be more time consuming and difficult. A clear, simple font used for product and service description will seem less tedious and will be easier on the consumers' eyes. I use Arial and Tahoma.

2. Don't show them the money.

Don't show dollar signs, pound signs, or the euro symbol.  Restaurant studies showed that patrons tended to be more price conscious when dollar signs appeared with the price on the menu. By contrast, spending went up when there was a solo digit, no dollar symbol or decimal.

3.  Remember the senses.

This has more to do with a brick and mortar store than online business. However, the basic idea can be applied online.

People tend to react positively to pleasant scents and a pleasant, memorable, distinctive environment. And, it reinforces your branding. Scents trigger consumers' senses and create a desire for that product or service, thus increasing sales. Also, music has a profound effect on customers' buying decisions.

I'm sure we can find creative ways to tempt customers' senses online. Use visuals, great layout and navigation, images, maybe even a video with background music, not that jarring stuff the gurus use. Engage the viewers imagination with words.

4. Respond to customers.

Who likes to be ignored? Nobody. So make sure you provide real feedback to Social Media messages and posts.

It's worth your time to provide a prompt response to complaints or comments. Just acknowledge what was said. Even when a customer has a complaint about you or your product, if you acknowledge them, they will remove or revise their negative comment with a positive addendum. Even when the customer is wrong, it doesn't pay to argue with them. You may win the argument, but you'll lose the customer. So, keep your cool and respond promptly.

5. Tell a good story.

If all you use is facts and statistics, you'll lose a lot of your audience. It's too boring to read. Our brains are wired to process stories in an engaging way.

Brain scans show that when people read a story with a lot of action, their brains actually mimic the motions.  So, whenever you are communicating, whether it is citing case studies, or designing ads or other promotions, draw customers in by weaving facts and favorable information into a story format. Doing this will engage your customers on a deeper level and also increase word-of-mouth marketing.

Keep your customers' attention by telling a story.

Here's an example from my own experience.

I love antique silver and collect it whenever I can. I enjoy it as much for the story behind it as for the beauty of the piece itself. When I lived in New York, whenever I could afford it, I visited this little shop that was owned by a gentleman from London. He could sell me anything. What a colorful person! Why was I susceptible to his selling techniques? Because he was very entertaining and he also had a great deal of knowledge and integrity. And he always made the price attainable.
He loved to play a little game with me. I'd ask him to tell me the history behind a piece. If he didn't know it, he'd make it up. He knew I knew he was making it up, but it didn't matter. We were both having so much fun. He was an ethical dealer, and the marks and dates were on the piece. He was the reason I kept returning to his shop. That, plus the quality of his products. He was very engaging.

Understanding the psychological underpinnings of the person we have targeted can help us to grow the bottom line.