Fourth Lesson From Psychology That Will Grow Your Blog

                                   

Writer’s Life

Today, I am going to look at the last lesson in the series. I do believe that you have learnt enough from the four lessons of Psychology that will help you to grow your blog.

Remember in the Third Lesson, we were told to build a relationship with your Readers and of course, this will bring Trust.

Having done this, your next assignment is to teach Your Readers To Keep Coming Back—And Do It On Their Turf. Honestly, it will benefit you a lot if you cultivate new habits to make blog planning part of your routine. Habits are the thing of loyalty—and there is a lot of science about how to stick with new habits.

                

Honestly, there are bunches of stuff about how to create loyalty. There is tons of information out there about how to create brand loyalty, customer loyalty programs, marketing loyalty programmes, etc.

But a lot of them just talk about building trust, which you already know how to do from the halo effect and peak-end rule.

Recommended Reading: Does Content Marketing Help Retain Current Customers?

What you want to do is grow your blog and keep your readers coming back by helping them develop and maintain new habits.

Behavioural psychologists have found 3 elements to build and maintain habits:

1. A trigger that helps people knows to start the habit.
2. A routine that forms the habit itself.
3. A reward that is the benefit of the new behavior.

But we all know forming new habits is tough. Think about all those folks who set up New Years’ resolutions only to stop what they set out to do a few weeks in. There’s a psychological phenomenon called synaptic pruning that basically says adults build strengths with the things they do frequently. When that happens, they dedicate more of their energy toward building those skills than to areas they don’t use every day.

James Clear, a blogger who covers science-based ideas for building habits, explains the concept of synaptic pruning really simply: For example, if you practice playing the piano for 10 years, then your brain will strengthen the connections between those musical neurons. The more you play, the stronger the connections become. Not only that, the connections become faster and more efficient each time you practice.

 As your brain builds stronger and faster connections between neurons, you can express your skills with more ease and expertise. It is a biological change that leads to skill development. Meanwhile, someone else who has never played the piano is not strengthening those connections in their brain. As a result, the brain prunes away those unused connections and allocates energy toward building connections for other life skills.

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This makes me think of that old adage: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” But that’s not true. Because you can use your readers’ existing habits to your benefit.

How To Grow Your Blog By Helping Your Readers Develop And Maintain Habits

While you can’t make your readers form a routine to check out your content again and again, you can help them form habits with triggers and rewards. Begin by focusing on triggers (AKA reminders).

James Clear explains that trying to change a habit with a new dose of willpower probably won’t work. He suggests instead to build a new habit off of ones that already exist. Here are 3 big ways to trigger your readers to keep coming back:

1: Time can trigger action.

Think about it. Publishing consistent content on specific days and at the best times helps readers assume when your content is ready for them to check out. A common misperception is that it takes 21 days to develop a new habit and maintain it. If you’ve ever tried that, you might realize that’s a load of crap.

It actually takes as little as 66 days to form a new habit (notice I said as little as… since it could be longer for some folks). So from your very first impression when someone sees your content for the very first time, you have 66 days to prove your content is worth coming back to again and again and again.

Takeaway: Publish and distribute content consistently on certain days and times. Develop email auto-responder courses targeted at 66 days worth of amazingly consistent content.

2: Locations can remind folks what to do.

This is where content distribution comes into play. Your readers probably wake up in the morning, and the very first thing they do is check their Facebook news feed. Others may get to work, and the very first thing they do is check their email. Still others may check out their RSS feeds when they get back from lunch. Still others may participate in forums, Twitter chats, Facebook Groups, or LinkedIn Groups.

Those habits already exist. Learn the channels your audience already uses, and distribute content in the locations they already use, love, and trust. If your audience has to remember to visit your blog to receive your content, James has this to say:

Getting motivated and trying to remember to do a new behaviour is the exact wrong way to go about [forming new habits]. If you’re human, then your memory and your motivation will fail you. It’s just a fact.

Takeaway: Figure out the best ways to distribute your content through the channels your readers already frequently use.

3: Other people influence action.

Think about how powerful word of mouth is from your peers. If anyone on our team shares content with me directly, it’s a good bet that I’ll check it out as soon as I see it.

On the other hand, there are tons of industry influencers who seem to publish and share content that is pure gold. They have a ton of clout that inspires me to read what they’re sharing. Again, I only see what they’re sharing when they share in the right locations I already frequently checkout like Twitter.

Takeaway: Use the psychology of social sharing to publish extremely shareable content. Reference and ask industry influencers for advice, quotes, and shares.

Reminders, routines, and rewards: The 3 R’s of forming new habits.

James says that habits come from reminders, routines, and rewards.

1. Let consistent content be your reminders.
2. Distribute that content they way your readers’ already consume content to piggyback on their existing routines.
3. Optimize your content with facts, references to industry influencers, and psychology of sharing.

One blogger who does all of this extremely well is Seth Godin. The guy publishes at the same time, and I know lots of folks who look forward to his emails coming around 5:30 a.m. CT every day.

Seth perfected his consistent publishing and distribution to the point where it’s normal for lots of people to get to work in the morning and read his email before they do anything else. It’s not fancy. But it’s super effective.

Focus on consistency and your readers’ habits to grow a successful blog like Seth Godin.

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A few last-minute things to keep in mind as you help your readers change their habits.

1. Your readers must be willing to change. Chances are, if they found your content in the first place, it’s pretty likely they’re looking for ways to do something better.
2. Be non-judgmental. Successful therapists make their careers by listening and being non-judgmental. Your content tone needs to be happy, helpful, and actionable instead of feeling like commands and orders.
3. Habits come from increased self-awareness. Help your readers identify what’s not going so well, and provide them an actionable solution they can implement immediately.

And That Is How To Grow Your Blog With 4 Lessons From Psychology

Understanding these basic psychological effects, rules, and foundations will help you publish and share better content.

While this post includes some actionable takeaways, these are by no means all-inclusive—I’m sure you could think of dozens of ways to optimize your content even more.

1. Use the halo effect to make a good first impression with every piece of content you publish.
2. Make sure every post has a positive climax and a happy ending with your know-how of the peak-end rule.
3. Understand the Psychological Foundations Of Trust to write, edit, publish, and share content that builds positive relationships.
4. Do all of this consistently to help your readers form habits that keep them coming back to your content.

By the way, you can download that checklist to have all of the tips mentioned throughout this post at your fingertips the next time you’re publishing and sharing content.

Recommended Reading:

• Why People Share: The Psychology of Social Sharing
• Color Psychology In Marketing: The Complete Guide

And since you’re one of the 16% who made it to the end of this post, would you be so kind to share this with your networks? I’m sure there are a few people you know who would find this information super helpful to publish even better content based on real lessons from psychology.

To your writing success!

SOURCE: Nathan Ellering