Primacy effect
The primacy effect represents the cognitive fallacy that we remember better what we see first, because people think that the first things shown are more important than the things that come later. When hearing a long list of words, you are also more likely to forget the middle words and instead remember the first words.
On the other side is the recency effect, which deals precisely with the cognitive error that we remember last better. Just as the first words in a list are better remembered, the last words will also be remembered faster. Both in the service and Retail sectors, recency and primacy effect are used. Using this cognitive carried in your marketing strategy will increase conversions.
Primacy effect on your website
But how do you deploy the primacy effect? For deploying the primacy effect on your website, we have the following tips:
- Put the most important parts at the top (or bottom), this applies to the entire website but also to paragraphs and bullet points. Visitors are more likely to remember the information contained there
- Make sure the text/images at the top (and bottom) of the website are catchy or generate interest. This will persuade the visitor to read further and hopefully proceed to conversion
One method to see if your Web site is catchy enough is to use a heatmap. The heatmap shows how a visitor moves around your website. Using the heatmap, you can see what the visitor is looking at most and how this can possibly be improved. But a simpler step to use the primacy effect is to make sure that all the "first" visual is beautiful and strongly written.
