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Imagine this…

You’re eating a turkey sandwich for lunch. But the boredom overwhelms you just one minute in.

So you grab your phone and start scrolling through YouTube to find something to watch.

You wanna feel productive, so you hunt for a little edu-tainment. (Educational + entertaining = edu-tainment.)

Out of a sea of 20 videos, one particular thumbnail catches your eye.

A man making a frightened face looks to his right at a blonde woman wearing a cherry-red dress.

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You immediately recognize the frightened face belongs to Alex Hormozi because, over the past few weeks, several of his Instagram reels have popped up in your feed.

Considering he sold his company for $46,200,000, you feel like he’s a pretty credible source of information.

Now that your attention is seized, you briefly scan the title: “How They Keep You POOR Forever.” It snatches your curiosity even more.

Finally, you notice the Everest-sized pile of money on Alex’s left.

“All right. You got me. What could this woman in a red dress have to do with staying poor forever?” you think.

Out of 20 videos, why is *this* the one you clicked on?

In today’s edition of Why We Buy 🧠 we’ll explore Faces—why we’re naturally drawn to pay attention to them.

Let’s get into it.

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🧠 The Psychology of Faces

Humans are wired to pay attention to faces because we’re a herding species that constantly scans our environment.

And when we see a face, our brains instantly (but subconsciously) categorize it as trustworthy (friend), *not* trustworthy (foe), or someone we’re attracted to (a possible mate).

This isn’t limited to flesh and bone, either.

The same part of your brain that lights up when you see a face *also* lights up when you see face-ish cues like emojis. 🧐 (No wonder using emojis in subject lines can boost your open rates.)

This inherent wiring is why many companies humanize themselves by using their leader as the “face” of the company. (Think Steve Jobs or Sarah Blakely.)

After all, ads and content that feature faces are 11X more likely to get noticed.

But this is old news to Netflix. *yawn*

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By running 1000s of experiments, the streaming giant found:

1. Faces showing a genre-aligned emotion performed best
2. Villains outperform heroes
3. Reactions to faces vary globally

But once a face grabs a buyer’s attention, it only takes them 40 milliseconds to reach a conclusion.

So you better make sure it’s the right one.
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🤑 How to Apply This

Ok. So how can you apply this right now to sell more?

Sales pages​
​Use eye gaze strategically

Buyers also naturally follow a face’s eye gaze and are more likely to read the copy it’s directed at—or notice the product.

So if the face is looking left, buyers will look at what’s to the face’s left. Same thing when a face is looking right.

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Like we do on the Clarity Call Cheatsheets sales page, use faces in your content to guide customers’ attention to what you want them to focus on most—whether that’s a value proposition, call-to-action, or product.

Bonus points: Marketing that uses a strategic eye gaze is more memorable, too.

Ads​
​Feature diverse faces in your ad campaigns

When searching for faces to use in your ads, remember to feature diverse faces *and* body types.

As world-renowned psychologist Robert Cialdini points out, we instinctively relate more to people who are similar to us.

But if your brand is homogeneous, you could unintentionally signal to groups of people that you’re “not for them.”

Kim Kardashian crushed that problem with her shapewear company, SKIMS. The tagline? “Solutions for Every Body.”

Focusing their campaigns on diversity (as well as backing it up with XXS-4X sizing) helped the company hit a $3.2 BILLION valuation in just three years.
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​Social media marketing & newsletters​
​Use the same profile picture across all social channels

Buyers recognize *your* icon in their feed better than a brand logo and will instinctively look at what you’ve shared.

Keep that instinct going by using the same profile picture across your social channels—like Katelyn does.

AKA make it easy for your buyers to know they’ve found *you.*

Psst… Stressing about choosing the “right” profile picture? Here are a few best practices from Buffer:

• Smile and show your teeth
• Don’t wear sunglasses or have a shadow over your eyes
• Use a photo where your jawline is distinct from your neck
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💥 The Short of It

Using faces in your copy and content is an effective way to grab—and keep—attention.

But you’ve gotta be strategic with how you use them.

*That’s* the difference between “Wow, why is this creep using faces that stare into my soul after every paragraph?” and content that gets remembered—in the good way.

​Until next time, happy selling!