These chemicals can drive high user engagement for your startup

Emotions are crucial for marketing and product experience. We, human beings feel first, and think second. Research shows the emotional brain processes sensory information in one fifth of the time our cognitive brain takes to process the same information. So, product experience must trigger human emotions to build sale conversion and be relevant for customers.

If you are a startup (especially if you are focussed on B2C) and working on a product, think about which hormone your product is activating (and if it is activating at all!), because this is linked to driving high user engagement. The major chemicals (also called happiness chemicals) in the brain that influence emotions and trigger human emotions are listed below.

1. Dopamine is directly linked to happiness. This gives a feeling more in relation to anticipation than the actual “happiness” feeling and is a pleasure hormone that is released when you strive towards a goal. Dopamine has to be activated for products that are designed to help set daily or monthly goals or helps you strive towards a specific goal. Classic example of this is Fitbit products. Dopamine motivates you to work hard so that you can achieve the satisfaction of reaching that goal. It also keeps you mentally alert and helps you focus.
2. Oxytocin allows us to become social creatures. It makes us feel empathy which helps us feel close and bonded to others when it’s released. This is particularly necessary in businesses where high level of customer service or loyalty is required. Small gestures like remembering your user’s birthday or a pleasant surprise.
3. Serotonin provides the feeling of significance, pride, status. It drives us to seek the recognition of or friends, family or peers. When we receive social recognition from our peers and communities we release serotonin, and we feel confident and significant. For example, Facebook “LIKE” button fulfill these human needs.

Every startups aspires to build products that are not only useful (solve a pain point), but also usable (easy to use) and derive happiness (users feel positive). This process requires to get into a customer’s head and understand what will create a desirable emotional response from them. Triggering right human emotions will drive high engagement on the platform and will help the product stay relevant for a customer. Try using “happiness chemicals” for your startup!