The IKEA effect tells us that humans appreciate a product more if they play a part in creating it. This phenomenon goes beyond puzzles, LEGO, and DIY furniture, and can be applied to content marketing.
Enabling your audience to be a part of your content strategy is a driver for community and engagement.
Why is this relevant?
Well, Google’s AI Overviews (AIO) are placing informational queries into a box at the top of search results. This means simple “what is” and “” that can be summarized in a few paragraphs won’t cut it anymore. AIO snatched clicks and site visits from glossaries, definitions, and superficially educational content.
As SEO vanity metrics—like traffic volume and search volume of targeted keywords—lose their relevance, I believe it’s time to measure your content marketing efforts with the heart (of your audience).
Now more than ever, we should put out valuable, expertise-driven content that’s hyper-relevant to our target audiences. Content that solves real problems, engages, and sparks meaningful discussions and connections.
The IKEA effect is something that can help you create this impactful content bubble that delivers what your audience needs and wants.
In this article, we explain what the IKEA effect bias is and how to use it in your content strategy.
What is the IKEA effect?
The IKEA effect, also known as the IKEA bias, is a psychological process that occurs when people put effort into creating a product or service. As consumers get involved in the creation process, they grow to appreciate and even overvalue the outcome their labor played a part in.
Think about the feeling you get after you finish assembling an IKEA wardrobe. Aside from the pain of a few bruised fingers and the cold, sweaty t-shirt on your back, you feel pride, joy, and even relief. Not to mention your feelings toward the price you paid for it: TOTALLY WORTH EVERY PENNY!
And thanks to Michael I. Norton's 2011 paper titled "The IKEA Effect: When Labor Leads to Love," we now know why this happens: the human race has no chill.
Jokes aside, Norton and his peers have demonstrated that labor increases the perceived value of an end product. Fortunately, this includes content in all its formats—from newsletters and blogs to videos and webinars.
4 Benefits of using the IKEA effect in content marketing
There's proof your audience doesn't want to passively consume content. According to the "Why We Watch" report, content consumers want to be co-creators, not spectators.
For instance, to take an active role in supporting favorite YouTube channels, 58% of surveyed users choose not to skip ads so they can contribute to creators' revenue. Others provide useful feedback by commenting on a just-watched video. Or they ask questions and make requests, generating ideas for future videos. Some go as far as creating videos of themselves in response to requests or challenges launched by their favorite YouTubers.
The same goes for written content.
Co-creating with your audience comes with immediate advantages like:
1. Get first-hand insights into your readers’ minds
When you give your audience an invitation to contribute, you get an unfiltered view of their content-related wants and needs. Data sources can’t get better than that.
To do this, you can:
- Add a quick poll to your newsletter asking what topic your readers want you to cover next
- End blog posts with a “What did we miss?” or “What would you add?” prompt
- Run ask me anything (AMA) posts on Reddit
- Create a feedback loop via comments, surveys, or even Notion forms
2. Build a sense of community among readers
When you involve your readers, you're creating an infinite feedback loop that continuously sparks conversations and generates buzz. Your content creation process becomes community-driven—a collective force that glues like-minded people together.
To do this, you can:
- Start a recurring “Reader Questions” or “Hot Takes from the Community” series
- Feature user-submitted tips, templates, or anecdotes in your newsletter
- Create hashtag challenges or comment threads for shared discussions
- Highlight top community comments in your follow-up posts
3. Increase the perceived value of your content
Remember the sense of accomplishment you felt after you assembled your furniture? Your content has the power to generate this exact same emotion in the people who read it. Plus, your followers will be more likely to value your content more, as a direct result of their efforts.
To do this, you can:
- Ask for story submissions or user quotes to weave into your blog
- Crowdsource insights or stats from your LinkedIn network
- Turn a great comment or DM into the starting point of a new article (with credit, of course)
- Run a “build this with me” content challenge
4. Generate brand mentions and brand awareness
When people contribute to content, they feel a sense of ownership and are more likely to share, comment, and engage. Social shares and online conversations quoting your business increase your brand visibility and signal topical expertise and authoritativeness to search engines and large language models (LLMs).
To do this, you can:
- Tag contributors when you publish their ideas or input
- Turn co-created content into snackable social posts and tag the community
- Offer incentives or badges for people who contribute regularly
- Make co-created content a recurring spotlight they look forward to (and share)
In addition to all that, applying the IKEA effect to your content makes it easier to create a content calendar—at least the keyword research part.
So, how do you put the IKEA effect into action? How can you invite your audience to co-create content in a way that’s both meaningful for them and beneficial for your brand? Also, are there any businesses actually doing this? Whodunnit and how?
How to leverage the IKEA bias in your content strategy + in-house examples
Leveraging the IKEA bias in your marketing efforts requires you to get creative. Think of ways to connect with your audience and pick their brains. Here are a few ideas:
Quantitative and qualitative research
Run your own research and send surveys to or conduct interviews with your loyal subscribers or customers. Use their unique insights to create detailed, audience-centric reports and blog posts that speak directly to their interests.
How dslx does it
Ray Berry, the Founder and Managing Director at dslx, interviewed the Marketing Leads of some of our current and former clients, like Cledara, Heyflow, Maze, and Holafly. He asked them about:
- What didn’t work in 2024
- What their marketing plans are for 2025
- Their approach to new marketing trends
Ray then shared the interview recordings with the team to extract insights and write content inspired by dslx’s audience. We did a workshop, we’re still working on a few blogs, and we’ve scheduled LinkedIn posts inspired by Ray’s conversations with our clients.
Turn conversations into content
Spark discussions on social media by running polls and surveys, or by simply asking your followers which topics they prefer. Let their input shape your content calendar.
How dslx does it
At dslx, we’re always keeping a close eye on industry trends, news, and controversies (and the periodic SEO obituary, of course). We’re attending or hosting webinars, listening to podcasts, reading a lot, and socializing with industry experts and thought leaders.
Doing all this, we’re close to content marketing peers, founders, and entrepreneurs—aka our audience. These activities inspire us and spark conversations.
For example, Ray was listening to a Content Briefly podcast about AI-assisted content writing and saw it as an opportunity for research. He then created a LinkedIn post asking his followers about their opinions on whether AI can streamline the content writing process in the context of the podcast guest, a writer, who claimed that it took him anywhere between 5 to 10 hours to write an AI-assisted article.
The post gained traction, and hundreds of writers, content marketers, and founders (again, our audience) chimed in with comments, reactions, and reposts.
Soon enough, we struck gold—we were looking at our audience’s genuine opinions and sentiments regarding AI writing.
Another example: Sharan Kaur Phillora and Armin Tanovic, both Senior Writers and Editors at dslx, mined for the most interesting opinions and created social media posts on our company’s LinkedIn page. A couple of blog articles are on their way as well.
You’re probably doing some of these things and realizing their value for your content marketing strategy. But it’s important to deliberately try and do more for and with your audience and readership.
Why?
Because genuinely valuable content that educates (for real-for real)needs human expertise, not AI overviews.
The IKEA bias: A reminder to keep the wheel spinning
The IKEA effect doesn’t reinvent the wheel—it just reinforces what truly matters: feeling heard, valued, and connected to like-minded people.
With the whats, the hows, and the inspiration all figured out, now you’re ready to go out there and involve your audience in your content ideation process. Keeping your readership close is the only way to provide real value and cut through all the AI search noise.
Ask questions, listen, write, and then listen some more.
