Arguably the biggest mistake companies make with their marketing campaigns is they assume people will notice and respond to them.
That is a dangerous assumption. Because it’s often wrong.
Behavioral scientists have found that up to 95% of purchase decision-making takes place in the subconscious mind
Ages ago, our ancestors developed a series of automatic, instinctive behaviors. They did so because in an “eat or be eaten” world, quick action trumps thoughtful contemplation.
But now, your customers and prospects have inherited these hardwired behaviors. And they use them not to avoid being eaten, but to stop too many demands from eating into their day.
Science has found that people routinely rely on decision-making shortcuts to determine what to read, who to trust, and when to buy. And this happens as much in B2B as it does in B2C.
So, how can a company adjust their marketing messages to succeed when their customers and prospects operate on autopilot? You can use what science has proven about human behavior to influence it.
Let’s look at some market-tested, brain-science backed tactics that will get people to notice and respond to your marketing.
The Von Restorff Effect automatically attracts attention
Behavioral scientists have found that humans are hardwired to notice and remember things that stand out from their surroundings. Our ancient ancestors stayed alive by noticing changes in their environment. Something new could pose a life-or-death threat. Those who paid attention survived and passed their genes down to your customers and prospects.
That’s why the Von Restorff Effect is such a powerful marketing tactic. To use it, make sure your marketing message stands out from all the others.
Since so many companies rely on email marketing, let’s focus on some easy ways to make your subject line pop. According to Worldata Research, you can:
- add a period after every word in a subject line to increase opens by 24%
- double space between every word to increase opens by 10-12%
- start your subject line with a number to increase opens by 20%
- begin your subject line with a non-number, non-letter keyboard character (ex: /, >, *) to increase opens by 11%
- all cap the first word of your subject line to increase opens by 21%
- enclose the first word or two of your subject line in brackets or parentheses to increase opens by 28%
Why do these tactics work so well? Because most companies don’t use them right now. As a result, they make your subject line stand out from all the others in the inbox.
Eye Magnet Words pull your readers’ eyes in
In marketing, as in Scrabble®, some words are worth more than others. They are the words that jump off the page and attract the eye like a magnet. When you write, you write in a linear fashion, one word followed by the next. But when your audience reads, they skim and scan. Only when something captures their attention, do they fully consume the content.
To increase the likelihood people will notice your content, use “eye magnet words” in high-read pieces of real estate, such as headlines, lead sentences, subject lines, and content titles. Here are some of the best:
- New, now, introducing, announcing, finally, soon. Behavioral scientists know that people are drawn to novelty, so words that promise something new lift readership.
- You or the name of your target. People are more interested in themselves than in anything else. When they spot their name, they go right to it. If you can’t personalize, use the word “you.” It is typically much more effective than “I, we, our” or your company name. In fact, Copyblogger lists “you” as one of the top five most persuasive words in the English language.
- Easy, quick, improved. According to Robert Levine, author of the Power of Persuasion, each of these words has – individually – increased product sales. The first two appeal to the human desire for simplicity, speed, and instant gratification. The third suggests something new.
- Free. World-renowned behavioral economist Dan Ariely devotes an entire chapter to the pulling power of the word “free” in his book, Predictably Irrational. He explains that people get such an emotional charge from free that we find it nearly impossible to resist. Case in point: Subject line tests reveal that free gets twice as many opens as its synonym, complimentary.
- Secret. Behavior scientists find that people are more persuaded by information they believe is not widely available. That means words and phrases like “secret,” “the inside story,” and “the truth behind” attract attention.
Emotion prompts purchases
Behavioral scientists know that people make decisions for emotional reasons and then justify them with rational reasons. In fact, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio proved people cannot decide without accessing the emotional parts of their brains.
That means if you want people to respond to your marketing messages, you need to appeal to their emotions. The B2B Institute finds that emotion-driven marketing messages are 7x more effective at driving sales, profits, and revenues than strictly logical ones. Lead with how your product or service will make someone feel.
I saw this myself. When working on a campaign for business intelligence software, we tested an emotion-driven message against a rational, problem-solution message. The emotion-led one increased purchase intention by 13%.
Label people as part of a group so they’ll act like its other members
Another easy way to get people to respond the way you want is to employ Labeling. Behavioral science research shows that when you label someone as part of a group, they automatically start to behave like a group member – even if they hadn’t previously thought of themselves as belonging to that group.
Researchers in Chicago randomly split people into two groups and told one they were more politically active. On election day, 15% more of those people went to the polls. Why? That’s what a politically active person would do.
Make sure you label people in a way that aligns with your call to action. For example, if you sell accounting software, call your target a savvy CFO. If you’re a startup trying to best more established competitors, label your target an independent thinker, someone who doesn’t follow the crowd.
Don’t make the “If I build it, they will come” mistake
The truth is, getting even well-qualified targets to pay attention to your marketing message is hard. And if you succeed at that, expecting them to do what you suggest is more pipedream than pipeline development. The good news is, there are hundreds of decision-making shortcuts your audience relies on. When you know what they are and how to prompt them, you make your marketing unbeatable at driving sales.
Nancy Harhut is the Chief Creative Officer at HBT Marketing, where she adds behavioral science to marketing campaigns to increase response. She is also an international keynote speaker. And the author of the award-winning book, Using Behavioral Science in Marketing, Increase Customer Action and Loyalty by Prompting Instinctive Responses, published by Kogan Page and currently being translated into 9 languages.
