Psychology-powered email marketing
Why understanding how your customers tick can improve response rates
In an industry obsessed with the new, it is astonishing that the venerable email is still the backbone of many CRM plans.
Its staying power comes from the fact that it is still the best all-around CRM channel available. Every other channel has strengths and weaknesses that make them appropriate for some purposes but not others.
For example, SMS is great when you need a customer to act with urgency, but it isn’t suited to getting a lot of information across. Direct Mail allows you to go to town creatively and is likely to hang around a recipient's home, but has high relative costs and takes time to print and arrive.
But email? Well, that does everything well enough and some things better than other channels and that in turn explains its ubiquity and longevity.
The purpose of email
Like any CRM channel, the primary goal of email is to nudge a customer to do something. To take action.
Every CRM practitioner should then have one question at the forefront of their thinking: How might we increase the odds of a recipient doing what we want them to do?
There are lots of variables when answering that question — the audience being targeted, the offer or message being used, the timing of the email send, to name a few.
However, delving into the science behind how customers think and make choices can give brands an edge when crafting their email campaigns.
The science of decisions
According to Jen Clinehens, Founder of Choice Hacking and all-round expert on customer behaviour, Behavioural Science is defined as:
The study of why people make, and act, on decisions.
In this article, we will explore three behavioural science concepts (Social Proof, The Goal Gradient Effect, and Loss Aversion), their application in email messaging and design and how they could potentially increase the odds of a customer deciding to act.
1. Social proof
Social proof describes the tendency of people to look to the actions of others to gain psychological permission to try something new or to decide what decision to make.
There are a couple of varieties of Social Proof that can be used: Many others and Significant others.
Many Others
This is built around the idea that if lots of people are doing something, then it must be worth doing. Delightfully, there are lots of ways this can be articulated in an email.
Example A: Polls
In this example from German sportswear manufacturer Puma, customers are asked to choose their favourite pair of sneakers and the results are shown in the email.
This gives customers an idea of the popular sneakers and pushes them towards the most popular designs.
Example B: Trending
Yelp has brought their ratings (already a use of Social Proof) to life with good effect here by adding an additional layer with the idea of trending.
This layer of recency really creates a sense of urgency to act and see what all the fuss is about.
Example C: Best Sellers
This one is really simple — just show what most people are buying.
This is especially true when you don’t know anything about your customers and their personal proclivities. Going with best sellers is a safe bet and is understandable from a customer’s perspective.
Bonus points are available if you can add relevance by showing the best sellers bought by people who have similarities to the recipient. Maybe by showing best sellers in the recipient's geographic area and/or their age group. Or both.
Which leads us neatly to…
Similar Others: This variant is built around the concept that if people we admire, identify with, or are part of our community are using a product or service, then we probably should look into it too.
It’s why celebrity endorsements, influencer marketing and posting customer and 3rd party reviews carry weight in influencing sales.
Example A: 3rd Party Reviews
This example shows how using quotes from authoritative sources like Cosmopolitan and other content outlets immediately lends legitimacy to a product.
Ideally, your sources of reviews are trustworthy in the eyes of your target market, but any external authority will help.
Example B: Celebrity Endorsements
Celebrity endorsements are as old as the hills.
The first celebrity endorsements were Royal warrants, which have been issued for centuries to anyone that supplied goods to a royal family and, importantly, allows them to advertise using that fact. Pioneering FMCG advertiser Pears Soap put West End actress Lily Langtree on their posters in 1882, making her the first of this kind of celebrity to ‘endorse’ a commercial product.
Source: https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/a-short-history-of-celebrity-selling/en-gb/5973
They work because people see successful people doing something or using something, and they want a piece of that success. By dressing similarly to Jenna Ortega or by using the same Driver as Rory McIlroy, some of that success will rub off on them.
Example C: Customer Reviews
Most people are not ignorant. Whilst they are impacted by celebrity endorsements, they also know that those people are being paid to promote those products.
However, whilst celebrities can be bought, reviews from customers can carry more authenticity. These are real people giving their opinions after all.
Those reviews grow in power the more similar the customer reviewing the product is to the recipient (e.g. age, location, interests).
2. The Goal Gradient Effect
This psychological phenomenon states that as people get closer to a goal, they speed up their behaviour to reach said goal.
The simplest creative expression of this effect is the progress bar.
This visual device is hugely effective in showing progress towards a specific goal, nudging customers ever forward.
Example A: Welcome/Onboarding
It can be hugely useful in welcome/onboarding journeys as it gives definition to the actions a customer needs to take to get the most out of the new product or service they have been engaged in.
It also normalises them in the recipient's mind — this is just a process that they and everyone else have to go through.
Example B: Unlocking rewards
Loyalty programs make huge use of the goal gradient effect, whether in showing how close the next reward is or how close a customer is to unlocking or retaining a tier in a program.
Both act as motivations to do what is necessary to unlock the reward.
Example C: Signposting
Lastly, if you have a series of content you are presenting over the course of several emails, it makes sense to use progress bars as signposts to orient customers as to where they are within that series of content.
It also shows them how many more emails to expect, in turn increasing the chance they will notice them in their busy inbox.
3. Loss Aversion
Loss Aversion is a psychological principle that says people will go to great lengths to avoid a loss. In fact, the psychological pain of losing is twice as powerful as the pleasure of winning.
Its power is what makes it one of the more widely used behavioural science levers you will see pulled in email creative.
Example A: Time Bound
This is super simple — using the idea of something ending to create a sense of urgency to avoid missing out. A promo or a sale ending is the obvious example.
This messaging works more effectively as the end of the promotion closes in and the chance of missing out grows, but you should be using the message multiple times on the run up to it.
Example B: Stock Levels
Instead of time, here we’re using the fact that a finite number of something is rapidly dwindling away.
You’ll see this used in lots of creative ways, but it all essentially boils down to the urge to act fast to make sure that you get your hands on something before it’s gone.
Example C: Dynamic
Using dynamic content can really bring home the sense of urgency — an animated timer clicking down or a stock level reducing can be a nice extra touch.
Rules and Consequences
If a brand chooses to use these specific tactics, they have to have real-life consequences — i.e. the customer will miss out on the discount, the product will be out of stock.
If that doesn’t happen, apart from being wildly unethical and misleading, then over time these tactics start to lose their teeth — customers just won’t believe you.
The Bottom Line
These ideas are not infallible. Yes, it's called Behavioural ‘Science’ but there are lots of variables that can impact an email campaign's performance.
Context matters. Target Audience matters. Offers matter. Timing matters. Relevance REALLY matters.
So, rather, think of these as ways to get a marginal edge. Ways to amplify an already great campaign. Hypothesis to be tested to see if one of these concepts, or combining them, could boost response rates for a brand's email campaigns.
They just might be the thing that makes your email campaigns thrive.
I am a Senior Marketing Consultant with over 20 years of experience across both client and agency side, specialising in CRM, CX and Loyalty. I have applied my knowledge across brands as diverse as Vodafone, McDonald’s, Volkswagen, Disney, Gumtree, Activision Blizzard and Canon.
If you liked this article, please check out:
- my other articles here
- the ‘Everybody hates your brand’ podcast, which I host.
