Behavioral campaign ideas you can use

We’re coming to the end of our deep dive on using neuroscience and the purchase formula in your campaigns. We’ve discussed why the purchase formula is so important, and why increasing reward activation in the brain is vital to conversion success – and we’ve taken a look at some of the practical applications for your own campaigns. But what if you want to go deeper?

Let’s take a look at some examples of how you can use these campaigns in your own industry. We’ll run through 3 specific examples, including campaign structures and content ideas, this blog will give you everything you need to get moving with some behavioral insights – let’s rock and roll!

Adding neuroscience spice to B2B: The sales-supporting nurture

There is a common misconception that B2B is vastly different from B2C. I hear the term “stuffy” being used a lot… But in reality, the main difference is purely in the number of decision-makers involved, and how protracted and long the sales cycles can be. This leads to all sorts of fabulous marketing tactics that B2C never gets to see. One of the biggest challenges for demand generation marketers in B2B is keeping leads engaged during long sales cycles. Your consumer has a lot of choices to make, and a decision can be 6 to 18 months down the line…

Secondarily you have the issue of lead quality. Ever had the grate of the age-old back and forth between sales and marketing about lead quality and therefore the conversion rates? Ensuring only the best quality leads, that are ready to convert, are passed through to sales to weave their magic is paramount.

And finally, you have the thorn of conversion rate and average order value. If you have a highly qualified lead that has been well nurtured, you’re going to increase the average order value that comes from that lead. These magical leads know your value, know why you’re the right choice for them and know that you’re worth what is being asked for. Unfortunately most of the time it’s not that magical and getting that bump can be hard.

The sales-supporting nurture series fixes all of these issues.

Designed to run alongside a longer sales cycle, the purpose of this series is to increase your conversions and average order value by educating, motivating, and inspiring your prospects. A good sales supporting nurture series delivers highly valuable and engaging content that deals with objections, common questions, concerns, pricing, and inspirational hero-led case studies.

How to structure your sales-supporting nurture series

As a form of nurture that works alongside sales – your sales-supporting nurture should be designed with sales. Sitting down with your sales team and uncovering the most common objections and questions will give you a good starting point. Here are some sales supporting nurture content ideas:

• X steps/things you need to do/think about before buying an {insert product or service name}
• Everything you need to know about {insert product or service}
• {Your product/service} vs competitors or perceived competitors (could be multiple blogs)
• Why you are having {problem x} and how to fix it
• Common myths and misconceptions of {insert product or service name}
• How {audience} achieved X using {insert product or service}

The purpose of this series is to deliver as much valuable bottom-of-funnel information as possible. What do your leads need to know to help them make a purchase decision? This should give you your basic structure. Make sure to include blog posts, case studies, pricing information, buyers guides, and objection-busting materials.

When well structured, a sales supporting nurture campaign will mean that sales have more meaningful conversations with prospects that are far more highly qualified. Which brings us smartly to the next question: When should you use sales supporting nurture?

To get the most out of your campaign, we trigger the series when sales intent is displayed and the lead enters the sales cycle.

Giving ecommerce some behavioral love: Onboarding for increased reward activation

Ecommerce is terrible for missing out on relationship building as an industry. While a lot of B2C and B2B companies focus on building longer relationships with their customers – ecommerce can get blinkered by the need for repeat sales, forgetting that there is a consumer attached to the end of that sale.

As a result, a lot of ecommerce businesses build their campaigns around a sales goal and miss out on increasing that reward activation. Unfortunately, reward activation is required to get that next sale! While almost all of the 5 practical applications of the purchase formula will help an ecommerce business connect with its customers better, there is one area of opportunity that stands head and shoulders above the others: your onboarding.

Onboarding? Sure that’s only for services? Absolutely not! When a purchase is made, to be satisfied with that purchase, and therefore recommend or repeat purchase, we have to go through 5 specific steps first:

1. Research – Being clear on how to use the product/ what to do next.
2.  Implementation/usage – Using the product for the first time.
3. Proving – Understanding that and proving to themselves that they made the right choice.
4. Optimization/owning – Making the product or service their own by using it and personalizing it.
5. Enjoying – If both previous steps are positive, they will enjoy the product and use it.

To have a happy customer, you need them to have a smooth transition through all 5 stages. That means higher reward activation.

While SAAS and service-based companies tend to take their customers through these steps – usually because the product is complex. Ecommerce misses out on these stages because the products seem too simple to use the process. Unfortunately, the brain cares not one little sausage what we think – it needs its stages to be completed to have its reward activation.

So let’s take a look at how you can structure out an onboarding series for maximum reward activation.

How to structure your onboarding series

Take a look at each of the 5 stages – how can you adapt them to your own business?

Always start with a warm welcome, but beef your welcome up by helping them nail stage one – research. Then build additional emails to help them really get the most of the product. We like our onboarding series to be around 4-5 emails long.

1. Research

What do they need to know?

What information is really important for them at this point in time. This can be as simple as the next steps, and go all the way through to detailed plans, instruction manuals, and time scales. Set their expectations and make the next steps very clear for them. You can also use this as an opportunity to get them excited and think about how they’re going to use the product before it gets to them.

2. Implementation (usage)

What do they need to do to get it implemented?

Could there be any hurdles? What actions need to happen? How do you get them in a consumption routine? Remember that customers who use the product are the ones that tend to value it, and they are the ones who stick around. This can be as simple as suggesting funky ways to dress up an item of clothing they have bought, or offering next-level ideas around a widget they have purchased.

3. Proving

What are their goals?

How do you get them to prove to themselves that this was the right decision? Can you get them to attain success? Are there quick wins you can help them see? Fitness apps do this very well by helping people physically see their progress – how can you help them do the same?

4. Optimization (owning)

How can you help them make it theirs?

Often simply explaining how they can get the best out of being a customer, means you can help them own your product or service better. Help them see how they can get more out, squeezing every ounce of value.  Show them how they can level up and enhance their own experience. It’s particularly important to get them to put their own stamp on things at this stage.

5. Enjoyment

Finally, when your customer is in the throes of using your product or service, mirror their enjoyment. Inspire them with other people who are also doing awesome things.

Companies that take their customers through well-structured and inspiring onboarding receive better testimonials and higher average order values for a second purchase. So get building your own onboarding!

Nifty neuroscience for Not-For-Profit: Crafting welcome campaigns that make brains happy

Welcome campaigns are a series of emails that go to your brand new sign-ups to your list. No matter what reason they have for entering your system – your new friend needs to be treated well and made to feel important.

Humans steer away from things that don’t make us feel valued but are also drawn to the things we can easily understand, things that align with our own values, and things that we have context around. This is the brain saving space and computing capacity.

Welcome campaigns provide an excellent opportunity for us, marketers, to help people understand who we are, why we matter, and most importantly: what that means to the consumer. This means your following emails will get higher engagement and higher reward activation.

All of this is very important for most businesses, but for Not For Profit organizations, this is vital. A welcome campaign is one of the most important tools in your marketing arsenal as a result.

You need a welcome campaign because:

• It clarifies who you are, including your all-important values
• Shows your prospects how you can better their lives
• Increases likelihood of conversions down the line
• Builds trust in your brand and creates likeability
• Sets the scene for your readership & makes them comfortable

Approaching your welcome campaign strategically helps better position you for sales opportunities down the line.

So let’s take a look at what you should include in your welcome campaign, and how to build it out.

How to structure your welcome campaign

We like to structure our welcome series over 3-4 emails that help consumers really understand who you are and give them that all-important context as to how you fit into their lives. Let’s take a look at an example email flow:

Email 1: A welcome email that sets the scene

Tell them what to expect and what they will be getting from you over the next few days. Introduce the people behind the brand in this email, but don’t go into too much detail, tease the next few emails. This is your broad opportunity to communicate who you are and allow them to click through to more content. The most important part of this email is telling them what they should expect from you as you communicate with them in the future.

Email 2: Send a “who you are” email

In here you can tell them who you are and give them a good idea of what it is you do. Talk about the things about you/ your business that they would be interested in. This is where you can really showcase the impact you’re making as an NFP. Make sure you slant this to things you know they are interested in/ are passionate about. Show them your passion too.

Email 3: Send a “why you’re different” email

Talk about the major successes and triumphs you’ve achieved for your cause, and how your mission, vision, and values have enabled you to achieve them. Link off to more resources that people can read about further.

Email 4: Send a “how to get the most” email

Talk about how they can get the best out of being on your list. What should they keep an eye out for? This is your opportunity to showcase how you’re going to add value to their lives and how you do the work that you do. How can they achieve their goals? How will you help them do that? Context is king when it comes to getting higher engagement and setting the scene with your audience – and a welcome campaign helps you do precisely that while going a little bit deeper and getting that all-important reward activation…

Here are some other prompts to spark off your welcome series copy:

• Welcome them to your family. make them feel part of something
• Let them know that they are with like-minded people
• Who are you?
• What do you stand for?
• Why are you different?
• What should they expect from you?
• How often?
• Build your credibility – awards/testimonials/social proof
• Get your prospects excited
• What’s in it for them?
• What should they do next?
• Let them know that you’re available to them if they want to get in touch

Wrap-up

So there we have it! Over this series we’ve taken a look at some of the neuroscience behind how we buy, we’ve explored practical ways to apply it, and we’ve done a deeper dive into some of the campaigns that are most impactful for various niches and industries.

Throughout the series, I’ve labored how important that reward activation is. You need to work at it – the high conversions and better quality customers are worth the effort. The question now is: Where are you going to get started? Let’s keep the chat alive! Let me know how you’re using this to build better relationships with your audience!