How Behavioral Science Will Dramatically Increase Your Response Rates

No one ever sends out an email that they hope no one will read. Well, not on purpose, anyway. No one would go through the trouble of writing, editing, circulating, and then editing an email some more only to have readers skip it and click on another, more compelling email in the inbox. We write and send emails to get people to do something, starting with reading it. 

In this episode we explore the ways that email marketers can increase response rates to their campaigns using the concepts from psychology and behavioral economics. By using the way humans respond to information as a guide, you can change the reaction your email creates in people, and get them to respond more. 

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

There are two main concepts that we focus on in this episode, Framing and Loss Aversion. Framing explains how the presentation of information is never neutral and how that affects people’s reaction to it. Loss Aversion explains that we react more intensely to losses than we do to gains. Using the combination of these two concepts, you might be surprised at how different the response rate to the same information in an email can be. 

Here are a few key moments in the discussion:

• 04:16   Ryan presents an explanation for Framing and Loss Aversion, and how you can use them to persuade people to do something.
• 08:51  Ryan explains how there is also a Negativity Bias at play which suggests we prefer negative information over positive information.
• 10:08  We make an important distinction between presenting losses and being negative,  and how one does not necessarily lead to the other every time. 
• 12:07   We describe how FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out, is a form of Loss Aversion that can be useful when writing email copy. 
• 15:07   Colin shares a tool that he finds helpful for writing headlines that are compelling for content, which could be useful for email subject lines.
• 21:54   We explain why understanding your customers goals and motivations will help you create a message that gets their attention.
• 24:59  We share all the specific things you can do to make your emails more compelling and increase your response rates. 

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Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

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