Behavioural Campaign: EDM campaigns on steroids
Learn how to maximise the impact of your EDM campaigns by using behavioural data tracking. What is Behavioural Campaign and how to easily conduct one.
Published July 23, 2019
Last updated November 14, 2021
Let me guess, you noticed ‘EDM campaigns on steroids’ and clicked on the article? Good for you.
Curiosity is the first step towards any kind of improvement.
The gist of what we’re going to talk about here is – how to track a prospect’s behaviour and use that data to maximise the ROI of your campaigns.
But in order to understand the nitty-gritty of the behavioural campaign – we must first understand what EDM campaigns are. And how to use them for the greatest benefit.
As eager marketers as we all are, it doesn’t hurt to know how to optimise EDM campaigns for better results. Right?
What is an EDM campaign?
EDM stands for Electronic Direct Mail. And despite what most people think, EDM is more than just email marketing.
Email marketing mostly focuses on email send-outs, while an EDM campaign has more elements to it.
So, for example, an EDM campaign can include:
- Email marketing campaigns
- Social media marketing campaigns
- Other advertising such as cold calls, mail or print
We’ve all heard about the benefits of email marketing:
- generating more leads
- improved sales
- improved conversion rates
- reduced marketing costs
- identifying better-quality leads
- shorter sales cycles
All of the different types of campaigns naturally share one common goal – an increase in revenue.
The difference lies in their approaches. Some might achieve it by building loyalty and increasing customer lifecycle value, while others might focus on increasing brand awareness.
What is a Behavioural campaign?
We all track, measure and analyse the success of our campaigns; however, sometimes we miss out the golden nuggets in the process.
The true difference between EDM and email marketing campaigns in comparison to behavioural campaigns is in the tracking.
It’s all about the data.
Let’s define a behavioural campaign first:
A behavioural campaign is a marketing tactic where marketers dig into actions that prospects perform before they decide to buy.
So naturally, based on a prospect’s actions, you will develop responses that will lead them in the right direction.
The focus of a behavioural campaign is on tracking those metrics that act as subtle indicators of a prospect’s behaviour.
These subtle indicators can tell a great story to somebody who is ready to listen.
So, if you implement a behavioural campaign, you will go beyond the given metrics and put them into the context of human triggers.
This approach assumes you have a sales mindset to achieve a successful outcome.
With this mindset, you will build a multiphased campaign that will respond to the actions exhibited by your potential customers.
Understand the prospect’s behaviour first
When talking about the sales mindset we can’t skip the process of understanding our prospects.
Every good salesman understands what drives individuals to purchase a product and how to handle objections.
To sum it up, this is what you need to be aware of:
- Nobody wants to be sold to
- Everybody says no at first
Additionally, based on data that Frank Kern (the conceiver of this methodology) exposed – 50% of prospects never go and access the information they opt-in for.
Imagine that. People give you their details voluntarily, and then never consume your content.
The main reason lies in good old-fashioned human procrastination. Sometimes, if it’s not pressing, we delay the consumption.
Another reason is fear. We want to sign up for a webinar, but taking the necessary action is a scary thing.
We make lists of excuses while contemplating our current position. This inevitably leads to piled-up content that loses its meaning as time passes by.
On top of that, we have sales statistics that show us how 48% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect.
The logical conclusion is that we need a better understanding of our prospects in order to score in marketing today.
How do we do that?
By thinking like a salesperson, and acting like a marketer.
First – understand that your prospects would naturally say no to any offer, even if it’s just an education video.
Next – understand how people need reminders in today’s busy and fast-changing world.
And lastly – show your understanding and pack it in a consumable way.
Now, this doesn’t really differ from an email campaign, does it?
No. But stay focused, we are almost there.
Example of a behavioural campaign
Let’s take the example of a webinar as a marketing tactic.
You would offer this piece of content to people who left their details in exchange.
The journey starts.
Want to know more about our B2B Omnichannel Behavioural Campaigns?
Step 1 – Track everything
Usually, in a behavioural campaign, you will divide the behavioural indicators that will trigger your response a little more rigorously.
So, to use our example of the webinar, we will list the behavioural indicators as:
- Started watching the video
- Finished the video
- Applied for our offer at the end of the video
We know that the success of our campaign depends on how many people complete each stage of the campaign.
We offer our services at the end of the webinar, and we want them to get there.
So naturally, our job is to get the highest possible number of subscribers to pass each indicator.
We will do that by tracking how many people pass each of the indicators and adjust our communications based on their behaviour.
In our example, let’s assume our webinar is one hour long.
And let’s say ten people start watching it.
Out of those ten people, seven never go beyond the 15-minute mark.
What do we do?
We send a time-sensitive email in response to their behaviour.
So in this example, we will send a message to the seven people who never finished the video – reminding them they only have two days left to watch it.
After those two days – you will remove the content.
Now, the message needs to be dynamic and personalised.
Sending a message outlining the value and the benefit of watching the video till the end is good; however, we can do better.
We can:
- Show our prospects on how implementing the knowledge they have gathered so far can help them gain benefits fast.
- Add statistics aimed at convincing them that watching the webinar will make their life easier.
- Assure them there is nothing to lose by watching the webinar, but there is a lot to gain.
Ask yourself this question:
What must your prospects believe to be true in order to watch the webinar until the end?
And then – give them exactly that. Remember, your aim is to trigger immediate engagement.
Step 2 – Break it down
Now, not everybody will give up on a video after 15 minutes. Some might give up after 30 or 45 minutes.
To get the most out of your behavioural data collection, break your achievements down.
Each individual response you make to each indicator must be different. Personalise it according to the situation your prospect is in.
If they watched the video for 30 minutes, mention how they are halfway through, and there is loads of great info left to be discovered.
If they have watched 45 minutes of the video, point out how close they are to finishing it and how the end of the video is the most valuable part.
Step 3 – Increase your sales
We know how many prospects we walk through our sales funnel and how many end up converting.
If we take the best-case scenario the outcomes are not that bright:
The top 10% of websites convert at 11.45% or higher.
But, that’s the top 10% of websites.
If you are in the e-commerce space, your average conversion rate is 2%.
So what do you do if a prospect goes through your entire video and doesn’t grab the offer at the end of it?
It’s not over.
You simply – add another conversion point.
More conversion points = More conversions = More revenue.
Create an additional piece of content that will be irresistible to your prospects, giving them another chance to grab the offer.
The truth is, your prospects want a lot of information.
If your webinar explained everything you may have known about the subject – then go for greater depth.
In the case of Frank Kern, he added a simple PDF document that was sent out to prospects who had finished the video.
See his story below:
I wrote a PDF sales letter outlining the offer I’d made at the end of the video.
The letter was thorough. Detailed.
And had a strong call to action at the end.
Then I emailed it to just the people who’d completed the video …but hadn’t yet applied.
But I didn’t stop there.
Like I told you earlier, Behavioral Dynamic Response is the holy grail of Internet marketing and you should use it in everything you do.
So in this case, I tracked whether or not they clicked to download the PDF.If they didn’t download it, I had an email series that would remind them to go and read it.
But I took it one step further.
I made it so the PDF itself would only be available for a limited time …and I let the prospect know when their access was expiring.
I was able to dynamically determine the expiration date and merge it into the emails they were getting so they’d say, “This letter is only available until Wednesday the 19th” and so on …with each user seeing a different date depending on when they’d finished the video.
The result was a 95.89% Conversion Rate!
It’s so simple, yet so overlooked.
And the main reason why people don’t use this approach is a lack of understanding of prospects’ behavioural triggers.
However, once you adopt a sales mindset, you become a superstar marketer.
As we are already familiar with the benefits of email and EDM campaigns, it’s time to drive better results by applying the data we are able to collect today.
And thanks to the marketing technology we are able to drill down into the details of any behaviour we want.
It would be a shame not to use it.
Are you getting the most from your email marketing? Do you face challenges in designing your behavioural campaigns?
If you want to know how we can help you increase your sales numbers, contact our team today.
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