Behavioral Engineering

We’re all trained monkeys

S h i r a A b e l •  CEO, Hunter & Bard

–  Strategic Marketing & Branding

•  Taught Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv/ Jaffa Academic College

•  Mentor at: Google Campus, Microsoft, Founder Institute, Seedcamp, Trento, & more

•  MBA, Kellogg School of Management

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http://www.slideshare.net/shiraabel

The deck will be here

“A true unfair advantage is something that cannot be easily copied or bought.” - Jason Cohen

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Agenda •  Why It Works •  Action Triggers •  It Works Even When We Know •  Form Follows Function •  Small Things Matter •  Real Life Examples

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A Quick Point

STRATEGY COMES FIRST

WHY IT WORKS

The basics – the chemicals in our body are biologically programmed to react to certain things in a specific way

Endorphins •  Runners high •  Masks physical pain •  The root of endurance •  The reason laughing feels good •  Games

Dopamine •  The good feeling of progress and

accomplishment •  Crossing things off lists •  Need to be able to see your goal (e.g. Corporate

Vision) •  The reason why we become “hooked” on

notifications from our phone •  Triggered through variable unexpected rewards •  Highly addictive

Serotonin •  Leadership, pride, status •  Branding •  Leader boards •  Social proof •  Raises confidence of the winner and the

supporters •  “Mefargen”ß hebrew word •  Trust + security = confidence = innovation •  Corporate Culture

Oxytocin •  Love, friendship, mommy-hood •  Hugging, shaking hands – the touch matters •  Giving time & energy to help for free (money

doesn’t count – more on that later) •  Witnessing acts of human generosity releases

oxytocin •  Brand – Corporate Social Responsibility

Cortisol •  Stress hormone •  Impairs cognitive performance •  Toxic situations destroy our ability to

create •  Paranoid (layoffs does this) •  High stress environments •  Inhibits Oxytocin

ACTION TRIGGERS

You can’t force anyone to do something they don’t want to, but if they do want to – this will help you get them there

T-Shirt Economy •  Reputation based

–  Incentives are about doing something for the love of it NOT financial reward

–  Easier to get someone to do something for free than for less money (e.g. lawyers would rather do pro bono than get paid less per hour for the same work)

–  Changes the way we perceive the work we do –  When we already have our basic needs met, we’re more

likely to do something for our own joy •  This is where the evangelists should be – that’s why

not paying them is a good thing

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Financial Economy •  People judge if something is “worth” their time •  Become less enthusiastic if the work is not paid

according to expectations •  Make sure incentives are aligned with goals •  Proven to be a bad way to build incentives to get

people to work harder –  Studies have shown that for cognitive work, a larger reward

results in worse results –  Loss aversion, however, brings better results

•  This will affect the affiliates the most

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First Choice Brand Effect

“…when the favorite brand was included… the choice was made instantly… this… occurs only for the respondent’s number one brand…”

*Decoded, by Phil Barden

“Simplicity changes behavior.” - B.J. Fogg

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Reward Status Achievement Self Expression Competition Altruism

Points

Levels

Challenges

Virtual Goods

Leaderboards

Gifting & Charity

FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

Building the marketing into the product. Think about what you want people to do, now reverse engineer it.

Watch the Funnel Acquisition –

Learns About Product Conversion –

Signs Up Retention –

Uses Product

WOM (Sharing)

Buys

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Engineering Social Proof @shiraabel

Engineering Social Proof

Ask for reviews in update notes

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Engineering the Path to OK The user must do a set

of actions, before permission is requested.

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Engineering the Path to OK

User-triggered requests showed the highest

conversion rates

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Engineering the Path to OK

Marking optional fields only encourages

‘voluntary over-disclosure’

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THESE WORK EVEN WHEN WE KNOW

Even when we know we’re being manipulated, we’re susceptible to certain things.

Priming @shiraabel

BEFORE   AFTER  

DOUBLED VIEWS & REVENUE

Reciprocity

Anchoring @shiraabel

Framing How you say and do things matters.

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Loss Aversion Fear of missing out

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Inclusion – e.g. Easter Egg

Achievement

Foot in the Door Ask for a small sign in the window, first

Mere Exposure Ear worms work

Social Identity Theory Us vs. Them

Confirmation Bias

h*ps://kiralynblue.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/thinking-­‐conf-­‐bias.png    

Analysis Paralysis Don’t make me think

SMALL THINGS MATTER Get down to the details

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How You Say Things Matters Researchers found that placing the following statement at the end of an ad… caused their trust scores to jump as much as 33 percent!’

“You can trust us to do the job for you.”

Emotions Vs. Logic •  When numbers are even, e.g. $100 –

we rely on our feelings •  When numbers are exact, e.g. $17.86

we rely on our logic •  It affects negotiation as well…

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Engineering Viral @shiraabel

Get Emotional 1.  Fear – Insurance 2.  Guilt – Mother’s Day 3.  Trust – Financial

institutions 4.  Value – Matching

prices 5.  Belonging – Part of our

community

6.  Competition – Doing better than the Jones’s

7.  Instant Gratification – I want it now

8.  Leadership – Early adopter & evangelist

9.  Trendsetting – What are the leaders doing?

10.  Time – Save time

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Cognitive Resources •  Behavior depends on time of day – we’re more likely to have

no patience at the end of the day, when we’re hungry or tired •  Place – if we’re being interrupted every 30 seconds, our

cognitive resources will be spent – decision making goes down •  How much we’ve had to concentrate – again, using up

cognitive resources –  We can’t decipher truth from fiction when we’re cognitively spent –  Our mood can change simply by putting a pencil between our teeth

and forcing ourselves to smile

Point being – When is your customer using your product? What’s their cognitive level?

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International Markets •  Americans spell correctly. However, the British

disagree. There are more Americans than British J (localize your English – even when it’s for Australians)

•  Spelling and grammar count – mistakes lower trust levels in all languages and cultures

•  Find someone from the culture you’re aiming to sell to, who knows marketing – to do your marketing. OR – go there & live for a bit. Understanding culture is critical.

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Jack Dorsey: The Power of User Narratives http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acMXhhdWylQ

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UserOnboard.com – Web

UXArchive.com – Mobile

Know Your Market @shiraabel

Rapportive

Find the email of the person you want to connect to by checking names through the Rapportive plugin.

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Boomerang in Gmail @shiraabel

This helps you remember to send that follow up email.

Sidekick by Hubspot @shiraabel

Find out when the email you sent was opened by the recipient.

LinkedIn

Choose who you want to connect to: What groups is the person in? If you know the title but not the whole name – do a search in Google of the partial name and title & you’ll get the whole name.

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Who Are You Looking For @shiraabel

Google Search @shiraabel

First & Last Name Found! @shiraabel

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES This stuff is everywhere

REVIEWS THAT ROCK Cause sometimes people are funny

THE Best Review Of All Time The Mountain Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve T

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Close Running BIC Cristal For Her Ball Pen

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Hat tip:

References & Reads •  All of the stock photos are taken from http://thestocks.im/ •  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReRcHdeUG9Y •  http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/cortisol.htm •  THANK YOU’S: Dan-ya Shwartz Bar-El & Ze'ev Rosenstein •  https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/dopamine •  http://uxmovement.com/forms/why-users-fill-out-less-if-you-

mark-required-fields/ •  http://dancounsell.com/articles/prompting-for-app-reviews •  http://agevik.se/post/72876032312/20-lessons-about-making-

viral-apps-i-learned-the-hard •  http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/09/web-content-

conversions/ •  http://www.slideshare.net/startuplessonslearned/eric-ries-the-

lean-startup-google-tech-talk •  http://www.slideshare.net/gzicherm/nir-eyal-hookedatgsummit •  http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas •  http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/socialization-of-your-

personal-brand_28/ •  http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2004/03/its_a_small_wor.html •  http://www.quora.com/Udemy/How-did-Udemy-get-11-000-

courses-online-so-quickly •  http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Wolf-Short-Sleeve/

product-reviews/B002HJ377A •  http://lifehacker.com/the-psychology-of-a-fanboy-why-you-

keep-buying-the-sam-1300451596

•  http://www.amazon.com/BIC-Cristal-1-0mm-Black-MSLP16-Blk/dp/B004F9QBE6

•  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmCUDHpNzE •  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI •  http://www.macadamia-apps.com/app-launch-7-mistakes-to-

learn-from/   •  http://flowingdata.com/2011/09/18/yoda-pie-chart/ •  http://blog.bitly.com/post/9887686919/you-just-shared-a-link-

how-long-will-people-pay •  http://www.briansolis.com/2011/09/whats-the-r-o-i-a-

framework-for-social-analytics/ •  http://www.slideshare.net/setlinger/altimeter-social-

analytics081011final •  Breakthrough Marketing Plans •  http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media •  http://ideas.deloitte.ca/blog/2011/09/social-media-going-

beyond-roi/ •  http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/09/20/the-10-key-mistakes-

many-bloggers-and-writers-make/ •  http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/01/the-10-best-facebook-

campaigns/ •  http://www.facebook-studio.com/ •  http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-the-roi-of-social-media •  http://marketingfortomorrow.com/tag/marketing-tone/ •  http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/the-

psychological-difference-between-1200-and-1167/384993/

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Thank you!