← DTC Podcast
DTC Podcast
Ep 496: How to Apply 20+ Cognitive Biases to Your Email Marketing: AKNF Preview of The World's Best Email and Retention Podcast with Jordan Gordon
00:28:05
Loading summary
Transcript6 lines
- [00:00]
A
Eric.
- [00:00]
B
It's all killer, no filler. I'm Eric and this is the DTC Podcast. Today we're featuring a special episode from Twitter, the World's best Email and Retention Podcast with Jordan Gordon. Now this episode is a masterclass in leveraging cognitive biases to drive real email marketing results. Jordan walks through 20 plus psychological principles like anchoring, loss aversion and nostalgia bias and shows you exactly how to apply them to your subject lines and campaign angles and retention flows. If if you're plotting out a 20 email automation or looking for fresh ways to frame your next campaign, this one's essential. Let's dive in. And don't forget to go and subscribe to the world's best email and retention podcast because it's a banger every single week. Hope you enjoy it. On with the show, we are going.
- [00:43]
A
To discuss cognitive biases. When you sit down and you are plotting out a 20 to 30 email automation or you are planning your month of campaigns, you can take this list or you can make your own list, read through them and just start thinking. How can I use these cognitive biases to improve the results of my marketing campaigns? Anchoring Bias Framing Bias Loss Aversion, Egocentric Bias Nostalgia Bias Goal Gradient Rhyme is reason this is my favorite cognitive bias because it's so stupid.
- [01:26]
B
Imagine having the world's top social creative experts on your team analyzing your ads, auditing your ad library and helping you deliver more winning creatives. You don't have to imagine any more because Motion just launched Expert Agents, AI powered workflows designed by the industry's best creative strategists. These aren't generic AI tools. Each workflow is built by real performance marketers actively managing high spending ad accounts. You'll get access to things like Creative Performance Analyzer, powered by Dara Denny's framework, which helps you break down what's working and what's not with each of your ads. Or Ugly Ad Finder, created by Barry Hott, which scans your top spending ads and serves up organic social inspiration so you can make ads that actually stop. The scroll or Scale Unlocker from Jess Bachman, which maps your current ad spend across the awareness stages to pinpoint your biggest growth. Unlock plus Motion's expert agents include custom tools for social listening, strategic ad iteration and more, giving your team the insights of a veteran creative strategist at no extra cost. Start shipping more winning ads today@motionapp.com expert agents.
- [02:35]
A
It's the world's best email retention podcast and I'm your host Jordan Gordon. We are a Member of the DTC network of podcasts and the philosophical home of the Pilothouse email and customer retention team. Today we are going to discuss cognitive biases. I've been meaning to do this talk for a while. I've got some interviews coming up. There was a space in. So I'm going to deliver this talk and of course you can just go on YouTube and you can learn all these cognitive biases. Right. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to use boots as an example. So as we read through these cognitive biases, I'll just talk about different ways to sell boots, which will be kind of interesting because it'll just show you how you might use these cognitive biases in your marketing angles. And what I do suggest you do when you sit down and you are kind of, you know, maybe plotting out a 20 to 30 email automation or you are planning your, your month of campaigns, seriously, go, you know, you can take this list or you can make your own list and look at them, read through them and just start thinking, how can I use these cognitive biases to improve the results of my marketing campaigns? So, of course a cognitive bias is just, it's just a way the brain works that doesn't really make sense. Like it's not logical. When you, when you really work it out, you're like, well, that doesn't make any sense, but people do it anyway. So these were discovered, you know, whatever, decades ago and marketers use them. And certainly I recommend that you work these in to your subject lines, to your headlines and into your body copy. So let's just start going through some, okay, anchoring bias. So this certainly is used a lot in sales, but it can be used, of course, in marketing as well. This is where once somebody has, we'll just use price, for example, but it's not always price. But once people have a price in their mind, you kind of tell them, this is what this thing is worth. It's kind of sticky. And they just unconsciously think that's how much it's worth. So interestingly, that's what the manufactured, suggested retail price is, the msrp. The MSRP for a car, for instance, is just anchoring bias. This is what this car is worth, right? And people all the time look at it and go, yeah, that's what that car's worth. But what is the price of something? The price of something is what someone's willing to pay. That's the price of something, right? So, yeah, you've got msrp. There's this whole other way of approaching it, which is edlp everyday low price. That would be the kind of Walmart way where they just drive the whole thing down and they say there's, there's no point in anchoring, right? We just want to have the lowest price. People will just consume on that. Other people try to protect their margins by having a, a high MSRP and then they discount, but they still show that MSRP. So it's like, hey, this is 20% off. And people will just naturally think, hey, this thing is worth that full price. I'm getting that 20% off. Of course that's not what's happening. The price is what someone pays. So yeah, let's go through an interesting example, right? I just learned this, I think I learned this in business school. We did this case and it was Alka Seltzer. So some very smart marketer doubled sales at Alka Seltzer by making a commercial where two Alka Seltzers got dropped in the water. Plop, plop, right? And then everybody just started using two Alka Seltzers because that's, that would, was anchored in their mind. Oh, it takes two Alka Seltzers to, to make my stomach feel better. And of course one will probably do. So that was like just, man, that was like one commercial and it just doubled sales. And that guy probably got a massive bonus. That's like work smarter, not harder, right? Toothpaste also does this. Have you seen a toothpaste commercial where there's this massive amount of toothpaste on the toothbrush? Like, oh my God, I would be foaming at the mouth if I was using that much toothpaste. Right? But they're trying to get it in your mind. That's how much toothpaste you need to get your teeth clean. So what would be some non price examples of this? Right? You can't make it through fall without two pairs of boots. Buy one pair and get one pair 50% off. I mean that, that's interesting, right? You can't make it through fall without two pairs of boots. Of course not. You can't just have one boot. Look, you need two looks. So that's a way to anchor. And then you just spend your kind of promo explaining why two boots works. Framing bias. This is, I mean this is look, this is marketing, right? So you should be thinking about how you're framing your product through storytelling in your campaigns. And framing is just like the structure. It's, I mean I'm not going to read you a dictionary definition of it, but it's like just the structure of how people, you tell people to think about your product and I'll give you two examples and then it'll make perfect sense. Okay. Johnnie Walker make it a night to remember. Oh, classic, right? Make it a night to remember with Johnny Walker. That sounds so good. Johnnie Walker is poisonous for every organ in your body. Wow. That's a different framing, right? Does that make you stoked to go and get a bottle of Johnny Walker on Saturday night? No, it doesn't. So of course they are framing it as Johnnie Walker makes it a night to remember. Of course, both can be true. Right? So let's do some examples. Meet our new 13 inch high top boots. Get more boot for your money. I mean, that's kind of interesting, right? Most people buy their clothes, you know, for fashion, right? Most people are thinking about how they're going to look. But this interesting framing is about the amount of material. Like it's a 13 inch high. 13 inch boot. Oh, I'm getting more for my money. That's, you know, kind of a fun way to frame that. High top boots are the classic way to face fall weather. It's kind of interesting, right? High top boots are classic. I mean, are they? There's lots of classic short boots, right? You know, there's boots of all size are classic. You know, sand, the Spartans wore sandals. But you can just frame it like that. Of course. High top boots are the classic way to face fall weather. Of course, right. It's just framing. And when you drop these, this is because these are cognitive biases. When you drop this, it just when someone's doom scrolling. They're not analyzing this. Is this true? No, it just boom, beams right into their head. Oh yeah, these are classic. And they'll buy appeal to authority. Look, lots of people are aware of this. If you have, you know, a Michelin star chef who's talking about your cookware, right? That's an appeal to authority. If something's been around for a long time, if a group has been around for a long time, if, if a large organization supports your product, that's appeal to authority. And basically when an authority says something is good, people believe it's good whether or not it's good, right? People can sponsor nasty crappy stuff happens all the time, but because the person's an authority, people just think this must be high quality, this must be good. So fry company. America's finest boot since 1863, right? Oh, been around since 1863. That must mean it's good. Does that, I mean, by the Way like we have no relationship with a frag company. And I'm sure their boots are amazing. Point being, it doesn't mean they're good just because they've been around for a long time. That's just a cognitive bias. Loss aversion. I mean this is everywhere in marketing. So you're, I'm sure you're already doing this. I'm sure you're already baking loss aversion into your copy. But basically losing a thousand dollars feels worse than making a thousand dollars feels good. And if anybody wants to like really experience this, try trading bitcoin because you will just, you will experience loss aversion. Max, obviously I've made and lost some money on bitcoin before. So how could we use this in some copy? Our 2025 prices roll out at the end of the month. Save on your favorite boots before time runs out. Right? Oh, wait a second. These 2025 prices, they're gonna be gone. I don't want to lose that. Right. And what do you gain? You gain the exact same boot. Right? So that'll work. Save 10% for seven days only. Look, classic stuff, obviously, right? Classic stuff that's, you know, set all your coupon given. Put, put a clear expiry date on your coupons and, and say it. It's also consumer loss. So you're supposed to, you know, tell when, when promotions and you legally have to do that. But point being, put an expiry date and say what the expiry date is and then send something that says offer ends tomorrow. Right. You should be using that all the time. Present bias, it's the tendency to see a near term reward near a smaller near term reward as more valuable than, you know, a longer term discount. Look, everybody knows that you're gonna blast it out of the park on Black Friday. They don't wanna wait for Black Friday. They would rather just. And this works every time, just give em a small discount. You know, find how much before Black Friday, how close to Black Friday. You can give a smaller discount. Like October's famously like nothing's happening. Oh my God. Sales just tank in October because everyone knows November. But maybe September, maybe September you can use a smaller discount because they don't necessarily want to wait that long. So sail ends in 24 hours. Don't pay more for the same boots purchase now before stock runs out. Right. And then obviously, yeah, set your, set your coupons to expire. Egocentric bias. God, this is. You just want to blast this into people's minds while they're Doom scrolling, right. By the way, I doom scroll. And mostly when you say doom scrolling, you're talking about like Facebook and Instagram and stuff like that. But I do scroll email. Like I have so much in my inbox, I'm just blasting through and you kind of end up, you're, you know, you're just, you're just in the zone, just absorbing all this stuff. So people, they think that they're smarter and better, right? Like, and this is it. The average person thinks they are an above average driver, but the average person is an average driver. Right? The average person thinks they drive better than the average person. It's just really interesting. So, you know, how could you use this in your copy? You know spring fashion better than anyone. Perfect. Your skirts and sandals look. And blow them away. Oh, of course, Yeah, I know spring fashion better than anyone. Look, if you just put that in the copy, they're not going to think about it. They're not going to be going, do I, what evidence is there that I know spring fashion better than anyone? No, they're going to just absorb it. It's a cognitive bias. They're going to go, yes, of course. I know spring fashion better than anyone. And they're going to zoom right into your promo. Yeah, it's a good one. Nostalgia bias. People think classic stuff is better. People think the old days were better, right? What's that Billy Joel line? The good old days weren't, weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems. Right. Everybody thinks the good old days were better. That's just the way it is. So how might you use that? Right. Vintage designed, 60 high tops for the rain or the Runway. Oh, they're vintage designed, right. They must be better because they're, you know, an old fashioned design and they'll just assume this was a design that really lasted. It was a design that if it's still around, it must be a great design. Of course, it could be a horrible design, right? But the fact that you've framed it using nostalgia, a lot of people will think it's better. Meet Marilyn Monroe's favorite milk skin boots, right? Just sell some boots that look like something Marilyn Monroe wore. I'm pretty sure pictures of Marilyn Monroe are public domain. You can probably just use them. I mean, if you're, and if you're not a big company, you can just whatever. No one cares, right? Okay, well, Marilyn Monroe wore it, right? Nostalgia. And this is, you know, there's lots of, there's whole kinds of fashion that are just built around this social proof. Of course, we all know about social proof, the wisdom of the crowds. People think if a lot of people are doing something that it's. It's safe to do. Now, of course, that's totally wrong. If. What if the average action gets the average result? The fact that everybody's doing the average thing means basically that it's not going to have above average result, but people will do the average thing. Just basically faith in the crowd and think that that thing is the right thing to do. Total cognitive bias. So this, sorry, this one isn't a boot one, but over a million air filters shipped, right? Over a million air filters shipped. Okay. Right. Well, that means it must be good. Of course, it could just be super low price. It could just be cheap, right? That's why there were a million shipped. But the fact that a lot of people have done it, they assume it's good. Of course, the best quality stuff is used by the fewest people because it's the most expensive. Right. Every fall, thousands of happy customers rely on our high top boots. Right. Every fall, thousands of happy customers. Recency bias, also called memory bias. Right. People will give greater importance to the most recent event. I'll give you an example. Shop high top styles worn at the 2024 Grammys. Oh, oh, okay. These are. This is the latest stuff. Does that mean it's better? No. It could be horrible, it could be atrocious. But the fact that it was from a recent event, people will think it's kind of more valuable. Now, of course, recency bias is like kind of the opposite of nostalgia bias. Can both biases exist? Yeah, sure. Feel free to use them both, maybe not at the same time. Goal gradient. All right, this is basically a loyalty program. And I've got a couple of interesting loyalty hooks here for you if you've got a loyalty program. But essentially, if anybody, you know, used to this. For me, this all started with coffee cards, if you can remember. I'm that old. Right. You know, before it was all on your phone, you get a little card with a stamp on it. So you've got a goal and you split that goal into parts or, you know, kind of events. And every single event that happens makes the goal more valuable in the person's mind. Right. That's the weird thing. It's like it's the exact same cup of coffee, but when you get an extra stamp, you think the coffee is more valuable. You're more excited about the coffee, you want the coffee more just because of the gradient. Yeah. And this is how all loyalty programs work. So here's a great hook. Double loyalty points this weekend only. Oh right. This is a killer. If you've got a loyalty program you should be doing this all the time because you don't have to discount your stock, you just double the points and you know will somewhere down the line it'll get used, right? But it's not, you're not discounting right now and people will be getting those points, increasing the gradient and getting more excited about the the exact same product. Welcome to our silver tier. Unlock your rewards. Rhyme is reason. This is like my favorite cognitive bias because it's so stupid. People naturally think things that rhyme are true. It is so dumb. And obviously that's why there's all kinds of jingles are built around this. And look, I use this myself in my own to sell when I sell my own service, right? You can't scale without email. Now it just so happens to be true that you can't scale without email because you need obviously to cut in low cost purchases to bring down your cost to acquire customers, right? Which allows you to unlock further spend to grow your business. So of course it is true that you can't scale without email. But the fact that that rhymes means people just innately believe it's true. It's just the dumbest thing. So just do it, just do it in your copy, right? Just put dumb rhymes in your copy and if you want test it and I think you'll find that you get a higher click through rate. It's so dumb. So the isolation effect, right, if you have say you know, five different items or three different items lined up, the one that is the most different will be the one that's remembered. So if you're trying to improve brand recall then you want to put up a bunch of products, have yours in there and have yours the most different. It'll just get into people's heads. So an example of this, after five years of wear, compare these boots against ours, right? And you just line up five different pairs of boots. Yours are in there, yours are looking the best. The other ones look just ratty as hell. I mean that's obviously an angle for your boots or they're long lasting. But the fact that you're showing something that's more different, it's the most different. It gets noticed and it improves recall. So I mean obviously just do that in your emails, right? I mean obviously you can do these in your ads too. This one's kind of not email specific but yeah, distance bias. I mean this One's kind of silly. People think things that are closer to them are more trustworthy. Right. Shipped direct from our warehouse in Indiana. Does that mean it's better than something, you know, shipped from Germany? No, not at all. But people will perceive it as superior simply because it's close to them. It's. Some of these are just so dumb. Right. So anyway, yeah, I mean, that doesn't. You could be a complete fly by night company, but the fact that you say you're close to them, people will trust you more. Sunk cost theory, right? Effort justification. So essentially, the more effort you put into some goal, and this is kind of similar to the coffee card example, right? The more effort you put into achieving some goal, the more you value that goal. And anybody here who's been married more than five years will understand this. You put so much work into it, you value it more. Right. That's why marriages after 20 years are, you know, stronger than marriages after two. Right. So there's a cognitive bias that, that helps in that, in that regard. So after all that time selecting boots, match them with some pants, right? Look your best fall with these pants. Look just for you. So you can put up some recommendations for your, for your pants catalog. After all that time selecting boots. Oh yeah, man. I really, really, really put effort into this, right? So this is gonna look great. Like putting effort into, you know, your wardrobe means you look better. Some people put effort into horrible wardrobes. Have any of you seen some of those old pictures of Justin Bieber? He put effort into that wardrobe, right? The fact that you put effort in does not mean it's good, but people will believe it is. So feed on that. Oh, you've put so much effort into this. This happened. I mean, you can also. This works with, this works with pop ups as well. So you will probably notice if you're ever in the B2B world that you'll kind of like be a place to put in your email address and you click in it. And the second you click in it, all those other fields appear. The fact that those fields weren't there until after you click increases the conversion rate on that form. Because people have already made this emotional investment. They've said, oh, I'm going to fill this out. They made that calculation on one field. Oh, there's one field. Yeah, I'm going to fill this out. Click on it. More fields appear. They've made the investment, they've decided they're going to do it. It's just, it's a cognitive bias. Effort justification or sunk cost Theory. This is really interesting. I had never heard of this before. I did the research for this, for this podcast, but it makes perfect sense. And then once you hear some of these, you're like, oh, yeah, I see that all over the place. Right? Apophenia, the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things. Right? The boots make the babe. Oh, yeah, yeah. The boots make the babe. I mean, of course they don't. People of all kinds of babeness wear boots, right? There's no way that the boots make the babe. Your footwear has a big effect on people's perception of you. What? I mean, of course people will say that. You've heard that before. I mean, come on. Everything you wear, the way you speak, how you walk into a room, when you walk into a room, if you walk in, kind of chest out confidently, make some eye contact, go sit down, you know what I mean? Versus, like kind of skulking in and looking nervous. And that has a huge effect on how people perceive you. What? Your footwear. But still, I know you've heard this. Oh, right. Your footwear has a big effect on people's perception of you. The boots make the babe. Right? It's not true. It's just a cognitive bias. So you can use that. Look, this last one I got here, the physical attractiveness stereotype, people naturally perceive. You see this all through marketing, right? Classic Calvin Klein stuff. The tendency of people to perceive people who are physically attractive to possess other desirable traits, which could be totally untrue. You could be just one of the worst people in the world. You could be right? But, you know, if you're attractive and you're a model, right? People will perceive you to have other quality traits. Now, this cognitive bias is in strict conflict with the body positivity in advertising movement. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see in coming years how. How those things play out. Because by cognitive bias theory, you're going to assume that the one that matches a cognitive bias will win out. Okay, so it was great getting together with you. We got some more interviews coming up later this week. I just kind of squeaked out a personal pet project. I've been meaning to get to you. Bottom line, what's your take home from this? When you're sitting there planning all your messages, have a list of cognitive biases. Just have it right there and just thinking through it and just put it into your angles, Right? Okay. Entrepreneurs, executives, and spammers, have fun spamming.
- [27:39]
B
Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you're not getting the DTC newsletter. You can subscribe for free at directtoconsumer Co. And if you want to learn more about Pilothouse's all killer, no filler services, take off to Pilothouse Co. I'm Eric Dick and this has been the D to C podcast. We'll see you next time.