understanding your user
TRANSCRIPT
Behavioral EngineeringUnderstanding Your
User
S h i r a A b e l• CEO & Lead Strategist, Hunter &
Bard– Marketing & Branding Agency
• Professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv/ Jaffa Academic College
• Mentor at: 500 Startups, Google Campus, Microsoft Ventures Accelerator
• MBA, Kellogg School of Management
@shiraabel
“A true unfair advantageis something that cannotbe 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 FunnelAcquisition –
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 OKThe 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
FramingHow 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 DoorAsk for a small sign in the window, first
Mere ExposureEar worms work
Social Identity TheoryUs vs. Them
Confirmation Bias
https://kiralynblue.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/thinking-conf-bias.png
Analysis ParalysisDon’t make me think
SMALL THINGS MATTERGet down to the details
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How You Say Things MattersResearchers 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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Get Emotional1. Fear – Insurance2. Guilt – Mother’s Day3. Trust – Financial
institutions4. Value – Matching prices5. 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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Connect!• @shiraabel• http://www.linkedin.com/in/shiraabel• http://www.facebook.com/shiraabel• https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ShiraAbel/po
sts• http://www.instagram.com/shiraabel• http://www.pinterest.com/shira_abel
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!