Behavioral Marketing: What It Is, Why It Matters, And How To Do It Right

Learning behavioral marketing can help you use data to make informed marketing decisions.

Behavioral marketing has been shown to improve customer engagement, loyalty, and sales.

This guide will teach you how to do it right.

You’ll learn:

  • What behavioral marketing is

  • Statistics that prove this method works

  • A 5-step plan with actionable steps to create your behavioral marketing campaign today

And we’ll discuss plenty of examples along the way.

Keep reading below.

What Is Behavioral Marketing?

Have you ever been scrolling through your social media feed and noticed an ad for something you were just looking up online?

That’s the magic of behavioral marketing.

This data-driven strategy uses your customers’ internet activity, like websites they visit or things they search for, to send them tailored messages.

You can send tailored messages in numerous ways – not just through online ads. We’ll discuss all that below. But first:

Why Should You Use Behavioral Marketing?

The stats are in favor of behavioral marketing:

First, there’s a wealth of available information:

  • 87% of buyers start their purchase journey with online product searches. And since those digital channels have cookies, you can use the information they reveal.

  • 71% of them also use their mobile phones inside physical stores. This shows you precise shopping patterns you can leverage.

Secondly, McKinsey data reveals regular people want this:

  • 71% of shoppers crave personalized branded communication.

  • 76% of them get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.

  • Fast-growing brands derive 40% of their profits from customized communication.

And the Personalized Pulse Check Report 2023 shows that 66% of shoppers are comfortable sharing their online information with brands.

Basically, behavioral marketing creates a win-win situation:

  • Consumers get messages that interest them and the customized interaction they crave.

  • Businesses target potential customers who are more likely to convert.

5 Steps for a Perfect Behavioral Marketing Campaign

If the data convinced you, let’s see how you can set up a behavioral marketing campaign from A to Z.

1. Gather and Analyze Data

The first step is to collect data about your customers.

You can use:

Online Sources

  • Surveys: Ask customers about their demographics, purchase habits, and interests. You can propose a discount to get more answers, but typically customers appreciate being asked about themselves.

  • Website analytics: Analyze website visitors’ activities to identify patterns in their behavior. Use data from software like the Google Search Console or any other tool you’re using.

  • Social media insights: Track conversations about your brand or industry on social networks to gain relevant insights. BuzzSumo is a good start for researching general trends, but you should also use other social media listening tools to keep track of conversations around your brand.

  • Chatbots:  Leverage chatbots to interact with customers and better understand their needs. You will no doubt notice a pattern in the questions they ask and the pain points they’re experiencing.

  • Email marketing:  Use email campaigns to collect data about your customers’ engagement with your messages. Look at open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribes, and replies.

Offline Sources

You can also use offline data sources to track customer behavior inside brick-and-mortar stores.

  • Smart shopping carts: These are equipped with RFID sensors that can track customers’ activities and behaviors while they shop. SMART shopping carts allow you to capture valuable data such as the items customers purchase, how long they spend in a particular aisle, or which products they pick up but don’t buy.

  • Fidelity cards: These are loyalty cards that customers can use to accumulate points or rewards when purchasing from your store. This data will give you an idea of which products your customers prefer and what type of discounts motivate them to buy more.

2. Set Your Goals

Once you’ve gathered and analyzed your data, you can start setting goals for your campaign.

Consider what you want to achieve, such as increasing conversions or boosting engagement with a particular product.

Ideally, your goals should align with your overall inbound marketing strategy.

Defining these objectives helps you:

  • Set the right KPIs to measure the success of your campaign. Yes, you can also do this during this step. It’ll help you later.

  • Segment your audience correctly. We’ll discuss that below.

  • Pick the right strategy. We’ll also discuss that below.

3. Perform Audience Segmentation

After collecting the necessary data, it’s time to segment your audience.

Segmentation entails grouping customers based on their shared characteristics or behaviors.

Why? Because the goal of any behavioral marketing campaign is to create more personalized and targeted campaigns.

You can segment your audience by:

  • Geography

  • Age

  • Gender

  • Interests

  • Buying behavior

4. Pick a Strategy

Once you’ve identified and segmented your audience, it’s time to create content they love and resonate with.

The key here is understanding each customer segment’s needs and creating content that directly appeals to these people.

Product Suggestions

Product suggestions can increase sales, but they also help build relationships with potential customers.

That’s because these people feel understood. That means they’re likelier to heed your messages and interact with your brand.

Let’s say you’re retailing shoes. One website visitor added a pair of shoes to the cart but didn’t purchase them.

You can now send them an email or an ad:

  • With the same product at a discount.

  • A completely different pair of shoes.

And you can still fail in both cases.

But if you’re analyzing this person’s past interaction with your website, you notice they prefer a particular color and heel size.

If you suggest a pair of shoes with the characteristics this person prefers, you’re likelier to achieve a conversion.

You can also send product suggestions after purchase, just ensure they’re relevant and useful.

For instance, a person purchasing an ergonomic office chair may or may not require a lumbar support cushion. Consider the individual's specific needs related to their age:

  • If they are 20-30 years old, they're more likely to be mobile in their work style, frequently standing or moving around, you might suggest an adjustable standing desk accessory.

  • But if you’re dealing with an older age group who have chronic lower back pain or spend long hours sitting, a lumbar support cushion would significantly enhance their comfort and posture.

Retargeting Ads

Retargeting ads specifically target shoppers who’ve previously interacted with your company’s website or products.

Enter cookies

 Unlike running ads on podcasts or social media, you’ll need cookies to track your users’ online behavior for retargeting.

You’ll then show them relevant ads across various platforms.

What you’re essentially doing with retargeting ads is capturing and re-engaging potential customers who:

  • Have shown interest in your brand, but:

  • Didn’t finalize their purchase or follow through on another desired action.

This tactic of continuously reaching out to your potential buyers with targeted ads increases your chance of converting them into loyal customers.

Also, you can try running effective testimonial ads to enhance credibility, relevance, and persuasiveness of your retargeting campaign. 

This, in turn, will lead to higher click-through rates, conversions, and overall success in your retargeting efforts.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is another great way to personalize your content and drive engagement.

One tactic is to send automated emails based on customer behavior, such as when these people:

  • Abandon their cart.

  • Purchase your products.

  • Didn’t make a purchase for a long time.

Another tactic is to customize your messages and present new offers in a personalized way.

Let’s say you’re retailing beauty products.

  • One of your regular customers constantly purchases a brand of skincare cream from your website.

  • Another regularly buys make-up.

Now, let’s say you have new product lines for lipstick and facial cream.

I think you understand where we’re getting with this. The lipstick email should go to the make-up buyer, and the facial cream email should go to your skincare fan.

If you mix your messages or email people about too many products they’re not interested in, they can become frustrated.

Remember that 76% of customers do experience frustration when this happens. In addition, it’s important to focus on email security by using a DMARC generator to ensure authentication and keep customers secure.

Neal Taparia, who runs gaming site Cribbage Online, notes that it’s important to send timely automated emails. “We would send emails to encourage users to play additional games three days after they played their first game. When we changed the email to be sent one day after their last game, we saw a meaningful increase in returning users as the game was still top of mind.”

Demographic Targeting

Demographic targeting involves identifying a specific set of characteristics defining a particular population segment.

These characteristics can include age, interests, income, education, and geographic location, among many others.

Why does this work?

You can tailor your marketing and advertising efforts to connect with your intended audience better.

Side note: Every Facebook and Instagram ad has an option reading, “Why am I seeing this ad?” You’ll notice that numerous companies advertising on these social media use demographic targeting.

And they’re not alone.

This approach allows all companies to prevent ad fatigue, craft relevant messages and promotions that attract, resonate with, and persuade their audiences.

That means increasing the chances of converting your prospective customers into buyers and, later, loyal customers.

That’s how you build lasting relationships and grow your bottom line.

5. Analyze Your Behavioral Marketing Program

The last step in your behavioral marketing program is to analyze your campaign’s performance.

Remember the KPIs you set in step 2?

Now it’s time to keep track of those performance metrics.

  • Evaluate how your campaign is going.

  • Constantly test your marketing messages.

  • Find your best-performing creative assets and keep improving them.

  • Test and set up new marketing channels where you can expand your campaign. For example, a successful retargeting campaign on Facebook can work well on email or Instagram.

Wrapping Up

If you’ve read so far, you now know how to build a behavioral marketing campaign that rocks.

Follow the advice in this guide, and you’ll achieve your marketing goals.

Just remember not to overdo it either with the segmentation or the personalization. After all, you want to be that helpful friend, not the creepy neighbor.

David Morneau is the co-founder and CEO of inBeat, a hybrid micro-influencer marketing agency that helps brands scale their marketing efforts. He has helped over 200 DTC brands to date.

tricks of the tradeBrittany Lopezmarketing, digital marketing, tips, customer successComment