Behavioral Triggers: Generate High-Quality in the New Marketing Age

Marketing models fail because they perform on guesswork, not tangible signals. But understanding customers takes more than that. The missing link? Behavioral triggers.

Traditional marketing has adapted to being more customer-centric, or rather, customer-first. While this phrase is used as a buzzword of the modern marketing age, very few marketers truly understand what it corresponds to.

As the name suggests, customers are the starting as well as the pivotal point around which marketing frameworks are structured. However, it demands understanding consumer needs and behaviors. It’s imperative to strategic development. Especially to mold effective and efficient marketing tactics.

This has been marketing’s long-known history- one where precise prediction of human behavior informs all vital marketing decisions. That’s diving into the belief systems and buyer motivations.

Marketers are proactively attempting to detangle the wires of B2B buying. They wish to decode the psychology behind how, why, and where buyers make a purchase.

It remains critical to closing a sale and avoiding any mid-journey drop-offs.

This realization hit marketers like a ton of bricks.

A singular answer to their buyer conundrum is getting into the elements that influence customer decision-making and preferences-

Behavioral triggers.

Behavioral Trigger: A Brief Definition

Some decisions are impulsive and quick, while others demand cognitive load and intuition. And most of them aren’t actually made with logic. It’s a constant to-and-fro between our conscious and subconscious.

Making a purchase requires several qualifying and disqualifying choices. The objective is to ascertain that the final choice we make is the right one.

And that’s how we drift through the pre-purchase processes.

The idea here is that consumers’ choices aren’t usually directed towards the product. But the service expected from the provider. The same product can meet distinct needs, while different offerings can meet the same need.

It signifies that buyers don’t always make purchases based on pricing charts or features. There’s something inherent that travels deeper to inform their purchasing decisions.

It’s behavioral triggers–

A tiny nudge that compels buyers to act. They are prompts that trigger consumers towards a specific action, especially when an emotion compels them to make a decision.

The different types of cues that inform behavioral triggers

In simple terms, behavioral triggers are used to send marketing messages when a specific event occurs. It’s a customer behavior detection method that implicitly clues you in on whether they’ll purchase your product or not.

Behavioral triggers fall into two categories- internal and external.

Internal Behavioral Triggers

Internal triggers are day-to-day feelings that impact prospects. They affect how the accounts perceive your brand and can be influenced and modified, but not negated.

Because these triggers stem from our human psyche:

1. Situational/Contextual – Context guides behavior: the time of day, the device used, and the location. These attributes drive navigation across the web and modify users’ behaviors.
2. Emotional – Whether it’s FOMO, nostalgia, fear, enthusiasm, or any other, impulsive purchases are often driven by our personal emotions. It’s easier to connect through something that comes naturally to humans.
3. Cognitive bias – Some biases cloud our perspective. And these can actively either make those marketing messages seem like gold or like plastic. That’s where clarity comes in handy. A clear and coherent message can positively challenge your negative biases. And instill receptivity.
4. Habit loops – Our daily habits guide most of our browsing and even purchasing patterns. That’s what brands target. Especially to deliver the right message at the right time. And how they ensure that the message corresponds with the moment.

External Behavioral Triggers

These triggers are external in the sense that providers undertake deliberate actions to engage leads, compelling them to act in a desired way. These are heavily brand-initiated and used for elevating engagement and responses to a specific marketing or sales function.

One such example is the label- “Limited Time Offer.” These add urgency, paired with FOMO. And demands tenacity on the user’s part to make the purchase as soon as possible, or they might miss out.

These are only two components. Modern marketers leverage scarcity, exclusivity, social proof, curiosity, risk reduction, and even greed to help users move the needle. And complete a crucial sales action.

Grasping some triggers might make you privy to building stronger connections, while others will unearth the intent a particular lead holds. But there’s more.

Behavioral triggers also help reduce churn and amplify customer retention. It helps spotlight accounts that are going to disengage. And makes businesses more aware of what went wrong, where, and how you can win these customers back.

That’s why behavior has come to carry even greater weight than demographic or firmographic data. Customer understanding goes beyond knowing who they are. It’s redundant.

However, knowing why they are interacting with your brand and their true intent can open avenues for growing your revenue and your partner ecosystem.

Why Are Behavioral Triggers Crucial?

Modern customers won’t fall for traditional campaign calendars. Their need for personalization and relevancy comes before being contacted at all. They wish to gauge why you’re specifically reaching out to them- these modern consumers don’t want to feel like a number in a herd of similar ones.

They might receive your marketing messages, but are they actually listening?

Maybe your brand isn’t paying enough attention to what your potential buyers are doing. Their actions, preferences, and market movements- say a lot about what they’re interested in buying, and what they need.

If you’re drowning in the same quicksand, it’s because you aren’t paying attention.

It’s your job to gauge and interpret buyer signals, set up triggers to send hyper-personalized messages. Messages that don’t just seem personal, but actually deliver value and build that bridge towards the final conversion.

So you can think of behavioral triggers as rules. Rules that ensure your campaigns wrap around what customers do, i.e., their actions across the web and your brand.

But your team must know how to leverage these triggers correctly. You can’t just place them everywhere and hope that something will stick. The combination of trigger and behavioral marketing has afforded a myriad of benefits, but only when it’s done right.

Here are some simple steps to set up behavioral triggers.

1. Map out the customer journey, and then identify all key moments ⇒ What are the potential triggers at different touchpoints- sign-ups, subscriptions, feature skipped, first log in, or email open?
2. Develop trigger logic with the appropriate context, i.e., set automated responses according to the event (or customer signal) ⇒ Gauge what the event is and set up delayed logic (“email 1 day after”) tailored to push the leads forward ⇒ Was there a response to this email? (clicked on?)
3. Align the teams accordingly- who will react when?
4. Monitor and optimize, i.e., track the number of clicks and conversions ⇒ Was there any churn post-trigger? How was the segment performance?
5. A/B test the subject lines, delay windows (timing), and what would work better: incentives or content?

Use-cases?

Think of when users receive an email or a push notification reminding them that they abandoned their cart. And it’s precisely what e-commerce platforms such as Amazon or Swiggy do.

However, the point is that you don’t exactly know why they abandoned the cart.

So, behavioral triggers utilize the customer’s history, previous purchases, and behavioral patterns to send a message promptly. Those that align with the customer’s current emotions and actions. It illustrates that your brand cares about every interaction- from onboarding to repurchase.

Specific actions prompt specific marketing functions, like:

1. First login ⇒ onboarding flow.
2. Usage drop ⇒ re-engagement.
3. Repeat purchase ⇒ loyalty building.

These are merely the basics.

Don’t only focus on outlining the numbers. The real impact of behavioral triggers goes beyond that. It’s about what truly informs business expansion and prospect behavior.

How Do Behavioral Triggers Operate Across Marketing Functions?

Trigger-driven campaigns generate three times the revenue of batch-and-blast ones. But there’s a strategy involved.

They operate as marketing’s nerve-endings. And hence spotlight when a user is ready to engage, act, or even churn.

Without one, they are obstacles in your campaigns that can disrupt a prospect’s journey. If implemented strategically, behavioral triggers ensure your customers’ journey is seamless, quick, and fruitful.

You aren’t just revamping your campaign and how you interact with your prospects. But changing the entire purview of marketing communication- your team communicates with prospects not in the language you’re fluent in, but one that speaks to their realities.

It’s psychology in action. One that considers timing, relevance, and memory loops. And responds to what customers do, not who they are.

Here are some examples of how behavioral triggers work, depending on specific customer signals-

1. Website visitor signs up for mailing list ⇒ Behavior detected? Registration form completion ⇒ The marketing message here is an engaging, friendly welcome message.

What does it do? Request opt-ins and introduce them to your other comm channels.

2. User adds items to cart but doesn’t check out ⇒ Behavior detected? Abandoned cart even after an hour ⇒ Personalized email or phone reminder with dynamic product information.

What does it do? Highlights product details and instills urgency.

3. A new user downloads your mobile application ⇒ Behavior detected? Completed app install ⇒ An informative onboarding sequence to make app usage seamless.

What does it do? Orients new users to app offerings and helps them gauge the maximum potential of its features.

The Space for Behavioral Triggers in the Customer Journey

Behavioral triggers detail out several actions and inactions, such as product usage, purchase cadence, browsing activity, churn, or inactivity signals. Behavioral triggers aren’t merely about reading what your customers are doing, but also what they aren’t doing. And why- this is the most crucial question to ask.

And one that informs the succeeding steps of your campaign.

Behavioral triggers are catalysts that transform your traditional, broadcast campaigns into hyper-personalized, impactful ones.

This way, comms become more personalized and effective for the customer, not what your team thinks it means in your market reality. And then the mild interaction turns into a trust relationship.

Behavioral triggers are the strategic wings of your trust-building attempt.

Consumers today are more discerning, and their decision-making is complicated. Their self-serving and research-driven attitude doesn’t get blown away by traditional spray-and-pray techniques. Your modern buyers can easily differentiate between persuasion and authenticity.

That’s precisely what behavioral triggers attempt to bridge.

Effective marketing campaigns aren’t assumptions derived from what customers are doing. They are rooted in in-depth analysis of real-time data, such as clicks, skips, open rates, subscriptions, etc.

These components help instill contextual relevance masked as empathy. It’s like saying, we grasp what it’s like walking in your shoes, and we wish to do better for you.

The aim? Trust and confidence in your brand- the true seeds of growth. You aren’t just sending them messages or follow-ups, but solving their pain points. And this is what matters.

And that’s why there are so many use cases of behavioral triggers. They spotlight and build upon what truly matters, and set a defined benchmark for your campaign to operate on.

But it’s not all freeform.

The triggers you establish through your automated workflows must align with the brand’s goals.

The goals inform the behavioral triggers that are used.

And the triggers inform the lead targeting approach.

Behavioral triggers are the indicators of what really succeeds and what fails, and why.

See, you cannot think of B2B buyers as purely rational beings. They are still driven by emotions and personal conflict, especially across nuanced buying committees.

But understanding their behavioral triggers can take your strategy a notch forward.

Unlocking these underlying motivations can give your team new tools to craft messages that don’t merely persuade prospects to interact with your brand offerings.

But also instill a sense of authenticity and credibility in the brand.

Confusion can only stray prospects away from you, especially when the comms seem fractured from what they truly desire and what you actually end up offering them.

Behavioral triggers mend the cracks to spotlight a 360-degree perspective of your customers. From every tidbit about who they are to what interacting with your brand means to them- all in real-time.

Surviving means nothing in the modern marketing age. You’ve already been left behind if you aren’t thriving despite these rapid changes. Adapting behavioral marketing into your marketing roadmap could kickstart your growth-

Not only do you learn from your failures, but you also adapt to the market transformations at lightning speed.