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      Another non-email version of behavioral marketing you've probably seen involves interactive voice response (IVR) systems at your utility companies – in my case, Comcast. When I dial into the 800 number, the system automatically recognizes me by name and confirms the last four digits of my phone number on file. It then offers me the next pay-per-view event by simply selecting a number on the keypad. And if I end up talking with a representative, then the process of confirming my identity is simply a matter of confirming my street address.

      This takes into account everything Comcast knows about me from an account perspective, offers me a purchase opportunity, and streamlines my customer service event – all in a single, intuitive flow. By surfacing this knowledge directly into the IVR, they speed the entire experience and even have a chance at booking some bonus increase in revenue.

      And finally, let's look at a completely different behavioral marketing tactic that's wrapped in a financial product. Every time I shop at Target, an employee offers me one of their Target Red debit cards – a card product tied to your bank account just like a traditional bank debit card would be, but with a 5 percent discount on everything in the store. How can they afford to do this? Beyond reinforcing Target as your retailer of choice by seeing that red bulls eye logo every time you open your wallet, there's a critical amount of data flowing over that card.

      Their ability to identify you as a unique individual – and track all your purchases over time by department, by time of day, and so forth – allows Target to build incredibly specific, data-driven personas they can act on from a marketing perspective. They might send out four different versions of a flyer – baby items, electronics, home furnishings, and toys – and some percentage of the audience is going to get one of these specialty versions if they have sufficient data to show they belong in that segment. The rest will receive a nonspecialized version of the same flyer.

      Interestingly enough, I've never signed up for the Target card because I actually choose my bank based on the fact that they have a debit card product that earns me Delta Sky Miles (this will not surprise you in the least by the time you finish this book). At the same time, I do have one from Nordstrom Rack based on the significant value proposition they deliver, including $5 birthday coupons, early access to certain sales, and other benefits like free alterations. I'm willing to exchange the risk of allowing a nonbanking entity link to my bank account in exchange for the solid value proposition they offer. This, by itself, is an excellent behavior that the Nordstrom marketing team can factor into all kinds of audience segmentations they want to turn on.

      These examples show that behavioral marketing is all around us every day – and that determining how to integrate it into your marketing approach isn't rocket science. It requires putting yourself in your customer's shoes, and being data driven enough to be able to listen at scale and deliver personalized messages based on what you know.

      In fact, I know marketers whose extent of behavioral marketing is to resend every wide-scale email message to the nonopening segment exactly 24 hours after sending the first message, but with a different subject line the second time. If 20 percent of recipients open the first message, then the day-after audience is 80 percent of the original list, and the second version they get (with a new subject line) drives another 8–10 percent of opens that time around.

      That's the beginning of an epic behavioral-marketing-driven approach, and if every marketer reading this book looked for one small strategy like that to execute, we'd all be on an awesome improvement path.

      Relevance Trumps Privacy under 35 – Every. Single. Time

      One of the themes you'll notice throughout the book is the concept of being data driven. This can be a source of concern for marketers, especially as you get into European Union countries with much more restrictive laws, or if you're focusing on a marketer's ability to build a purchase history like the debit cards we discussed earlier can provide. Although there certainly are legal guardrails you need to know and follow – think HIPAA for the healthcare industry (the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) or COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) for marketing to children under age 13 – you should think about your audience as either above or below 35.

      If your main audience is under 35, you should pretty much delete the concept of privacy from your vernacular. Although this might sound aggressive, those generations are usually more than comfortable exchanging privacy for a more relevant experience. My Nordstrom debit card is the exact evidence of this phenomenon (although I'm admittedly a couple of years past 35).

      However, if you're marketing to AARP-age people, then I recommend almost the opposite. You should ratchet down the obvious manifestation of data-driven communications. Avoid messages like “We saw you stopped by the website.” Your audience doesn't give you a pass to ignore behavioral marketing. In fact, you might have to work a little harder to better inform your audience segmentation models and do more behind the scenes.

      And if your audience is in the middle age-wise, you should proceed with caution. Think deeply about their motivations, communication preferences, and how other high-profile brands are marketing to them when developing your approach. Keep it mostly low-key – but don't be afraid to be aggressive with dynamic content as the audience segments get progressively smaller.

      If you can isolate your ecommerce audience down to those who have spent more than $1,000 at your site over the last six months and they open 80 percent of all your communications, then experiment with highly personalized offers that are clearly focused on “Our Best Customers.” Exploring the correlation between behavior and purchases is a great area for marketers to experiment with.