Email Marketing Psychology: 6 Hacks for Effective Campaigns

Roman Shvydun

• 7 min read

So many things heavily influence humans—from how we talk, speak, or act. The human mind is a very fragile and complex area of study. Researchers, up to this day, continue to delve endlessly into the wonders of human behavior and the way it affects purchasing decisions.

This article will examine the psychological aspects that help marketing researchers improve their brand campaigns and boost performance.

Psychology and the human mind

Gregg Henriques of James Madison University defines Psychology as the “science of mental behavior and the human mind” and its application for “the greater good.”

This definition starts the discussion on how psychology delves into the study of human behavior, our interactions with living and non-living beings, and our reactions to concepts and behavior toward actions that stimulate the human mind.

According to Dan Petkevich, Founder & CEO of Fair Square “The human mind is a remarkable and intricate system that plays a crucial role in shaping our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Psychologists have identified various factors that drive consumer behavior, such as emotions, social influence, cognitive biases, and personal values. By studying these factors, marketers can tailor their messages and offerings to resonate with their target audience. For example, appealing to consumers’ emotions through storytelling or using social proof to demonstrate product popularity can be effective strategies.”

Psychology in Marketing

Marketers greatly rely on the ever-fragile human mind to persuade their target market to consume their marketing efforts and convert these targets into sales. Psychology helps marketers analyze how the market would react to a product or service or the marketing strategies of such and put those results into their campaigns through email marketing, social media marketing, and other marketing methods.

According to Forbes, a branch of Psychology called Advertising Psychology studies the psychological tendencies of human consumption when targeted persuasion, influence, and communication are applied.

Let’s unlock consumer behavior and consider some psychology-based email marketing techniques that work.

Psychological Hacks for effective marketing campaigns

Here are several psychological hacks effective marketers can use to “influence” the target market into consuming your products and content:

Use social proof

Social proof is king—and for a very good reason.

Public sentiment has been desensitized to extreme marketing—bragging, excessively paid ads, or noise marketing. More often than not, consumers become averse to brands that excessively push themselves to be the best among the pack. For consumers, they sound cheap and borderline obsessive about immediate results.

Rather than pushing yourself into your market, why not let satisfied customers talk for you? You can create an effective marketing campaign through social proof by:

  • Encouraging customers to leave a review of your products and services
  • Using customer (positive) testimonials as part of your email marketing content
  • Include testimonials on the home page of your company website
  • Responding to and thanking customer reviews on your products and services

Zach Leonard, President of Gembah says, “Customer success stories and reviews placed on a website can help lure more leads to subscribe and eventually try out a product or service. They provide social proof that everything works just fine and turn uncertain website visitors into convinced customers.”

Here’s a customer success story featured on the homepage of Gembah.

Don’t forget to insert customer reviews into your emails. Here’s how TWOTHIRDS does that.

Or check this email by Quince.

When consumers see overwhelming positive reviews from third parties, they will most likely be inclined to go with the crowd, even when in doubt.

Use the foot in the door technique

The concept of the foot in the door (FITD) technique is simple. When you get your audience’s foot in the door, they will most likely enter the room.

For example, a cart vendor gives out free samples of a new snack. Encouraging passersby to take a free piece of the snack will likely result in a good percentage of those passersby buying a pack or two of the product.

The foot-in-the-door technique exercises the psychology of persuasion in marketing. This means that when a person says yes to a first small request, they are most likely to say yes to a second, bigger request. While this method works in traditional marketing settings, the online approach can be tricky.
FITD, through online marketing, can be found by asking your audience to fill out simple forms with their details, such as email addresses, so that they can be tagged as potential leads.

To implement the foot-in-the-door technique effectively in email marketing, Ken Savage, Owner at Ken Savage, recommends taking two critical steps:

“Step one: make your website visitors subscribe. A lead magnet is an ideal trick to do that. It can be something for free offered in exchange for an email address. Expected result – the first foot in the door.

Step two: send the first email and compel your leads to purchase a product/service or engage with you in any other way.

Expected result – the second foot in the door.

The most significant thing to remember here is: timing is everything. Make sure you follow up with the second, bigger request on the same day.”

For example, just a few minutes after you sign up at KenSavage.com, you receive an email with a free marketing playbook that kindles your interest even more in Ken Savage’s blog and the updates he shares.

Create a sense of urgency

When you apply urgency in your promotional email and headlines, your target customers are aroused by the principle of missing out. The fear of missing out, popularly known as FOMO, is a popular marketing psychological technique applied by many expert marketers to drive up sales significantly in a specific period.

Some popular urgency or FOMO catchphrases often used are:

  • Get it now before it runs out!
  • Available for a limited time only!
  • X days for this special offer!
  • X% discount if you get this special price within X days!
  • Setting up countdown timers on your email copies

Take a look at the limited-time discount shared by Soylent via email.

It arrived with the subject line: ENDS TOMORROW: Save 25% on Soylent.
This trick of making your target customers feel the fear of missing out on a special offering they couldn’t get should they not avail of an offer on a specific period should not be used just to seal a deal. These offers should be relevant, build trust, and add value to your customers and business.

Arouse curiosity

Marketing techniques centered around inciting curiosity among consumers can sometimes be a hit or miss—but utilizing this material properly can potentially improve your business brand.

Curiosity can be your most powerful tool for marketing as you can get as creative as you want—be cryptic, drop hints, keep your headlines fun and powerful, and allow some space for your market to think.

Priyam Chawla, Marketing Manager at Jolly SEO, shares how the company applies this tactic in journalist outreach: “We craft subject lines with the curiosity words. Some of the examples are Shh!, secrets, new, freshest, confessions, myths, behind-the-scenes, little-known, interesting, key, discovered, revealed, etc.

They work much better than simple headlines and can increase email open rates dramatically. Sometimes, it’s also beneficial to trigger people’s interest with a question.”

Here’s a list of email subject lines from brands for you to sip inspiration from:

  • The key to winning in a tough economy is… – Salesforce
  • The newest color in our washable silk lineup! – Quince
  • Ready for something new? – King Arthur Baking
  • Discover Your Signature Scent – Oribe
  • The Biggest Global Growth Story of the 21st Century! – WallStreetZen
  • Something big is on the horizon… – Serena & Lily
  • This backstage secret will speed up your blow-dry – Bumble and bumble
  • What’s in a Boycott? – Eater

Use the reciprocity approach

Reciprocity means a motivation to give back something for a favor someone has done for you. In marketing, the psychology of reciprocity forms a bond between an organization and the customers in the form of  “give and take.”

The reciprocity approach is when you give your customers something of value that will make them feel special and appreciated, giving them a positive experience with your business.

A simple example is when you offer special discounts or privileges to loyal customers or repeat purchasers, or give entry discounts to new customers.

According to Jerry Han, CMO at PrizeRebel, “The idea behind the reciprocity approach is providing value and positive experience, so businesses must be the first to give a reward in the form of sales or discounts to their customers. Alternatively, it can be a loyalty or referral program.”

For example, in the below email with the headline Can we ask you for a favor?🙏, PrizeRebel offers a win-win, reciprocal partnership – a referral program.

An email recipient can refer friends and earn some points in the process.

The power of perception

Brand identity or brand style is the market’s perception of your business—visual elements like color psychology or design or abstract elements like tone and reputation. Customers are most likely to patronize a business that is perceived well and has a good reputation in the industry regarding its products and practices.

To develop a good brand identity, businesses must:

  • Identify their business and their target market
  • Develop a unique logo
  • Embrace brand colors
  • Stick to a fixed typography
  • Adjust your brand tone based on your business and market
  • Be consistent

While these things seem like little minute details, they all makeup for the brand identity your market would identify you in the long run. A consistent and well-thought-out brand identity applied through email newsletter designs will help you build recognition and trust in the industry when applied to all your email marketing efforts.

Improving email marketing performance with psychology techniques

When you can predict your target market’s behavior and their responses to certain marketing efforts, you can develop a better marketing strategy that triggers them to patronize your brand over your competitors.

The use of psychology to improve email marketing performance isn’t something new. Using social proof, a sense of urgency, curiosity, reciprocity, and good brand identity helps your email copies to your leads stand out among the hundreds of emails a person receives each day and eventually convert these leads to loyal customers.