Nancy Harhut is the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at HBT Marketing, a consultancy that applies human behavior to marketing. As an internationally recognized creative director, she blends best-of-breed creative with decision science. Nancy is an international keynote speaker and has been named a Top 40 Digital Strategist by Online Marketing Institute, a Top 100 Creative Influencer by Ad Club, and a Top 50 Email Marketing Leader by Social. She is also the best-selling author of Using Behavioral Science in Marketing.

Some marketers today are so immersed in numbers and metrics that they often neglect the customer. Others may focus excessively on visual ads, distracting customers from the overall message. Yet 95% of purchasing decisions are made in the subconscious mind. How can you tap into these behavioral insights to influence purchasing decisions?

Behavioral science researcher and innovative marketer Nancy Harhut says the key to driving purchasing decisions is persuasive messaging. Creative marketers can leverage unconscious behavior drivers like the endowment and Zeigarnik effect, social proof, the uncertainty reward, and autonomy and reciprocity bias. For instance, the endowment effect involves generating urgency and scarcity through limited-time offers, whereas the Zeigarnik effect can be used to spark customers’ memories about abandoned carts. You can also offer customers purchasing and discount choices to harness autonomy bias while generating a desired result. When utilizing social proof, Nancy recommends featuring testimonials that begin with skepticism to increase credibility and reach uncertain customers.

Tune in to today’s episode of the Up Arrow Podcast as William Harris chats with Nancy Harhut, the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at HBT Marketing, about behavioral science tactics for e-commerce marketing. Nancy shares customer decision-making shortcuts, the true drivers of purchasing decisions, and why you should optimize for lifetime value rather than one-time purchases.