Thanks to its auto-play technology, Viewed can boost CTR (click through rate) by up to 173% and ROI (return on investment) by up to 50% over traditional video e-mail marketing. How? Read on.
According to businessman John Wanamaker, companies lose 50% of their advertising budget, although he is not certain of what part of this strategic plan this percentage belongs to.
However, neurosciences provide email marketing with a clear solution to this dilemma, contributing knowledge and tools to maximize the results of advertising campaigns more objectively and authentically.
Neuromarketing has revealed that human behavior is 93% unconscious and 7% conscious. This is determined by the operation and structure of our own brain, which boasts a number of neural networks that are shaped and modified during the course of our life as a result of inputs from the world around us.
The senses play an important role in this restructuring as it is through these that information reaches our brains. We are capable of remembering 95% of what we see, 20% of what we read, 15% of what we taste and 10% of what we hear. So an event will cause greater impact if it is perceived by more than one sense.
How does our brain work when making a purchase decision?
According to Paul MacLean’s triune brain theory, due to the evolutionary process our brain is formed by three superimposed brains, each fulfilling certain functions.
- The emergence of the first reptiles gave rise to what we call the “primitive” brain, which is instinctive, fast and automatic, serving as our “fight or flee” mechanism for coping with danger. Since it is connected to the optic nerve, it is image-driven and it helps us make quick decisions based on the information it deems simple, specific and known.
- The limbic system — related to the emergence of the first mammals — is a bomb of emotions waiting to be detonated. When it links a stimulus to another similar memory, it results in an emotional impression that is then remembered.
- Then the neocortex formed, the most recent part of the brain, capable of processing the most complex information and enabling skills such as language, reasoning and logical thought. It houses mirror neurons, a group of cells discovered by Italian neurologist Giacomo Rizzolatti in 1996. These cells are capable of reproducing inside the body what is perceived from the e-mail marketing with embedded video.
However, despite this perfect brain composition, decision making is a process that mostly involves the primitive brain and limbic system, designated by Nobel prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman as system 1, which dominates the actions of the neocortex.
Why is video e-mail an excellent choice?
Video used in e-mail marketing is a very powerful medium because of its perfect combination of visual and sound elements that envelop the viewer into a story that can target the primitive brain, which guides people’s decision making.
If these elements are successfully exploited, the video awakens in the minds of consumers the feel of wind on the skin, the aroma of good coffee in the morning or the sweet taste of a fruit — thanks to the visual impact on the primitive area of the brain, creating a joint reaction with the limbic system. This in turn triggers familiar memories that cause the necessary burst of emotions so that mirror neurons identify with the story and adopt it as part of the viewer’s life.
Find out which content has the most power of persuasion to engage your users. We don't say so, science says so.
In turn, the primitive brain works in identifying elements that provide a clear and quick solution to your needs with the least possible loss, generating a sense of desire through the limbic system.
It is very common for people to be bombarded with advertising videos as they relax, watching TV. However, the amount of ads in a single block causes users to sidetrack their attention or just switch the channel. The same thing happens when we surf on channels such as YouTube, which are saturated with ads.
In contrast, when we are checking important information in our email, we enter a state of high concentration which improves the surprise factor of a video e-mail marketing thanks to its auto-play functionality, boosting impulse buying by blocking rationality and generating positive emotions.
Now that you know how the mind reacts when a video is displayed via email, it is time to design your next email marketing campaign with neuroscientific impact, and to optimize the results of your email campaign, we recommend you to read: "Email Marketing Best Practices: 32 Questions Answered By The Experts", where you will find answers to all your doubts about email marketing.
