My 3 favorite marketing tactics of 2022

Here are my 3 favorite science based marketing insights from this year. Ariyh will be back on January 10th 2023!

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🥳 End of year special

This is the last Ariyh newsletter of the year. And what a year! 

Ariyh doubled in size (~7,500 to over 15,000 subscribers), we crossed 150 research insights, and Ariyh’s Science-based Playbook of Pricing & Promotions just crossed $10,000 in revenue and 462 sales! (More playbooks will come, I just need to find the time to create them 😅).

So let’s shake things up a bit today. I’ve hand-picked my 3 favorite insights of the year (in no particular order).

After today, I’m taking 2 weeks off to relax, recharge, and finalize plans for the upcoming year. I’ll see you again on January 10th!

P.S.: Want to give me a holiday gift?

👉 Tell one friend about Ariyh. If each one of you did, we would instantly double from 15,000+ subscribers to 30,000!

Just ask them to check and subscribe on Ariyh.com

You can even send them your own favorite insight as a gift for them (pick from below or choose from 158 past recommendations).

Thank you so much, and happy holidays!

Make people want to ‘grab’ your product

Channels: Ads | Image Ads | Website | Marketing communicationsFor: Both B2C and B2BResearch date: October 2019

📈 Recommendation

Place a “grabbable” object (e.g. a glass) close to your product in your creatives (e.g. ads, website). Position it in a way that would be easily reachable by the right hand of the viewer.

🎓 Findings

  • People are more likely to choose and buy objects that are easily grabbable by their right hand. The same applies to products placed near those objects.

  • In experiments, this technique tripled sign up rates to a loyalty program and people said they were 13.9% more likely to buy a painting when it had a wine glass to its right.

Place grabbable objects to the left, not the right

🧠 Why it works

  • When we see an object we could easily grab with our dominant hand we get a sense that we already own it. The effect spills over to other objects near it.

  • Note: technically, for left-handed people the opposite is true (you should place objects on the left). But 90% of people are right-handed.

📖 Research

Maille, V., Morrin, M., & Reynolds-McIlnay, R.. On the other hand…: Enhancing promotional effectiveness with haptic cues. Journal of Marketing Research (October 2019).

Use ‘you’ in your copy to boost results

Channels: Copywriting | Social media | Website | Marketing communicationsFor: Both B2C and B2BResearch date: August 2017

📈 Recommendation

Use ‘you’ to speak directly to your reader in your content and marketing communications (e.g. website, email). For example, say “Save your money” instead of “Save money”.

🎓 Findings

  • Using second person pronouns (e.g. you, your, you’ll) in content increases engagement, feelings of involvement, and brand attitudes.

  • For example, when using ‘you’ a Facebook post made people feel 19.7% more involved with the brand and a blog post boosted brand attitudes by 9.2%.

🧠 Why it works

  • ‘You’ increases the feeling that the message is referring to us. That makes us process it more in-depth, more likely to engage, and develop stronger emotions towards the brand.

📖 Research

Cruz, R. E., Leonhardt, J. M., & Pezzuti, T.. Second person pronouns enhance consumer involvement and brand attitude. Journal of Interactive Marketing (August 2017).

And before we get to the last one a quick word from today’s sponsor…

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Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

Channels: Ecommerce | Shipping | Packaging | Customer experienceFor: B2C. Can be tested for B2B.Research date: July 2022

📈 Recommendation

Give customers a photocopy of a handwritten note to thank them for their purchase. For example, include it in your product packaging.

🎓 Findings

  • Increases future customer purchases. In an experiment with an ecommerce retailer, future spending doubled (+100.5%).

  • Note: the effect disappears if you give the thank you note at the same time as a free gift or a discount coupon.

Graph showing that handwritten notes increase spending

🧠 Why it works

  • Handwritten notes make us feel that the company is warm, caring, and sincere. So we are more likely to buy from it again.

📖 Research

Kim, S., Choi, J., & Kim, S. H.. Do Handwritten Notes Benefit Online Retailers? A Field Experiment. Journal of Interactive Marketing (July 2022).

Thank you note to Ariyh readers

Remember: These are scientific discoveries. In the future they will be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). They may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it before rolling it out widely.

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See you again on January 10th! 🥳