How to take advantage of behavioral analysis in your growth strategy

If you are obsessed with growth, you know how important it is to have a very detailed growth strategy. You and the data are FFF, is not it? Great, but you must also understand the context that surrounds these data.

I know it sounds a bit dense, but support me. What I mean is that the information alone is not enough . Yes, in the data we trust. Of course, many metrics are fine, but if you can not take advantage of this data, it is useless. Think about it. Who makes the growth? You might think it's you, but in the end, it's actually your audience.

How your users respond to your tactics will determine the success of your growth strategy. So stand back and watch your audience. Did you really understand them? Be honest with you. Most growth hackers think they understand their customer base, but they only know raw data. Knowing the demographics does not mean you understand your audience.

It's here that I drop my bomb of a subject. Behavioral analysis, people.

Understanding and applying behavioral analysis can be extremely useful for growth strategies. In fact, it could be the energy and the benefit that your brand has missed.

You want viral growth? Say hello to the behavioral analysis. These analytics give you insight into the minds of your users so you can put yourself in their shoes. You'll be able to create targeted campaigns that work best for your audience, create messages that reach the right users at the right time, and attract brand new user bases.

I realize that "behavioral analysis" does not sound so sexy, but you will discover how powerful it is. Let's take a look at some fundamental concepts of behavioral analysis that you absolutely need to know, then explore some exploitable strategies that you can use.

If you sleep on behavioral analysis, it's not too late. Read this article. Do what he says, and your brand will grow.

What are psychographies (and how do you get them)

When it comes to behavioral analysis, psychography is vital.

Psychographics provide a basic understanding of why your clients behave as they do.

The demographic data is which . Psychographics are the why .

Every psychographic is a data point that tells you something about the behavior of your users.

Here is a more complete list of psychographies:

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These go far beyond demographic data to give you a more complete picture of your audience.

Psychography tells you the behaviors of your users. For example, if you know that most of your audience is composed of parents aged 5 to 11, you will understand why these children's t-shirts are flying away.

Although you can not get super specific data like clicks, you still need psychographic data to get a general idea of ​​how your audience is acting and why they do what they do .

Psychographics will often reveal what is important to your users.

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Do you now understand why psychography is so important? They help you see your customers as people and not just the information of your analytics software.

Speaking of analysis software, you can find basic psychographic information in GA by visiting Public> Interests> Overview .

You will see three categories: Affinity Category, Market Segment and Other Category.

The Affinity category shows you different lifestyle categories. Google compares these groups to television audiences.

This category indicates the specific interests of your users. Even if you just look at this section of GA, you can have a very good understanding of what your audience likes.

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The segment on the market shows you the types of products your users have shown interest in.

Basically, your customers are looking to buy products or services in these categories.

The other category offers a closer view of your audience.

Still, psychography is just that – the data. You must use them creatively.

With this in mind, let's look at some growth techniques that depend on psychography and other behavioral data.

Customer personalities driven by data

Creating an imaginary friend may seem a bit childish to you, but it's essentially what you need to do with psychography.

Well, I know, this is not exactly an "imaginary friend".

I'm talking about creating a fictional person who represents your audience and not just a creature you've invented. These representatives are known as Personas personas .

You probably know the customer's idea, but if that is not the case, do not worry. Here is a brief overview.

A client character (also called a user or buyer) takes aggregated data and uses it to create a false person. This person is your average customer.

Its demographic and psychographic information is representative or your audience (or a segment of your audience).

Here is what an example of a client character might look like:

By definition, a client is full of behavioral analyzes. They help you to describe the character in detail.

Once you have gathered all your behavioral analyzes, you can take different approaches to creating a character.

The approach you adopt will depend on what you want to accomplish with your characters.

Do you want to create better sequences of emails? Do you want to improve your Facebook ads? Think about your goals when you create your characters.

Specifically, you can use some of the analysis based on the results you are looking for. Let's look at some examples of this idea in action.

Let's imagine that you want to redesign your CRM software to attract more prospects. In terms of analysis, you would like to search for psychographic data related to the business.

This may include the role of the user at work, the time that he or she spends at his job or even the search terms that he uses to access your site.

So an example of a character would look like this one (the one on the right side):

This character is ideal for SaaS because he uses work-related analysis. There is little personal information here, but there is enough to give you an idea of ​​who the character is.

But this type of character is not ideal for all kinds of situations.

Another example: Say you're leading the growth of an ecommerce clothing startup.

You would be more concerned with personal behavioral analysis and not so much work-related data. So a character for you might look like this:

The types of analysis you use should all depend on your goals and the type of product or service you are selling.

It does not hurt to get as many data points as possible, but you will want to refine them to zoom in on your average customer.

Creating a character does not take much time, but it can change the way you see growth. That said, you need to make sure your characters are as accurate as possible.

If you get a wrong analysis, well, your entire customer journey may disappear.

But if you succeed, your customers will feel as if you really know them.

This is a perfect example of how behavioral analysis can make all the difference in your growth strategy.

Remember, you do not just look at a bunch of random numbers. This information has real uses that you can enjoy right now.

Let's take a look at another of these benefits.

Segmentation of customers

Segment your users … no?

Okay, maybe you do not have it. It's good. But you must be.

Some marketers and hackers see their audience as a big mass, so every campaign is sent to everyone.

But not everyone has the same needs and desires. Your customers are all different.

So if you group people into similar segments, you can send more specific and targeted messages and get better results.

That's why segmentation is part of the best practices of any marketer (and growth hacker).

And – you guessed it – behavioral analysis can help you better segment.

The basic idea is to create segments using one or more behavioral attributes.

If you generally group based on behavior, you will get an overview of what different types of customers are looking for.

This basic behavioral segmentation already allows you to better understand the different types of users you have.

All you have to do is do a little behavioral research to get started. In GA, you can go to Behavior> Behavior Flow to get an overview of the average path of the user on your site.

Although it's not incredibly complete, it can prepare you for the actual segmentation later. Chances are the trends you see on behavior The flow will reflect your audience as a whole.

This type of segmentation is flexible and can be used in a variety of ways.

Take email marketing. You can see which emails people are opening, which almost never open your emails, and maybe even how long does a user spend reading your email.

You are probably looking at data like this all the time:

But have you considered that you can use this information to tap into the brains of your subscribers?

All of these are behavioral analyzes in their own right, and they are perfect for segmentation.

There are many things you can do with these analyzes. You can send a special discount email to loyal subscribers who regularly open your emails, or you can send more targeted emails to people who tend to open a type of email.

And your results are almost guaranteed to improve.

The possibilities are endless.

And if you use Kissmetrics, you do not have to worry about all this, because the behavior-based delivery function does it for you.

Still in doubt? I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it is not, and it can pay off.

MailChimp found that segmentation of subscribers by interest caused each measure to skyrocket:

If you're ready to get even crazier with segmentation, get ready.

You can also use behavioral analysis to group your customers according to their place in the customer journey.

This concept is a bit more advanced than the techniques we used, but it is very powerful.

The typical customer journey is more or less like this:

Using behavioral analysis, you can know which stage of the customer journey a user is going through.

Behavior Flow can often show it. If a person has viewed many of your product pages but that she has not arrived at the checkout, she is at the stage of the examination.

Once you've discovered where someone in the customer journey is, you can place it in an appropriate segment.

This approach is a hacker's dream of growth. Not only can you segment your customers, but you can also better understand the life cycle of your customers.

That's great, is not it?

If you are serious about conversion and growth, you should strongly consider this advanced tactic. It's one of the best ways to hyper-focus your messages, and you'll reach the right users at the right time.

Conclusion

Growth is about people.

And by the people, I mean your users.

A good growth strategy needs to focus on your customers. Otherwise, your strategy will fall flat on his face.

If you focus on volume and ignore your customers, you will not get anywhere fast.

Analyzing and exploiting the behavior of your users is one way to improve your current strategy.

If you understand the behavior of your users, you can more easily determine the type of content they want and the type of messages to send them.

As I said, everything is a matter of people. We want to be understood, and we want our needs to be taken into account.

As a growth nut, it's your job to make sure that happens.

So, if you need to improve your game, behavioral analysis can give you a new perspective and boost your results.

About the Author: Daniel Threlfall is an Internet entrepreneur and content marketing strategist. As a writer and marketing strategist, Daniel has helped brands such as Merck, Fiji Water, Little Tikes and MGA Entertainment. Daniel is the co-founder of Your Success Rocket, a resource for Internet entrepreneurs. He and his wife Keren have four children, and sometimes enjoy adventures in remote corners of the globe (including children). You can follow Daniel on Twitter or see photos of his adventures on Instagram.