The Missing Link in B2B Marketing
They underperform because we thought we fully understood the audience, but we didn’t.
You’ve got great strategy, beautiful work, and smart targeting. Then the results land with a soft thud.
What happened?
Do we need a better funnel? More spend? Better Creative?
The real problem is often simpler—and harder. We built it for a version of the audience that looked great on a slide, but didn’t map to real life. Not just what they do, or what they say they want. But what’s really motivating them, what’s holding them back, and what they may not be able to fully articulate themselves.
That’s where behavioral science changed the game for me.
Design for Behavior, Not Just Profiles
Behavioral science gives us a practical framework for understanding how people make decisions. Not in theory, but in messy, real-world conditions.
It’s not just about nudges and heuristics (though those are helpful). It’s about designing your entire campaign around how the brain processes information, weighs risk, seeks reward, and navigates friction.
Here’s what behavior-first thinking looks like:
- If the audience is skeptical, don’t pitch. Teach.
- If they’re curious, don’t push. Invite.
- If they’re high autonomy, don’t funnel them. Let them explore.
And critically, it means asking a different set of questions when we build campaigns:
- What mindset is the audience in when they see this?
- Are we assuming more trust or interest than they actually have?
- What makes this step feel easy or hard, safe or risky?
Where Campaigns Often Break: After the Click
One spot keeps breaking the funnel: the landing page.
Part of the issue goes back to how campaign success traditionally is measured. If the ad delivered clicks, the victory banner was hung.
But there’s a bigger issue. We often overestimated how far we’ve moved the audience.
They clicked. They were interested. But that doesn’t mean they’re ready to talk sales or commit their time.
And yet, most B2B landing pages go straight to: Schedule a call. Book a demo. Start your trial.
Too much, too fast. They bounce.
Behaviorally, they weren’t there yet. And we didn’t give them an alternative path.
That’s not a creative miss. That’s a misunderstanding of behavior.
A Real-World Example: Wealth Managers
We’ve done a lot of work with RIAs and wealth managers. Compared to the general population, this group:
- Scores high in conscientiousness —analytical, disciplined, and achievement-driven
- Scores low in agreeableness — skeptical, independent, and resistant to groupthink
- Shows elevated openness to ideas and aesthetics — curious and willing to explore, but not easily swayed
Behavioral science tells us a few key things:
- Autonomy bias is strong. They want to make their own decisions, not be told what to do
- Reactance is a risk. Push too hard, and they’ll pull away
- Authority must be earned. Polish alone doesn’t convince them
- Cognitive fluency matters. Complex ideas are fine, but the structure must be clear
So, what does this mean to a campaign? To reach this audience, your content and creative need to:
- Avoid bold claims or overly prescriptive calls to action, as they tend to backfire
- Use structured, transparent content that builds trust through logic and clarity
- Skip vague social proof and show practical evidence, real data and real examples
- Frame messages as invitations to explore, not directives to act
You Don’t Need Better Data. You Need a New Lens.
Most marketing teams I’ve worked with aren’t short on data, personas, and customer research. You need a sharper framework for applying what you’ve already got.
Behavioral science is that lens. Here are five ways to use it:
- Frame benefits behaviorally. Connect to identity, fear of loss, or reduced effort—not just features.
- Reduce cognitive load. Simplify steps. Space out decisions. Respect their mental bandwidth.
- Design the whole journey. Make sure what happens after the click aligns with what got them there.
- Tailor CTAs to intent, not your funnel. If someone’s evaluating, give them tools, not a phone call.
- Don’t default to urgency. High-autonomy audiences resist pressure. Offer them control and optionality.
If you want help mapping your campaigns to how people actually behave, that’s what we do.