Using Digital Body Language to Drive Conversations in the Mobile Era

There is a subtle but transformational shift occurring in the world of marketing. Marketers can no longer simply rely on broadcast messaging for success. They need to communicate with people as individuals at scale to achieve superior results. A key to communicating with people in the mobile universe is understanding and interpreting digital body language.

According to communications experts, just 7% of communication involves spoken words, 38% is voice and tone, and a whopping 55% is body language. (Mehrabian & Wiener, 1967 and Mehrabian & Ferris, 1967).  With body language, everything matters - lift of eyebrow, the curve of a month, the shuffling of feet, posture. All these signals, if interpreted properly, can drive a conversation at each moment that matters in a person’s life. “Effective communication is essential to any human endeavor”, according to Paul Berney of mCordis.

Most marketers are not prepared. According to research from Think With Google, “…only 2% of marketers report actually having the capabilities necessary to identify, deliver, and measure moments of intent.”

Understanding digital body language & engaging people at the moments that matter

In the digital world, we leave many digital signals behind as we traverse the web, apps and messaging. We scroll, click, like, comment and recommend. In the mobile era, we provide much more granular signals like speed, direction, location, dwell time (how much time we stay in one place), who we are with and what we are doing and buying.  These digital signals, if captured and refined properly, will help marketers enrich and transition their marketing from targeted messaging to personalized 1-1 communications.  

Broadcast messaging is a one-way message from company to a broad group of consumer segments. Communication, on the other hand, is a conversation between a brand and an individual. In order for marketers to effectively and meaningfully communicate in the digital era, they have to learn to capture, interpret digital body language at scale. At scale means the marketer can communicate to millions of people as individuals, not as cohorts. They can share content (pieces of text, imagery or video) at the appropriate moments in the conversation to fulfil a person’s needs.

If I’m enjoying a bottle of wine, don’t send me a coupon for the next bottle. Send me music to enjoy with the wine. If I’m a consumer of business travel services, don’t send me a special for a week in Hawaii next month. Send me a free entry into the business class lounge this month. And if I’m married, please don’t send me display ads for Ukrainian mail order brides.

Behavioral marketing is widely used to improve targeted messaging and advertising. We believe that before long, marketers will start to capture digital body language in a more granular way for the purpose to enhance communication that brands have with people.

Marketing is about connecting a buyer and seller with the least amount of friction at the key moments that matter within a person’s life.  Successful communicators find the right time to express their point of view. It requires taking in all the digital signals. Marketers need to learn how to do this at scale, and marketers certainly can and will as new marketing automation and workflow solutions are adopted and properly applied in the service of their customers and their business.