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Leveraging Behavioral Science to Motivate Tough Prospects

Author

Nancy Harhut
Chief Creative Officer
HBT Marketing

October 2026

Why are more insurance marketers adding behavioral science to their strategies and creative executions?

Because it increases response with no change to product features or rates.

To be fair, at HBT Marketing we use behavioral science to market many products and services. But we find it’s especially effective in situations where your audience prefers not to think about what you sell, which makes life and disability insurance an ideal fit.

What Is Behavioral Science?

Simply put, behavioral science is the study of how people behave — of why they do what they do and what may prompt them to do more of what they should.

We all know that customers and prospects don’t always buy what they need or respond when marketers ask. They’re intimidated. They’re inclined to wait. They underestimate their needs and overestimate the costs.

But behavioral science reveals there are things you can do to increase the likelihood people respond, triggering their instinctive, hardwired mental shortcuts. Contrary to popular belief, science confirms that is how most decisions are made.

Kimberly Wethington, vice president of marketing, Group Insurance Association/Affinity, at Prudential, knows this firsthand. She explains, “Behavioral science is embedded throughout how we design member experiences — not just in the words we use, but in how we structure decisions, simplify information and remove barriers to action. It moves us beyond informing the member to actually influencing behavior.”

And the approach pays off.

Does It Increase ROI?

Wethington cites a pilot program Prudential ran that tested “behavioral-science-inspired messaging against our traditional control campaigns.” The goal was to “help members move from awareness to action by reducing the cognitive effort required to make a decision.” 

The test campaign included behavioral science principles such as:

  • Social proof (when uncertain, people follow the lead of others)
  • Simplification (making choices and actions easier to understand)
  • Authority principle (the human tendency to trust experts)

Wethington reports, “The behavioral science alternates were clear winners. They produced nearly double the application starts, a 56% lift in completed applications, and significantly higher engagement metrics than the control approach.”

She attributes the pilot’s success to emails designed to reduce cognitive load, reframe value in terms of real situations a member could picture, and tap into the trust of the affinity partner. However, she notes that not every test will win. “One of the most important lessons we've learned is that results can vary by audience and by stage of the customer journey."

That’s a fair and important point. One that strongly supports a test-and-learn approach, which Prudential takes.

But that pilot program experience is not unusual. Prudential, and many insurance marketers we work with, routinely incorporate behavioral science into their campaigns because of its effectiveness. Often, they improve even well-performing assets.

Which Tactics Work?

When choosing which tactics to test (and behavioral scientists list well over 100), it’s critical to think about context. You need to identify the right behavioral science tactics for individual audiences, products and buying barriers.

At HBT Marketing, we always ask: What is the mindset of your customer or prospect? What are the biggest reasons they won’t want to do what you ask? What will make your message simple, relevant and motivating?

Over my career, I’ve worked with numerous insurance and financial services marketers. While there are some behavioral science principles I frequently return to (because certain buying barriers are more common), each situation calls for its own solution.

In fact, you can see a nice range of behavioral science being applied in five of my favorite campaigns:

  • Extremeness Aversion (people gravitate to the middle versus one end of a range or the other) helped generate a 459% lift over the control for life insurance sales

  • Loss Aversion (people are twice as motivated to avoid the pain of loss as they are to achieve the pleasure of gain) helped drive a 68% lift over the control in a campaign to get term life insurance customers to convert to permanent insurance

  • Versioning for the female segment (behavioral science research shows some tactics are more motivating to either women or men) helped increase disability insurance sales by 85% over the control

  • Anchoring (the first number or piece of information people see becomes a reference point against which subsequent information is measured) helped establish a 19% increase over the control in disability coverage sales

  • Information Gap Theory (when there’s a gap between what someone knows and what they want to know, they take action to close that gap) helped create a 248% lift over the control in long-term care insurance sales

Should Insurers Use It?

When Wethington was asked what she would say to an insurer considering behavioral science for its marketing strategies and creative executions, she replied, “Behavioral science does not replace a strong product or clear messaging; it enhances both.”

Getting started may feel a bit daunting at first. To help, Wethington suggests: “Start with the behavior you want to change, not the message you want to deliver … Focus on removing friction before adding persuasion … and integrate behavioral principles across the entire journey, not just in one campaign asset.”

Also don’t forget to test and tap into “strong data, customer experience (CX) research and segmentation.”

For an easier, more confident approach, you can always work with an experienced resource who will save you from beginner’s mistakes and give you an appreciable head start. 

Just remember, adding behavioral science doesn’t require a major marketing overhaul. As Wethington notes, “We've observed situations where relatively small changes in messaging structure, framing or presentation produced meaningful improvements in engagement and conversion.” 

And that means every campaign you send without behavioral science misses the opportunity to improve performance.

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Nancy Harhut is also the author of the award-winning book, Using Behavioral Science in Marketing: Drive customer action and loyalty by prompting instinctive responses. 

 

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