Dr. Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is one of the greatest marketing books of all time. If you haven’t read it yet, you should. If you have, then now’s a good time for a review.
Cialdini lays out six factors that influence the way people interact with one another: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity. Your ability to adopt these persuasive techniques in your marketing plan can have a big impact on your bottom line.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Reciprocity
To give is to receive
1. Offer a free report, white paper or email instruction. Many prospects will eventually become customers because you’ve given them so much value for free.
2. Offer pro bono consulting via email (privately) or via your blog (publicly)… and make sure they know there are more answers available if a more comprehensive assessment is requested (for a price). An additional benefit of the public consultation is that the client gets it for free, but other visitors to your site can see what good work you do and may also be interested in a paid consultation.
3. After a visitor to your website takes a converting action (e.g. signs up for a free newsletter, buys a product, etc.), use the “thank you” page or email to ask for a link, referral or other favor.
4. Want more LinkedIn recommendations? Don’t ask for them, just give recommendations to employees, bosses, co-workers and vendors first. You’ll find that many will return the favor without asking. THEN you can ask the rest for recommendations.
5. This works for linking too! Don’t be afraid to link to other websites and blogs if you think it will benefit your audience. Eventually, other webmasters will notice and send some links your way too.
6. Make insightful and useful comments on other relevant blogs in or related to your industry. By engaging them first, you open communication lines and increase the chance that they’ll respond favorably to you in the future (e.g. should you want a link to your site or a JV partner for a new project, etc.).
Commitment and Consistency
7. Upsell products after your customers have committed to purchase something but just before they pay you.
8. Start an email newsletter so you can get people conditioned to hearing from you regularly. Provide lots of value and don’t hard sell too often. That way, when you do toss them a call to action, they’ll be more likely to buy.
9. Ask leading questions in your copy to get readers to agree with what you’re saying at the beginning. You can leverage this compliance later on when you need to influence a purchase decision based on following through with the commitments they made by answering those questions.
10. Once customers have purchased, they don’t want to suffer from buyer’s remorse. So make sure to use post-purchase activity to reinforce that they made the right decision (i.e. the commitment of believing your product was the right thing to buy) and use their desire for consistency to request referrals and testimonials. The stronger their belief that they made the right choice, the more likely they are to refer others to you – not just because they want to share a good thing with their friends, but also because they want to continue to justify their purchases to themselves.
11. Use multiple smaller, more affordable products/services to get customers into the sales cycle and create a recurring purchasing trend. Then you can upsell them to more comprehensive (and more expensive) options later on.
Social Proof
12. Flaunt your testimonials. Other people think you’re great, so let their own words convince their peers. This is especially effective if the reader knows (or knows of) the person giving the testimonial.
13. Get the conversation going on your blog. If lots of people comment on your blog, then lots of people must think it’s worth reading.
14. Start a forum on your website – make it the industry’s water cooler.
15. Prove you’re popularity by cultivating a massive Twitter following or a large contingent of Facebook friends and fans.
16. Make news and display big media mentions prominently on your website and outbound marketing.
17. Start your own CafePress shop to sell items related to your business. Send out some free gear to your loudest fans and let them spread the word of how great you are.
Authority
Respect my authoritah!
18. Speak at conferences and seminars. Exhibiting might get you some sales leads, but it leaves you on the same level as your potential customers (lower, actually). But those who speak and sit on panels get recognized as industry experts.
19. Get in the news or other relevant Big Media. PR is one of the best investments you can make increase your status as an authority.
20. Become a “professor” (teach a course at an institute of higher learning). You don’t necessarily have to be a Ph.D. – adjunct professor will do. Just associating yourself with academia makes you more legit.
21. Do intensive research in your field and get it published in industry publications.
22. Join authoritative institutions (Chambers of Commerce, industry associations, etc.) and volunteer for leadership positions.
23. Use your blog to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and then promote it heavily.
24. Guest post on other authority blogs (i.e. become authoritative by association).
25. Get others to guest post on your blog. You get free content and it makes you look like the Big Dog who’s helping the little guys get some exposure.
Liking
26. Keep your copy writing positive and encouraging. Most people are attracted to those who make them feel good about themselves and optimistic about their future.
27. Keep your blog comments positive, both on your own blog as well as other peoples’ blogs… or, at least, positive for your target audience (see #28).
28. Win the favor of your target audience by attacking (or defending against) a common enemy. In other words, make sure your peeps know you got their backs.
29. Be good to your audience: praise them; encourage them; empathize with them.
30. Physical attractiveness counts. You may think this is totally superficial, but it’s also totally true. Invest $$$ on good web design and include photos of beautiful people where appropriate. If you’re a supermodel (lucky you!), plaster your mug all over the place.
31. Most people like those who have something in common with them. Find subtle ways to point out your similarities.
32. Similarly, associate yourself with things your audience likes – trends, philosophies, social objects, etc. Even before they get to know you, they’ll like you because you care about similar topics.
33. Share enough about yourself that your audience feels like they know you. For safety reasons, you might decide to limit how much personal information you share, like stuff about your family. But sharing emotions, musings and personality will go a long ways to increasing their sense of familiarity and ultimately liking you.
Scarcity
34. Announce discounts for a limited time (e.g. during product launch or holidays), then bring the price back up to normal so they know it wasn’t just a scarcity gimmick.
35. Give a bonus to the first x number of people to transact. If the bonus is really any good, then you should have people racing to be first in line so they don’t miss out.
36. Offer limited-run products – when they’re gone, they’re gone. Special Editions and autographed copies are good examples of how to do this.
37. Sponsor a contest with a deadline. Require participants to submit their written entry on their own website with a link back to your contest page and then leave a comment letting you know where to find it.
38. Create a limited “elite” or “mastermind” membership group that you provide service to. They get a lot more access to you and the benefit of networking with a few of their more successful peers and you get premium pricing for your services.
39. Create an exclusivity clause for your services. Limit one customer or client per category (e.g. if you have a consulting service, you won’t offer your services to their competitors). You could charge more for exclusivity or make this a default policy in order to attract clients.
Like any other tool, knowledge of persuasion techniques can be used for good or ill. The purpose of this information is not to teach you how to manipulate customers into doing something that’s not good for them, but to influence them to act more favorably toward you.
I trust you’re building a business based on offering great value and benefit to your customers, and a solid understanding of the psychology of persuasion will help it all run smoother.
Photo credits: Print North East, Seattle Municipal Archives, dskciado, and YXO
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Cialdini’s persuasion is just about being nice to your (target) group, giving freebies, having a similar opinion, being the leader and getting them to like you, then selling scarce items so that your “in group” can benefit.
I have read that in persuasion you can use some hypnosis techniques too, to get people to act far easier that just persuasion alone (like the pace and lead, very popular among hypnotists and NLP’s)
These persuasion techniques are just natural extensions of existing social interactions. We are affected by them every day without thinking about it – both on the receiving end as well as the giving. By recognizing what is really going on in our social interactions with others, we can distill that knowledge and apply it to business interactions too.
I don’t advocate using these methods or any others (hypnosis, NLP, etc) to trick people into doing something they wouldn’t want to do. The purpose is to create a social lubricant that puts your business in the best possible light – and make sure you back it up with a remarkable product or service so they keep coming back for more.