Adventures in Internet Marketing

I’ve been reading up on persuasion recently. Not for anything sinister, you understand (internet marketing cult anyone?).

No, I’ve been reading up on it because I know that I’ve been influenced by it in the past, as I’m sure have you. As a result, I want to know what went on in those situations in order to be able to use that technique myself when creating sales letters, offers etc.

As a result of a conversation with Neil Asher, I picked up a copy of Dr. Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

In it, Cialdini talks about a number of different elements that affect our judgement and turn us from prospects into buyers. It’s brilliant, and I wanted to relate something from it to you, as I think you’ll be able to apply it to your business.

In the book Cialdini outlines several ways and examples in which people have been made to comply with a request to buy something. In most cases, the thing they’re buying is an idea, but you can easily see how this can be related to a product or service. In fact, most products should be sold on the idea of what they can do for you, not on how technically brilliant they are. Prospects find this far more inspiring as they can see an improvement in their lives, not just a shiny product.

One chapter in the book talks about Commitment. It seems that we humans are suckers for commitment when it comes to buying into an idea.

Simply stated, commitment and consistency are two elements that we all want to maintain. It’s bigger than just talking about that one sale – we want to be seen as consistent and committed to our decisions in everything we do. Society has taught us that being consistent is something to aspire to, and that being inconsistent means you perhaps can’t be trusted.

As a result of this, we marketers can use commitment and our buyers’ need to be consistent to get them to purchase our product or buy into our brand.

Warning: These techniques are powerful. Do yourself and all of us a favour and only use them to promote and sell things that are worthy, helpful and have a positive influence.

There are three things you can do to get people to make that first commitment. Once the commitment is made, it becomes far easier to get them to continue to comply, as they will want to be seen as consistent by you, their peers but most importantly, by themselves.

Get Them To Make A Purchase

This might sound counter-intuitive: ‘Get them to buy something in order to make them buy something’. But think about it for a moment.

If your prospect buys something from you, they feel committed and they are more likely to buy from you again in the future. It doesn’t matter how much that first sale is. Many of the top marketers do it and you’ve probably even bought into it. It can be as little as one dollar.

How many times have you seen someone offer a free DVD, where ‘you only pay postage and packing’ at, say, $4.97. It’s a great offer because it shows their generosity. At the same time, it makes it very difficult for you to say no to it. After all, it’s only one dollar. They’ve made a big concession to you and you feel like you should give them something in return (reciprocity). So, you pay the tiny fee and get your DVD in the post a week later.

In truth, what’s happened is that they’ve got you to say yes, almost without thinking about it. Cialdini talks about how we like decisions that are made easy for us. In this case, it’s virtually a no-brainer to get someone to pay $4.97 just to cover post and packing. Actually, the marketer is probably making a tiny profit on that, but the profit isn’t the point. The point is the commitment.

From this moment on, that buyer will feel gratitude to you and in many cases actually feel indebted. As a result, they’re more likely to buy again in the future. What’s brilliant about this technique is that it’s no longer you trying to persuade them. They are actually persuading themselves. They want to appear committed to you or the product or better still, the results of that product. They may have purchased it to make more money or relieve a problem. They’ve committed themselves to it and they don’t want to fail, so they’ll stick with it.

Now you know why marketers set up offers that seem incredibly good value. Here’s a great example:

http://www.adventuresininternetmarketing.net/neil

Clever stuff, huh?

Get Them To Write Something About You or Your Product

I always thought it odd when I saw supermarket brands running competitions to create slogans or to get testimonials from customers. You know the type of thing:

‘Tell us why you like Heinz Baked Beans in less than 200 words. The best ones will win a year’s supply.’

‘I love Heinz Baked Beans because…’

When you look at it through the lens of commitment and consistency, it all becomes clear.

By writing something down, you are actually taking an action to confirm your interest/agreement. Your mind and your conditioning now kicks in to say that you have to live up to what you’ve written, or else suffer the consequences of being inconsistent. Cialdini gives an awesome example from the Korean War.

The Chinese Communists, upon capturing an American serviceman, would use a more political version of this technique on them. To gain compliance, they would interrogate the Americans and have them agree that the USA wasn’t perfect, or that it had flaws. Nothing major. In fact, it’s the sort of thing you can’t help but agree with. After all, every country has its issues, right?

They would then get this in writing, in the form of a statement. If the serviceman refused, he would be asked to copy another American’s statement, about America not being perfect. Again, this seems like a fair concession, an almost meaningless request. Except that, in their agreement to do it, they are committing themselves to that viewpoint. Obviously, they’re not going to finish writing it and immediately declare allegiance to the Chinese flag, but they are on the path to doing so.

Once the Chinese had it in writing, they could have the American read it back to them (another act of commitment reinforcing the first). It could be read to other Americans, showing them that their brothers-in-arms thought this. They could also use it on the radio as propaganda, both for their own people, and also for any Americans who were intercepting it. It basically became an early form of viral marketing!

Once this first concession had been made by the American serviceman, it was far easier to get him to make more and more concessions. The Chinese even held essay writing competitions where they would reward essays that had favourable comments about China in them, even if the main body of the text was pro-American. Any little concession will do…

And in case you wondered, it worked like a dream. The number of prisoners informing on their fellow captives rose and virtually no one escaped. When they did, they were almost always caught by the authorities offering a bag of rice to anyone on the outside who informed.

Back on the supermarket shelves, the brands are getting you to identify with them, feel connected to them over their competitors and make you far more likely to buy from them in the future. After all, why would you write that Heinz beans are the best if it wasn’t really what you thought…? Surely not just for some prize…

In internet marketing, you might fill out a questionnaire in exchange for a free gift… The act of doing so starts the commitment and consistency process in your head. If the marketer then brings out a product answering the questions you raised in the questionnaire, are you telling me you won’t buy a copy?

Elicit an agreement

How are you feeling today?

Good?

If you answered that question (even if only in your head), then you just started an interaction with me that I can exploit.

By saying that you’re ‘good’ or ‘fine’ or ‘doing swell’, you’re now in a position where if I ask you to do something for me (that won’t cost you anything) you’re far more likely to agree to it than if I just tried to pitch something to you.

Door-to-door sellers (even charity ones) do this all the time. And how many times have you been stopped on the street by a member of the opposite sex who’s working for a charity (they always stop members of the opposite sex by the way)? When they stop you, they usually ask you an innocuous question like ‘How are you?’ or ‘Having a good day?’.

If they ask that question first, and then ask ‘Have you got a minute?’, you’re more likely to say yes because of the first compliance. The more times you say yes or agree with them, the more committed you are. When they finally ask you for money, you’re helpless to say no, especially as it’s such a small sum.

Look at good sales copy. It identifies with the reader and gets them to agree with things. The statements are usually quite open. In fact, NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) practitioners use this to gain compliance. They say things at the start of a pitch like ‘Imagine how it would feel if you could have your dream home within a year’. In doing so, they are getting you to visualise your dream home. They’re not telling you what it is. They haven’t said, imagine your penthouse apartment overlooking Canary Wharf in London because that’s unlikely to be everyone’s dream. They’re getting you to do the work and take the action, just by planting the seed in your mind.

So, when writing your copy, look at the places where you can ask questions or gain an agreement from your prospect. The more agreements you get, the more you’re likely to make a sale, because they will want to remain consistent to their first commitment.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. If you want to get a copy of the book by Cialdini, I highly recommend it.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

In the meantime, let me know your thoughts on persuasion and if you’ve ever fallen under the spell of a compliance professional! Just leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you asap.

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