Adventures in Internet Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘persuasion’

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.

Read the rest of this entry »