This introductory article principal objective discusses how to be more persuasive using Dr Robert B Cialdini principle of influencing decision-making methodology using social psychology and the possibility to win a deal or achieving a sale in essence being more effective resulting in an increase of your revenue.
Combining strategic information systems development which is concerned with finding innovative ways of understanding business activity and increasing profit the Cialdini principle methodology of influencing decision-making proves itself to be a necessity for businesses whose aims is to achieve sales and increase profitability.
Using information system and information technology for competitive advantage is to try to increase income rather than reducing costs. Reducing costs is an attempt to improve efficiency while increasing income is an attempt to improve effectiveness.
The premise of competitive strategy is that a business can achieve a competitive advantage within the business environment over it competitors by dealing with one or all of the Cialdini persuasive principle by accessing our natural innate shortcut that these present day demand due to the overload of information consumed by our brain on the daily and we become forced to use our automated behaviour and signal to make sound decision and rationalised them in logical statement later.
Cialdini argue that to persuade one need to optimizely prepared and it a necessity to succeed in another word to plan the what and why of any given situation before announcing your proposition or request to a potential customer or customer because with planning prior to execute you have ensure that you are prepared for any given situation you choses to enter therefore you be more effective by knowing how to carry out your execution.
The six principles Cialdini say we are governed by are consistency, reciprocal, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity. These criterion are marketing strategy and tactic whose abilities are to produce mindless response from people mind and get them to say yes without too much processing of information.
These strategies are more prevalent this day and will be use in abundance in the future, henceforward it is important to grasp the how and why of automatic influence.
Consistency
Consistency plays a big part in the principle that govern us you have to be consistent in your content marketing hence commit to what you say and do meaning the action that followed are consistent with the behaviour display and systematically be proactive as opposed to reactive.
Have you ever heard the saying "too cheap is expensive" amongst the quality hungry buyer or "you get what you pay for" as a higher price typically reflect higher quality automatic stereotype reaction is a normal human behaviour because it is the most efficient form of shortcut decision based on the price of an item.
A well known social psychologist Langer conducted a research in human behaviour her finding suggest that there is many situations in which human behaviour does not work in auto-action as in the bird family a prime example of this the mother turkey only take under her wing her baby chick if making this sound "cheap cheap" and if the baby chick is defective and does not make this sound "cheap cheap" mother turkey will ignore or even kill her own baby.
Henceforth, what is surprising is we are said to be more sophisticated and able to make a myriad of decision rational, sound however, what's astonishing to see is how often we do not.
How perception can influence decision
The story involved a friend of mine who had a collection of gold jewelry in her shop and she was having trouble selling them. It was the tourist season and her shop was busy the gold pieces were of a good quality for the price ask yet they have not sold. My friend attempted a couple of standard sales tactic get two for the price of one to get them moving but it did not work.
She tried to move them to another location within the shop to a more central location but no luck and told her staff to push them harder but that did not work either. She was due to go on a trip for a few days she instructed her staff before leaving saying everything in the gold collection "x 1/2" on her return she was shocked to see that her gold collection was sold the entire gold collection had been bought and wanted to know why it had happened.
The tourist with little to know knowledge of the gold collection bought the lots on price alone which was the trigger for their purchase the staff mistakenly price the gold collection as "x 2" and price each item twice their original price.
What just happened there is those people who has been brought up on the rule "you get what you pay for" find themselves in a position of wanting a good piece of gold jewelry and automatically equate expensive=good
However what I found most interesting in this it not the actual value of the gold collection which influence the decision of the tourist it is the perceived value of the gold. As a higher price typically reflect higher quality, hence automatic stereotype reaction is a normal human behaviour because it is the most efficient form.
My friend benefited from a mistake but quickly learned and during the tourist season she either try skimming the market by doubling her original price and after reduce the price to it original value (example: original value £150 - put it to £300 then say 50% discount offer on our prime gold jewelry collection get it for £150 a piece was £300) she told me it works and her profit margin increased greatly.
Let say if you were given something free or found a toy in a cereal box or a kinder surprise you automatically think that it is cheap or has no monetary value and does not hold much value to you. if you contrast this with something you pay for you always perceive it to be more valuable.
While I present in the latter example the perception from the money perceptive the real driver is commitment and consistency as when you pay for something you feel more committed to it as you invest in it that why you feel it more valuable.
The opposite is "to cheap is expensive" this is the favourite saying of my mother that I grew up on so it is drilled inside my demina and hold true. As being frugal does not just mean saving money — it just mean spending wisely.
However the "to cheap is expensive" refer to something being cheap now, but actually cost you more in the long run, as it tend to be of low quality and break easily or colour fade or stretch and lost it spark or flimsy causing you to replaced it over and over again.
While on occasion it makes perfect sense to spend more now for a better, long-lasting experience and getting sturdier, well made clothes in another word good quality items which last longer over times you'll achieve a saving as you do not need to buy it over and over again. It does not necessary mean you have to buy the most expensive but at least the middle range price or 1/3 under the most expensive one for the same items or if you incline this way the most expensive one. As when you invest in good quality you committed and consistently care for it as it is valuable to you.
Reciprocal
Reciprocal mean to respond to an action or gesture by making a corresponding one, hence the reciprocal principle mean someone do something for you and you do something for them.
Recently on Instagram one of our follower at Girlfridayz Belloandfam wanted to promote a promotional event they were doing and he DM me asking if he can promote is event on my Insta feed adding that it not an obligation but if I could do it for them it would be done with good intention, and if in future I have a question to ask do not hesitate to ask thank you.
We replied sure it fine which he replied thank you very much Trisha and if you need anything or you need the same to promote your business do not hesitate to asked.
We replied (merci beaucoup) we need to promote our new design gallery so our created artwork for our customers and potential customers can be viewed then proceeded to asked if it would be possible to promote our sponsored picture on Belloandfam Insta feed thank you very much for considering my request Trisha.
This is a perfect example of the reciprocal principal as demonstrated above we DM our sponsored picture to Belloandfam as he suggested in his replied to our agreement to promote his event. On occasion people feel obliged to repay the favour even without asking them to do so.
Bear in mind it is also very nice to do something for someone without asking something in return as everything is not a transaction but sometime a kind gesture goes a long way and genuine people tends to remember and will help you when you need it but self-interested people will take advantage of your good nature.
On a side note become the trusted adviser and did you know that you can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested you.
You can benefit from the principal of give and take, give generously create useful content and give it away for free. Doing so you'll extend a favour to all your recipients and they will feel obliged to return your favour. They might do so by visiting your site more often and turn into loyal readers of your blog or content or perhaps they'll share your content resources and may become your social follower, or they may return the favour by following whatever (CTA you have in your content) and eventually ending up purchasing your product or services.
Social Proof
Everyone subscribe to the social proof principle to demonstrate Cialdini offer to do a demonstration of it trueness by conducting this little experiment for any reader who doubt that the seeming appropriateness of action is importantly influenced by the number of others performing it might try this little experiment.
Pavement experiment
If you go to a busy area and stand in the pavement head up gazing at the sky in a fixed stare for some time people will walk pass you not paying any attention now go the next day with four to five friends and stand in the same busy pavement head up gazing at the sky in a fixed stare you will notice that a small group form and some people will have join you just to found out what you staring at with their head up staring at the sky and some will walk pass and some will resist staring up but psychologically they want too but do not due to maybe feeling embarrassed.
Cialdini stressed that Cavett Robert a sales motivator told his trainee that "95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer.”
Which mean only 5% of people are able to influence the decision of other and pre conditioned them to accept and does not need to strain a muscle to get result all that is required is to trigger the great power of influence that already exist in a given situation and direct them toward the intended target.
The person can use the power of persuasion which benefit is to manipulate without the appearance of manipulating the situation and even the target see themselves complying as determined by their actions and the natural forces rather than by the design of the person who profiting from that compliance.
Social influence is a powerful factor and its impact is evident in all forms of marketing, including content marketing because it simply work. In term of building a list in marketing is an activity in content marketing that allows you to prevent visitors to forget about you after their visit and to influence people for future engagement and returns.
As more people this day implementing some sort of lead magnet in their blog post in order to cut above the rest you could use a little more encouragement from the science of persuasion in order to subscribe to your email marketing and increase conversion rate and social proof does the trick.
Girlfridayz is proud to announce that due to our low frequency of sending email marketing to our subscriber so not to annoy them with daily email clogging up their inbox we would like to mention in passing that our subscriber list jump to 150k+ to our amazement join them if you someone who get annoyed with daily clogging up of email marketing received in your inbox.
It is not always about list building and subscriber social proof is more than that you could display in your blog or on your website or in any publication your social following or display a picture of your social footprint you could also show the strength of your social following that act as proof and if you happen to have engaged social followers, demonstrating your own power to influence people is helpful to you and others as they perceive you as a go to person. It would be even more helpful to others if you hold event pertaining to your field, workshop, surgery and offer training.
How to grow in the social sphere
You can use badges, trust seals and name drops work great too if your content is the most read content in your niche or it has been feature on leading publication or authoritative website or the media make sure to advertise this fact.
If you get an award or any sort of recognition mentioning it and advertise it most helpful, try to follow influencers too and promote their content if you like it and asked influencers to follow you if they like your content and asked if they can promote your content too.
Share others content they do not have to be prominent people or in the limelight that help them grow and in turn they will be more incline to share your content. Contact prominent people to boost your profile if you are excellent at what you do they would not hesitate to help you grow. Our motto at Girlfridayz is you grow and we grow.
All the above can very well create a halo effect meaning one trait of a person or thing is used to make an overall judgement of that person or thing. It support abrasive decision and even biased one.
The halo effect is a well documented social-psychology phenomenon that causes people to be biased in their judgement by transferring their feeling about one attribute to other, unrelated attributes.
Authority
Here a little story dated 1920 in a comic book a mutt and jeff which demonstrate authority drawing my opinion from witnessing how some people view the status and title of other and their behaviour and action demonstrate their view.
Y'all ready for this — You know that big fish who like to get clean up by a team of cleaner and have their parasite removed they even get into the big fish mouth to clean his teeth you'll think they brave as heck as he would normally eat them that what he eats small fish but no because before they get to clean the big fish they do a fishy dance that the big fish like and he gets immobilise mouth wide open while the smaller fish clean his body and teeth.
It's a partnership who work wonderfully as the big fish get free of parasite and the smaller fish gets to eat. However, a blenny learned the dance and the big fish is dinner so when it is time to eat the blenny dance to is dinner by immobilising the big fish mouth wide open thinking it the cleaner but instead the blenny gets a mouthful from the flesh of the big fish and goes away before it startled and the big fish recover from the bite.
So while you ponder on the above mutt and jeff story and how we could see cialdini authority principle in it and... even be careful of marketing clickbait strategy and tactic which are bad marketing practices but work nonetheless on the people subjected to this principle of pervasive practice and thinking that in the eyes of others people it is undetectable but truly it is a detectable method, we have been invited out hence
Authority explanation
Have you ever done something because someone in a position of authority asked you to do it?
Did you buy a product, just because a top influencer in your niche recommended it?
If you have, then you’ve just conformed to the science of persuasion principle of compliance to an authority.
To become an authority in your field or an expert in your field share your knowledge provide solution to other be transparent, helpful and instill trust.
Use words that hint at an authority status: such as my expertise in that field, due to my years of experience and knowledge in the given subject , show your job title in communication paper, shows your credential etc.
If you already have an authority status, hint at it across your blog posts, website and other publication.
Use testimonials and social proof. hold community event or online event
Be available: Hold Q & A session , from time to time. If you don’t want to put it all together yourself, participate in communities that conduct them regularly and asked to be a speaker.
You’ll find many of the online marketing authorities participate in business event and become speaker to share their knowledge and hold community event and online event such as Simon Sinek and Neil Patel.
Liking
Liking is part of us and we tends to make decision on thing we like mostly. Lots of brand are more likeable than other it maybe due to how they look or there mascot, the way they conduct their business or their reputation, their why and purpose, their involvement with the community, their customer service all these can be criterias to like a brand and use their services or purchase their products.
Cialdini argue that we tend to like people who’re similar to us, compliment us or cooperate with us in achieving mutual goals. So, to make your content more likeable, you should focus on producing empathetic and relevant content.
Effective content is always empathetic, solution orientated and helpful. You should aim for your content to make personal connections with your readers and thus encouraging engagement with your content in a form of responses, comment, like and share, phone call, enquiry about what you can do or provide and eventually a sale of product or service.
Elements of content, like the title, tone and language can be fine-tuned to match those of the readers. That’s why top content strategists recommend writing to a single reader rather than to a faceless mass. It’s easier to identify the traits of a reader than it is to do guesswork about thousands of them.
How to make your content more likeable
Start by identifying your ideal reader: Discover their top desires, fears, greeds, pains and hopes. Create a reader persona and produce blog posts and other content for that reader. Or think of what you would like to read by placing yourself as the reader of your own content.
Write a compelling title: If you’re aware of the 80/20 Pareto rule, you know that 80% of readers will only read the headline and 20% will read your content. Run your titles through tools, like the CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer and Advanced Marketing Institute’s Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer. These tools will score your title and tell you if your readers will find it engaging and if your headline could increase conversions.
Work on the opening: Work on your introduction. You could start by stating a fact or a question with a positive inclination. Copywriters have forever used the trick of opening a sales letter with a fact. It could be as straightforward as mentioning the date on top of the sales letter or a simple personalisation with the recipient’s name.
When readers see you mentioning an irrefutable truth, you secure a little more time with them. The same principle works on posts, as well. That’s why so many writer start their posts with facts or with questions that engage readers.
Youify your content: Think of every instance of “you” as a cliffhanger in your content. Every time a reader comes across the word “you,” he or she is drawn back into the conversation.
Add power words: Power words tighten up content and make it more engaging, increasing their ability to persuade people. They are like buzzwords that catch the attention of the biggest content skimmers. Use them throughout your content.
Adopt a positive tone: Tone is a matter of preference but whenever possible, stay away from fear-based or negative writing styles in order to most effectively influence people. Ernest Hemingway had four rules for creating epic copy. One of them was to maintain a positive tone and write as the first person
Use friendly images: Images can set the tone of your content, so choose them well. Look for quality images that evoke emotion.
Scarcity
Have you ever feel that you in need of something or really want something and purchase it hastily in fear that they would not be there anymore and you miss out.
this what Cialdini refer as a feeling of scarcity he continued stating that the theme scarcity in your content marketing has to be used properly and draws on the distinction between natural occurring and fabricated kind by certain unscrupulous person.
You've all heard that our beloved KFC fried chicken run out of chicken that was a terrible news to their customers and they had to close 900 stores temporarily all this due to a switch in partner in charge of delivering the chicken to their stores and due to an error in their system it resulted no chicken could be delivered and temporary stores closure all over the UK.
The people who took to social media disgruntled had the feeling of scarcity some newspaper mentioned leaving Britain without chicken and hungry here the halo effect in play. Also, when this story broke out some people believe it and other though it was a conspiracy but it was for real and KFC have issued an epic apology that you can read here
In your marketing content you can introduce scarcity which give a sense of urgency to your reader such as get it now before it gone, display your stock count only 2 left, this is the hottest ticket in town only 20 left.
Do not use scarcity as a trickery to get people to give you money on false pretence it is disgusting and punishable by law.
Conclusion
In conclusion there is a group of people who know very well where the weapon of automatic influences lie, employ them regularly and expertly to get what they want. They go from social encounter to social encounter requesting others to comply with their wishes. They achieve 100% success as the secret of their effectiveness lie in the way they structure their request, and the way they arm themself with one or another of the weapon of influence that exist within the social environment.
To do this one may use more than one correctly chosen word that engages a strong psychological principle which exist in the social environment and trust the human exploiters to learn quickly how to profit from our tendency to respond mechanically according to these principle.
in an afterthought about my date Yardie was a good movie and an adaptation from Victor Medley book which sequel is Yush and I recommend that you go and see it but if you're not in the mood to go and see this movie you could also comment, share How To Be More Persuasive with your friend it would be very much appreciated has they might enjoy reading my blog post.