Laws of Persuasion for Online MarketingSimple Ways to Make Money Online March 17th, 2010
Persuasion is the art and ability of influencing a person’s thoughts through some specific methods and strategies. Psychologist Robert Cialdini has written a book called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It’s a really a great book, which tells you how you can use the laws of persuasion to convert your prospects into actual sales. This is one of the best books I recommend for anybody on online marketing and sales.
Even though some people may not believe it, but it is true that human nature and behavior is quite predictable for some specific actions. For example, if you show them some specific type of advertisement, the viewers will respond in a predictable fashion. This is why the advertising companies are making so much money. By understanding how these laws of persuasion works, you can help doing better marketing and making better sales online.
Laws of Persuasion
There are 6 laws of persuasion.
In short:
1.Law of Reciprocity
2.Law of Commitment and Consistency
3.Law of Liking
4.Law of Scarcity
5.Law of Authority
6.Law of Social Proof
Now we will discuss all these laws in detail. These are called laws because they work on predictable human behavior.
Law of Reciprocity
It is in human nature to reciprocate any favor given to them. If someone gives you something which you wanted (or actually, you don’t want, but
you think that you wanted), you will feel obliged and would try to reciprocate giving something in return.
So, if you are selling something on your website and offering a free sample of it, people feel obliged and would like to return your favor by buying a product from your website. So this law of reciprocity can help you convert better on your website if you are offering something free or doing some sort of favor to your visitors.
Law of Commitment and Consistency
Law of commitment and consistency states that people try to be consistent in their thoughts and actions. Once they have taken a stand on something,
they will try to stick to it and it would be difficult for them to move from that stand. A simple example can be seen in a simple argument between
two people. The person giving wrong arguments sometimes realize that he is wrong, but still he will keep his stand on that side only. Similarly, if you
have made a commitment to some cause, it is easier to convince to increase it. This is why offline sales persons try to get “yes” out of your
mind. It makes your mindset into yes. So after committing yourself to “yes”, you will try to be consistent and will not say “no” to the product
offering by sales person.
This law of commitment and consistency can also be used for online affiliate sales by asking some positive questions on your website for which the customer says “yes” in his mind many times. And then offering your product with positive mindset. For Example:
- Do you really want to help yourself?
- Are you committed to help yourself?
- Do you want to improve your quality of life?
Then download this ebook of ours and achieve all this.
Law of Liking
Law of liking states that if you like someone, you will be more inclined to please them by doing a favor or buying a product. Offline example of law of liking is “good Cop, Bad Cop”, where person starts thinking that good cop is on his side.
The law of liking can be used in affiliate marketing by making your visitor comfortable on your website and making him liking you. So if your visitor think that you are like him and he likes you, there are more chances of him converting into sales.
Example: Let say you are selling a ebook about “Finding Teacher’s Job”. You can use the law of liking by giving statements like “There was a time when I was also searching for a good teacher’s job and wasted lots of my time going places and doing the search. I wrote this book for my type of people who are search for such jobs and don’t want to waste much of their time”. By stating this, you convince the visitor that you are/were like him
and he starts liking you (we like people more who are like us).
Law of Scarcity
We like to get things which are scarce. For example, lets say there is a product which you may not want to buy right now, but the moment in becomes “last one left”, you starts thinking of buying it.
I see the examples of this law being used on forums a lot where people sell some sort of ebooks. They keep the price to $99 and sell “just 5 copies at $10″ (which is actually the price on which the person wants to sell. But people gets into the law of scarcity and think that this $10 price is scarce and buy it.
So if you are selling a product and mark it as “limited number of copies will be sold” and states that only “last few left”, there are more chances of completed sales. You can later always increase the “number of copies”.
Law of Authority
Law of authority states that, we try to follow what the authorities do. We think that this is good enough for them; it should be good enough for me as well.
Offline examples of this can be seen on “Celebrity Endorsements”. Online examples of this can be seen in forums where people want to buy products reviewed by people who have authority status in the forum (more posts, more itrader, more reputation). If some authority person says that product is worth the money, many people buy them.
You can also use the law of authority on your website by creating some virtual authorities. For example, if you are selling some product related to pregnancy, you can use words like “Gynecologist experts have verified that the product is safe and produces great results”. Now who is the gynecologist expert, it may be you, yourself. Nobody asks that. So try to create some authority on your website and use the law of authority to make more sales.
Law of Social Proof
If everybody is doing it, I should do it as well. Example, if everybody around is laughing on a joke, you will smile as well even if you did not understand the joke. You think that if everybody is doing something, it must be right and you should do it as well.
Offline example of this can be seen on the advertisements of the “bestseller books”. “One Million Copies Sold”. You think that people are buying it, so it must be good. And you buy it as well.
So if you want to use this law to improve your online sales, provide the social proof that your product is being used by other people as well. You can provide this proof by “Testimonials” and “User Reviews”. If you are providing a review of a product and using affiliate link to make a sale on that page, then use the comments box on that page to get other people reviews on that as well. The more comments that page gets from people, there are more chances of sales, as people see that many people are
buying it and happy with it.
Summary:
So in short these are the 6 laws of persuasion to influence the thoughts of online customers and how can they be used.
1.Law of Reciprocity (Offer something free)
2.Law of Commitment and Consistency (Ask question with “yes” as answers)
3.Law of Liking (Prove that you are like them)
4.Law of Scarcity (Only last 2 copies left)
5.Law of Authority (Experts says its good)
6.Law of Social Proof (Testimonials and Comments)
Persuasion is the art and ability of influencing a person’s thoughts through some specific methods and strategies. Psychologist Robert Cialdini has written a book called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It’s a really a great book, which tells you how you can use the laws of persuasion to convert your prospects into actual sales. This is one of the best books I recommend for anybody on online marketing and sales.
Even though some people may not believe it, but it is true that human nature and behavior is quite predictable for some specific actions. For example, if you show them some specific type of advertisement, the viewers will respond in a predictable fashion. This is why the advertising companies are making so much money. By understanding how these laws of persuasion works, you can help doing better marketing and making better sales online.
Laws of Persuasion
There are 6 laws of persuasion.
In short:
1.Law of Reciprocity
2.Law of Commitment and Consistency
3.Law of Liking
4.Law of Scarcity
5.Law of Authority
6.Law of Social Proof
Now we will discuss all these laws in detail. These are called laws because they work on predictable human behavior.
Law of Reciprocity
It is in human nature to reciprocate any favor given to them. If someone gives you something which you wanted (or actually, you don’t want, but
you think that you wanted), you will feel obliged and would try to reciprocate giving something in return.
So, if you are selling something on your website and offering a free sample of it, people feel obliged and would like to return your favor by buying a product from your website. So this law of reciprocity can help you convert better on your website if you are offering something free or doing some sort of favor to your visitors.
Law of Commitment and Consistency
Law of commitment and consistency states that people try to be consistent in their thoughts and actions. Once they have taken a stand on something,
they will try to stick to it and it would be difficult for them to move from that stand. A simple example can be seen in a simple argument between
two people. The person giving wrong arguments sometimes realize that he is wrong, but still he will keep his stand on that side only. Similarly, if you
have made a commitment to some cause, it is easier to convince to increase it. This is why offline sales persons try to get “yes” out of your
mind. It makes your mindset into yes. So after committing yourself to “yes”, you will try to be consistent and will not say “no” to the product
offering by sales person.
This law of commitment and consistency can also be used for online affiliate sales by asking some positive questions on your website for which the customer says “yes” in his mind many times. And then offering your product with positive mindset. For Example:
- Do you really want to help yourself?
- Are you committed to help yourself?
- Do you want to improve your quality of life?
Then download this ebook of ours and achieve all this.
Law of Liking
Law of liking states that if you like someone, you will be more inclined to please them by doing a favor or buying a product. Offline example of law of liking is “good Cop, Bad Cop”, where person starts thinking that good cop is on his side.
The law of liking can be used in affiliate marketing by making your visitor comfortable on your website and making him liking you. So if your visitor think that you are like him and he likes you, there are more chances of him converting into sales.
Example: Let say you are selling a ebook about “Finding Teacher’s Job”. You can use the law of liking by giving statements like “There was a time when I was also searching for a good teacher’s job and wasted lots of my time going places and doing the search. I wrote this book for my type of people who are search for such jobs and don’t want to waste much of their time”. By stating this, you convince the visitor that you are/were like him
and he starts liking you (we like people more who are like us).
Law of Scarcity
We like to get things which are scarce. For example, lets say there is a product which you may not want to buy right now, but the moment in becomes “last one left”, you starts thinking of buying it.
I see the examples of this law being used on forums a lot where people sell some sort of ebooks. They keep the price to $99 and sell “just 5 copies at $10″ (which is actually the price on which the person wants to sell. But people gets into the law of scarcity and think that this $10 price is scarce and buy it.
So if you are selling a product and mark it as “limited number of copies will be sold” and states that only “last few left”, there are more chances of completed sales. You can later always increase the “number of copies”.
Law of Authority
Law of authority states that, we try to follow what the authorities do. We think that this is good enough for them; it should be good enough for me as well.
Offline examples of this can be seen on “Celebrity Endorsements”. Online examples of this can be seen in forums where people want to buy products reviewed by people who have authority status in the forum (more posts, more itrader, more reputation). If some authority person says that product is worth the money, many people buy them.
You can also use the law of authority on your website by creating some virtual authorities. For example, if you are selling some product related to pregnancy, you can use words like “Gynecologist experts have verified that the product is safe and produces great results”. Now who is the gynecologist expert, it may be you, yourself. Nobody asks that. So try to create some authority on your website and use the law of authority to make more sales.
Law of Social Proof
If everybody is doing it, I should do it as well. Example, if everybody around is laughing on a joke, you will smile as well even if you did not understand the joke. You think that if everybody is doing something, it must be right and you should do it as well.
Offline example of this can be seen on the advertisements of the “bestseller books”. “One Million Copies Sold”. You think that people are buying it, so it must be good. And you buy it as well.
So if you want to use this law to improve your online sales, provide the social proof that your product is being used by other people as well. You can provide this proof by “Testimonials” and “User Reviews”. If you are providing a review of a product and using affiliate link to make a sale on that page, then use the comments box on that page to get other people reviews on that as well. The more comments that page gets from people, there are more chances of sales, as people see that many people are
buying it and happy with it.
Summary:
So in short these are the 6 laws of persuasion to influence the thoughts of online customers and how can they be used.
1.Law of Reciprocity (Offer something free)
2.Law of Commitment and Consistency (Ask question with “yes” as answers)
3.Law of Liking (Prove that you are like them)
4.Law of Scarcity (Only last 2 copies left)
5.Law of Authority (Experts says its good)
6.Law of Social Proof (Testimonials and Comments)
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