As part of his best-selling book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini published his 6 principles of influence. He combines his experience as Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University with his research of skilled influential professionals.
Businesses and marketers have used these 6 principles for decades to influence consumers. Our healthcare marketing agency has applied each principle to online marketing to provide ideas and examples of how you can influence consumers and prospects online.
1. Reciprocity. The first principle of influence plays on the natural human tendency to return favors.
A great way to take advantage of the reciprocity principle is to give something away for free. For example, offer a free white paper download or a 15-minute brainstorm session. Assuming people received high-quality information, they will return to you for more material and will be more likely to provide their contact details or answer a few questions in order to download additional content.
2. Commitment & Consistency. People don’t want to be perceived as inconsistent or unreliable. Our word is everything. If we make a commitment, we are likely to keep it in order to maintain our self-image.
The key here is to get a commitment in advance of an event or desired action. When people sign up for your next webinar, be sure the event is automatically placed on their calendar. This will serve as a reminder of the commitment they made, which should boost attendance.
3. Social Proof. People often copy others in an attempt to conform to social norms or as a way to validate their actions.
It’s no secret that people trust their friends and peers more than they trust businesses or corporations. Use that trust to your advantage by posting exceptional customer testimonials and detailed client case studies on your website. You may be surprised how many people read testimonials before making a purchase or decision. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on Google+ and other review sites. These can serve the same purpose as testimonials and can also positively impact your search engine optimization.
4. Authority. People tend to respond favorably to authority figures.
Consider the source of your communications. Are you writing a blog post about trends in social media? The author should be a member of your social media team. Publishing a technical white paper on healthcare software? Promote your technical manager or software developer as the author. Sending an email blast to C-level executives? Send the email from a CEO or other high-level executive at your company. People are more likely to respond to a call to action when it comes from the appropriate authority figure.
5. Liking. We are more likely to be persuaded by people we like.
Social media is a great platform to take advantage of the liking principle. For example, if people see that their social media connections like a brand on Facebook or follow a company on Twitter, they will be more inclined to do the same. It’s important to be socially connected and engaged with key social influencers in your industry to get exposure to their social networks.
6. Scarcity. People are more likely to respond to an offer if they believe the availability is limited.
Nobody wants to be left out or miss a great deal. Generate demand by promoting a limited time or limited quantity offer. For example, you can promote a limited time offer in conjunction with a free product or service: “Only 2 days left to signup for a free demo.” Or promote a free offer in limited quantity: “First 10 to signup get a free account review.” These offers work great with social media and email marketing.
No matter the medium you use to market to consumers and prospects – online or off – it’s important to keep these key principles of influence in mind. Get inside the mind of your consumers to figure out how to best persuade them to perform the desired call to action.
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Contact our technology marketing agency to learn more about our services. Visit us online at www.clarityqst.com or call 877-887-7611 to request a quote.