Persuasive Marketing: The 7 Principles of Cialdini
If you are going to launch an advertising campaign, the most important thing is, without a doubt, the message. Knowing how to communicate is essential in marketing.
If you want to launch an advertising message about a product, it is important that what you want to convey reach potential clients.
The message is everything because the users do not automatically understand why they should buy and what benefits the product or service of our company will bring them.
What is Persuasion?
We are going to start this post by defining the concept of persuasion before relating it to marketing itself.
Persuasion is an ability that people have to convince others to act or think in a certain way, all this through a series of reasons or arguments.
In psychology, it is the study of human behaviour; specifically, the reasons that make a person change their behaviour due to an influence that is external to him.
When people communicate, we are almost always using some persuasive element, we always try to persuade, as when we are giving our opinion about something.
Persuasion in Marketing
In marketing and sales, cognitive biases are used as a persuasive tool that is of great help in different strategies. There are beliefs that people have that, even unconsciously, influence us when making a decision.
Can we then say that advertising manipulates us?
This is very important because there is a big difference between the term “persuade” and “manipulate”, and many times we can confuse them.
When a company engages in persuasion, it is offering the customer something they know they need, trying to convince them that the best thing they can do is purchase this product and satisfy their needs with it.
On the other hand, if a company is dedicated to manipulating, it is deceiving or hiding some type of information from its potential customers so that they buy something they do not need or that is not exactly what they are looking for with a single purpose.
Persuasion in marketing is basically making a product or service as attractive as possible in the eyes of customers.
Marketing persuasion is something more advanced; try to actively listen to the customer, see what problems they have, and argue how your product or service can solve those problems until you convince them and close the sale.
As we said at the beginning of this post, the most important thing is the message, but it is not only the information that you are providing to convince them that your product is the best to solve their problems or meet their needs but how you are communicating with them is also very important. The way of speaking is one of the elements that most influence people's decisions.
The 7 principles of persuasion according to Cialdini
To begin with, let's talk about Cialdini, this is a well-known American psychologist and writer who has dedicated his career to studying the influence and psychology of persuasion. His studies and contributions are considered the most relevant within the sector.
Our brain does not process all the information that comes to it when making a decision, but certain signs help it make that decision, Cialdini calls them "shortcuts" and refers to them as those that guide human behaviour. At first, Cialdini articulated his theory in 6 basic principles, but at the time he added a seventh principle. Let us see what they are and how they apply to the marketing.
Reciprocity
A need that human beings usually feel is to return favours, when a friend does something for you or does you a favour, don't you feel indebted to him and want to do something for him soon to be, so to speak, in peace? It is something completely normal, something that characterizes all human societies.
In the context of an obligation, people are much more likely to say yes to those they feel they owe.
For example, if you had to go to a certain place and a friend of yours offers to accompany you, if in the future that same friend asks you to accompany him somewhere, you will be more willing to say yes since you feel indebted to him, more than if a friend asks you who has not done you any favours.
There are even studies in which the amount of tip that customers left has been calculated depending on whether or not the restaurant gave them a gift or the behaviour that the waiter had with them. The tip was increased according to the amount or value of the gift or the friendliness of the waiter.
This is the reason that content marketing has become so big. There is tons of information for free, a lot of tools that you can use for free for some time or with a limited but good functionality.
Here is how you can implement reciprocity.
- Send gifts
- Free E-books
- Informative Blogs
- Training/Skill development
- Checklists/Sorted information
- Sharing research/experience
- Free trials
Scarcity
If a customer perceives that there is a shortage of a product, the demand for it will increase. If he perceives that a product is scarce or difficult to obtain, he will rush the purchase. This principle explains, “for a limited time” or “till the supplies last” strategies.
Scarcity gives extra motivation to order it now, think of:
- Day/week/hour deals
- Limited time
- Limited stock
- Exclusivity
- Limited number of spots
Authority
If the explanations given to persuade the client are supported by an important character or reference, they greatly accentuate the value of that persuasion. For this reason, it is important to position yourself as a referent of authority in the subject to influence a person. That is why a blog is such a decisive element when it comes to building that authority.
Apart from a blog, you can incorporate authority in your website through:
- Well-known people
- Hallmarks
- Prices
- Claims
- Titles
- Experience
- Knowledge
Consistency
Appearing convincing before your potential clients will give you a very powerful influence in the social sphere, any person will be much more predisposed to accept a proposal if it corresponds to the commitments and previous affirmations that that company has declared before the person to whom you are offering your products or services. This means that if we are consistent with our own behaviours, we will convince.
We can do so by consistently sending the right communication and showing that we are active and we are serious.
It can be done through:
- Newsletters
- Social Media
- Blog
- Pop-up on website
- Updating information on website
- Changing headers to reflect latest developments in the field
Sympathy
It is much easier to create a bond of sympathy if there is an attraction to the other, which means that it is easier for us to let ourselves be influenced by someone we like than by someone who rejects us. If I trust whoever is persuading me to buy a product, I will buy it.
Sympathy is created is easily if you are able to put yourself at the buyers’ position and show them what they need to see to trust you. It can be done through:
- Create a good ‘About Us’ page
- Being open and available
- Use humour and be humble
- Associate with positive groups
- Highlight similarities
- Compliment sincerely
- Offer genuine support
Social Proof
There is a theory, called the spiral of silence, which consists of people being influenced by the behaviour of the masses, that is, if we are in a public place and we see that everyone gets up, we will surely get up. In marketing it is the same, we accept what the majority accepts, if a product is well seen by the majority, it is easier for us to end up buying it than if the product is indifferent to the majority or is not well seen. This factor is very powerful, so try to include social communications in your campaigns that prove that most people like your product.
You can apply social proof by showing the following:
- Reviews (relevant to the target audience)
- Ratings
- Number of orders, or actions taken on something
- Top selling product/products
Unity
This is a new principle that Cialdini included some time later, it is a principle closely related to empathy. In this principle, “we” replaces “I”. This helps us identify ourselves as part of a group.
- You can apply this principal in following ways:
- Connecting with you clients and followers
- Rewarding them for ideas/leads etc.
- Allow them to: model for you/offer benefits/create for you etc.
- Making them a part of your cult