This morning I was taking my morning walk while simultaneously sharpening my ninja marketing skills. You see, I was listening to an audio book called “Influence, The Psychology Of Persuasion,” created by Robert Cialdini. Dr. Cialdini is a professor of Psychology and has devoted his life to studying why people say “Yes” to salesman, say Yes to marketing offers, and why people make buying decisions in real life marketing situations.
This is invaluable information for you to know as an online marketer because ultimately you need to get people to take action, to say “Yes” to your marketing offers, to invest the products and services you offer that will make you money and help them achieve whatever promise your offer delivers.
Today I want to introduce you to one of the most powerful tools in the ‘Influence’ arsenal – the concept of Reciprocity.
The definition of Reciprocity:
| 1. A reciprocal condition or relationship.
2. A mutual or cooperative interchange of favors or privileges, especially the exchange of rights or privileges of trade between nations. |
Society has trained us since we were young to “Don’t take without giving in return., do unto others as others have done to you.” We’ve been programmed to want to do something nice for someone that has done something for us, to “return the favor.”
We don’t want to be seen as a moocher right?
We don’t want to be seen as takers and following the programming society has placed in our minds we tend to go out of our way to give back to people who give to us.
This can be a powerful driver of human action – a powerful driver of action for your email list subscribers and customers.
Let me give you an example of reciprocity use from Dr. Cialdini’s work.
Dr. Cialdini and his researchers did a study in a restaurant. The waitress giving great service and right before giving the bill to the customers the waitress gave a mint to each of the diners.
But wait, it gets better….
Right before the waitress started walking away from the table she half turned back, reached into her apron, and put a second mint for each person at the table and said these magic words, “For you people I will leave two mints.” J
Guess what – the waitress that left the two mints in than manner ALWAYS got a better tip from their patrons because she showed she cared about that and the patrons perceived that she gave them something extra that other patrons did not get. Pretty cool ehh…
To put this influence trigger into action in your online marketing ask yourself the following questions.
How can I help my subscribers? How can I help them solve their problem or achieve their goals? What can I give to them that will help them achieve their goals? How can I ethically use this concept in my marketing to drive more sales and make more money (while of course helping your subscriber at the same time).
Important point: this is a dangerously powerful influence tactic that should only be used for good! You should have your subscribers’ best interests in mind when you employ this tactic.
That’s it for today…. I will leave you with the question. How can you use this tactic in your business? Post your thoughts and ideas below and I’ll let you know if you’re on the right track….