We’re continuing our talk about the principles of persuasion, coined by Dr. Robert Cialdini way back in 1984. If you missed episode 70 where I introduced these principles AND went in-depth into persuasion pillar #1 (reciprocity), you may want to start there.
When you match up the principles of persuasion with your marketing funnel, you can create a profit engine that attracts clients, students, and customers for years to come so that you get business results without worry.
In his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini explains the psychology of why people say YES and how to apply these principles in your everyday life to persuade people.
In this episode, we take principle #2 and apply it to your marketing funnel because these will make a huge difference in how effective your marketing funnel actually is for your audience and your own success.
As a quick reminder, the six original pillars of persuasion are:
- Reciprocity
- Commitment & Consistency
- Social Proof
- Liking
- Authority
- Scarcity
In the last few years, Cialdini has added a seventh pillar based on how online marketing has changed us. That pillar is unity.
Now, let’s dive into pillar #2 — commitment and consistency.
Biggest Show Takeaways:
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- This persuasion pillar is so much bigger than YOUR commitment and consistency to your business; the focus is actually on your AUDIENCE’S commitment and consistency.
- The big question you want to ask yourself in this pillar is: How do you earn the LOYALTY of people who don’t quite trust you yet? The short answer is this that you need to take baby steps to build that loyalty and trust.
- The easiest first step is to get your audience to commit to something — your message, a shared identity, a rant, or a stand that you’re taking.
- You want to show how you’re part of the same group. This is why it’s so important to know who your people are. How do they identify themselves, and most importantly, what’s your message about your shared identity?
- Helping your audience feel like they’re part of YOUR group is the first step in the commitment and consistency persuasion pillar.
- The commitment and consistency pillar works by taking advantage of a mental shortcut that all humans use to make decisions. All of us have hundreds and hundreds of decisions we make on a daily basis. Commitment and consistency make our lives easier by reducing the number of things we have to think about. We make the decision once and keep re-affirming that decision.
- It’s so important that you help YOUR audience know that you’re in the same tribe. That you stand for the same things. That you believe and work towards a common, shared view of the world.
- Commitment + Consistency in Action #1: Start Small
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- Dr. Cialdini writes about the way we all judge others by their actions — not by their intentions or their internal thoughts. We judge them by what they DO. The same applies when we look at ourselves.
- Once customers can be nudged into making tiny, insignificant choices and stands, it paves the way for marketers to offer bigger choices. These bigger offers might be met with lesser resistance precisely because of the first small choice that they’ve made.
- This is commonly known as the “foot-in-the-door” technique where a small request paves the way for saying YES to larger requests down the road.
- If you have a podcast or a blog, it’s easy to share it, and say “Hey, here’s a blog post you can read,” or “Here’s a podcast you can listen to that answers your question.” That’s your foot in the door. That’s you warming up your audience by meeting them where they’re at with a question, a problem, or a situation that they’re currently struggling with. That’s you stepping into the conversation they’re already having in a really helpful way.
- Commitment + Consistency in Action #2: Join A Crowd
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- If you’ve got some impressive numbers and/or recognized names that you work with, this is a great way to utilize Commitment + Consistency.
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- For example, if you go to digitalmarketer.com, and look at their homepage, they’ve got a ribbon that says: Trusted by 126,000+ Marketers and Companies Like… They have well-known company names, like Uber, HarperCollins, Infusionsoft, and Shopify.
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- It’s a WHOLE LOT easier to trust a crowd — especially when that crowd includes names that you recognize. So, if you’ve got big numbers and/or big names to lean on, it’s a great way to invite more people to join your tribe.
- Commitment + Consistency in Action #3: Public Commitment
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- Another way to get a small yes from your audience is to have them make a public commitment to you, your cause, and/or your business.
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- Commitments made in private are easy to break, but when something that we said is heard by everyone else, there is a strong desire to want to uphold that statement.
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- It would be easier to give up on your dreams of entrepreneurship if you didn’t publicly share this than if you had. The goods, the bads, and all the in-betweens — we acknowledge that it’s a journey, and some parts aren’t so fun, but that doesn’t mean we give up.
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- That commitment comes because we all feel an innate social pressure to be consistent, something known as normative social influence. Once you publicly identify as an entrepreneur, you’re going to want to CONTINUE to identify as an entrepreneur.
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- Apart from getting your audience to be consistent, having them show support for your brand, your message, and your position also helps to boost your brand image and provide social proof to potential customers.
- To take advantage of persuasion pillar #2, you want to encourage your audience to make a statement. Then, make it easy for them to stand by that statement.
- Want to know which marketing funnel is right for you and your business? Take this free and easy quiz, and in less than 5 minutes, you’ll know EXACTLY which funnel is right for you.
Links mentioned in this episode:
