Influence, the psychology of persuasion and how to apply it to your website (Part 2)

Following on from Part 1 where we discussed reciprocity, here is part 2 of my review of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr Robert Cialdini and how you can apply it to your website.

Commitment and Consistency

Robert Cialdini describes commitment using the example of someone betting on a horse at a race meeting and how they are MORE convinced that the horse will win AFTER they have placed the bet than before.

He explains that this is due to the commitment that person has placed on the horse and how we are all programmed to be more committed to a cause or situation once we have made some form of public declaration to it. We are then consistent in that we continue to believe in our cause even if evidence against it is given to us.

Once we understand this, an opportunity for us as sales people to use this to our advantage (honourably of course) opens up and if we can gain an early commitment from a prospect they will be more inclined to remain clients or purchase more from us.

So, how can we influence website visitors to make a commitment? Its not easy because gaining commitment relies heavily on social interaction but here’s a few ideas that might help…

Step by step process to commit

One of the things we have learnt about ecommerce experience for users is that if you make the process of checking out too long people will abandon their carts. However, once a person has begun to enter their contact details they generally follow through with a purchase.

So, by getting a person to start entering information early you will promote a feeling of commitment to your products and services.

This can be useful in other situations also. For example, ask people to take part in a simple poll or quiz on your website with a final sign up to your newsletter could help build a strong mailing list of committed potential customers.

Users can be put off by a long page of fields to complete so break up your checkout, poll or quiz into separate pages. This will not only foster a commitment but having just a few fields on the first page will avoid putting users off so conversion will be higher.

Social Networking

Existing customers should be committed to you already. Customer service becomes paramount after the sale and a good way towards strong customer retention is by reaching out to them on social networks.

Twitter and Facebook are great for this because you can easily find and connect with your customers. By engaging with them you should see a strong commitment develop especially if you can encourage them to make a public declaration of their support for your business.

Seminars

Web casts and online webinars are great at fostering relationships with clients and prospects but encouraging commitment is something that is often overlooked as we try and deliver the content without paying enough attention to the goal of signing up new users.

A technique that is often used at seminars is to get attendees to complete a form and indicate if they would be interested in a meeting to discuss their needs.

At our seminars we ask attendees to complete a form and provide a testimonial that we can use to promote other seminars. With each form there is a tick box for users to indicate if they want to sign up to our newsletter. We have never had someone not sign up!

 

So there are just a few ideas on how to gain commitment and consistency from prospects. Hope its of use but if you have any ideas of your own I would love to hear them.

Article source: http://websiteownersclub.net/2011/11/17/influence-the-psychology-of-persuasion-and-how-to-apply-it-to-your-website-part-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=influence-the-psychology-of-persuasion-and-how-to-apply-it-to-your-website-part-2