Every so often a book is published, which is outstanding. A pinnacle of the writers achievements and it becomes an industry standard everyone refers to when they want to discuss or learn about the topic. Influence: Science and Practice by Robert B. Cialdini is one such book. And in a recent article Rand Fish from SEOmoz summarised Robert’s message into 6 principles you can apply to make your sales and landing pages powerful and persuasive.
It’s an excellent article and recommended reading. The six principles are reciprocity, commitment or consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity. Even when used alone they will yeild results, but used together to create a sales or landing page these principles are dynamite.
We all understand reciprocity. Give something or value for free to your visitor and they will want to give something back. It’s a psychological imperitive. This is why giving away a free report or chapter of your book in return for the visitor’s name and email works so well.
We all like consistency. If I subscribe to a blog because it publishes every day, I want to continue to see new articles every day. Tell people what you will do for them, then deliver it as promised.
Social proof is used by restaurants when they give you a table next to a window to make them look busy. Employ testimonials from other people who liked your product.
Liking is often forgotten, but we shouldn’t forget people do business with people they like. This is how you should be using social networking; to foster a community of people you like, they like you and do business with you.
Authority is simple to understand and use. Let people know you know what you are talking about; that you are the authority on the topic.
And of course there is scarcity. This persuasion technique is used all of the time in sales letters; buy now before the price goes up, only 100 copies will be sold. Often we know it’s not true or we take it with a pinch of salt, but it still works. We are persuaded to buy it. This is the real power of psychology at work.
Are you using these 6 principles in your landing pages?
