The secrets of the Science of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini & Steve Martin

How are we persuaded and how to persuade?

It is a mistake to think people consider all the available information when they need to decide if they purchase something. This is an ideal situation that rarely happens.

Marketing information is everywhere and nowadays with the digital world in addition to physical we have social and digital marketing overwhelming our lives with millions of choices which makes impossible for a single human being decide considering all the possible situations and available products and services.

This means that without some clear marketing rules digital and normal marketers are not going to get far on the art of persuasion. There is a research done by Robert Cialdini & Steve Martin on the Science of Persuasion that reveal 6 universal shortcuts that guide human behavior that is worth knowing from both perspectives:

1. The user – to know how we are manipulated
2. The Digital Business marketer – it can guide our marketing strategies as business people. 

Here are the 6 universal rules to effective marketing that should always be applied etically:

RECIPROCITY

We feel compelling to give back what we receive.
As a consequence people are more likely to say yes to the ones they feel compelling to return a favor or kindness.
 “Be the first to give and ensure what you give is personalized and unexpected”

SCARCITY

People want more of things are not available at the time they want or is only for limited time available.
Scarcity resources make people want it more.
Only the benefits gained by purchasing or buying something are not enough anymore. What close deals is the uniqueness of our offer and what are the consequences of losing when people fail to act upon our proposition.

AUTHORITY

People are likely to follow the lead of credible and knowledgeable experts.
It is important to signal to others what makes you a knowledgeable authority among the circles you want to influence.

CONSISTENCY

People like to be consistency with things they have previously said or done.
Everything starts with little commitments which later let to bigger commitments.

LIKING

This is well known by Facebook like.
What are the reasons why people like?
•    We like people similar to us, with the same values and world thinking.
•    We like people who pay us compliments
•    We like people who cooperate with us.
•    Look for areas of similarities and genuine complements before business is the ideal situation.
Research has been conducted by universities about negotiation strategies and while the first used the Time is Money strategy that gets straight to business and their success on coming into an agreement was 55%- The second group used socializations strategy which means they would first exchange personal information and identify similarities that both parties share then beginning negotiating and their success on coming into agreements was 90%

CONSENSUS

People tend to look to the actions and behavior of others to determine their own behavior.
Instead of believe in our own ability to do something we can rely on what others have done and we are most likely not getting wrong.
Example of this is Amazon and EBay reviews. How many times you have bought something because an unknown people have rated that well and instead of not buying you have prefer trust on the judgment of others?
 
Here is the video that explain all of the above visually.