Here at Big Red SEO in Omaha, our team of SEO and content development specialists know that making a sale often depends just as much on how you structure the argument for your product or service as what it is you’re actually selling. Few people understand marketing psychology better than Dr. Robert B. Cialdini, who in 1984 wrote a book called “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” In this book, Cialdini outlined 6 principles of influence that all business owners interested in sales should take to heart.In this post, our SEO and content development team will guide you through Cialdini’s principles and tell you how you can use them to your advantage in turning visitors to your websites into shoppers and reliable buyers!
Principle #1 – Reciprocity…Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours
The idea of reciprocity is simple and can easily be translated to the world of conversions. Simply put, the psychology of reciprocity deals with the idea that people feel obliged to return favors, possibly because we’re uncomfortable being indebted to other people. You can use this psychological reaction to your advantage by offering free useful information to your visitors in the form of a value-added package, such as a white paper or eBook. If the information you’re offering is valuable and actionable to your visitors, chances are they’ll be grateful for it and will return the favor by buying something from you later.
Note: Reciprocity doesn’t work immediately—it takes time to build those relationships and goodwill with your visitors that lead to conversions. Think of it as a long-term strategy that can show big results over time.
Principle #2 – Commitment…I Am What I Do
Commitment is inherently tied to the idea of consistency. People who are consistent are seen as more trustworthy and reliable than those that aren’t, and as these traits are universally admired, they’re also universally sought-after. This principle also translates well to sales because once a person decides to commit publicly to a particular product, service, or brand, they’re much more likely to follow through on that commitment. At this point, your brand has become a part of their self-image!
So how do you go about convincing visitors to commit to your brand? Do something that turns them from a browser to a buyer in their own eyes. A good way to do this is to follow Principle #1—by offering visitors something valuable in exchange for something relatively small (like their email address), you’re asking implicitly for their commitment and with that you can begin building a relationship with them. And once they’re in with you, and see that you provide something valuable to them that no one else does, they’re likely to stick with you for the long haul.
Contact Big Red SEO Today at (402) 522-6468!
From this post, our SEO and content development team at Big Red SEO hopes that we’ve given you a taste of how Cialdini’s principles of persuasion can be incredibly useful in forging relationships with your website’s visitors, turning them into dedicated customers. Come back soon for Part 2 of our series, where we’ll dig down into two more of Cialdini’s persuasion principles that can make your company indispensable to your customers!
Big Red SEO is a full-service web design and SEO company in Omaha, Nebraska. We specialize in developing SEO and content strategies that can boost our clients’ rankings on search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, which helps drive traffic to their businesses and boosts conversions! If you have any questions about web design or SEO, fill out our contact form or give us a call today at (402) 522-6468!