PRE-SUASION
Pre-Suasion
Selling Into The Ideal Moment
BY: DR. ROBERT CIALDINI
W
hat happens in the
brains of consumers
during the milliseconds
before they make a
purchase decision? A
lot, actually, and that precious moment
can become key real estate for your
next marketing or sales campaign. In
fact, most businesses are so focused on
the message they are trying to convey
that they forget to “set the table” in the
best possible way for their message to
resonate with consumers.
I
researched
this
phenomenon
extensively in preparation for my new
book, Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary
Way to Influence and Persuade, and
my results just may change the way
you think about your message and the
context in which it is delivered. The
good news is that making this simple
change to break through the clutter is
usually fairly straightforward, simple,
and inexpensive.
10
|
SPRING 2018
The theory behind my research is this:
if we focus our audience on a particular
idea or concept, they will prioritize all
subsequent information related to that
idea or concept. Once they are oriented
in the right direction, they will want to
learn more, value the information more,
and be more likely to take positive action.
Your
website—essentially
your
company’s “calling card”—is the first
place consumers go to learn about
your business. If you sell furniture, for
example, consider which landing page
image might have a more positive effect
on sofa sales: a photo of puffy clouds or
of pennies. In this example, our research
showed that the group viewing the clouds
prior to entering the site were more
likely to search and purchase furniture
based on comfort while the group
viewing the pennies focused primarily
on price, and therefore spent less on
the site overall. We found, essentially,
that consumers focused their attention
on items that were congruent with their
very first impression of the site—either
the comfort of soft clouds or the frugality
of literally “watching the pennies.”
In addition to altering behavior with
images, we found that words can have
a similar effect. Consider a research
study for introducing a new soft drink
to the market—admittedly not a simple
feat with the mega-cola companies
already dominating store shelves. We
tested consumers’ affinity for trying
new products by posing an introductory
question in two different ways. First,
we asked a group of consumers if they
would be interested in trying the new
product, positioned as a brand new soft
drink that had never before been on the
market. Those who responded positively
would submit contact information and
a free sample would be sent to them.
This approach scored a respectable 30
percent conversion rate.
In the second approach, we asked
a simple question at the top of the
marketing material: “Are you an
adventurous person?” The ad went on
to describe the product and free sample
offer in much the same way as in the
first approach. But that simple challenge
question
dramatically
improved
consumers’ responses: the conversion