18 October 2007Richard Sedley, cScape Customer Engagement Director

Key words:

marketing, persuasion, motivation, web2.0

customer engagement, credibility, cscape, e-consultancy

The role of persuasion in online marketing

E-consultancyPersuasion Marketing Roundtable

Elaboration Likelihood Model

• High elaboration (central route)Requires great deal of thought to make a

decision

• Low elaboration (peripheral route)Requires little thought, reliant on decisional

heuristics

How we make our decisions

Petty & Cacioppo, 1981

The need for decisional heuristics

500 milliseconds to

determine credibility

4 seconds to

determine usefulness

The goal of persuasion is to change someone’s attitudes or behaviour.

Make them comply with a request using an understanding of human psychology

What is persuasion?

• Credibility

• Principles of motivation

• Persuasion Windows

• Persuasion as a dialogue

Four pillars of persuasion

• Presumed

• Surface

• Reputed

• Earned

Four types of credibility

Stanford University, Persuasive Technology Lab, 2003

=

=

=

=

General assumptions in the

mind of the perceiver

Simple inspection or initial first

hand experience

Third party endorsements,

reports or referrals

First hand experience that

extends over time

The power of credibilityA B

Conversion rate = 2.69% Conversion rate = 3.03%

% change = 12.64%

Projected monthly gain = $30,582.30

Marketing E

xperiments Journal, F

eb 2007

• Reciprocity

• Commitment and consistency

• Social proof

• Affinity (Liking)

• Authority

• Scarcity

Principles of motivation

Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, 1984

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Incentives and reciprocity

A B

Conversion rate = 35% Conversion rate = 28%

Report

Report

Sign-up

100% completion accuracy

60% completion accuracy

• When you are in a good mood

• When your world view no longer makes sense

• When you can take action immediately

• When you feel indebted because of a favour

• Immediately after you have made a mistake

• Immediately after you have denied a request

Persuasion windows

Stanford University, Persuasive Technology Lab, 2003

Classic

The ages of persuasion

Modern Post-ModernTreatise on Rhetoric

by Aristotle

The Hidden Persuaders

By Vance Packard

Influence: The Psychology

of Persuasion

by Robert Cialdini

To influence a person to change their

attitude or behaviour The process of persuasion changes the persuader

Web2.0: Persuasion as a dialogue

Richard Sedley: cScape Customer Engagement Unit Trends Report, 2007

Persuasion is about aligning our needs and desires with the needs and desires of our customers - for mutual benefit

• Creation of persuasion pathways

• Right touching through persuasion windows

• As part of engagement modeling

The value of persuasion

• CALLS TO ACTION– Sign up of the quarterly cScape newsletter

http://tinyurl.com/2snewe – Keep in touch

r.sedley@cscape.com

• FURTHER READING:– Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do

by BJ Fogg– Influence: The psychology of Persuasion

by Robert Cialdini – Perspectives on Persuasion, Social Influence and Compliance Gaining

by Seiter and Gass

• USEFUL WEBSITES:– Standford Persuasive Technology Lab

http://captology.stanford.edu/– PsychoTactics

http://www.psychotactics.com/ – Richard Sedley’s blog

www.loopstatic.com