 We're tuned into what's in it for me because of this self-interest mindset. Welcome to the We Are Slam Show where we share marketing agency insights, best practices, and ideas to help your business grow. My name is Tyler Kelly. I'm the co-founder and chief strategist at Slam Agency and today I want to take you back in time to one of my first conference experiences, early experiences as a digital marketer and more specifically as an affiliate marketer. And I want to take you back to this conference because it's the first time that I got to meet Dr. Robert Cialdini, a visionary researcher from the University of Arizona and this conference was called Affiliate Summit West. It was in Las Vegas I think maybe like 13, 14 years ago. But here's the thing. At this conference Dr. Cialdini introduced to the affiliate marketing world which really at that time drove the digital marketing world. He introduced the ideas of the six principles of persuasion which I'm going to share with you in this show today. And it was a very powerful moment because it shaped for me and for many digital marketers what would become the digital marketing that we know today. So one of my purposes in this show in the We Are Slam show is to share the foundations of marketing, the foundations of digital marketing because I don't think that you can be a good marketing director. I don't think you can be a good professional marketer unless you understand these foundations and specifically in this day and age understand how traditional marketing transforms into digital marketing and where digital marketing really has its foundations. And so this episode is key for you to understand the same thing that we've been talking about for the last several weeks, why people buy. I also want to say that this was pre HubSpot. This was pre any sort of inbound marketing. This was like I said about 15 years ago. So if we were to take do the math, I guess that would probably be about 2005 2006, let's say, affiliate summit West. Pre HubSpot, pre inbound marketing, pre content marketing at this time blogging was just starting to take off. It was more about guest posting and link building. And then comes along Dr. Childini with this idea of the six principles of persuasion, which I think really informed what would become inbound marketing. It would later go to launch the HubSpots of the world, all based on really this first principle that I want to share with you, the principle of reciprocity. So reciprocity in social psychology refers to responding to one positive action with another positive action in essence, repaying repaying kind actions. What this means is that in response to friendly actions, people are much more likely to be friendly, to cooperate than they would be if they were just tied up in what in social psychology is referred to as the self interest model, right? Just focused on myself. Most of the time I've mentioned this radio frequency that we're all tuned into WII FM, which is what's in it for me. We're tuned into what's in it for me because of this self interest mindset that we have as humans. How do you break through that? You break through that self interest mindset with reciprocity with the principle of reciprocity. How do we do this in digital? We provide something of value and then what's the action that comes back? The user repays that. So pre-2005, 2006, you never saw a landing page that provided an ebook or a checklist or a workshop or anything like that in exchange for your email. It just wasn't a thing. But now it's like, okay, we're going to give this to you and all we ask is for your email in return. That's reciprocity. Or I'm going to give you this free book and then I'm going to follow that up with a request. Or as Dr. Childini cited in his research, it was like in Paris, you had the girls that they would come and hand you a flower and then they'd ask for a donation. You're much more likely to donate after receiving the flower than if you just had some girl come up and say, hey, can you give me some spare change? Right? Reciprocity. Think about reciprocity. How can I invoke reciprocity in my day to day, in my marketing efforts? And here's the disclaimer which Dr. Childini found in his studies and which many people have cited since is that any time you invoke reciprocity, understand that it is not always one for one. Right? So, of course, the email, the landing page example, that's a pretty straightforward digital example. But in sales, in marketing, when you invoke reciprocity, meaning like, I'm going to send you flowers to your office and say, it was great meeting you. I look forward to working with you at some point in the future. Hint, hint. That's actually something really good to do, guys and girls. Everybody loves to receive something at their office. So if the price is right and the moment is right, send flowers. But the key is don't always expect that one-to-one interaction, meaning don't always expect that reciprocity to come directly back to you. It might come from someplace else. It might come from this person that's not necessarily able to work with you because of financing or something like that, recommending you. Right? So don't get mad at her or him because they didn't repay your kind action directly. Know that when you do something kind for somebody, it's going to come back to you. You just aren't quite sure where it's going to come from. But know that it will happen. Right? This is science. The second principle persuasion is scarcity. Now, this is one that marketers have been using for a long time. So I don't need to go into too much detail here. But scarcity is something that when used ethically does work. So limited time offer, like limited availability. You see this all the time with shoes, Nike Adidas. You know, they release a certain amount. They get everyone fired up and there is a sense of scarcity. So what it does is it artificially increases interest or what we know today as FOMO. There's this big fear of missing out. This is at its root scarcity. And when used ethically, it can be effective. My warning here is don't like have a limited time sell. If you're just going to turn around to sell in a couple of weeks or don't say that, like this is the last chair on the floor. And then as soon as it sells, like you put another one out, this is not ethical. And this stuff will come back to hurt you in the long run with your brand credibility. Principal persuasion number three, authority. Now this is another one that we've seen skyrocket in the digital age because it's all about like personal brands, thought leadership, authority. Think about it like this on your website. What types of awards, recognitions, credentials can you post to convey the fact that you are an authority in your space? These are the types of things I want you to think about. If you're BBB accredited business, throw that seal on your website. If you write for Forbes, share that, share that on your social media. The thing is you want to get out in the market that you are an authority in your space. And here's another one. If you really are the authority in your space, in your niche, then here's what you need to have. You need to have high ranking articles, high ranking videos. Anytime somebody searches for something pertaining to your industry, anytime someone has a question or an FAQ, you be the one to pop up. You be the one to put that content on the web and make sure that it's relevant and that it's informative. The number four principle of persuasion is consistency. The idea is to get small commitments first. So back in the day, a landing page was like 30, I'm sorry, a form was like 30 or 40 questions. Like, and it's immediately like you land on that page and you look at that form and you'd say, not today, I don't have time for this. Get small commitments first. So what have we done like in developing how we change that behavior in terms of form development? Exactly. Email. Let me get your email first. Okay, now submit next page. Let me get your name and address. Okay, next page. Let me ask you this question and this question. And it's not until step five or six that you ask for credit card information or something like that. And the reason why is because number one, you're getting small commitments first. If I put in my email and press submit and then I put in my name and address and press submit and I'm two or three steps into the process, I am more likely to complete that form than I would have been if I had just gone to that page and seen like the entire form, right? Small commitments first. Another way to highlight consistency in human behavior is to highlight their past behavior. So you've had a customer purchase from you, highlight that behavior, praise that behavior. This is one way to invoke the principle of consistency. Principle of persuasion number five is liking. Now you've heard the phrase that people buy from those that they trust, people buy from those that they know and people buy from those that they like. Okay, this is a super powerful principle of persuasion, the principle of liking. And let me let you in on a little secret. People like people that they see frequently. So if you're in sales, what do you do? You show up, you go back over and over and over again. And I'm not talking about knocking on doors, but I'm talking about being in places where you can be seen engaging and being part of the group, right? Being part of the group is important because it shows a shared interest. A big part of this principle of liking is shared interest. So engage like on LinkedIn, LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, engage in these conversations, be somebody that people recognize. And if they recognize you, then they are more likely to like you. And that's powerful. And finally, the sixth principle of persuasion, consensus. And this is exactly what it sounds like. It's social proof, it's testimonials, it's case studies, it's all of these things that you know that you need to do. Because when somebody else is singing your praises, that is very convincing for your potential buyer. So what have we done at SLAM? We just, we just asked our clients to say, hey, can you come into the office or can you, you know, to shoot a video to just let us ask you a couple of questions about your experience working with SLAM? Or can you send us a short clip from wherever you are in the world? And just share your experience. Like there's no right or wrong answer. We already know that we've invested in the client and that their response is always going to lift us up. So we just say, make a few minutes for a testimonial video and let us share that. And if you go to our website, you'll see what our clients are saying about us. It's pretty powerful stuff. It's powerful because it provides consensus. You see people exactly like you in the positions that you're in working with us. And then you say to yourself, okay, if that guy who I look up to, or that girl, that marketing director, that manager, that, that VP of marketing at this company that I look up to, if they've had a good experience with SLAM and they're working with SLAM and they continue to work with SLAM, and all they can do is just say amazing things about this company, then maybe I should give them a shot. Maybe I should pick up the phone. Maybe I should go to SLAMagency.com and click the free consultation button. Why? Because of their experience. This is the principle of consensus and it is super powerful. How do you get there? Well, you can't make it up. You have to do good work. You have to execute. You have to fulfill your promises, deliver on expectations, and then just ask, ask people for the testimonial. So these are the six principles of persuasion from Dr. Robert Cialdini, University of Arizona. We have utilized these in our business, and I highly encourage you to use them in your business. Thank you for tuning in. If you're listening on a podcast network, be sure to subscribe, rate, and review. These are very important things to help us to continue to get in front of more people just like you. And, you know, if this is something that you're interested in, you're not quite sure if you're hitting it on all cylinders, reach out. Like I said, SLAMagency.com, click the free consultation button. If you do that, it comes directly to me and I will reach out to you and we'll have a phone call. All right? Thank you for tuning in. I'll see you next week.