Welcome to the 23nd edition of the Influence Insights newsletter.

In today's newsletter you discover 3 powerful ideas all research backed that can transform your influence success at business and personal lives.

3 Ideas of Influence & Persuasion

Lets today learn how Small changes such as 1 word/question/sentence can make BIG wins possible in our persuasion effort

In this edition we cover more of how social proof works across multiple areas!!

1

What 6700 A/B tests revealed about website conversions

In 2017 Browne & Swabrick-Jones conducted one of the biggest A/B tests on the e-commece sites to the test the effectiveness of various features..

The 29 features to be evaluated ranged from purely technological (such as presence or absence of search function, a back-to-top button, and default settings) to the motivational (such as free delivery, product badging, and CTA's).

What surprised the researchers was the the biggest winners from analysis all have grounding in behavioural psychology.

Among the 29 features, top 6 features that resulted in increase of website conversion are, aspects of principles of influence

These are,

1.Scarcity: We say Yes to opportunities that are limited (Ex;Highlighting items low in stock)

2.Social proof: We say Yes to those around us like and do ( Ex: Describing most popular and trending items)

3.Urgency: using time limits, often with a countdown timer

4.Concessions: Offering discounts for visitors to stay on the site

5.Authority/Expertise: We say if trustworthy experts recommend (Ex: Informing visitors of alternative products that are available)

6.Liking: We say Yes to people we like (Ex: Including a welcoming message)

Since 2017 the exact way the message delivered might have changed but the underlying principles on human response haven't changed.

For anyone seeking to get more YES the principles of influences are always best weapons.

Do fear persuade or does it paralyse?

Fear is common form used by many to make others take action! But does fear really helps persaude or instead paralyze the decison making?

For the most part, research has demonstrated that fear-arousing communications usually stimulate recipients to take actions to reduce the threat.

This general rule has one important exception, however: when the fear-producing message describes danger but the recipients are not told of clear, specific, effective means of reducing the danger, they may deal with the fear by ‘blocking out’ the message or denying that it applies to them.

As a consequence, they may indeed be paralysed into taking no action at all.

This finding helps explain why it’s important to accompany high-fear messages with specific recommendations for actions that will reduce the danger:

Th more clearly people see behavioural means of ridding themselves of the fear, the less they will need to resort to psychological means such as denial.

These findings can be applied to business and beyond.

Let's consider 3 common examples,

1.Advertising campaigns that inform potential customers of the threats that your company’s goods or services can alleviate should always be accompanied by clear, specific and effective steps they can take to reduce the danger.

Simply scare-mongering customers into believing that your product or service can help with a potential problem might have the opposite effect, cementing them into inaction.

2. Another implication of this research is that if you happen to spot a particularly serious problem in a large-scale project undertaken by your organisation, you would be wise to accompany your statements to management with at least one plan of action the organisation could take to avert the possible disaster.

If you decide that you will tell management first and then generate a plan later, by the time you and your co-workers have developed a plan, management may have already found ways to block out the message or refuse to admit that it applies to that particular project.

3. A physician or nurse who wishes to persuade an overweight patient to lose weight and exercise more should focus that patient on the potential dangers of failing to lose weight, but only if they then follow up that message with some clear, straightforward steps the patient can take to do so – perhaps in the form of a specific diet and a set of exercises.

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3

Which office item can make your influence stick?

You want to get some survey filled from your office team. Earlier messages to e-mail communication hasn't got a response you desire. So you want to try something new, what is the best way?

This was test done as below,The survey was accompanied by either

(a) a handwritten sticky note requesting completion of the survey, which was attached to a cover letter;

(b) a similar handwritten message on the cover letter; or

(c) the cover letter and survey alone..

That little yellow square packed quite a persuasive punch:

more than 75% of the people who received the survey with the sticky-note request filled it out and returned it,

whereas only 48% of the second group and

36% of the third group did so.

But what made it work?

Could it be the simple fact that sticky notes are attention-grabbing in all their neon glory?

Garner suggests that people do recognise the extra effort and personal touch that this requires, and they feel the need to reciprocate this personal touch by agreeing to the request.

After all, reciprocity is the social glue that helps bring and keep people together in cooperative relationships – and you can bet that it’s a stronger adhesive than the kind you find on the back of a sticky note..

2 Quotes of Others

• “We will use the actions of others to decide on proper behavior for ourselves, especially when we view those others as similar to ourselves.”
• “What we present first changes the way people experience what we present to them next.”

1 Question for You

● What is the best way you like to learn persusion? Is free self learning course, book, webinar or live training. Reply here..

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Best regards,

From,

Krishna G

GrowthAspire Academy For Cialdini Influence & Persuasion

P.S: Want to understand impact of AI on communication. Click here to join prompt engineering skills to master persuasion using AI​