PERSUASION ARCHITECTURE7 Principles of Persuasion to Apply to

Your Online Marketing Messaging/Copy

A Persuasion Labs™ Presentation

Traditionally, we’ve understood the way we organize information to be

information architecture.

(Simply put.)

PERSUASION ARCHITECTURE

takes that further.

It’s about applying proven principles of persuasion to the layout (e.g., wireframes)

and messaging of websites.

Good Web Messaging to Date

• “What’s in it for me?”

• Benefits first, features second

• Break it up (chunking)

• Use bullets and bolding

• Create a hierarchy

• Clever/Creative vs. clear

THE IDEA:Make content usable to make it easier for users to read our messages

Still GREAT

Newfangled Messaging Adds

• Highlight words (as with a highlighter pen)

• Increase font sizes

• Capitalize headlines

• Mix up fonts

• Use a “ragged right”

AWESOME, too

…But we can actually convince users to click with

persuasive messaging as a part of

persuasion architecture.

The 7 Principles of Persuasion:An Introduction to How to Persuade Consumers

7 Principles of Persuasion

1. Reciprocity2. Authority3. Commitment/

Consistency

4. Scarcity5. Liking6. Compromise7. Social Proof

Based on extensive research by behavioral psychologists, social psychologists and decision researchers, including:

Robert B. Cialdini, PhDNoah J. Goldstein, PhD

Steve J. MartinNeil Martin, PhD

RECIPROCITYWhen someone does you a favor

(does something nice for you), you feel obligated to return the favor.

AUTHORITYWe look to experts for guidance

as we make our decisions.

COMMITMENT/CONSISTENCYWe make commitments and

have values. And we want to act consistently with both of those.

SCARCITYYou can’t have it… so you want it.

LIKINGThe more we like people,

the more we want to say yes to them.

COMPROMISEWhen given multiple options,

we assess our needs vs. wants and choose in the middle.

SOCIAL PROOFWe look to what others do to guide our own decisions and

behavior.

Some PROOF That These Principles Actually Persuade

Give a Coke. Get a sale.

A man was in a room with another man. He left the room and came back with a can of Coke for himself and the other man. Later, he asked the man if he wanted to buy some raffle tickets.

RESULT:People who received a Coke ended up

buying 50% more raffle tickets than those who didn’t get one.

Reciprocity

Expensive helps persuade.

Williams Sonoma carried just one inexpensive bread-maker. Then they introduced a more expensive one… and sales of the less expensive one nearly doubled.

TAKEAWAY:People make “compromise

choices”. So putting an expensive product next to the

one you actually want to sell can help increase sales.

(Conversely: Good luck selling expensive if it’s next to

cheap!)

119.95 199.95

Compromise

Well, if everyone’s doing it…Decision researchers ran a test in a hotel room. One card

read, “Please be kind to the environment and reuse your towels.” The other read, “89% of our guests reuse their towels.” The second message resulted in a 26% increase in participation.

TAKEAWAY:Even though people say

they’ll act based on one message, they

may actually act based on social ‘pressure’.

SocialProof

Why Can People Be So Easily Persuaded?

The power of habit

• 95% of the actions we take every day are based on habit– We think consciously about just 5% of our

decisions (using our “executive mind”)– We don’t actually process thoughts for each

of our decisions

• People depend on routine & automatic behaviors to survive (which is why you don’t remember details of your

drive to work every morning)

So, when the usual signs are right, we trust that we’re doing the right thing.

Getting those signs right is where persuasion messaging & architecture

comes in.

NEXTApply these 7 principles (and additional learnings) ethically to your messaging & layouts to maximize

persuasion opportunity.

(Watch for a PPT on that on SlideShare.net soon.)

LANCE JONES, Senior Web ConsultantJOANNA WIEBE, Senior Copy Consultant

Call us in North America at 778-430-1811