Secrets of powerful communicators: Influencers 6-10

In our previous article, we looked at five persuasive techniques that advanced communicators use to influence us. Today we look at another five.

Firstly, there’s social role expectations. Try this: place someone in an environment, in a role you have asked them to play but they don’t necessarily have experience in playing. Very often they will perform in that role above expectation. Similarly, telling someone that they are ‘good’ and following up with a positive request has the desired effect.

As Andrews, Van Leeuwin and Van Baaren say, “John, you are an intelligent and conscientious person; I know you will work hard at finishing this task on time.”

Social role expectations are seen all the time on social media: the Instagram influencer who attempts to convince you that you need to buy the product they are hawking, adverts from manufacturers who want you to see yourself in the advert, performing the acts of ‘derring do’, bravery or care. There’s a classic series of ads for a chocolate milk in France that show a bearded ‘manly-man’ walking out of a forest with a whole tree on his shoulders, roots and all, or sitting in a chair and relaxing with a lit flamethrower in his arms. Whilst over the top, the ads amusingly tap in to the male psyche that says if they were a real man they would drink chocolate milk too.

Social role expectations: you’ll find social media full of ads tapping into this powerful influencer.

Secondly, there’s social proof. Humans are social animals; even though we believe ourselves to be individuals and beholden to only our own needs, in fact we are social animals and always have been, from caveman days upwards. We have always depended on others to survive, and it turns out we equally value others’ opinions. Especially if we are unsure of our own thoughts on the matter.

So how can we use social proof? The easiest and most effective way is to say that ‘90% of X do/buy/prefer Y’. Simples. Slightly less effective, but still powerful, are statements like, ‘Nearly X% prefer/buy/choose’ or ‘The majority of people.’

Here’s something from a spam email I received recently: ‘However, content can mean big money for your business. In fact, as per data from CMI, 72% of marketers say that content has increased the number of leads that they generate.’

Bonus tip: always add in a number. So, for example, ‘Doctors recommend Marlboro Red cigarettes’ is a powerful influencing statement, but not nearly as powerful as ‘20,679 doctors recommend Marlboro Red cigarettes.’ Are you smarter than 20,679 doctors? Probably not, so the statement works to influence you. Powerful stuff.

Third, there’s guarantees. I guarantee that you’ll love this video… or your money back! The fact that the video is free is irrelevant, the fact that I’ve included a guarantee adds to the positive feelings I’m hoping to generate in you.

Guarantees make you feel that the product or service in question is high quality—otherwise why would the seller attach a costly guarantee to it?

And let us not forget that humans are essentially lazy. If you offer a 90-day guarantee, the chances are high that most customers will forget when the guarantee expires and just hold onto the product. And direct marketing experience tells us that the longer the guarantee period, the less likely people are to return it. That’s why you see claims on the internet and emails with an ‘unlimited guarantee—you can return it to us for no reason, no questions asked.’ The guarantee gives us confidence that if we don’t like it we can return it and we have not lost in the deal. The unlimited guarantee gives us further confidence. But if only we weren’t so lazy and didn’t throw away the invoice…

Remember, the more explicit, clear and strong a guarantee is, the better it works.

Fourth, there is this:

“It is amazing how complete the delusion that beauty is goodness.”

This was said not by a famous ad man, but writer Leo Tolstoy. There is a very well-known truism in psychology that attractiveness equates to trustworthiness. Beautiful people lead a beautiful, charmed life because either they are charming, or the people around them want to help them, sometimes for base reasons.

And the ‘Halo’ effect means that when a product or service is ‘peopled’ by someone attractive, we tend to sling a halo of ‘goodness’ around both the person and the product or service they are representing. See someone attractive, fit and lithe advertising active wear and we are more likely to buy the product than if we see the average lumpy person in those clothes. Ladies, have you ever noticed that advertisers often use medium-sized models to advertise plus-sized clothes? The same principle is at play. Even babies as young as six months show a preference for attractive faces.

Lesson? Use attractive people or animals if you want to attract the most positive responses.

And finally, there’s humour. Humour is attention grabbing. It runs the risk of being dismissed by the recipient of the communication (‘Who would take this guy seriously?’) but equally if the ad is clever and allows the recipient to ‘get’ the joke after a brief period of working it out, the aforementioned Halo Effect leads to positive feels being associated with the product or service.

When you have customers who are being asked to make a quick decision (they are strolling past your shop, for example), they will spontaneously choose the shop using humour over the shop not using humour. He who laughs is defenceless… well, almost. But she who laughs lowers her defences and is easier to communicate with, which is why a third of all adverts attempt to be humorous.

Conclusion

Well, there you are, five more ways of persuading the recipients of your communication efforts to buy your stuff. I hope this and the previous video/post have been helpful. There’s more to come, so follow me on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Until next time, take some communication risks, because you never know what will pay off, and always… communicate with passion!