Non conscious motivations Review (Review of the Cialdini's first 4 theories of persuation)

Hello everyone!
During my first degree days studying marketing, I was told about the split brain theory and it’s operations. We might be familiar with the popular theory that says the brain is split into two parts, namely the right and the left brain. The right brain is known for emotions,art, creativity, visuals,etc, while the left brain deals with the rationality, reasoning, speech and math logic,etc.

In reality,it is much more complex than that. Every decision making seems to involve various parts of the brain and nothing is particularly happening in a certain part of the brain alone.

Scientists have left the popular 3 brain theory alone too. This theory groups the brain into 3 district parts namely, the lizard/instinctive brain,the emotional and logical brain. It can also be a useful shorthand but not the full idea. People use it atimes to explain that the brain is both conscious and unconscious.

Also, looking at the elephant and the rider metaphor by Jonathan Haidith. He explained that our brain’s duality is likened to an elephant with a rider at the top. The elephant representing 99% of the movement responsibility,while the rider has just a partly 1%. The rider (rational man) cannot control the elephant because it has a mind of its own. But he can reduce frictions om the path by clearing it. The frictions brands should take note of is in cognitive load ( factors that makes learning harder or distractions that arouses the system 1 brain).

Everyone behaves according to a motivational push.From our choice of clothes to wear,to the food and music we subscribe to, to our friends and every other decision that we make. In this week’s post, I’ll be using the Robert Cialdini’s principles of persuation to buttress my points when I talk of non conscious behaviors.

Cialdini’s principles of influence in the world
In the real world, certain behavioral models are no longer applicable. Some postulations have become baseless due to improved models and experiments. The 6 persuation principles by cialdini can be explained below;

LIKING
To form the liking effect, you need to show the attributes you share with your customers. Once you have discovered the personas of your target market,you need to position your business to fit their preferences. As a business person,in your official website,take note of the following ways to boost the liking effect;
1. Always make sure every graphic used resonates with your brand.
2. Don’t bury your liking cues where customers will not find them. Prominent places like the landing page, and homepage need to have your liking cues.In a broader sense,it is a real waste of time to generate fantastic ideas only to hide them from obvious locations.
3. Flattery: not everyone likes flattery. Once excessively done, we believe it becomes annoying. But guess what? Studies show that when you flatter someone,they will like you more and remember you more. This effect seems to work even when it is insincere. Man has the ability to perceive undeserved flattery,but we unconsciously remember it more and would most likely like the action implicitly.

SOCIAL PROOF
The truth is that almost all marketers use the socal proof principle because of the realization that there is safety in numbers. Many atimes,man is skewed towards following the bandwagon. The reason for the safety proof is to show that others are subscribing to your offering. According to Angie schottmuller, when we encounter am anxiety or a fear, we instinctively look to the to the behavior of others for a better decision making. People trust strangers 12× more than to be description on websites.
Amplifying your social cues
1. Use precise numbers: about 12,000 is vague. If the numbers are 11,836, make sure to use it like that without approximation. People would likely be moved when they see realistic numbers. They'll know it's less likely to be inflated.
2. Use photos or videos: psychologists believe that it enhances the truthiness ( coined word to describe credibility and worthiness) . They can be used in recommendations, social media followership and engagement, testimonials on websites,etc. Adding a photo or video also humanizes your social proof.
3. Express your social Proof in emotional language: the choice of words used is very important. "Many people prefer our service" is better than "many people like our service". We must be mindful of the terms used so as to communicate the right intentions.
According to Roger Dooley,a research was carried out to know the best social proof strategy to use in a website. The site used was HostGator( popular web hosting firm). Social proof is meant to flatten the frictions emanating from cognitive load in a website. Eye Tracking was used in this research to see the most effective. Below shows the ranking from the most effective to the least relevant;
A. Press mentions with logo and short quotes.
B. Testimonials with logos.
C. High profile client logos.
D. Low profile client logos.
E. Press mentions with logo only.
F. Low social following
G. High social following
H. Testimonoals without photos.
The result is not a 100% recommendation because of many flaws. First it tested only the level of engagement and not liking or preference (because eye gazing might likely be a cognitive load too). And also, a different result may emanate if it is a product site.
The main take-home from the research is that the top strategies from the list have over time, demonstrated their usefulness due to the presence in the top websites of the world.
Conversely, the social proof principle does not work in few places. In luxury and status goods or services. Here, people want to be unique and it would be a big disadvantage to know that other 3p thousand people also subscribe to the same thing as them. Some other key influencers like celebrities and authority can help you drive out your message.

AUTHORITY
Social proof and authority falls on a continuum. In social proof,I wrote about people similar to you,in their numbers, with individual testimonials, while authority has to do with expert opinion and testimonials,or celebrity recommendations. Clothing can speak volumes to people and same with environment too. Subjects wearing laboratory coats appear to be smarter and credible in their field. Adding titles, clothing, awards,on celebrities can be influencial on people.

RECIPROCACITY
This is not a quid pro quo (I'll do it for you if you do it for me). You have to do something without asking for anything in return a small favour of value can significantly trigger a large return. Jeff Walker's product launch formula state that we should give,give,give then sell. When we give people value without asking for anything I return,we are more likely to make them indebted to us.

COMMITMENT AND CONSISTENCY
The moral of this is that you should ask for small favours before going for the big kill. Because it establishes consistency. "Hey,take our quiz" is better than "mind taking our survey?" . If they eventually sign up for the quiz,use a skillful tactic to mix the questions with the panned survey. The CTA button at the end should be customized to show something like "Check your quiz results"( remember to ask for their mail before this). According to Snapbox(wwho has done eye tracking NEUROMARKETING), if people are presented with a long form to fill, they'll usually scroll down to see it's difficulty level. If they find any hard part, they'll often linger(maybe passing through some processing activity or cognitive load) before deciding if to go ahead with the form or leave immediately. The trick to keep them is to make the forms in small steps so as to trigger the commitment and Consistency principle. Remember to make your CTA button dual (one with opt in while the other to opt out).

Other strategies Includes scarcity and unity.
The CXL institute's mini degree in digital psychology and persuation has helped me alot for the past 5 weeks. I am totally enjoying every bit of lessons learned so far. I would be integrating all I have learned into a new project(fortmedia.biz) soonest. Thank you Pep Raja and the amazing team of tutor's.

See you next week.#STAY SAFE