Part of my research on influence and persuasion is detailing how a small to medium sized business or training program could apply influence lessons to their products and marketing plans to increase their profitability.
Here are a series of way in which you could evaluate a business to see how they are operating within the 6 areas of social influence and persuasion:
Authority
- How many years has the organization been around for?
- How long as the current offering or product been in place?
- How many times is your web domain linked to (Using Yahoo Site Explorer Numbers)
- What was the size of your program in terms of total revenue? Whether this was disclosed or not it is an objective sign of how well established your group is and will reflect how many word of mouth opportunities are out there. If you are evaluating a non-profit you may look at their 990 form filings for past information on these areas.
- How many participants took part in the program in 2006 and 2007? This objective number is a sign of authority in terms of word of mouth presense, referrals and status as viewed by potential participants.
- How many books has the top 5 professionals of the organization published? These infer authority status and create a sense of reciprocation from those who have read the book.
- What is the pagerank of the homepage of the main website for the organization?
- How many pages of content from your website are indexed on Google?
- Does the website refer to the training program offers as THE program for the industry or the Status Quo of what employers in the field now look for?
- Do at least 2 of the 3 leaders or founders of the organization hold a strong or respected title within the industry? Something such as CEO - Principal, Partners, etc.
- Does the team of the organization convey a sense of "large" or "over-sized" In other words do the pictures make the individuals themselves look tall or authoratitive in some way? (P. 191 Influence) Does the team look very broad and well experienced? These points are important an conveying value and authority (p. 191 Influence)
Scarcity
- How often does your firm present "Top 10 ideas" Top 3 Most Popular Strategies" or "The 4 Worst Ways to Market Your Business." In other words how do you use sales copy or words to engage prospects and position your firm as having both unique scarce information while also positioning yourself as having scare knowledge which could be useful to those visiting the website.
- Does your firm explicitly eliminate thoughts of loss which could be felt by individuals when they are preparing to register for your product or service? For example - no questions asked money back guarantee of some type or something similar?
- Does your firm explicitly state what the individual could lose by not purchasing your service or product? For example do you state something like Bose when they said, "Listen to what you have been missing."
- How many other programs offer the same service or training program?
- Does the program use the words "exclusive" "only" "limited" "#1" "industry leading" within their marketing materials?
- Does the training program limit enrollment each year or period?
- Does the training program limit enrollment based on years of experience or other qualifications such as a certain type of degree.
- Does the certification training program have a pass rate of less than 75% - makes graduating from the program relatively scarce.
- Is your product offering or training program offered in a way which creates and explicitly discusses the competition among individuals who apply for the program?
- More coming soon...
Reciprocation
- Does your firm offer consistent or widely used - genuinely valuable thought leadership and/or "how to" articles within industry publications such as magazines, blogs and email newsletters?
- Does your firm offer a free download, trial product offer or free tool which could be widely used and in exchange provide value to someone with no expectation of anything in return. Is it offered before anyone has registered, provided their email address or paid for something?
- Does your firm offer additional free resources for individuals which are un-expected after someone has "opted-in" with their email address or paid for their first product?
- Does your firm offer free-to-attend networking events which genuinely benefit your target clients? Do you promote these and offer them to those which your firm has never worked with in the past?
- Free speaking engagements provided by the firm? Do representatives speak at schools, events, conferences and workshops?
- 4 more coming soon...
Social Proof
- How many industry expert quotes or testimonials do you have presented on your website? How many direct endorsements does your firm have from that small group of 10-20 professionals who are THE experts within your space?
- Does your firm cut your prospect base up into 3-5 or possibly 7 different types of individuals? Do you then ensure that you have 2-3 testimonials from individuals within different situations from each of these client bases? Do you target these bases and provide them with customized testimonials which would be most similar to their situation? 99% of the time the answer is no.
- Does your firm provide statistics on what individuals are doing right now - in terms of signing up for a service or product while also then describing what individuals have done in the past? Have you stressed how many thousands of individuals have registered for your product?
- Does the website show heavy use? Traffic stats? Does the website show how many people sign up for the email newsletter or some source of mass interaction or popularity?
- Does the company make explicit claims of either being overhwlemed with inquiries or being very busy with leads or interested parties? Is this stated or shown in some very obvious way?
- 4 more coming soon...
Liking
- Does your firm use images of attractive individuals, objects or places of nature? These associations help instill positive attributes with your products and services.
- Does your firm offer a personal view of who is on the management team, advisory board and customer service team? Do you offer stories which could be typical within the industry so that a number of individuals will find them similar to themselves? In other words do you write personable bios on yourself or rigid ivory tower accreditation details?
- How accessible is your team? Do you have a "call now" button? Chat now? Any type of instant access to communicating with your team?
- Does your firm offer pictures of the management team or advisory board?
- 5 more coming soon...
Commitment and Consistency
- To what degree does your company create a mystery or puzzle within a single discussion, blog post or resource which you offer? How does your firm engage users who are visiting your website or reading a piece of thought leadership? Once someone gets hooked by a puzzle they feel a need to complete the process and are compelled to be consistent and complete the process.
- Does your firm take "two steps" for your clients? If there are 10 steps to completing a program or purchasing your product how does your organization take these first two steps for the consumer? Do you make a user feel as if they already have momentum towards working with your organization?
- Does your firm have barriers to becoming engaged? Can someone visit your website and read about what others are saying, contribute to a conversation or comment upon a story or opinion on a relevant event in the industry or on your product? Interaction creates a sense of ownership and increases the likelihood that someone will revisit the website and participate again at some point in the future.
- Does your firm explicitly call upon a past action which a potential client has taken to create a sense of commitment or consistency? To make a call to action based on their past actions or on the person "being the type which would" want to take the desired action?
- Does the firm operate on a regular schedule? Regular events or product openings or service offerings?
- Are there regular points of communication with everyone who is a current member or opt-in subscriber to your firm's products?
- Does the firm regularly publish press releases?
- Does the firm regularly have a booth or speaking presence at industry conferences?
- Has the firm kept the same name and logo combination for a period of at least 4 years?
- 1 more coming soon...
Tags: Influence and Persuasion Factors, Persuasion Influence Factors, guide to managerial influence and persuasion, influence and persuasion applications, applying influence lessons to business
