This ones another topic I've learned about during my course Communication and Multimedia Design. Let's dive in!
TL;DR
Cialdini has created 7 principles that can be used to persuade the user into doing what you want.
1. Reciprocity: Give someone something, so they want to give something in return
2. Commitment/Consistency: Once they've taken the first step, they feel obliged to continue.
3. Social Proof: We look to others to decide what to do.
4. Authority: We're more likely to listen to people with authority.
5. Liking: You'll be more easy to persuade when you like something.
6. Scarcity: Did you know you only have 30 minutes to buy this?
7. Unity: We're sheep. We are more likely to participate when we feel included.
Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, heres the meat:
Who's Cialdini?
Robert Cialdini is an American psychologist who is an expert in the science of influence and how to apply it (ethically) in business. He's the man that came up with these principles that, once you're aware of them, will find everywhere.
The seven key principles of persuasion
Cialdini sectioned the influence strategies into seven categories.
1. Reciprocity
This principle is pretty similar to Hijack nr.5 Social Reciprocity by Tristan Harris as I've described in this blog post. What it means is that we as humans feel obliged to do or give something in return when someone does the same for us. This means that when a company gives you a little something like a free trail or discount, you're more likely to continue using their product.
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The above example is from Rive which offers a free version of their product. It allows you to use their product and get a taste of what it has to offer. By doing this, you're more likely to eventually start paying for it.
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The next example is from Storyblok which offers a free trail. Giving you the full experience for a limited time. Again, making you more likely to buy their product because you've got to test it beforehand.
2. Commitment/Consistency
Once you've started on something, you're more likely to finish the job.
Say you have an online form.
The form has nearly a hundred questions! When you put all those questions on one page, the user is way less likely to actually fill in the form as they can clearly see that its gonna take them a long time.
If you instead break up the form in smaller sections, say, multiple pages, the form looks like a lot less effort. Especially if you're a little vague about the amount of questions(use a percentage instead of set number). By the time the user notices how long the form is gonna take to fill in, they've already committed to filling it in.
3. Social Proof
This principle is pretty similar to Hijack nr. 4 of Tristan Harris' Mind Hijacks. We as humans are heavily influenced by our peers. We are unsure of ourselves and look for validation in others.
Think about it, how often have you been shopping for a product and paused to look at the reviews? Finding out about what others think of a product is a big factor of wether or not we will buy something.
Lets look at some examples:
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The above is a screenshot of a product sold at Belsimpel. You can see that the product has several ratings. 4,5 stars(Stars are very common so something we tend to look at immediately), 9,2 rating out of 10, and 121 verified reviews.
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Rive does this as well by showing a list of reviews on their home page. They even include names and pictures to make it feel more personal.
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Tweakers does it as well with the two above examples. The first shows the users how much they can "trust" the different stores, and the second adds a label to products to show how well reviewed they are. There is of course a source of truth in there, but It wouldn't surprise me if there has been some shady business here and there. Especially with the first example.
4. Authority
Trust the advice of experts(?).
We're more likely to trust the opinions of people we look up to. People with status and/or degrees. A good example is the typical toothpaste ad in which they say that 9 our of 10 dentists recommend their product. Well, when a dentist, someone who's studied in dental hygiene, recommends that toothpaste, it must be a good product, right?
Some goes for tech sites. For example a framework that is being used by big companies such as Google or Microsoft.
Some examples:
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Bol.com has "expert reviews".
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Householdquotes shows their team and what they're experts in.
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Storybook does it as well, showing the different large companies that use their product.
5. Liking
We tend to say yes to those that we like. An example given in this article is a website about pet relocation that has a "About us" page which lets the user sympathise with the crew who, conveniently, like pets!
By making the user like your product, they're more likely to use it.
Another example is the way a service presents itself to you. Look at Coolbue:
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They use a specific language to look more approachable and likeable by their target audience.
6. Scarcity
Scarcity is my favourite principle out of the seven as it's one you'll come across very often.
By making the user feel like they have to hurry to buy something, conversion goes up. If you tell them there's only 2 products left in stock, 5 people have the product in their shopping card, and the sale is ending in 15 minutes, they'll feel like they have to purchase NOW before their chance slips away.
By doing that, you stop the user from taking time to think about what they're going to buy, thus decreasing the chance of them deciding against it.
Some examples:
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Socialdeal does this by adding a countdown of the remaining time until the deal dissapears.
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Amazon does it by letting you know its a limited time deal. But for how long? Better to order quickly before its gone!
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Same with Koopjedeal
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Bol.com does it by letting you know that if you order it before 23:59, you'll get your purchase tomorrow!
7. Unity
The last principle is Unity. We like to feel like we belong in a group. Its pretty similar to the Social Proof principle but this one's more about belonging in a group or community instead. So by creating a "together" feeling, the user is more likely to work along.
Examples are an online community or memberships.
Conclusion
Once you're aware of these principles, you're sure to see them more often. Lets look at a full example:
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There are several principles to find in here. Which ones do you see?