At some point, you must have wondered how businesses in the same industry are at different levels at the same point of time, how one of the businesses win more clients and become a market leader and the rest are competitors. So, what makes an organization literally stand out from the rest? How are industry leaders created?
It all comes down to different strategies and techniques that an organization employs to improve their efficiency and increase their sales. Of course factors such as luck and charisma along with economic power are integral to success, psychology also plays an important role.
You will be surprised to know how important a role psychology plays when you want to get more clients. The science of persuasion is an integral part of any business, and the market leaders know it better more than anyone else.
People have the ability to influence others and motivate them. Marketers too have to power to capture leads, influence them by nurturing and finally motivating them to purchase their products.
As a marketer, you must be aware of marketing automation technology. It helps you to automate most marketing tasks and impart a higher level of personalization when it comes to customer relationships. If you combine the science of persuasion with the technology of marketing automation, you will be able to create an indomitable system that will ensure that you win clients all the time.
Here are 5 principles of persuasion, and how you can use marketing automation to apply them in your organization.
#1: Commitment and Consistency
Human beings like consistency. Consistency breeds a level of commitment towards something. When it comes to taking a decision, humans have to consider prior commitments. The basic logic behind this principle is to show that your business has a consistent attitude and exhibits a high level of commitment when it comes to treating customers. When someone is publicly committed to something or someone, that person tends to continue doing so. This, in turn, gives them consistency. Not only that, people always come back to companies who provide consistent service that shows their level of commitment.
With marketing automation, you can utilize the high level of personalization high level of personalization that it provides to build consistency as well as commitment. Be consistent in your approach. Never send more than the number of emails that you promised to send to your subscriber every month, do not send offers that are not applicable to the subscriber or in other words, do not be inconsistent. Chalk out a pattern and follow it. Your subscribers in India do not want offers that have dollar values displayed in them, they want the prices to reflect the values in Indian Rupees.
Use this same concept of consistency to re-target cold leads, leads that once showed interest in your products and services. By the principle of consistency, this is correct even from the marketer’s point of view. It is better to spend your marketing budget on leads that once showed interest than on leads that are complete strangers.
Marketing automation’s automation features help you maintain consistency, thus building that level of commitment over time.
#2: Social Proof
Human psychology dictates that people often make a decision by gathering evidence or social proof. In other words, they take a logical decision to follow what other people are doing. For example, if you need to buy a pair of shoes and you arrive at a shopping mall, will you be buying shoes from the overcrowded shoe-shop on the third floor or from the empty one on the first floor?
It does not matter if the shoes are bad on the third floor, you will go there because it seems like they are doing good business. People do this all the time.
When we feel uncertain about something we always seek assurance in the form of such proof or evidence. We tend to follow trends, and in this instance, the sales pitch is based on collective approval.
With marketing automation, you can give your leads access to client testimonials that will lead them to a buying decision. You can encourage clients to leave feedback on different social media channels, which will lead to more testimonials in different areas of the internet. New visitors can check that out whenever they visit your social media page or account.
However, when it comes to testimonials, do use the power of segmentation well. A lead who is a small-sized company does not want to read a testimonial from a client who is a large organization. This is because it will be difficult for a small-sized company to relate to the review of the large company. Their requirements are vastly different, but your product can cater to both. However, without knowing that, the smaller one will look for another alternative, often landing up at your competitor’s doorstep.
Make sure that your leads get the appropriate testimonials to understand the level of service you provide. The right reviews will always bring in more business.
#3: Likeability
Another extremely visible trait of humans is the ability to be influenced easily by a person who they like. As humans, we are more likely to do something that a friend says rather than what a stranger advises us to do. This is simply because you like your friend more than a random stranger.
Similarly customers will buy from a company that they trust as well as like. You need to create a presence that your target audience likes, so that the next time they buy a product, they buy it from you.
With a marketing automation platform you can form a strategy and create a buyer persona, or an ideal buyer. You can focus on creating a worldwide social media presence with the help of dynamic content. In turn, you can get access to more information from your visitors, leads and existing customers. Creating a buyer persona will ultimately help you understand what your clients want. When you provide your clients with the things that they like, they will soon start liking your brand. In the long run, you will have a bigger client base simply because you are catering to their tastes and preferences.
More than anything else, you need to remember that customers should be able to relax and feel at home while interacting with you, to make them like you more. You have to be like your customer, for your customer to like you back.
#4: Authority
People, in general, have a tendency to follow figures of authority without any question. When you feel unsure about buying anything, you will always look up for reviews. Will you be looking at the best reviewer out there, or will you be going by what any random reviewer says on the internet? Often at times, brands use influencers, famous personalities, sportsperson, or actors to promote their products. This helps people to identify with the brand better and make a purchase due to that influencer.
When it comes to marketing automation, there is another such influencer, also known as dynamic content. Dynamic content is nothing but content that changes depending on the visitor. This often helps us influence our decisions because we see that a website is catering directly to what we need. We see a brand that understands our needs and hence we tend to buy from them. With marketing automation, you can become an authority in your industry. You can improve your company’s fortunes by increasing its efficiency by the proper implementation of a marketing automation platform.
Not only that, if an authoritative figure comments on your organization, make sure that it reaches everyone who visits your website and social media channels. Automation platforms make it easier for you to segment and display content according to a user’s specific need so that the visitor can relate to the influencer’s comments.
#5. Scarcity
Scarcity scares people and it makes them aware of the fact that they will miss something if they do not act quickly. It relies on the fact that a certain object becomes more attractive because of limited availability in the market.
When using marketing automation, you can use your lead scoring module to deduce which leads are at the bottom of your funnel, and ready to make a purchase. A chunk of such leads does not purchase and linger there for a long amount of time. In order to motivate, influence and push these leads to make a purchase you should use the science of scarcity. By offering them an opportunity which is limited in number and is only available to them, not only influences them to make a purchase but also makes them feel loved and cared for.
These principles of persuasion have been used by companies for years and years. However with the arrival of marketing automation, one can use these principles with a greater amount of accuracy. Persuasion is the talk of the town when it comes to marketing. The customer’s decision is the ultimate money maker, so make sure to influence whenever necessary. Want to know more about marketing automation, schedule a FREE consultation today!