Persuasion Economics 2: Persuasion Principles and Layers of The Mind — Review

Being a Copywriter and a Mindset Coach has given me an edge when it comes to practising either of both tasks. I recently took up a course on I took up a course on Digital psychology by CXL and I would be sharing my take home from these learnings. I would share tips from my learnings and experience as a Copywriter and Mindset Coach.

This week, I would focus on the mental principles of persuasion and how to apply these principles in your business. I would also share my learnings on Neuromarketing — the 3 layers of the brain that is concerned with making buying decisions.

Mental Persuasion Principles

There are 7 core principles of human persuasion and they called it, Cialdini’s 7 Principles of Persuasion. It was derived from the book, Influence: The psychology of persuasion by Dr Robert Cialdini. He explains the importance of these principles and how to use them to actually influence or convince someone to take an action.

The 7 principles are:

1. Reciprocity: People are more likely to return a favour when you first give them one. They feel indebted mentally to you and would look for ways to do something in return for you.
2. Commitment and Consistency: People want their beliefs to be consistent with their values. When they strongly believe something, they would stay consistent and committed to it, to prove to themselves that, indeed, they believe that thing.
3. Social Proof: We all like social proof. There’s a bell in our mind that calls our attention when doesn’t seem right. When we feel we can’t trust them enough. Hence, the need for social proof. We don’t want to be the ones to find out it’s awkward. So if someone else says it’s great, then maybe we might just give it a try.
4. Authority: Why do brands clamper over celebrities for brand ambassadorships? This is because the world already sees those people as an authority. So they are more likely to follow through on instruction from them as an authority than from a new brand with no authority and perhaps, just starting up.
5. Liking: We are more likely to respond positively to someone or something because we like them. And liking them could be something as simple as just having something in common with them.
6. Scarcity: Humans are naturally lazy. Perhaps, this is where procrastination stemmed from. We love to put off things until later so we constantly need reminders on why we need to do it NOW! This is why infusing a little bit of scarcity in your offer is a great way to make them take action right now! But, this can get really dicey as our minds can tell when we’re trying to lie or cheat on people. For instance, we all know PDFs are unlimited copies. So saying something like, “Download your FREE PDF today, only 20 copies left!” is an outright lie and nobody will believe you. So use this principle wisely.
7. Unity: Humans love to feel included. We love to feel among and not left out. We gravitate more towards people or things that are like us so we can have a sense of belonging.

How Can I Brand This?

• People asking people to buy from you, ask yourself, “What have I given them first?” It could be “consistent value, freebies, etc.”
• How can you craft your message to be consistent with your target audience beliefs?
• New product and no proof? Can you give it out to a few people for testing so they could give their review?
• If you are not an authority yet, can you borrow someone else’s authority? Use an influencer in that field to promote your message, brand or product.
• How can you make your audience like you? One way to make them like you is by being authentic. The people who are like you will naturally gravitate towards you.
• Infuse scarcity in your product message but only when necessary. Don’t say 24 hours left for this sale when you intend to sell even after 24 hours. People smell lies.
• Build a tribe, a community around your brand and message.

Neuromarketing — The 3 Layers of The Brain

We all have 3 layers in our brain.

The New Brain — The brain that thinks.

The Middle Brain — Also known as the Neocortex and is the brain that feels and is concerned with emotions.

The Old Brain — Also known as the Reptilian Brain and is the brain that makes decisions.

So what does this mean for your brand?

To get people to buy into your product, you must not just touch the new and middle brain, you must also appeal to their old brain because that is the brain that would make the decision to buy or not.

How do you trigger the old brain?

1. Self Centred: Understand that everybody ONLY cares about themselves. I did not write this post because you need to pick a few things. While that may be part of the reasons I wrote it, I did so because I wanted to gain visibility plus several other things.
2. Contrast: We all want to change. But we need to know that you understand where we are…and can take us to where we want to be. This is why BEFORE and AFTER post works amazingly well. Because we see ourselves in the “BEFORE” stage and want to transition to the “AFTER” stage. So we are more likely to take similar action to move from where we are to where we want to be.
3. Tangible: Taking a cue from our self-centred nature, we also want to know that whatever information you are sending our way is relevant. So ask yourself, “How relevant is this information to my target audience?”
4. First and Last: The human mind is prone to mostly being very attentive during the first and last stage of your message. This is why speakers start on a high pitch with some beautiful punchlines and end on the same note. This is because our minds are usually more alert at these stages.
5. Visual: The human mind is moved by visual cues. We think in terms of pictures, not letters. Think about it, whenever you think of your favourite pet. Do you think of it as in “The letters of the word?” or “The beautiful picture of the pet?” Our imaginary minds are usually more alert when it comes to making decisions. So if we can SEE what it is you are saying, then maybe we would be more interested in taking the action you require of us.
6. Emotion: Though the old brain makes decisions, it gathers information, feelings and or experiences from the new and middle brain to come to a conclusion. So being able to trigger an emotion in the target audience minds can propel them to take the required action that you desire.

Your probability to sell is dependent on how you can push the pain, profess your claim and showcase your gain to trigger the old brain to make a decision in your favour.

The formula = Pain X Claim X Gain X (Old Brain)*3

In Summary:

Address the pain: Tell me about what I am going through.

Differentiate your claim: Show me how you are different from those who say they can solve my problem. (Why I should buy from you instead of them)?

Show proof of claim: Convince me that it is actually working. Is it tested and trusted?

Deliver to the old brain: Grab my attention, and do that IMMEDIATELY.