While talking about the power of persuasion, many people might feel that it is a bad thing, especially because the expression has an unfavorable nature. Some might even think of manipulation and malice as a part of persuasion.

However, persuasion can be used positively.  One needs to know how to use the power of persuasion to influence people and show them how their problems can be solved using the product or service that you are offering. 

You can also use the power of persuasion for improving the user experience, drive more leads, and consequently increase your sales. In this article, we will be talking in detail about the power of persuasion as well as the techniques that can be used for enhancing the power of persuasion on your website.

What is Persuasion Marketing?

Persuasion marketing can be understood as using the knowledge of human psychology for developing techniques for marketing products or services.

For an online business, it generally refers to promoting the marketing mix and building on the customer’s impulsive buying behavior leading to a successful purchase.

When it comes to online commerce, persuasion marketing consists of how a web page or website is designed. Web design is a typical example of a decision-making process that is not consciously controlled. Applying human psychology to web design elements such as layout, typography, and copy along with the right promotional messages, impact the website visitors, and encourage them to follow pre-planned pathways on the site.

Persuasion marketing also ensures that the customers take the necessary and specific actions, rather than just randomly interacting with the website. 

Persuasion vs Manipulation

Persuasion is quite different from manipulation. To be precise, let us explain the concept of both these words so that the difference can be better understood.

• Manipulation: Manipulation can be understood as the act of influencing a person to your advantage dishonestly or misleadingly.  In other words, manipulating others means controlling the thinking of other people and pressurize them to do something that you want.
• Persuasion: This is referred to the communication strategy that is used to recommend a particular product or service to the end-users that would ultimately benefit the user. This art is mainly applied by salespeople to convince the users with logical as well as rational resources to take further action, or to make a purchase.

In both manipulation and persuasion, the end goal is similar: to influence someone. However, the main difference between them is that the power of persuasion takes into consideration the advantages for the person whom you are influencing.

On the other hand, manipulation considers only the benefits for the person who is influencing the other person. 

Elements of Persuasion Marketing

Persuasion marketing or using the power of persuasion for marketing has four main elements. These four elements are as follows:

1. Structured communication

Just like the “planned conversation” of interpersonal sales, structured communication is all about controlling the order of the content, or how information is displayed to the customer.

The end goal is to impact the user along his own “impulse curve”. This is done by initially encouraging the user’s impulse and then influencing with a call to action when the impulse level has reached the highest point. 

While designing a website, the first page that is displayed to the customer should not immediately seek a sale, but present an initial message and encourage the customer to further explore the website. 

2. Storytelling

In storytelling, a marketer makes use of a narrative framework to call on a customer’s emotional and subconscious response. Through this method, it is expected that these responses would dominate their analytical responses.

Using particular words and images can also be used to evoke habitual emotional responses, such as affection, empathy, familiarity, and desire for triumph or resolution. This can ultimately drive a customer to purchase your product or avail of your services.

3. Copywriting

Copywriting refers to making use of the correct words or phrases for captions, headings, product descriptions, as well as other text. Taking an example, when a user scans for material certain questions can stand out much more than mere statements.

A persuasion marketer tends to field-test different copies for determining which content can produce the best user emotion or provide a solution to the user’s query.

4. Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is one of the major components of persuasion marketing. With this element, you can apply psychology to a marketing message.

One can find out the different factors that lead to a decision with the help of psychological research. Generally, more than 90 percent of the result happens beyond conscious reasoning.

Improving Power of Persuasion

The final goal of persuasion is not only to make a sale but also to delight the customer with the solution that you are offering. The following are a few argumentation techniques to help you develop your sales strategy with the power of persuasion. 

Get to know your customer properly

For creating a persuasive sales argument that can influence users to buy a product or avail a service is to find out the maximum possible information about the people that you are looking to convince.

You should define your target audience with some similar characteristics so that their pain areas are the same, and thus there is a similar solution to their problems.

If a marketer knows the target audience properly, and he or she uses the same language as the customers, it will facilitate a better understanding of both. Additionally, it would also help in thinking about better sales arguments.

In case you are not sure about who is your target audience, just have a look at the buyer persona for the website or web page. Looking at the buyer persona will help you in understanding your target audience along with the demography of the people who are interested in your product or service.

Remain empathetic

If you are not able to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience, then there is no use of putting time and effort into understanding the audience. The power of persuasion and manipulation is different because persuasion takes into account what the person being influenced is gaining from the product or service.

If you lack empathy, you cannot think of different sales arguments that can please your target audience, and ultimately you would not be able to gain more leads.

Lacking empathy can even lead a salesperson who can easily influence others to sell a product or service that might not be beneficial to the users.

This can be considered dishonesty by many. Hence, once should always try to see things from a customer’s eyes and consider what the customers would like to buy before you go out to convince them.

Influence the customers at an appropriate time

Not all people or users are prepared to make a purchase. Even if a user knows about a product or service that can solve their issue or problem, it is important to make them realize that such a problem exists in their life. Hence, you should not use the power of persuasion for encouraging users to purchase if they do not know why they need the product or service.

Hence, one should pay good attention to a buyer’s journey. This would ensure that you understand the best time or moment to show your target audience that the product or service is suitable for them.

Demonstrate practical solutions to the customer

Demonstrating a product or service is one of the fastest and easiest ways to display the solution to a problem. Many people might not go ahead with the purchase even after understanding how the product or service can help them.

One of the reasons can be that they might find difficulty in understanding the step that needs to be taken next. Thus, you should make it clear to your customers what needs to be done.

In the online world, a CTA or call to action can help the target audience is going through the buyer journey until the buyer makes a purchase. Create a CTA with easy-to-execute action buttons that can show the users how and when they can make a successful purchase.

Apprehend launches

For the websites or businesses that already have a good following or have people who have been following the brand for quite some time, it is important to remain in constant contact with such followers.

It is also crucial to let the followers know in advance about a new product launch as it helps in enhancing the power of persuasion.

If the audience knows what is being launched, they would develop expectations about what the business is going to do. As such, you can create sales arguments that can be more convincing.

This also helps the customers to be aware of the existence of your product. When there is the time between letting the people know about the product and the actual product launch, you get time to create sales arguments for convincing the customers.

Do not use “no”

It is human psychology to think about something after they are told to not think about it. Taking an example: If we tell you not to think about a red house, you will probably start imagining a red house immediately.

The reason behind this psychology is that the word “no” is hard to process by people. Hence, negative phrases such as the above tend to make people think what they don’t need to. Try to choose positive statements whenever you want to convince a customer. This would help the users understand what they need to do.

Secure customers’ trust

It is easy to persuade someone who already knows or trusts us. Thus, before a business can influence its target audience, it needs to create a trustworthy relationship with its customers without expecting anything in return. This will also set a benchmark in the industry. Later on, you would find it easier to persuade the customers to buy your products or services.

Take notice of your body language

Many people might think or consider that body language only for people who are selling a product or service in a brick and mortar store. However, it is not so. This concept is also applicable to an online business.

On a good sales page, there is generally a video that explains the product along with the advantages of buying that product for the user. Here, you can easily use and apply the power of persuasion.

Additionally, one should also think about the best argument for convincing the audience to make a purchase. Ensure that you have the right attitude that conveys confidence.

Do not cross your arms or look at the camera directly. You should also make precise and calm gestures. 

Make use of psychological triggers

To correctly use the power of persuasion, you should know how to make use of the triggers properly for influencing the customers. Several actions are done automatically and the same goes for buying a product or availing a service.

Some specific memories can make people select between two or more products. Several triggers, like scarcity, can be used to convey that the product has a limited quantity.

This tells the audience that the inventory is low. You can even set a specific time limit for the users to make a successful purchase.

Conclusion

Have a look at your web page or website and check what can be easily tweaked to make your website more persuasive. You can even conduct a short survey on your website and ask the existing customers what made them avail of your product or service. Or, more importantly, what made some of the customers turn away. The better you can understand what makes your customers tick, the better you can convince them that the product or service that you are offering is what they need.

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