Become a People Mover

If you build it, they will not come.

If you sell it, they will come.

To move product, we must move people. We have to move people to act. And we have to do so ethically. That is influence with integrity.

Right now, you may be thinking "Why should I listen to a stranger on the internet?"

Well, I have a B.S. in Marketing. I have read plenty of Psychology textbooks, dozens of popular books on persuasion, read hundreds of articles, and listened to hundreds of videos and podcasts on influence. I have taken improv courses in Los Angeles (humor is persuasive). And, most importantly, I use this stuff in real life. Every day.

I will cover three principles of influence in this article:

Attention - To influence we have to earn attention.
The Unfinished - People remember the uncompleted or interrupted better than the completed.
Associations - Our brains automatically and subconsciously build mental connections between concepts, events, or mental states.

Here is some influence in action:

Attention

Before you can influence, you must grab attention. We cannot influence those who are not paying attention. Impossible to Ignore, by Dr. Carmen Simon talks about attention extensively. One of the most important things to remember is that for something to stand out, something else must be easy to ignore.

If everything stands out, nothing stands out. Make sense?

Here is a screenshot of my website:

What is easy to ignore? A lot, I'd say.

What is hard to ignore? The bright orange button, the top left logo, and possibly the header "Contact Us."

Here is a screenshot of Mint:

What is hard to ignore? "SIGN UP FREE"

What is easy to ignore? The bland grey background. The small, uninteresting text.

See the pattern?

The Unfinished

Dr. Robert Cialdini covers the fascinating Zeigarnik Effect in Pre-Suasion.

The Zeigarnik Effect: people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.

Have you ever had a friend say, "I want to tell you something but I can't tell you." Does it drive you crazy like it drives me crazy? What is it? I have to know! That is a very basic, very common example of the power of the unfinished in our minds.

The incredible Ira Glass, of This American Life, uses the power of the unfinished in his stories. How so? Let's listen to him talk about storytelling:

"The whole shape of a story is that you're throwing out questions to keep people watching or listening and then answering them along the way." - Ira Glass

Dr. Robert Cialdini, in Pre-Suasion, talks about the power of the unfinished in advertising:

The unfinished has a strong hold over us. Let's take a look at some psychology on Apple.com. I will start at the top, tap "page down" on my keyboard, and take a screenshot. Check it out:

Unfinished, unfinished, unfinished. I want to see more. Do you

Did you notice that I left out punctuation at the end of the last sentence? I made you stop and pause for a moment. You might remember this section a little bit better because that sentence was left unfinished.

Associations

Our brains build link things together automatically.

How many of you got sick after eating your favorite food? Well, what happened?

What happened is the favorite food became unappealing. Some say they can't even look at the food anymore.

Their brains associated their favorite foods with getting sick.

Terrible, right?

Associations are kind of like brands. I have a brand. You have a brand. Everyone has a brand. And companies have brands.

Branding through positive associations is a critical part of marketing.

In The Psychology of Human Misjudgement, Charlie Munger talks about influence through associations.

"Advertisers know about the power of mere association. You won't see Coke advertised alongside some account of the death of a child. Instead, Coke ads picture life as happier than reality." - Charlie Munger

To be persuasive through associations we need to avoid negative associations and build positive associations.

Apple is associated with beautiful products. Nike is associated with successful athletes. Coca Cola is associated with happiness.

Bilimoria Tech's first blog post is chock full of positive associations:

Lamborghini
Humor & rhymes
Suitcase
Soda
Apple Store
Starbucks

That blog post isn't the only positive association I built. The logo is an orange pineapple because pineapples are awesome. They remind me of being in a tropical paradise. It also reminds me of Apple a little bit. Apple pineapple. You get the idea.

Again, cultivate positive associations and avoid negative associations. Every single element on your website can be used to build a positive association.

Bonus Principle: Reciprocity

I promised you three principles. Here is a fourth. It is my gift to you. The first rule of reciprocity is to give first. The second rule of reciprocity is to repay the favor.

Reciprocity is the social norm of responding to a positive action with another positive action, rewarding kind actions.

Here is Dr. Robert Cialdini, the Godfather of influence, on reciprocity:

Consulting firms offer free consultations. Huge businesses were built by giving away free and valuable content. Some companies even pay people to sign up!

Conclusion

Ethical influence means being honest. Is it ethical to persuade someone to use your awesome product? Yes. Is it ethical to sell overpriced, worthless junk? No. Absolutely not.

To ethically influence, we should gain attention, selectively leave things unfinished, build positive associations, and reciprocate.

ONE MORE THING

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