Cialdini’s 7 influencing principles can turn your average marketing funnel into your most powerful marketing tool. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at Cialdini’s 7 influencing principles and how you can use them in your marketing funnel.

Robert Cialdini is a well-known name in the digital marketing world. This professor of psychology wrote the book ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’. In which he describes 6 principles with which you can convince people (later a 7th was added).

While Cialdini’s goal with the book “Influence” was to make people aware of the subtle ways they are impacted on a daily basis, ironically, the book has become an essential guide for marketers. If you start using the principles consciously, you will guide potential customers through your marketing funnel in a powerful way, resulting in a higher conversion rate (and turnover!).

What good are Cialdini’s influencing principles?

Did you know that you make more than 30,000 decisions every day without consciously thinking about it? Only 4% of the choices you make, you make consciously. Other choices are based on intuition and emotion. It is these choices that you can influence with Cialdini’s principles. This way, you give potential customers an extra push to make a purchase.

Why 7 principles of persuasion?

Cialdini’s principles influence the unconscious brain, but that brain works a little differently for everyone. For example, one person needs figures and data to feel convinced, while the other wants to find recognition in your story or needs to read testimonials from others.

All these forms are covered by Cialdini’s principles of influencing. That means that if you apply all seven of them well in your marketing, you won’t miss anyone out and you can actually make everyone in your target audience believe in your product, service, and the value you have to offer.

What is a marketing funnel?

A marketing funnel can be seen as an imaginary funnel that visualizes a customer’s journey. At the top of the funnel, you’ll find everyone who visits your website or social media profile. One level down, we find the people who downloaded your free giveaway. This includes people who, for example, have made a small first purchase or booked an introductory meeting. At the very bottom are the people who have become customers and fans of your brand. Email marketing can help you move people through the marketing funnel with valuable content. And if you apply Cialdini’s 7 principles of influencing, you will do so all the more effectively!

Applying Cialdini’s 7 influencing principles in your marketing funnel

Initially, Cialdini described 6 principles of influencing. With the outcome of his book ‘Pre-suasion’, the seventh principle of influence was added.

1. Reciprocity
2. Commitment and consistency,
3. Social proof
4. Sympathy
5. Authority
6. Scarcity
7. Unity

Below, we’ll take a closer look at each principle and let you discover how you can integrate each principle into your marketing funnel with concrete examples.

1. Reciprocity

The first principle of influence is about reciprocity. Reciprocity is deeply ingrained in our human nature and is about the fact that when you receive something, you often want to give something back. Some people experience a sense of obligation, others a sense of guilt, and still others such gratitude that they want to acknowledge by giving something back.

In online marketing, you can influence more interaction and purchases by offering something to your visitors, followers and potential customers. Your free giveaway or lead magnet is an example of this. When someone can download a free e-book or a pre-recorded meditation, they will return the favor by interacting with your social media channel or making a purchase.

Of course, this only happens if the free product was valuable to the person, so make sure you always deliver something that will benefit the potential customer. Inherent to this is that you need to know your target audience and potential customers well. What do they really want? What are their pain points and needs?

Another example of this is when you get to taste something with a market cramp; After that, you have the feeling that you have to buy something now. Also, the peppermint you get after a dinner at a restaurant can cause you to leave more tips than you intended.

So, your free giveaway is a great example of how to apply this in your marketing funnel. What are other examples?

Exclusive benefits
Especially for the people on your email list or people who have already purchased a subscription or product. Think of special discount promotions or extra bonuses if they purchase a service. This makes people feel like you really care about them and they belong (principle 7), which in turn leads to more purchases.

Free Trials
By offering a free trial of your product or service, customers can see its value without any obligation. If they find it useful, they often feel the need to give something back, such as purchasing a paid subscription.

Educational content
Do you give away all kinds of free tips on your YouTube channel or in your podcast? Do you really offer value that directly benefits your target audience? Then they are grateful to you and become loyal followers, they are happy to give something back from you and will buy your product or service with love.

2. Commitment & Consistency

Research shows that once someone says ‘yes’, he or she is inclined to repeat this answer. The moment someone says ‘yes’ to a free product, filling out a questionnaire, an introductory meeting or a number of questions you ask someone in your email funnel, they are more likely to say ‘yes’ to your paid offer. Simply put, they are used to saying ‘yes’ to your brand, products and services.

In addition, people like to finish what they started. The moment they have chosen to interact with your brand, for example by downloading your free giveaway, there is a good chance that they will stick with you. In the early stages, they may still be shopping and consuming free products from competitors, but a little further down the funnel they will not switch as quickly. Simply because it takes time to get to know another brand, they now know how you work.

Again, this is why it can make sense to offer a free trial on your service. If someone has been experimenting with your software for two weeks and now knows a bit about how it works, they are not likely to spend another two weeks learning similar software from the competitor. He will then activate his subscription with you more quickly. Once he says ‘yes’ to your free trial, he also says ‘yes’ to your subscription.

What are other examples of this that you can apply in your marketing funnel?

Ask questions
You can easily process short emails in your email marketing funnel in which you ask one or two questions, which may be answered with ‘yes’. You can also do this on social media, for example with a ‘poll sticker’ in your Instagram Stories.

Provide simple CTAs
Encourage reading a blog article or listening to a podcast episode. If people say ‘yes’ to that, they are already one step closer to saying ‘yes’ to your paid offer.

Collection Actions
How about Flippo’s? If you wanted to complete your collection, you really had to buy the same brand of crisps over and over again. Once you said ‘yes’ to this free gift, you couldn’t say ‘no’ anymore!

3. Social affirmation (social proof)

Social affirmation is about sharing testimonials from satisfied customers. But also, for example, screenshots of private messages on Instagram, in which someone shares that she has bought your online service or product. By sharing this, you show that others have said ‘yes’ to your product or service and have achieved specific results with it.

For potential customers, this makes it safer to buy your product or service as well. In addition, they may find recognition in the testimonial and have a desire for the specific results described in the testimonial. This shows them that it really is possible to achieve these results with the help of your product or service.

We often look to others to determine what behavior is appropriate in a given situation. If a lot of people do something, we see it as the right thing to do. A good example of this is the laughter you often hear in the background in sitcom series. This laugh track is played during scenes that are supposed to be funny, convincing the viewer that something might be funnier than it actually is.

So make sure to regularly share case studies, testimonials and reviews in your marketing funnels. Show how others have benefited from your products or services and show that your brand is supported by a community of satisfied customers.

Here are a few more ways to apply social proof in your marketing funnels:

Mention numbers
How many followers do you have? How many people have you already helped? How many people have bought this product already? Naming this gives potential customers the feeling that you can be trusted.

Reviews
Collect reviews that can be found on other channels, such as Google reviews and Facebook reviews.

Popular products
If you have an online store, make sure people can sort by ‘best-selling products’ and post blog articles with the top five products within each category.

4. Sympathy

This principle is in line with the first principle of reciprocity, but goes a step deeper. People tend to buy from someone they like or can relate to. This can be due to physical attractiveness, but also, for example, due to similarities in opinion or background, giving or receiving compliments and repeated positive contact.

At the end of the day, people prefer to buy from people and not from faceless companies. Of course, this depends entirely on your marketing strategy. As a small business owner, it is easy to make yourself the figurehead of your company, but you also see many big brands, such as Albert Heijn and Jumbo, being represented by one (fictional) person.

Sympathy, in this case, is about literally building a connection with potential customers. You want to give them the feeling that they are not a number, but really a valued (potential) customer who falls within your circle of acquaintances.

That’s why it’s important to share personal stories in your marketing funnel. Where did you stand first? And what has changed that has brought you to this point (normally the point where the potential customer would like to be)? Write personally and informally and use the personalization feature of your email marketing system so that your email really starts with, for example, “Hi Youri!”.

Here are a few more examples:

Personalization
Personalize your emails and use customer-centric language to build an emotional connection. By being genuine and friendly in your communication, you increase the likelihood that recipients will respond positively to your call-to-action.

‘About Us’ page
Can give a clear picture of the person behind the company. Share your story here in such a way that visitors can recognize themselves in it. Also include plenty of photos.

5. Authority

Authority is about positioning yourself as an expert within the market. You’ll see a lot of toothpaste brands taking advantage of this, with slogans like “recommended by dentists.” Subconsciously, people are more likely to follow advice from people they look up to or see as experts. The idea that experts or authority figures know more than we do and that we should therefore listen to them is deeply rooted in our subconscious. If your brand is the expert in your industry, potential customers are likely to choose you and not the competitor because, “he’s the expert, he’ll know.”

Here’s how to integrate authority into your marketing funnels:

Share knowledge
Demonstrate your knowledge in your marketing funnel by sharing valuable insights, statistics, and expert advice. In human language of course, you still want people to feel that they have a connection with you.

Quality marks and certificates
Put them clearly on your website, this builds trust and prestige.

Media Logos
Been on RTL 4? Or did Linda Magazine recommend you? Take a screenshot and share it on your social media channels, in your email funnels, and on your website.

6. Scarcity

If you have seen beautiful shoes online and it says ‘only 1 pair left in stock’, you automatically feel the pressure to buy them now. Otherwise, there is a chance that someone else will beat you to it and you will miss out on these beautiful shoes. You see companies like Booking.com also make a lot of use of this, with phrases like ‘only 2 rooms available on our site’.

This influencing principle is about creating a sense of urgency, by pointing to limited stock, limited-time offers, or exclusive access. This incentivizes potential customers to take quick action, for fear of missing out on something valuable. Time-bound offers, such as ‘only available for 24 hours’, also respond to scarcity through urgency.

Scarcity also plays into social affirmation (principle 3). After all, if something is almost sold out, it means that many people have already bought this product.

To use scarcity in your marketing funnels, you can make offers time-bound, offer limited inventory, or organize special product launches. The most important thing is to make potential customers feel like they could be missing out on something valuable if they don’t act now.

Examples:

Creating urgency Use limited-time offers or limited stock notifications in your emails to create urgency.

Exclusive access
Offer subscribers or loyal followers a sneak peek of new products and give them the chance to purchase it first, before everyone else (the moment when it might sell out).

7. Consensus (unity)

This principle plays into people’s desire to belong. A great example of this is the club feel created by certain NFTs, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club. The moment you own an NFT from a particular series, you belong to the club and get access to unique events and offers. ANWB can be seen doing this by means of a membership. If you are a member, you will receive the physical magazine de Kampioen, with all kinds of special offers and facts especially for members.

Another example of this is creating a cult, something Apple is very good at. Apple creates a whole culture around its brand, where you don’t belong if you don’t own Apple products. If you do own Apple products, you feel connected to other Apple users.

To leverage this influencing principle in your marketing funnel, you need to build a community around your brand. By creating a safe and supportive environment where like-minded people can come together, you’ll build not only loyalty but also trust. Create a sense of community within your email list, encourage interaction, and show subscribers that they are part of an exclusive “club” or community.

Other examples include:

Community building
Organize events for your subscribers or create a forum or Facebook Group where they can share ideas, but also be in direct contact with your brand.

Shared values
Highlight the values your brand shares with your target audience.

Get started right away with Cialdini’s 7 influencing principles

Convinced? ???? Take a close look at your marketing funnel and investigate where you can apply these principles even better. Need help building an email marketing funnel? Download the free Email Marketing Handbook.