Robert Cialdini: His Email Sign-Up Form Doesn't Influence

: Image via Wikipedia

Forgive this slight disrespect of Robert Cialdini and his "Influence at Work" website. I like Cialdini, and his books and research articles are required reading here at Broadway Social. "Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive" is a particularly valuable resource for non-scientists looking to apply social psychology to the process of influencing others.

But recently, I couldn't help but laugh – and sadly – refuse to sign up for Cialdini's email newsletter.

Why didn't I sign up? Well, using his own language, I'd have to say his sign-up process violated the principles of reciprocity, consistency, liking, scarcity and social proof. And for those of you familiar with his work, there is a 6th one: Authority. I will grant him that one. So, in this instance, Cialdini is not using his own persuasion principles to make the sale.

Where Cialdini Got It Wrong

Here's what happened. The second page of Cialdini's website, after showing a short video, goes to a second page that has a message at the top: "Subscribe to the INSIDE INFLUENCE REPORT."

The sentence has a small sign-up box next to it for putting in an email address:

Robert Cialdini's Email Sign-Up Form

Fair enough. I'm willing to give my email to a known authority and someone like whose work I believe in and use on a daily basis.

But when I put in my email address and clicked the "go" button, I was taken to a form that not only asked me to re-enter my email but also to give my:

* Name:
* Employer:
* Job Title:
* Industry:
* Occupation:
* Phone:

Whoa! My first thought was why do you want my phone number? I thought I was just signing up for an email newsletter?! He certainly doesn't have permission to call me and doesn't need my phone number to send me an email (!). But no big deal, I supposed. Perhaps those were just optional pieces of information and were not required.

But after clicking the "save" button, I got the dreaded message:

Please correct errors on the indicated fields for a successful submission.

Ouch! Big red letters telling me I am in ERROR. I thought we were going to be friends? And what's this about "submission." There's a psychologically loaded term for you. What am I submitting to?

I tried two more times to register and was apparently in "error" each time, so I left the page. Robert, I hardly knew you….

Let's take a moment and use Cialdini's own principles to analyze what he did wrong.

Cialdini's Principles of Persuasion and Influence

1) Reciprocity. We humans seemed wired to reciprocate social behavior. When was the last time you refused to shake hands with someone, even a stranger? And remember those famous words, "Ask not what your country can for you, but what you can do for your country?"

The implication being that our country has done a great deal for us, now it's time to give something back. Social psychology has demonstrated over and over again, that human beings feel obligated to reciprocate when someone does something for us, such as doing us a favor or giving us a gift.

In the newsletter example above, Cialdini is offering to give me a free newsletter on influence. That's a nice thing to do. I would certainly reciprocate by giving him my email address, even my name, knowing full well that he would be emailing me on a regular basis, perhaps every couple of weeks or once a month. That's a small price to pay for a newsletter, isn't it? I know he will likely have great information, and maybe a sales message or two. That's fine. And it's expected.

But for him to ask me for my phone number? And company name? Title? Industry? Sorry, but no. It's too large of a reciprocation. His company hasn't earned the right to my number. If he were to ask for it on a future email, after I had received value from his firm – perhaps. Or if he were giving me something of greater demonstrated value upfront – perhaps some mp3 downloads or ebooks. That brings us to the next influencing principle:

2) Consistency. We like to act in harmony with our values and beliefs. If you agree to put a political sign in your front yard for a particular candidate and then 15 minutes later someone asks you to donate $10 to that candidate, you are likely to do so – you want to be consistent with your actions and what you believe in. Again, this principle has been demonstrated time and time again in empirical research.

But giving TOO much information too soon, is not consistent with most people's ideas of relationship – especially online. Now, it would be consistent to give an email demonstrating interest, and then more information on a later email. And the information request form isn't consistent with Cialdini's actions either. Asking for a phone number is not consistent with a request to recieve an email.

Is this making sense to you? Next let's talk about "liking."

3) Liking. This is an interesting one because even though I do not know Cialdini, I do have a certain liking for him and his work. I certainly trust his conclusions from social psychology research. And as I have heard him speak many times, I'd even say that I have a positive response to the sound of his voice. And given that I am a researcher myself, we speak the same language of science. Got it? I LIKE the guy.

But somehow, this liking didn't translate to the new context of the online world. That liking, for me at least, needs to be established in this context as well. Or he needs to find someway to transfer peoples feeling of liking to this new context.

4) Scarcity and Uniqueness. Scarcity is a simple process, but one that can difficult to communicate online. Think of it this way: Resources that are rare are often considered valuable – think diamonds and gold. And resources that seem commonplace, like bread and water, become hugely valuable when there is a shortage. This is true with other types of products such a book, information and music.

If you are an online merchant, selling a downloadable product such as an mp3, ebook or newsletter it can be difficult (but not impossible) to communicate scarcity. I have several books by Cialdini, dozens of his research articles and some podcasts and lectures – and abudance of information. And also, let's be honest, if you've been online for more than a week, you know that there a millions of newsletters – so his offer doesn't communicate scarcity in that way either.

Could he change the offer to make it more scarce? Of course. How about this: "Sign-up for my email newsletter and receive previously unpublished examples of how to influence." Or, "Sign-up and receive advanced notice and be the first to hear of our new products, seminars and workshops." Would that work for you? Works for me.

5) Finally, let's touch on social proof. Social proof is the idea that we look to other people (often unconsciously) to decide on how to act in some situations. Not always, of course, but if you walk down the street and see 10 people staring up into the sky, what are you going to do? If you are like most people will be intrigued and look up as well. But what if it's only one person looking up? Maybe you'll look up, maybe you won't.

There is no social proof given in Cialdini's offer. What would such proof be? How about: "Join over 10,000 people who have already signed up for this newsletter." He could also offer testimonials from people who had signed up for the newsletter and got some value from it.

Influence: The Take Home Message

This long blog post about Cialdini's email sign-up form may seem like overkill but it's not. It's designed to communicate a very simple idea that Broadway Social Media has found over and over again in email marketing, lead generation, and online sales processes. The idea:

Small, research-based changes can make a huge difference in the results that you get.

Changing any one of the factors that I mention above – reciprocity, consistency, liking, social proof, scarcity and authority could have a positive impact on an email marketing sign-up form or an ecommerce wesbite. And testing the factors, one by one, or in conjuction with each other can bring drastic increases in effectiveness.

Ignore online persuasion techniques and programs for testing them at your own peril! The large majority of successful companies are engaging in these processes (although, as you can imagine, they are not advertising that fact). Without them you are at a competitive disadvantage and are losing out on sales and income without even realizing it.

Tags: Cialdini, Influence

Social Media in Plain English

Posted by Ryan Nagy on May 22, 2009 in Social Media Terminology, What is Social Media?

No Comments

The video below is an interesting introduction to social media. The video helps to answer the question, "What is Social Media?" Taken, of course, from a social media website (YouTube). Enjoy: