Yesterday, I came across an article on the Sullivan Nod, a sales technique most frequently used by bartenders and waiters in order to get the customer to pick a specific item on the menu.
To perform this technique, they nod their head slightly (around 10-15 degrees) when they mention the specific item. This subtle gesture subconsciously reinforces their recommendation to the customer.
Although I can’t find any statistical study to backup this assumption, customers are said to be 60-70% more likely to choose a specific item when the Sullivan Nod is used. However, what I’m really interested in is how these individuals use a subtle form of communication to provoke a specific reaction from the targeted recipient.
These persuasion tactics are fascinating because they work around the merit/features of the specific service or product. They don’t proclaim the benefits of the product and shove call-to-actions in your face. They induce action by building upon your normal habits of perception: the way you see or hear.
Now the question for online marketers and web publishers is this: Can we transplant these techniques of persuasion online? Is it possible to circumvent the lack of real-time, face-to-face interaction between the salesman and the prospect?
Change the Way Visitors Receive and Consume Your Content
Image Credit: the race is on!
You want your web visitors to perform a certain action, perhaps to click on the ‘Buy now’ button or sign up for your newsletter. For direct response marketers, its either a current or future sale. For publishers, you want the visitor to become a part of your regular readership. All your marketing devices are utilized to fulfill these ends.
One way of persuading visitors is to create interactive content that utilizes multimedia like video/audio and live streaming to engage the audience. The aim is to subtly change the way your audience perceives your message by altering how they consume/access your content. It’s the online equivalent of a Sullivan Nod.
If you can’t have a real-time interaction with sub-conscious cues, have a dynamic interaction that is sticky enough to induce action. If your ebook or membership program isn’t selling as well as it should, don’t hit your customers with the same pitches, change the way they view your site by changing their habits of seeing.
Include videos of screen captures to accompany your articles. Build some free applications and give them away. Create customized video responses for specific groups of clients/customers/readers. Develop PDF or audio downloads for content.
Formats like embeddable widgets, videos, podcasts and presentation slides are easy to transport across cyberspace. They allow you to condense your message into sound bites and visual snapshots. Continual exposure to content of this nature affects the way customers perceive your brand.
The goal is simple: Improve the way your customer reacts to your site by changing the way they receive your message. Help them to choose by providing alternative cues which provoke action. This is persuasion through presentation.
Usability and Design Hacks: Customizing for Users
Image Credit: hole in the wall
It is possible to aesthetically enhance the likelihood that users will subconsciously favor your website. For instance, you could create alternate header images or banner images to reference memes or cultural icons relevant to a certain audience.
By combining rigorous statistical analysis and user-action tracking, you can also discover the effectiveness of a specific site design or link placement. Here’s something which I’ve not seen many websites practice: Highlight your call-to-action links by using a border/background or changing their color. Or use a special button.
Like this Sullivan Nod, this differentiates one link from another and enhances the perceived importance of a link. Why does this link look different from the others? Perhaps its worth clicking on… these are some of the thoughts that might occur in the mind of a visitor, although they won’t be telling you that.
Web architecture affects user actions a great deal because what visitors do largely depends on what they CAN do. The more options/features you provide and the more you highlight specific pathways through site, the more you encourage the visitor to operate in the manner you want. This is persuasion though selective emphasis.
The way you connect with customers, clients or readers online is inevitably different from the way you interact with them offline. But with a little ingenuity and analysis, its possible to make sure that your message gets through an equal impact, as if you were right in front of your reader/customer.
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