Reciprocity: How to Get Your Readers to Take Action

Reciprocity is a powerful principle that has influenced human interactions since creation. In the context of content marketing and communication, understanding how to leverage the concept of reciprocity can be a game-changer.?

In this article, you’ll learn how to use reciprocity effectively and how to compel your readers to take action.?

The Psychology of Reciprocity?

If someone—a friend, colleague, or family member—invites you to a wedding, naming ceremony, graduation, an event, or funeral and you show up to the invitation with a gift—no matter how small or big, in kind, expensive or cheap—but you show up with a gift.?

You stay till the end of the programme and walk towards this person to express your gratitude for the invitation to be part of the few to witness their marriage or event.?

The next morning, this person calls you to say thank you for your presence and the gift.?

Years later, you also invite your friend to your wedding or event. Do you think they’ll not show up or, much more, present you with a gift when they show up?

The scenario above is what the reciprocity principle is all about. You give, and in return, the receiver is intrinsically persuaded to give back in their own way and time out of gratitude. In his book Influence , Robert B. Cialdini , PhD, discusses key principles of persuasion. In this article, I want to connect one of his principles to content marketing—reciprocity.

How do you get people to take action, fill out forms, buy tickets, sign up for newsletters, engage with your posts, and subscribe to your channel?

Let’s find out!

6 Ways to Get Your Readers to Take Action

Provide Valuable Content

I have landed on websites that ask me to fill out a form before making the content I want to read accessible. I bounced back to find other relevant websites that appeared on Google's results page.

Headlines are powerful enough to attract attention, but if the content isn’t accessible or valuable, people won’t be motivated to take the actions you want them to take. In this regard, it's important to provide the content they’re looking for and allow them the liberty to decide if they’ve found the content relevant in exchange for their contact details.

The ideal strategy is to make part of the content available and the rest conditional, provided readers fill out a form or sign up to access the rest of the information. If readers find your content relevant, they’ll likely take action to find out more.?

For example, I recently signed up for Medium because I was reading an article that provided answers to my queries. Halfway through, I have a choice to sign up to access the rest of the information.

This strategy worked because I found the content relevant and worth my sign-in details. If you’re a business looking for prospects through sign-in forms on your website, give them value in exchange for their details.

Personalise the Content

Readers are like the friends you’re having a conversation with. However, since you don’t know them by name but rather by persona, it's important to personalise the conversation, story, or article.?

One way to do this is to address them in the second-person pronoun–you. Using you in your articles speaks to the reader directly, not just in blog posts but in social media captions and any copy addressed to an audience.?

Accordingly, if you want your readers to take action in whatever form, make them feel part of the story. Address them directly.?

Answer Their Questions

People visit specific websites looking for answers. If your content can’t provide answers or solutions to their pain points, they’ll bounce off your website as soon as they open it.

I’ve seen websites that engage in clickbait by using enticing headlines, but the content does not correlate with the headline.?

Help readers find answers through your content, and they’ll sign up for newsletters to access more or even share it.?

The Correct Use of Colours

Colours are persuasive as long as you use them contextually. There’s a reason some brands use certain colours as their brand colours and not just any. It’s a flaw for environmental advocacy to use red or black for its brand colours, while it's ideal to use shades of green, brown, or blue.?

On call-to-action (CTAs), however, research shows readers are inclined to sign up if they see the colour green, blue, or especially red on the CTA buttons. The point of content marketing is to get readers to take action. Hence, using meaningful colours helps you stand out.?

Red, for instance, speaks of optimism, danger, excitement, energy, passion, and action, depending on the context. Using red CTA buttons helps you sign up several prospects who’ll likely become customers.

While it’s ideal to provide relevant content to get readers to take action, the colour you use at the CTA button is just as important. Moreover, call-to-actions can be different depending on the organisation. Understanding what actions you want your visitors to take will help you craft compelling CTA phrases and use the right colour.?

Show Social Proof

In a world where people rely so much on the opinions of others because of respect, influence, or to validate the effectiveness of a product or service, showing social proof gets people to take action.?

Social proof is about highlighting the success stories of your content or product. What are people saying about your content or products through reviews, testimonials, or user-generated content??

Share this social proof in your content to show how others have benefited from signing up, engaging, or taking action on your content.

Provide Evergreen Content

Evergreen content is always relevant, regardless of season, month, or year. For example, how to bake a chocolate cake or how to install box braids. Someone is always searching for evergreen content, such as the examples above.

If your website or brand focuses on evergreen content on relevant topics, the audience won’t want to miss new publications; hence, they’ll sign up for new posts or newsletters.?

In wrapping Up…

Using the principle of reciprocity, you can get your readers to take the actions you want them to take without asking. The idea is to provide relevant content that answers their queries, personalise your content to speak directly to the reader, and create evergreen content, among others.