3 MORE Non-Conscious Motivators that will Boost Your Conversions

This weekend, 6 friends and I tried the post-COVID patio scene for the first time. After missing half of what is already a short Canadian “patio season”, we were beyond fired up..

What we didn’t know, is that many pubs still have limits as low as 5 people per group, and a strict policy against mingling with other groups. So, we needed two tables. As you might imagine, getting two, side-by-side tables was not easy to do on a Friday night in Toronto. Our server, bless her heart, did everything she could but couldn’t make it happen. Throughout the night, she tried all kinds of work-arounds, and frankly I felt bad for adding a worry to her already-full plate (pardon the pun). I told her not to worry but she insisted! When it was time to pay, though, it was her who apologized to us:

“I’m so sorry guys, I really did try, thanks for being so understanding!”

It wasn’t much, but it was sincere and frankly, completely undeserved. It was a kindness. Without hesitation, I left her a $30 tip (about 60% of my bill). 

Am I a saint? Nope. Did her apology give me $30 worth of economic value? Of course not. 

However, her small kindness triggered a strong, evolutionary reaction in my brain called: Reciprocity. Reciprocity is a non-conscious motivator and one of Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Persuasion. In my previous article, 3 Non-Conscious Motivators that will Boost Your Conversions, I cover my three favourites (Liking, Social Proof and Authority) but after this patio incident, I thought I should cover the remaining three as well (Reciprocity included)!

Here are:

3 MORE Non-Conscious Motivators that will Boost Your Conversions:

[As was the case in the first edition, I will be focusing on your personal or business website. Once you’ve grasped your audience’s attention and brought them to your site, it’s time to wow them. It’s time to build a relationship and motivate them to take the action you desire (be it subscribing to a newsletter, buying a product, etc.).]

#4  Reciprocity:  The Key to the Mint

As was the case with Sarah, our lovely server this weekend, a small kindness or “favour” has been proven to trigger a reciprocal favour from your prospect or counterpart. In a classic Reciprocity study, researchers measured restaurant tips when the server left zero, one, or two breath mints with the bill. As it turned out, customers paid 3% more when left a mint, and a staggering 20% more when left two mints. This phenomenon is well documented in neuromarketing research and comes from our innate, evolutionary tendency to reciprocate. However, it does have some limitations which you should consider in practice:

Reciprocity is not Quid Pro Quo: If you’re employing the Reciprocity principle, it’s important that you perform a favour without expressing an expectation of a favour in return. According to researchers, Quid Pro Quo favours do not have the same effect on the psyche. In fact, they can often have the opposite effect.

Say, for example, a prospect has come to your yoga-training page and your goal (what you’d consider a conversion) is to have them sign up for your “Namaste Newsletter”. You could have a prompt which reads: “Sign up for this Newsletter and get a free stretching guide!” but this would not be Reciprocity. It is Quid Pro Quo; since you are trading one favour for another in a transactional manner. Instead, you could use a prompt like, “Download your stretching guide here, no email needed!” and ask for the email in a subsequent prompt, after the fact. Unlike with QPC, Reciprocity couples with “Liking”, (another persuasion principle which states that those who like you, buy from you) to build a relationship with the prospect and thus a higher chance of purchase. More importantly, it allows you to potentially “trade” a small favour for a much bigger one. See more below:

Reciprocity does NOT need to be Equivalent: By not asking for a favour in return, you are not triggering your prospect’s brain to think comparatively. In other words, they are not thinking about the “transaction” as a balance of give and take. As a result, your stand-alone favour can lead them to reciprocate with a far bigger one. This phenomenon is clearly visible in the breath mint example. The virtually valueless peppermint candies are reciprocated with an infinitely more valuable increase in tips. If, instead, a server offers you 2 mints in exchange for a 20% higher tip (Quid Pro Quo) you immediately calculate the value proposition and determine that it is not a deal worth taking. 

This is where the power of reciprocity truly lies. The practice allows you to encourage desired behaviour (conversions) with a proportionally smaller favour of your own. Simultaneously, it also fosters a feeling of friendliness (since you're offering something for nothing) which forges stronger relationships with your audience. 

Try it!

#5  Commitment / Consistency: I’ve Come Too Far to Stop Now

While Reciprocity is our brain’s tendency to return favours, Consistency is your tendency to stand by your previous decisions. Often called “confirmation bias” or “momentum” in different fields, consistency is a neat trick that our brain plays to keep us happy. Of course, it’s more pleasant to just do more of what you’ve done before than to accept the notion that you were wrong all along. But, as a marketer, how can you apply this to your website?

Two words: Baby, Steps! 

If the ultimate goal of your web form, for example, is to extract an email address, simply… DON’T ask for it! At least not yet. Instead, start with “Are you a man or a woman?” or, “Are you an amateur or a pro?". Ask an impersonal, non-intrusive question that your prospect can easily answer in a split second. By doing so, you’ve gotten them to make the first decision, take the first step. After that, in a separate page (or slide), you can ask a marginally more personal, but still non-intrusive question, and so on. As they move through your questionnaire, prospects will be affected by the “Consistency” effect as they build momentum in answering the questions you’ve posed for them. With this momentum, you can ask for the email as the final step and see a far higher likelihood of compliance. Baby steps!

As with anything, though, execution is key. Here are some notes about using Consistency in your web forms:

When building your web form, make sure your questions are presented in separate pages, and that the ‘next’ question is only visible once the previous one has been answered. If the entire questionnaire is visible from the start, the effect does not occur. In fact, gaze studies (studies tracking where prospects are looking on your websites) show that one-page questionnaires are most often scanned all the way to the bottom before a prospect begins to answer (or decides whether to answer at all). Even worse, their eyes tend to linger on the hardest (often longest) questions first; which totally undermines the Consistency principle. To avoid scaring off your prospects, present your questions one at a time, in easily digestible ‘bites’. Each micro-commitment will make the Consistency effect more powerful.

Secondly, consider the slope of your questions. It’s important not to jump too quickly from a simple, impersonal question to a difficult, intrusive one. This will likely scare-off your prospect and forego your conversion. Inversely, avoid taking too long to get to your ask. Sure, a casual slope is less likely to scare me off, but a questionnaire that never ends will also make me more likely to abandon it. Find your sweet-spot length, choose your questions carefully and lead your prospect straight down the funnel into a conversion. As they progress, their brain will do its part in building the momentum needed to comply with your request. 

#6  Scarcity: Last One Left!

We have a weird tendency to value things that are scarce. Deep in our subconscious mind, we place additional value on things that come in smaller numbers. Take, for example, diamonds. They are valuable, among other things, because they are scarce. Even with synthetic diamonds having the same look, strength and qualities of an earth-diamond, the latter fetches a far higher price tag. Scarcity! 

A classic study that highlights this phenomenon is the Cookie Test. Researchers gave a group of subjects two bowls holding 2 and 10 cookies respectively, asking them to evaluate their flavour. Though all the cookies were identical, subjects rated the cookies in the 2-cookie bowl significantly more favourably. The scarcity, it turned out, impacted their perceptions. 

Even more surprising, was the second step of the study! Researchers amped up the scarcity effect by removing 8 cookies from the 10-cookie bowl, and presenting the two bowls back to the subjects. In a twist, subjects now rated these cookies more favourably. As it turned out, declining availability is an even more powerful motivator than low availability. 

Upon further analysis, we can see why this is the case. Declining availability triggers all of the emotional stimuli we hate most: Loss Aversion and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)! If there were 20 seats available for the Leafs game, and now there are only 2, I will definitely be tempted to buy one, now! Note: That last bit is purely personal opinion and may well be affected by the recent drought in public sporting events ??). 

To best see this principle in action, visit any travel site. Even in global lockdown, they use Scarcity triggers as non-conscious motivators for driving bookings. You might see, “2 rooms left at this price” or “3 more seats on this flight”, or even some declining availability triggers like “38 of the 45 packages have been sold!”. 

It’s important to remember that travel companies (outside of a wonky 2020), have some of the heaviest transactional traffic of any websites on the internet. As a result, they’ve not only invested heavily in behavioural marketing, they also have an extremely high volume on which to test. As a rule of thumb:

If travel sites are doing it, it’s probably an effective technique.  

Conclusion: Cialdini is a pioneer in persuasion research and his principles are still taught around the world. Though a far deeper dive is required to fully grasp these principles, being aware of them can be hugely beneficial in your hunt for more conversions. Remember, attention-grabbing is just the beginning. As you continue the conversation with your prospects, learn more about them, and funnel them toward conversion, it is always the subconscious brain you are speaking to. As such, leveraging neuromarketing insights like Cialdini’s principles can make all the difference in cutting through the proverbial ‘noise’ and inducing the target behaviour. 

As I mention every week, I am continuing my CXL mini-degree in Digital Psychology & Persuasion. The course material has been fascinating both from a marketing and sales perspective, and I will continue to share my learnings along the way! If you have any questions about neuromarketing, Cialdini, or this mini-degree, just shoot me a message! I'm happy to chat.

In the meantime, Happy Converting!