How do you persuade your blog readers to take action? How can you
generate responses that are almost automatic? With triggers.
Everybody’s got them.
A trigger is any stimulus that helps us make an quick, non-thinking
decision or action. A trigger activates a person’s immediate compliance
to an attempt to influence.
We are pre-programmed to comply with requests when a trigger is
activated. It’s simply a shortcut to avoid the pain and effort of
mental activity, to help us conserve energy in case of future threat to
survival. Mental activity takes up a huge amount of energy, so we avoid
it whenever we can.
Research has identified seven super triggers. Once you know and
understand them, you will see them everywhere. In every request you
make, in every email you write, and certainly in every commercial on
TV, these seven super triggers are present. Why not put them in your
blog posts?
You can improve your chances of persuasion success by using more than one trigger.
Here are seven triggers to automatically influence others, as revealed in psychological research:
The Friendship Trigger
People are more easily influenced by people they like. Liking is a prerequisite for the other triggers. Friendship generates trust, and trust activates a strong internal trigger. This is the basis of the marketing axiom that “people buy from people they know, like and trust.” The best way to activate friendship is through similarity. Find connections and common interests, and listen to the people you wish to influence.
The Authority Trigger
We respond with unthinking automatic compliance to those we believe have authority, credibility, and power. Managers and leaders might think they have authority by virtue of their position, but without the likability factor, this trigger is weakened. The authority trigger works because we assume the person in position of authority has already done the evaluation work for us.
The Consistency Trigger
Our internal guidance system compels us to be consistent with the way we see ourselves and the way we see our admired peers. We are slaves to consistency and conformity; in fact, these drives are hard wired into humans and governed by the amygdala.
The research is clear: Decisions are emotion based. When it comes time to make a decision, we call up an emotional memory that is similar to the situation at hand, and we’re guided in the same direction.
The Reciprocity Trigger
One of the strongest, most universal internal triggers is the law of giving and receiving, or quid pro quo. Reciprocity is the well-documented psychological desire to want to give back to someone who has given us a gift. It’s another automatic response hard-wired into our brains. Marketers have been using bonus gifts and free samples for years.
The Contrast Trigger
Framing a proposition so that it shows up as more desirable than an alternative is a proven automatic compliance technique. In this case the framing of the proposal is critical. Always present the most onerous approach first, then what you really want.
The Reason Why Trigger
The brain is looking for shortcuts to doing mental work. When you present a valid reason to accept a proposition, you get compliance. This has been applied successfully over a multitude of situations. We now understand why this happens because we’ve seen the neural networks in the brain’s decision-making process. The amygdala seems to accept any valid reason and doesn’t bother to send the information to the cerebral cortex. When you provide a reason, you persuade successfully.
The Hope Trigger
Hope motivates all human activity. We are easily persuaded by those who understand our hopes, our wishes, and our dreams. This is one of the strongest persuaders, underlying all others. We hope our decisions and actions will somehow improve our lives, our status, and help us become more successful and happy. Once we perceive an opportunity to satisfy our hopes, we seldom rely on rational cognitive thought or logic before we act.
The constant desire for happiness is the foundation for the omnipotent hope trigger. One of the best examples of this is seen in get-rich quick scams, gambling, and lotteries. The vitamin and cosmetic industries thrive because of the strong hopes and desires triggered by their marketing messages. Not a shred of logic or reason is employed to weigh the odds.
