The 7 Principles of Persuasion (And How to Put Them to Work in Your Business)

The serpent knew about persuasion. 

He was the first-tricking Eve into eating fruit from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden.

Not a lot has changed in over 2,000 years.

The psychology of persuasion hasn’t anyway.

It has been used and exploited in all types of arenas from prisoner of war camps to quasi religious cults to the science of selling and the marketplace to the iPhone in your pocket.

Since time immemorial there have been a number of fundamentals of influence that have worked, and continue to work, to persuade others of our point of view.

A thirty five year study, based on clinical research and evidence by Dr. Robert Cialdini, an American professor of both marketing and psychology, identified seven principles of persuasion.

“Influence-The Psyschology of Persuasion” is Cialdini’s book and is well worth a look if you want to understand influence.

But I will make it easy for you…

These 7 principles can be put to work in your business or job or everyday life.

Applied in the area of small business and attempting to influence people to buy our products and services, they work as well today as they have down through the centuries.

These 7 principles are

1. Self interest

The consumer or potential customer wants to get the maximum for the least cost. This is self-evident but is often overlooked by small business owners.

But remember: it is the self-interest of your potential customer you need to be concerned about, not your own.

Your own self-interest will be served later.

2. Consistency

We are greatly influenced by people and businesses who are consistent, not those who change their message or opinion at the drop of a hat.

People have an in built need or desire to be consistent and the desire to be consistent is a prime shaper of our behaviour.

The reason for this is pretty simple-if we are consistent we appear to be rational, honest, intellectually strong, logical and constant.

To be inconsistent is to be flaky, two faced, uncertain and of negotiable beliefs and philosophy.

Being inconsistent makes decisions and life in general appear to be erratic and confusing.

The marketing message of your business, whether online or off, needs to be consistent.

Without consistency your potential customers/clients will wonder what you and your business really stands for and what you believe in.

Your website is an ideal platform through which to demonstrate your consistency and commitment to helping your visitors and potential new customers.

Email marketing can be incredibly effective in cementing your relationship with your website visitors to show what you believe in and how you can help your customers.

Consistency and commitment will also help you overcome one of the biggest barriers to succeeding online-the barrier of trust.

A subscriber to your website receiving a consistent and useful message on a regular basis will help you build trust and ultimately position you or your business as a trusted authority to whom your subscriber will turn when needing assistance.

Commitment and consistency

You will have noticed no doubt a certain tactic/strategy of certain salespeople.

They will almost always ask you a series of questions which elicit a “yes” response in the early stages of their pitch.

The key to the salesperson getting you on a path of his choosing is if he can get you to make a commitment at the outset; the desire to be consistent will take care of the rest.

The desire to be consistent often pushes us along a path that we know to be wrong but which we cannot depart from such is the power of the desire to appear consistent and which has been recognized by prominent psychologists such as Newcomb and Fritz Heider.

3. Reciprocation

Reciprocation refers to the sense of obligation most people feel when somebody does something or gives something for free which creates a tremendous sense of obligation in the recipient.

The rule for reciprocation is one of the most powerful factors at force in the attempt to persuade.

Giving somebody something for free creates a powerful feeling of obligation in the recipient.

It can be very difficult to say no and it is this feeling of obligation that leaves us exposed in attempting to resist a good sales pitch.

4. Social proof

We are hugely influenced by what others have bought and approve of which explains the enormous amounts of money that celebrities and sports stars can earn from endorsing products, services and businesses.

How else can we explain Justin Bieber?

Most of us assume that a course of action is more likely to be correct if other people are taking the same course of action.

Much as we all hate canned laughter on many tv programmes, tv studios still employ it because it is simply effective and works.

5. Authority

We are influenced by people and businesses in positions of authority and pay greater attention to so called experts, academics and people who can demonstrate authority than we might to the person working in our local supermarket;

“Follow an expert”-Virgil

We are influenced strongly by authority and expertise and who can resist the trappings of authority such as titles, nice clothes, nice cars, academic qualifications, uniforms and so on.

Authority is a huge factor in the ability to persuade and lead.

6. Liking

Liking is a tremendous and underrated source of influence. Are you more likely to be influenced by someone you like or someone you dislike or don’t know?

If the salesperson can get you to like him, he has a great chance of making a sale because we buy stuff from people we like.

The Tupperware party is a good example of the power at work here and the hostess ends up selling a lot of stuff to her friends, not because here friends want Tupperware storage containers but because they like the hostess.

She invited them to her home didn’t she?

7. Scarcity

The power of scarcity is clearly demonstrated at sales time in shops and stores or when great works of art are auctioned. This same principle is a very powerful source of persuasion in any business regardless of whether you are selling your goods and services online or on the high street.

“Get the last of the choc ices/wrapping paper/cheap bananas” is a refrain you will have heard many times-at football matches, on Moore Street, Henry Street, etc.

The bottom line is that these street traders know that scarcity works.

A good business website will have most or all of these fundamental principles of persuasion at work.

If it doesn’t it is a complete waste of time and money-an expensive, time wasting adornment which won’t add to the bottom line of your business.

The absence of these principles when you take your business online is a common mistake for 2 reasons:

1.       Many small business owners think that doing business on or through the medium of the internet is somehow different.

Yes, it is different but not as different as you might think.

Because the internet is only the medium through which you transmit your message and offer-the fundamental principles of persuasion outlined above stay the same.

If your website does not tap into these weapons of influence you are missing a great opportunity to sell more of your goods and services and acquire new clients and customers for your business.

2.      Most websites are designed by, surprise surprise, web designers who come from a “graphic artist” background rather than from a marketing perspective with an understanding of the difference between direct response and delayed response marketing.

It’s almost certain that you already put many of these principles to work in your everyday life, without even noticing it.

But if you are trying to persuade someone to do something-and who isn’t-you are intuitively using some of these principles anyway.

It’s no harm though to recognise the sound scientific, evidence based research  for the principles of persuasion.

And perhaps take a fresh look at some that we can easily overlook.

The Most Important Weapon to Market Your Business

A man from outside Thurles came to my office in November. 

He didn’t drive. 

He got the train to Heuston station, the Luas down to Busaras, and a Bus Eireann bus to Enfield. 

All because of what I had written on the home page of my website.

I will explain later about what I wrote and why it connected so well with my visitor from Tipperary that he wanted me to represent him in a family law case he was involved in.

But first I want to tell you what the most important thing is to promote your business online. Before I do that, a little historical background...

Cicero was a Roman orator, philosopher, lawyer, and politician. He introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and he was a huge influence on languages-Latin and European.

Cicero the Orator

When Cicero made a speech he impressed his listeners no end; they proclaimed “what a marvelous orator! What an excellent speech!”

However when Demosthenes denounced Philip of Macedon in his speech people jumped up filled with anger and rage and cried: “Let us march against Philip”.

Demosthenes is the guy you’ll want to copy.

The ability to persuade and influence your readers with words  is the single most important weapon you can use in your marketing, regardless of whether it is online or offline.

It’s called copywriting. But it’s just words chosen and arranged by someone to persuade or influence someone else.

Let me give you an example of something I see every day of the week: if you head over to LinkedIn you will see a stream of headlines competing for your attention. Many of these headlines will be along the lines of:

·        “I have just written a blog post”
·        “read my latest blog”

The content/subject matter of these blog posts could be of the Pulitzer prize winning variety. But nobody will ever know.

Because nobody will click on a headline like those.

Why should they? What’s in it for them? And come to think of it, who are you?

Compare these boring, insipid headlines with one like this:

“7 Tips You Can Implement on Your Website in 45 Minutes Which Will Almost Certainly Increase Your Traffic By 57% in 3 Days”

One of the biggest problems you face online is getting your voice heard-actually getting attention. And the most important factor in doing this is your headline. 

The sole purpose of your headline is to get people to read the rest of what you have to say. And your headline needs to flag down the reader and persuade the reader to read on past the headline.

People are busy. Don’t waste their time with boring headlines. And don’t try to bore them into doing business with you.

The Famous 6 Word Story from Ernest Hemingway

ErnestHemingway was allegedly challenged by friends to write the shortest story he could.

He did it in 6 words: “For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn”. 

These 6 words immediately spark the interest of the reader who is probably saying: “what the hell happened? Why is he/she selling the baby shoes? Did she miscarry? Maybe there is an innocent explanation”

The point is that words used correctly can be incredibly powerful. Words like “read my latest blog post” are ignored and sink without trace.

And don’t think you need to be able to write like Hemingway to persuade. Hemingway was accused of being an ignorant bastard:

“I used the oldest words in the English language. People think I’m an ignorant bastard who doesn’t know the ten dollar words. I know the ten dollar words. There are older and better words which if you arrange them in the proper combination you make it stick”.

My Friend from Thurles

So, what persuaded my friend from Thurles to undertake his public transport trek to visit me in Enfield?

The 1^st two lines he read on the home page were:

“Choosing the right solicitor isn’t easy. There are plenty of good solicitors in Ireland”

Why did this resonate with him?

Simple: it wasn't about me. It was about him, the reader.

I immediately empathised with his problem in choosing a solicitor. I made a “damaging admission” that there were many good solicitors in Ireland and there was no particular reason why he should choose me.

However this man had already been to Court with a solicitor and felt he was very badly served. And now he encounters someone who recognises his real problem in choosing a solicitor.

Most other solicitors’ websites he would have visited would have had plenty of “guff” about their specialities, their qualifications, and their “passion”. Maybe even their charitable and/or philanthropic endeavours.

But shag all about him, the reader.

I have plenty of stuff about me too; I have to because the reader needs to know that I can help him, that I actually have the technical qualifications, expertise, and experience.

But first he must see that I recognise his problem. And that he can like me.

Your web content should be all about your reader. Not about you.

Like this piece.

This is all about you.

50 Things You Should Know About Making a Will in Ireland

Here are 50 things you should know about making a will: 

Many good reasons to make a will

1. The requirements for a valid will are set out in section 77 of the Succession Act, 1965. 

2. To make a will you must be of sound disposing mind and at least 18 (or if younger, married) 

3. If you don’t make a will an intestacy situation arises; this means that your property will be distributed in accordance with the Rules of the Superior Courts and the Succession Act, 1965 

4. Making a will leads to a cheaper and quicker administration of the estate through a Grant of Probate 

5. If you leave a benefit in your will to your child who predeceases you the benefit will go to his estate, not to his children (section 98 of the Succession Act, 1965) 

6. You can prevent this happening by making provision in your will that the benefit will go to, for example, your child’s children 

7. You can engage in tax planning/minimisation of capital acquisitions tax by making a will 

8. Your choice of executor is critical-(s)he handles your affairs and extracts the grant of administration 

9. You can make as many wills as you want 

10. The only will that counts though is the last one before you pass away

11. Your will must be in writing-it could be carved in stone 

12. You must sign it at the end of the will and your signature must be witnessed by 2 people 

13. Your witnesses cannot benefit from your will so if you intend leaving either one (or both) something get a different witness(es) 

14. Your will must contain your name and address 

15. Your will must be dated 

16. Your will should revoke all previous wills (if any) 

17. A list of legacies refers to your money or goods 

18. A list of devises in your will is a list of your real property

19. Your will is not revoked by divorce 

20. Your will is revoked by marriage 

21. You cannot appoint alternative executors because your will will fail for uncertainty eg “I appoint Mary or Sean to be my executor” 

22. If you have children under the age of 18 you should appoint trustees and/or guardians

23. The spouse of any of your witnesses cannot benefit from your will 

24. If an intended beneficiary predeceases you and there is no clause in your will dealing with the residuary of your estate that benefit will be distributed as if you died intestate 

25. Your child can bring a legal action against your estate under section 117 of the Succession Act, 1965 if you fail in your “moral duty” towards him/her 

26. Your spouse has a legal right to a share of your estate thanks to section 111 of the Succession Act, 1965 

27. If you make a will your spouse is entitled to 1/3 of your estate if you leave children and ½ of your estate if you have no children 

28. If you don’t make a will your spouse is entitled to 2/3rds of your estate if there are children and the whole shooting match if there is no children 

29. Children referred to at 26, 27, 28 above includes martial and non marital children and adopted children 

30. Your spouse can cease to be a spouse in 4 ways: 

• By renunciation (section 113, Succession Act, 1965)
• By separation (Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act, 1989 and Family Law act, 1995)
• By divorce (Family Law(Divorce) Act, 1996)
• By unworthiness to succeed (Succession act, section 120) 

31. If your will is valid, there is a presumption of testamentary capacity 

32. The test for testamentary capacity was set out in an 1870 case: Banks v Goodfellow 

33. There are 3 aspects to testamentary capacity: a) you must understand you are making a will to dispose of your assets, 2) you must know the extent of your estate, 3) you must be able to give consideration to those who might expect to benefit from your will 

34. Certain situations will give rise to a presumption of undue influence; generally where the relationship of trust and confidence existed eg doctor/patient 

35. Your children are not entitled to any specific share of your estate, unlike spouses (see 26 above) 

36. If you don’t make a will though your children (strictly “issue”) are entitled to 1/3 

37. Your children can bring a legal action against your estate under section 117 of the Succession Act, 1965 for your failure to discharge your moral duty to them 

38. The time limit for bringing such an action is 6 monts; and it is a strict one 

39. You can create a trust in your will 

40. A trust is an equitable obligation binding someone (a trustee) to deal with your property for the benefit of beneficiaries whose identity may not be known yet 

41. Your trustees will be the legal owners of your trust property but they must carry out the terms of the trust which you will decide 

42. If your trust property is “real property” the trust must be evidenced in writing 

43. A trust is not a legal entity so cannot be bound by a legal contract 

44. The Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act, 2009 has made huge changes in trust law in Ireland 

45. Your estate is administered by your personal representatives-an “executor” in a testate situation and an “administrator” in an intestate situation 

46. Your executor’s job is to extract a grant of probate to “prove” the will and deal with your estate 

47. Your executor does not have to act and may renounce; but once (s)he takes on the role (s)he can’t renounce later 

48. Your executor’s powers come from the will itself and the Succession Act, 1965 

49. Capital acquisitions tax is the tax payable by beneficiaries of your will 

50. The amount to be paid can be reduced/minimized because there is a wide range of reliefs and exemptions, provided you make a will. 

You can learn more about making a will or setting up a trust in your will by clicking on the links.

Why Twitter and Facebook are Perfect for Cowards and Bullies

An Irish teacher brought Twitter to the High Court on New Year's eve.

She was looking for Twitter to remove an impersonating account.The account contained defamatory and offensive sexually related material about the teacher and her mother.


Twitter had denied liability for the posting of the offensive pictures and tweets claiming that it simply facilitated members of the public to "engage in discourse" over the internet.


The High Court ordered Twitter to remove the material immediately on the grounds that it was "grossly defamatory".



The teacher had sworn in her affidavit that both she and her solicitor had asked Twitter to remove the material on the grounds that it was an impersonation violation. 


Twitter ignored their request.

The Problem with Facebook and Twitter

This isn't an isolated incident; not by a long stretch.


I know a local business which is suffering at the hands of a Facebook account. The business owner has followed the protocol provided by Facebook to report the offensive and defamatory material.


Facebook, like Twitter,have refused to do anything.


Most people and businesses who suffer at the hands of anonymous bullies and cowards who hide behind a Twitter handle or Facebook account don't have the money to head to the High Court.


They are also faced with the dilemma: if they take steps to have the material removed or respond they are giving oxygen and attention to the offensive material.


So they hope that it will "blow over". Maybe it will, maybe not. 


But the attitude of Twitter and Facebook to these types of incidents is sickening.


No person or business should have their reputation sacrificed at the hands of big corporations who consider only the interests of their shareholders and advertisers.


Defamation is defamation, regardless of whether it is on the internet or in your local paper.


And I can see it getting worse in Ireland in 2014. 


Because there are a lot of disaffected loonies out there with chips on their shoulder about just about anything. Facebook and Twitter offer the perfect playground for these headcases.


Billy Hawkes, the Data Protection Commissioner, carried out an audit of Facebook and published a report on 21st September, 2012. 


Issues that he looked at included 

• privacy policy, 
• advertising, 
• access requests, 
• abuse reporting, 
• posting on other profiles 
• and a rang of other issues.

It's hard to believe that the sort of  defamatory crap I have read on Facebook is allowed to remain there.

But maybe it hasn't been brought to his attention yet. Maybe more complaints to the data protection commissioner in addition to the normal remedies of an injunction and damages in the Civil Courts will do the trick.

It shouldn't be like this though. 

Civilized society requires that people or businesses shouldn't have their good name and reputation sullied for the sake of few more "shares", "likes", or "retweets".

What do you think? I'd like to hear your opinion.

How I Increased Web Traffic to One Small Blog from 30 to 23,091 in 12 Months (and 9 Lessons You Can Learn)

I started a blog/website in January, 2013 and got a lousy 30 visitors for the whole month. By December, 2013 this had increased to 23,091. I will tell you what I’ve learned below.


The topic of the site wasn’t the sexiest one you could think of either: employment law in Ireland. Virtually all of the traffic is “search traffic”-traffic coming from Google Search from people typing in queries about various aspects of employment law affecting them.

But according to the Central Statistics Office in Ireland, the number of people in employment in Ireland in June 2013 was 1.8699 million people. 

That’s a lot of people who might have questions or problems in their job. Throw in all the employers from the small business sector employing a handful of people and you have a lot of people with lots of questions.


The average payout in 2012 for an unfair dismissal claim was just over €18,000. So smart employers are looking for ways to ensure that they are not at the losing end of such a claim. They too are seeking answers.


Where do people go for answers to questions nowadays? The library? The newspaper? Magazines? TV? Radio?


Generally they search on Google. And that’s where almost all the traffic came from.

How I Did It (and you can too)

You might assume that this was a gargantuan task. 


It wasn’t. In fact, it was easy.


I only published 40 posts and 13 pages. Five or six of the pages are “boilerplate”: an “about” page, a “contact page”, a “disclaimer” page and so on.


What I did do though was to write and publish fairly comprehensive articles about all aspects of employment law in Ireland. Not shallow, superficial stuff but detailed treatments of the topic with sources of legislation cited and linked to.


I did no promotion apart from sharing some links on LinkedIn. I can’t do pay per click-and I wouldn’t want to-because I lost my Adwords account years ago. I just published the articles, tagged and categorized them properly, and hungry (for information) employees, employers, and Google did the rest.


You are probably thinking: “surely it couldn’t have been this easy?” It was. And I am going to do the same thing again with another site in a different market. 


Maybe I won’t be as successful with this new one. But I won’t have to be. If I get even a fraction of the traffic to the new site it will have repaid me many times over. 


Because generating new leads, clients/customers is a numbers game. And in my game, my solicitor’s practice, the value of a new client far outweighs the cost of building these types of sites.


The cost?  A .com domain name costs me $10.69 or €7.78 per year at today’s exchange rates. What’s the lifetime value of a new client? 


As the MasterCard ad says: “priceless”.

The Lessons You Can Learn

Here is what I have found:

1. Focus your site tightly on your topic-it makes it easy for Google to figure out what your site is about and rank the pages highly;

2. Treat each sub-topic on your site comprehensively-forget about shallow, trivial articles;

3. Categorise and tag sub-topics rationally and sensibly-make it easy for your visitors and the search engines;

4. Don’t waste time on social media (apart from Google+)-just use sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to get your new content indexed (any traffic you get from them is a bonus);

5. Sign up for Google+ “authorship” and ensure each page has the Google+ authorship code on it;

6. Sign up for Google Webmaster tools and Analytics-this isn’t essential but in a later post I will explain how to increase traffic to your site with these 2 tools and without writing an extra word;

7. Collect emails-70% of your traffic will never be seen again for various reasons; email allows you to connect with them, stay in their mind, and position yourself as someone they know, like and trust. When they do recognise that you can solve their problem, or when they have the funds to afford what you are offering, or both you are there in their inbox as a trusted advisor;

8. The Irish market is wide open for this approach;

9. Learn the fundamentals of copywriting to ensure your new content is noticed and read- nobody gives a curse for “read my latest blog post”-what’s in it for the reader?


What do you think?

Have you tried this approach?

Have you any questions?