Applying social proof
like acupuncture:
Progress is a recent idea, only about 200 years old, Before that, people in Western society identified themselves as part of a group rather than as an individual in society.
You can get a good sense of this group identity by looking at English surnames that identify that person as part of a trade or occupation: Smith, Wright, Carpenter, Cutter, or Sawyer. Other surnames connect them with their locality. And others through their relationship, usually as son of a certain father, such as Robinson or Jackson or Johnson.
With progress, a person stands as an individual apart from group and tradition. Yet, the group still is very important. Understanding this social energy between the individual and the group lets us see where to apply marketing pressure through social proof and where not.
Internal and External Improvement
Underlying the idea of progress itself are two things:
- Doing better than others through competition, giving a person a sense of self through achievement and a sense of freedom
- Science/technology, which can make things better.
Progress: Both Carrot and Stick
When you combine these two things in a sales or marketing presentation, you can simultaneously offer both the carrot (of harnessing modern science or technology and making things better in their lives) and the stick of falling behind (and being less competitive, achieving less, or experiencing less freedom, and ultimately a worse-off life).
The Rotten Carrot . . .
That same sense of being an individual with freedom from tradition and the dicates of the group means the burden of freedom: experiencing the responsibility of failure.
Marketers often introduce general social proof to demonstrate how easy their product or service is. You know:
- So easy a brain-dead caveman can do it
- $9,794.76 PER MONTH on absolute autopilot…(a 17 year old is doing it)
- Farm Boy: From $6/hour to $1.2 million
This appeal is meant to help the prospect say: “Well, if a brain-dead caveman or an inexperienced 17-year-old or a naïve farm boy can do it, I certainly can.”
BUT … what if your prospect can’t? Have you set them up for the ultimate social risk: feeling extremely embarrassed? That might be the greater unspoken fear lurking in the minds of your prospects, many of whom are wise to marketing ploys and understandably suspicious of “overly easy” claims: they afraid of being made to look like an idiot.
Keep in mind: Many people like to talk about what they’re doing now or what they’re about to do. On one level, they’re connecting by sharing. On another level, they are showing pride in themselves while making themselves vulnerable, since others may ask them later how the project or purchase is turning out for them. If they have to admit that it didn’t work out, they are essentially admitting lack of achievement (which lowers their own individual worth) or bad judgment (which lowers their social worth as a leader).
Seeing this in terms of crediblity and trust, they can boost their credibility if they succeed. But they’re going to look like Bozos if they don’t. And as the seller, you lose your credibility and trust with them.
So help set them up (and yourself) as glowing winners, not humiliated losers. Don’t offer a seemingly low hurdle of proof that might actually trip them up.
. . . And The Stinging Stick
If the carrot dangling in front of us is the hope and promise of getting ahead, experiencing a greater sense of self through achievement, and more living a life of greater individual freedom …
… then the stick stinging our rear end is the opposite: falling behind, being less competitive, achieving less, experiencing less freedom, and ultimately living a worse-off life.
But we as marketers or buyers don’t live in a vacuum. We live in society.
We need to be socially integrated. In order for us to be socially integrated, we need to restrain ourselves through a conscience (right/wrong) judgment, criticism, and correction (I want to, I can’t. I must not. I shouldn’t. I won’t.)
Thus, we learn to limit our own freedom and put ourselves in a cage with the illusion of being locked in.
We learn to preserve this self-perception in order to experience the emotions of being accepted, loved, and admired.
These are more pressure points where social proof can be applied: acceptance by others, loving yourself and having others love you, and being admired.
The Buyer’s Dilemma:
Risk vs. Reward:
People often will go for long odds, such as in the penny stocks, options, and commodities markets. Psychologists call it “variable rate reinforcement” or “gambling behavior:” they continue in an activity for long periods even though they haven’t received a payoff in quite a while.
In the back of their minds and all buyers is …
The Buyer’s Big Doubt:
“Am I doing the right thing?”
On one hand, many people will apply the lessons of success and persist rather than quit. After all, we’ve all heard many tales describing success as being just one step beyond giving up or persevering to become a “20-year overnight success.”
As long as there are no outside forces of opinion and coercion of community (including social proof), people can continue in their gambling behavior.
But if you question whether they’re doing the right thing and create doubt, you open up the possibility for them to switch from what they’re doing now and give your product or service a try. You can ask them:
- “Sure, it worked before, but are you absolutely certain circumstances haven’t changed? Are you absolutely certain you’re doing the right thing? Here are testimonials from satisfied customers like you who experienced success.”
But instead of offering them the Rotten Carrot — the ultimate social risk of feeling extremely embarrassed for making a decision to go with you and failing, even if they can get all of their money back . . .
Help carry their burden for them:
Reduce their risk:
You diffuse their responsibility by transferring some of the burden from them (as individual) to both you and them (as a group):
- Going from: “You only have yourself to blame – nobody made you do anything”
- Going to: “We’re in this together and you have ongoing customer support and service”
People are glad to be relieved of personal responsibility for their actions. One of the ways they do this is by handing over their power by deferring to authority: “obedience to authority.”
The famous 1960s Milgram Experiment at Yale University demonstrated this in the extreme: volunteers were asked to electrically shock unseen people at increasing voltages while hearing the recipients strapped into chairs scream in excruciating agony, then fall silent at maximum voltages. The lab-coated psychologist Stanley Milgram reassured the volunteers he assumed all responsibility for what might happen, even though the volunteers knew they were engaging in morally wrong behavior: torture and possible homicide. Most volunteers (65% to 92%) continued to the 450-volt maximum.
Finally:
Priming the pump & breaking the ice:
- If buyers have the Big Doubt of whether they are doing the right thing or not …
- If they act like gamblers and stick to the same activity looking for the occasional but big payoff …
- If they want to progress, do better and gain a greater sense of themselves and a greater sense of freedom …
- If they feel that science and technology can make things better for them …
then your social proof not only can help answer these, but also can prime the pump to get things flowing. To break the ice.
Instead of using a testimonial such as “So easy a brain-dead caveman do it,” your social proof answers the question of: “So, who’ll go first?” The problem is: When you ask that question, you’re usually answered with hesitating dead silence and no movement. We need to figure out why they pause instead of leap …
One reason why buyers hesitate:
Buyers often need to see someone else go first.
Those they consider to be peers are an extremely powerful source of behavioral control and direction.
And those they consider authorities or leaders are even more powerful sources.
In social living, we need to factor in others’ needs, purposes and respect those because ultimately it’s grounded in principle: living in a certain somewhat harmonious way with others.
Why do buyers hesitate?
From your buyers’ perspective:
- Someone within the group will do something, so I personally don’t have to
- Nobody’s doing anything so why I should I?
- There’s social risk in acting:
- I might embarrass myself
- My action can be interpreted as questioning others’ judgment. This is especially risky if the leader does nothing but I do, thus challenging the existing order
How to get around this?
FIRST: Don’t set them up for the “Rotten Carrot:” ultimately feeling embarrassed if they fail.
SECOND: Transfer some of the responsibility and risk for their decision to yourself by providing support and talking in terms of “us” rather than “you” versus “them.” This includes money-back guarantees to remove financial risk at minimum.
THIRD: Prime the pump with social proof, including yourself as the first one to step forward as a true leader does. I saw a financial advisor start a service by personally putting $1 million at risk to demonstrate his commitment, while asking subscribers for only several hundred dollars each backed by his money-back guarantee.
Summarizing . . .
Offering proof taps into the poweful force of groups and peer pressure and everyone’s desire to experience progress in their lives. But as you have seen, it can backfire on you if you’re merely activating doubts and fears lurking in the backs of your prospects’ minds.
Take care in applying proof, without going overboard, and transfer some risk and responsibility to yourself by creating a new group of WE by combining your buyer and yourself.
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Do your best to make sure your buyers only succeed. You certainly don’t want to embarrass them or make them feel foolish. |
WHAT’S NEXT? We focus on psychology applied to the online world.
Find out next time as we continue to chart the underlying currents of psychology, sociology, and economics that flow together as marketing.
In DEEP MARKETING.
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