Emergence 2009
eTourism Forum Cyprus
19 February 2009
The role of persuasion
in online conversion
Richard Sedley
cScape Customer Engagement Director

What’s the most
powerful page
on your website?

The conversion triangle
Utility
Usability Persuasion

What is persuasion?
The goal of persuasion
is to change someone’s
attitudes or behaviour.
Make them comply with a request
using an understanding of human psychology

Overview
• Credibility • Social proof
• Reciprocity • Storytelling
• Decoying • Timing

How we make our decisions
Elaboration Likelihood Model
• High elaboration (central route)
Requires great deal of thought to make a
decision
• Low elaboration (peripheral route)
Requires little thought, reliant on decisional
heuristics
Petty & Cacioppo, 1981

The need for
decisional heuristics
500 milliseconds to 4 seconds to
determine credibility determine usefulness

Four types of credibility
• Presumed = General assumptions in the
mind of the perceiver
• Surface = Simple inspection or initial first
hand experience
• Reputed = Third party endorsements,
reports or referrals
• Earned = First hand experience that
extends over time
Stanford University, Persuasive Technology Lab, 2003

The power of credibility
A B
Marketing Experiments Journal, Feb 2007
Conversion rate = 2.69% Conversion rate = 3.03%
% change = 12.64%
Projected monthly gain = $30,582.30

Incentives and reciprocity
A B
Task Incentive
Incentive Task
Conversion rate = 84% Conversion rate = 72%
44% 91%
completion accuracy completion accuracy
Embedded Persuasive Strategies to Obtain Visitors’ Data. Gamberini, Petrucci, Spoto, Spagnolli

68%
32%

16%
0%
84%

William-Sonoma £275 1988

Social proof (consensus)
Experiment: Milgrim, Bikman and Birkowitz

Good testimonials...
• are focused. Talk about specific benefits or
personal situations
• overcome objections. Target conversion
barriers
• are contextual. Position where customer might
ask questions and need reassurance
• are plentiful. Build a wall of satisfaction
• are credible. Lead with skeptics and problems
Why testimonials do (and don’t) work: Holly Buchanan, Future Now
Sean DeSouza: Pyschotactics
Marketing Experiments: Optimizing site design

Copyright: Steve Double - www.double-whammy.com

Make them feel proud?
The first,
the last,
the best
and the rarest?

Copyright: Steve Double - www.double-whammy.com

Persuasion windows
• When you are in a good mood
• When your world view no longer makes sense
• When you can take action immediately
• When you feel indebted because of a favour
• Immediately after you have made a mistake
• Immediately after you have denied a request
Stanford University, Persuasive Technology Lab, 2003

What’s the most
powerful page
on your website?

customer-engagement-network.com
Thanks for listening.
Email: r.sedley@cscape.com
Give me you business card afterwards and I’ll send you
a sheet with 10 persuasive tips