English | EN Persuasion Profiling: How the Internet Knows What Makes You Tick
Jun 9, 2015
Maurtis Kaptein’s brand new book Persuasion Profiling is about the growing trend of personalized online shopping experiences: it combines insights in psychology and information technology to present the latest insights in online marketing.
With the rise of the Internet, shops and businesses are able to reach many more prospective customers than ever before. However, even though an online store may get ten times as many visitors as a physical store, the ratio of visitors that actually buy something is only one tenth of that of a bricks‐and‐mortar store.
What is missing from the Internet shopping experience, Mr. Kaptein argues, is the psychological aspects of assisting a customer that a real salesman or -woman uses. Until recently, web shops were not able to tailor their sites to an individual customer’s wants and needs. By using Persuasion Profiles, companies are now able to create individual profiles that use Big Data to work out which persuasive tactic works best for a particular client.
Persuasion Profiles differ from the personal recommendations we know and, sometimes love, from Amazon and iTunes, which are based on purchase patterns and behaviour on site, in that they are based on an understanding of our psychology rather than the relevance of a particular book or music track.
They are also a step beyond online behavioural targeting in that they detail not what we have been looking at but rather what messages we are likely to respond to.
What Persuasion Profiles potentially tell brands and governments is whether you are more likely to respond to a message based on authority, whether you are more likely to respond to scarcity or whether you are more likely to respond positively to someone you like?
They can be applied across all aspects of your behaviour and ultimately could become tradable data valued on the basis of their ability to boost conversion rates and improve take-up of other changes desired by governments, service providers and campaigners.
In essence, they are the digital equivalent of the salesperson’s skill in sizing up a customer and working out what message about his or her product is most likely to convince them to buy. But while their use on a one to one basis is as old as the human race, their widespread adoption and automated inclusion in communications raises a number of wider issues.
Some researchers specify more than 100 influence strategies or ways to convince people to adopt a certain pattern of behaviour but there are six core principles of persuasion
Reciprocity
People feel obligated to return a favour, thus when a persuasive request is made by a person the receiver is in debt to, the receiver is more inclined to adhere to the request.
Scarcity
When something is scarce, people will value it more. Announcing that a product or service is scarce will favor the evaluation and increase the chance of purchase.
Authority
When a request or statement is made by a legitimate authority, people are more inclined to comply or find the information credible.
Commitment and Consistency
People do as they said they would. People try to be consistent with previous or reported behaviour, resolving cognitive dissonance by changing their attitudes or behaviours to achieve consistency. If a persuasive request aligns with previous behaviour people are more inclined to comply.
Consensus
People do as other people do. When a persuasive request is made people are more inclined to comply when they are aware that others have complied as well.
Liking
We say “yes” to people we like. When a request is made by someone we like, we are more inclined to act accordingly.
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