Part 2 | The 6 Principles of Influence and How-to Manipulate Your Messaging

Justin Babcock • September 17, 2019

This article is a continuation from or first blog: The 6 Principles of Influence and How-to Manipulate Your Messaging. If you haven't read part one, click here.

Authority:

The principle of authority is pretty simple. Think of a boss asking an employee to do something, a school teacher instructing students, or a mentor coaching a mentee.

If you have a position of authority, you can get people to follow your message.

You can use this principle in two ways. First, you can pay an influencer to promote your product. The most notable example of this is the Kardashians getting paid millions to recommend products on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media outlets. You don't have to hire the most high profile influencer. Instead, you can look for more niche influencers in your particular industry.

The second way to use the principle of authority is to have authority. If you are the thought leader of your industry, people are going to listen to what you have to say. How do you become a thought leader?

Well, you have to listen, speak, and write. Listening means paying attention to your marketing and hearing what other people are saying. Speaking means finding venues where you can give presentations. And writing means writing articles that you can post to your blog or submit to other publications.

Liking:

The liking principle is the most recognizable. Let's face it, C\charismatic people can get other people to do things they might not otherwise do. We've all fallen for a pretty face, a smile, and some smooth-talk from a salesperson. We like to buy from people we like. It makes us feel good.

Get people to like you is a simple way to explain how to use this tactic. But that is not very actionable. And being liked seems to be a natural talent that you have, or don't. Fortunately, Dale Carnegie gave us a cheat sheet for how to win friends and influence people:

Six ways to make people like you:

Become genuinely interested in other people.
Smile.
Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
Make the other person feel important, and do it sincerely.

When it comes to writing, you can implore these principles by keeping your buyer persona in mind.

Scarcity:

Only one day left. Clearance. Only 2-seats are available for this flight at this price. Limited time only. All of these trigger FOMO (fear of missing out). Our lizard brain takes over, and we must start hoarding resources.

Marketers take advantage of this all the time, and it works. Think about what you can do to create a sense of scarcity with your product or service.