3 Steps to More Persuasive Video Marketing in 2011

What are the most effective ways to inspire your audience to take an action online — be it to donate, sign-up for your email list, or share a video?

Follow these three steps in any campaign to increase your audience response:
1) Start with the triggers (i.e. more reminders)
2) Focus on ability (make it easier)
3) Increase motivation (stories and rewards)

In the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, we create insight into how computers can be used to change behavior.  Lab Director BJ Fogg has distilled volumes of literature, research, and data about human behavior and motivation into a clear, simple framework that online marketers can use to improve their campaigns – The Fogg Behavior Model.

There are three points that must come into alignment for a behavior to occur: you must have sufficient ability, sufficient motivation, and be triggered to take the action.  If one of the elements is absent, the behavior won’t happen.

For example, if your target behavior is to have your coworkers share a video you’ve just created on Facebook, the action can only happen if they see the value of sharing the video for your organization (motivation), are provided with a link to the video (ability) and are prompted to take the action when the time is right (trigger).  If any element is missing, i.e. your coworker dislikes sharing things on Facebook (motivation), the link is broken (ability), or you neglect to send a reminder email (trigger), the action may not occur.

Using the Fogg Behavior Model, there are three steps that any effective marketing campaign must follow.  But before you begin, you need to get clear in your audience and target behavior.

If you aren’t clear on the target behavior (action) that you’re hoping to promote, you won’t be successful.  This means knowing your audience.  Who am I speaking to? What is the smallest, value-creating action that this audience can take?

It’s better to start small (simple action) and have success than try too much (complex action) and fail. Simple actions can lead to unlikely outcomes.

The behavior will be distinct depending on the audience: for a major donor it may be to email your new video to a friend and potential new donor, for your email list, it may simply be to share the video on Facebook.

We recommend selecting an audience that is already primed.  You’ll experience much more success if you lead a highly motivated audience to take the next step than attempting to change the minds of an audience who doesn’t care about your work.

A target behavior should be:

– Specific (in one sentence: who is doing what)
– Simple (think small, not big)
– Measurable (you must be able to tell whether it happened)

Step #1: Start with the triggers (i.e. more reminders)

A trigger can be thought of as a call-to-action, a cue, or a prompt – a message that says “do it now!”  We experience triggers every day: an email from your mom that tells you to bring an umbrella, an SMS reminder to call the doctor, snow flakes that indicate it’s time to get out the shovel and snow tires.

This is the best place to start to improve your marketing campaign.  Often, if you aren’t having success, adjusting or increasing the number of triggers will do the trick.

For example, if your first email request to share a video is unsuccessful, you could add an event with a built-in reminder to your co-workers shared Google calendar reminding them to share the video.  You could also make an announcement at the lunch hour to share the video by the end of the day, increasing the number and effectiveness of the triggers.

The best triggers will tell the audience when to act (time window) in addition to what to do (describe the simple step to take).

Step #2: Focus on ability (make it easier)

We often make behaviors unnecessarily difficult for our audience.  By thinking clearly about ability, we can greatly increase the probability of a behavior happening.

Dr. Fogg identifies 6 key ability factors:

– Time: Does the behavior take a long time?
– Money: Does the behavior require a lot of money?
– Physical effort: Does the behavior require significant physical effort?
– Brain Cycles: Does the behavior require significant mental effort?
– Social Deviance: Is the behavior strange – out of the norm?
– Non-routine: Does the behavior disrupt an existing routine?

Examine your target behavior and ask: which of these factors is most impacting the behavior in significant ways?

In our example, sharing a video on Facebook requires some time and mental effort and may be socially deviant and/or non-routine for some of your coworkers, but it requires no money or physical effort.

So, in order to make the action easier, we might write a template Facebook update your coworkers could use (impacting time, brain cycles) and provide step-by-step directions about how to share a video on Facebook for those who have never done so (non-routine).

Step #3: Increase motivation (stories and rewards)

Motivation is the trickiest of all the factors to influence, so we save it for last.

Dr. Fogg outlines three core motivators each with two facets:

– Sensation – pleasure / pain
– Anticipation – hope / fear
– Belonging – social acceptance / social rejection

There are many examples of people being influenced by each of these core motivators.  We might buy a hot tub because of the pleasure associated (sensation).  Obama used hope to inspire millions of Americans to support him in his presidential campaign (anticipation). We’re careful not to post embarrassing photos on Facebook so we don’t face social rejection (belonging).

If modifying “triggers” and “ability” aren’t working, you may want to consider how you can leverage one of the core motivators to inspire people to take your action.

For example, in order to get coworkers to share the video, you might organize a group work time (social acceptance) with refreshments (pleasure) where you talk about how beneficial it would be for the organization if the video were seen widely (hope).

Perfect is the enemy of the good

Most importantly, experiment!

You have to be willing to try different tactics, quickly, assess what is working, and chart a new course if need be.

With a little attention to the triggers (more reminders), ability (make it simple), and motivation (stories and rewards) for your next campaign, you’ll be well on your way to more persuasive communications in 2011.