What Makes Attraction Marketing Work?

Attraction marketing is a phrase that is thrown around way too much to the point of it becoming cliche. Cliche is defined as trite, obvious, overused, and lacking originality and freshness.

Despite all this, it’s a powerful concept at work for many top marketers. You can use this principle to generate more leads, more traffic, and more sales. Today I want to explain a psychological principle to help you understand his attraction marketing works. The principle at hand is ‘reciprocation’. Have you heard of this term?

Robert Cialdini in his best seller, “The Psychology of Influence”, dedicated 19 pages to this principle. I will be using some of the examples and stories that he shares to bring this all together. The premise behind this idea is that we try to repay others for the things that they do for us. Let’s use a couple of examples to illustrate this point.

Example #1 – Hare Krishna Society

This group is characterized by shaved heads, robes, beads, bells, and leg wrappings. The American public didn’t really favor this organization, let alone donate to their cause. The leadership of the HKS took the reciprocation principle and created a strategy for scooping more donations.

What did they do?

They would go to public places where there’d be lots of people, like airports. Rather than just straight up asking for donations, they would give a person a gift (usually one of their scriptural texts or a flower). People would usually refuse the gift, but the Krishnas would respond by saying something like, “No, this is our gift to you”. At this very moment, they would ask for a donation.

What was the result of this ‘benefactor before beggar’ strategy? They obtained significant funds to fund the growth of businesses, houses, property, and the construction of temples.

Example #2 – eBook/email list

Building an email list works on this very same idea. Nobody will give you their email address if they aren’t getting anything in return. The same applies if you’re running a solo ad promotion. You build your email list by giving a prospective list member a free giveaway of some sort.

What does John Chow giveaway? He gives away his free eBook entitled, “The Ultimate Blog Profit Model”. Have you read it yet? It’s full of all the tricks he uses to monetize his blog.

Example #3 – Couples date

A while ago, my wife and I were invited to a games night with another couple that we really didn’t like. We decided to go anyways to be nice. Surprisingly, we had fun. What do you think happened the following month? We invited them over to a games night at our apartment. The law of reciprocation came into play even though we didn’t really like them. We had to return the favor.

Example #4 – Gift card

My wife experienced this principle twice recently. She was invited to the bridal shower of someone she didn’t like and didn’t go. When it came time for my wife to have her bridal shower, she invited the girl to come. She not only came, but also brought a gift. My wife felt bad so she went out of her way to send her a thank you card that included a gift card.

Conclusion

The law of reciprocation is evident when you’re looking for it. It seems to be hardwired into our being. You can use this law to attract more traffic, leads and sales for your business. This very law is what makes attraction marketing work. You attract when you offer value and give someone a ‘gift’ of some sort.

Have you witnessed the law of reciprocation in your business and personal life?

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