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What compels us to act?  What influences people to take a particular course of action?

This post will cover:

• How successful referral marketing campaigns are rooted in psychological persuasion
• The 6 weapons of influence that should be in every referral marketing toolkit
• How these 6 weapons of influence help convert your referral campaign into results

The secret behind every successful referral is making customers feel they have more to gain than lose. In the first of this three-part series on the psychology of referral, we’ll explore this concept of social capital versus social risk and how it influences your customers' buying decisions. 

Consumers like to believe that they make buying decisions on a rational basis; weighing up the pros and cons and looking objectively at the alternatives. In reality, one element overrides rational thinking and has the biggest impact on consumer behaviour. Emotion.

Understanding some of the basics of the psychology of persuasion and how to apply them, can make a huge difference to your marketing efforts.

In the past, we’ve spoken about Cialdini’s 6 weapons of influence, as one of the most useful set of psychological principles that can help shape and optimise brand communications — not least, referral marketing campaigns.

In truth, there’s a whole universe of theories and heuristics belonging to a wider field of behavioral economics.

Behavioral economics basically describes the effects of psychological, social, cognitive, and emotional factors on human economic decision making.

We recently published some blog posts looking at the psychology of referral. They proved so popular that we have pulled them together into an exclusive download: The Guide to the Psychology of Referral.