Captology.tv
Stanford University's explanation of Computers As Persuasion Technology (the study of Computers As Persuasion Technology). Please note they never explain The Zeigarnik Effect

YouTube - zeigarnik
Ben Mack's intelli**** teaching The Zeigarnik Effect

Who is Ben Mack? Remember him from:
--the OnlineMarketingDump
--his intelli**** stickers
--this board:
http://www.copywritersboard.com/off-...writer-28.html

Captology & the Art of Selling Online
buy Howard Campbell & Dr. Rachna Jain
HOW INTERNET ENTREPRENEURS USE CAPTOLOGY & PERSUASION TO CREATE SUSTAINABILITY
http://myspacetippingpoint.com

Abstract: Performed effectively, online sales and marketing relies on a tightly woven interplay between captology and persuasion. In this arena, computers and computer aided technology shift from being passive recipients of human behavior to active creators of human change. This paper will examine how, through use of captological models of recursivity and character-based narratives as well as Blair Warren’s model of One Sentence persuasion, Internet millionaires successfully create sustainability for themselves and their customers.

Keywords: captology, persuasion, computers, computer aided technology, Internet sales, Internet marketing, Internet millionaires

Introduction:

In the simplest form, captology is the study of the interaction between computers and people, focusing on the ways that computers catalyze and sustain change in human behavior, experience, and perception. Initially, computers were viewed as nothing more than passive recipients of human behavior, waiting to be acted upon by omnipotent masters. This reference point is changing. Now, captology redefines computers and computer aided technology from being passive recipients of human behavior to active creators of human change.

Captology and persuasion:

Captology may provide the firmest path to balancing the world’s hegemonic influence yet conceived, as it disseminates a vocabulary that illuminates persuasion to a broader audience. In the wake of this expansion, we will see major ripples in our social infrastructure, forever changing the role of the dominant elite.

Instead of focusing on short term, one-time visions, the dominant elite may become a kinder, gentler world force, more focused on sustainability. This emphasis on sustainability will help ease the transition into a new phase of evolution, marked by even greater adoption of computer technology.

In the recent past, simply discussing good for all mankind could have been labeled as Communistic or Socialistic, or any other label which would diminish or eliminate financial and kindred support. Instead, this is a unique time, as there is a growing support for using technology for mass good.

Examples of this may be events like online petitions which garner support (and funding) to save the world’s rainforests. Or companies that donate money to breast cancer research after website visitors click on certain homepage links. Or institutions offering online learning programs, bringing educational achievement (and its subsequent increase in pay rate) to people who might not otherwise be able to pursue higher level degrees.

There are many other examples, all part of a growing trend towards using online persuasion and computer technology to advance financial, social, and environmental agendas, both for the greater individual and the greater common good.

As society increasingly embraces computers to serve more and more function, it is worthwhile to discuss the role of computers in persuasive technology. Even more worthy of consideration is how computers aided persuasive technology can be leveraged to assist global sustainability.

Positive future possibilities are discussed in Human Computer Interaction and Utopian Studies conferences. Detailing positive steps to these ends is important. Captology helps contemporize and focus the field of persuasion.

Persuasive ’07 gives voice and forum to a discussion of persuasion while broadening the base of those studying persuasive technologies, especially those using these technologies to help humanity.

Historically, persuasion has generally only been studied by those who sought to make more money or control more people. For example, in the 1980’s, a total of eight books on persuasion and influence were published and available to general public.

By 2006, however, Amazon.com (the largest online distributor of books) lists 28 published books on the topics of persuasion and influence. Clearly, the interest in persuasion and influence is a popular topic, with growing readership. Persuasion is a more popular topic than ever before.

Persuasion is being taught through home computers via the Internet. Micro sites like The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab’s Captology.tv | Sharing Media and Insights about Persuasive Technology and Blair Warren’s Blair Warren's Crooked Wisdom | Home shed revelatory light on persuasive technology through their teachings. Easy access to their insights breeds a more media-literate user.

Captology.tv simplifies and easily demonstrates many academic constructs, such as the role of character-based narratives or recursivity in specific persuasive technology. In a less formal way, BlairWarren.com details tactics of applied persuasion.

For instance, within his One-Sentence-Persuasion Blair states: “People will follow you anywhere to the extent you encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears and help them throw rocks at their enemies.”

Application of Warren’s one sentence model of persuasion to Internet marketing:

In recognition of this “one-sentence” encapsulation of persuasion, this paper will focus on how using the five elements of persuasion (encouraging their dreams, justifying their failures, allaying their fears, confirming their suspicions, and helping them throw rocks at their enemies) is a model used daily by online entrepreneurs as they sell techniques and information for building businesses on the Internet.

In the sphere of Internet marketing, many people want to make a living online, but few actually succeed. The ones who are successful are, essentially, masters of online persuasion. These online persuasion masters are proficient at harnessing Warren’s model to convince web visitors to buy.

It is not uncommon for Internet marketing products to cost in the range of $997 or more. Therefore, it takes a certain amount of persuasive ability to induce people to part with this kind of money on a very frequent basis. Given that many successful online businesses are based on repeat sales to a loyal following of customers, it requires an even greater finesse to convince the same group of people to purchase over and over again.

These online persuasion gurus are very skilled at combining the five persuasive elements in their sales letters and business models, for maximum personal benefit. Presumably, they are also concerned with the success and benefit to the purchaser, as they continue to increase their focus and offers related to online teaching, training, and skills building for the products being sold.

In the past, consumers would buy a product and have to learn how to use, install, or implement it completely on their own. The master online persuaders move technology and persuasion one step further, by using online learning environments, web-based conferencing, and telephone based conferencing, and immediate availability of information, to allow greater and greater access to their customers 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and 365 days a year.

This further cements the cycle of sustainability, as the business owner continues to provide resources the buyer wants, as the buyer wishes to access them, so that both may reach their goals.

The medium for this delivery is technology and computers, as most online entrepreneurs have not met the vast majority of their customers or clients directly. Yet these entrepreneurs are able to build extremely profitable, independent businesses and almost evangelical type followings, primarily by persuasion.

Independent is a key distinction above, because organizational structures look different without oversight. Oversight and gate keeping are inherent in sponsored environments. An independently wealthy person may not have to conform to successful practices of sponsored environments, nor do they need to create behaviors that lead to sustainable finances.

Financially successful entrepreneurs are free of many institutional gatekeepers, and their methods have yielded systems that are, at least in the foreseeable future, sustainable.

In order to create their sustainability, many of these business people have proven proficiency in utilizing technology persuasively. They were applied scientists who split test many elements of their websites.Often, the wider and more long-distanced their anticipatory strategy, the more successful they have become.

In 2005, John Reese had the first entrepreneurial million-dollar day, where a sole-practitioner launched a new product and persuaded enough folks to buy that the revenue generated on that day exceeded one-million-dollars. While Mr. Reese was the first one to achieve this goal, he is not the only.

Since 2005, several solo-entrepreneurs have succeeded in recreating his success, in ever growing numbers. While it may be tempting to classify these instances as rare, the truth is, these situations can be replicated again and again because they implement the same model: A tightly interwoven methodology of persuasion and technology.

Using computers, entrepreneurs like John Reese have been able to attract prospects, convince them to buy, and convince them to keep on buying.

The techniques of Blair Warren’s “One Sentence Persuasion” have been honed to razor precision by this special group of online persuaders. This is very evident in the use of computers and computer aided technology to drive the sales cycle and electrify the sales process underlying these online million dollar launch days. The rest of this paper will examine each of these elements in greater detail.

The link between captology and persuasion is very evident in the realm of online sales and marketing. Computers drive visitors to visit certain websites, and persuasion keeps them there. It is difficult to quantify the host of forces which move a visitor to seek information online.

Captology principles direct success of online persuasion:

It is easier, though, to determine the depth and breadth of persuasion that begins from the moment he views the screen.

From the precise placement of colors, text, and images, to the page formatting, navigation, and continuous admonitions to “Buy Now”, the average web visitor will not resist the powerful effects of online persuasion. Online persuasion can occur with very limited intentions, focused just on enticing the visitor to read the headline.

Once the visitor has read past the headline and the opening paragraph, and if he keeps reading, the techniques of Blair Warren’s persuasive model are activated, almost exactly as defined.

The most effective Internet sales processes begin with information related to encouraging dreams. Phrases such as “How would you like to make millions of dollars while sitting home in your pajamas?” or “I made $100,000 in six days, and you can too” seek to build a framework for the reader in which he, too, may reach his financial goals, and retire wealthy in just six days (or less).

Whether or not the reader truly can attain this type of financial freedom is not yet tested, but again, the first paragraph is only designed to entice the reader to read further.

As the reader continues, he is then offered suggestions for how he might justify his failure to make money so far. Phrases like, “It’s not your fault that you haven’t made any money” or “Nobody told you what you were missing” or “Don’t blame yourself, it’s the system, not you” are all examples of the types of phrasing used to justify failure. Reading this, the visitor is likely comforted, and, perhaps, feels understood. This encourages him to read further.

(Continued...)

[...continued]

The third element of the sales letter focuses on allaying fears, and often includes language like “Don’t worry, this won’t be hard.” Or “You can do this in just three hours per day.” Or “It’s so easy even my five year old could do it.” Each of these phrases seek to allay the reader’s unspoken fears that he may not be smart enough or wise enough to be successful.

Allaying of fears also seeks, subtly, to encourage dreams, as it promotes the vision of what can be achieved if one were not hampered by flaws or limitations.

The fourth element of the effective sales letter focuses on confirmation of suspicion. At this stage, the letter begins to move the reader more quickly to the purchasing the decision. The tone of the letter begins to shift from emotional overtone to more practical ones, and further builds on the allayment of fears.

For example, statements like, “You’ve always known you are willing to work hard for the right opportunity” or “You know the other guy isn’t smarter than you, so why should he be making more money” or “There is nothing keeping you from being successful, no matter what you have tried or failed at before.”

Again, this stage in the process begins to appeal to the reader’s more intellectual or practical side, and forces him to balance his emotions and intellect. Very often, if the emotional experience has been adequately addressed, the reader will be very likely to adopt the desired intellectual stance.

If the reader feels the sales letter is written ‘just for him’ (adequately encompasses the emotional range of his personal experience), he is more likely to believe whatever confirmation or proof is presented because he desires his intellectual experience to be congruent with his emotional one.

In the online selling process, it is at this stage that the Internet marketer will present physical data or social proof to support his claims. The successful Internet marketer knows that once the reader is emotionally engaged, it is easier to capture his intellect as well.

By capitalizing on the Blair Warren model, the Internet entrepreneur has efficiently led his prospect down an ever narrowing pathway towards the ultimate goal: purchase of the product or service being offered. Just prior to this, though, the final element of the Warren model is carefully presented.

No profitable sales letter would be complete without a focus on helping the reader throw rocks at his enemies. Again, using a skillful blend of emotion and reason, the Internet marketer quickly cycles the reader back through the stages of persuasion, further cementing his beliefs.

After this, the Internet marketer provides an emotional release for the reader, by offering phrases like, “Just imagine. You’ll never have to work for that mean boss again.” Or “You can finally prove that you were right to have an online business, and you can laugh all the way to the bank…” which, in some form, are a means for helping the reader throw rocks at his enemies.

No more will the reader suffer in silence. Instead, he will create success and then be able to right all the wrongs which were done to him. The Internet marketer will be the reader’s companion and ally in helping the reader throw rocks at those who doubted him. The Warren model of persuasion practically guarantees the sale.

Sustainability created by the sale:

After the sale is made, the Internet marketer benefits from this in terms of revenue, but, also, perhaps, in his capacity to support and sustain projects which are important to him, and may have benefits to the community at large.

Many Internet marketers donate a portion of their earnings to various charities and groups which are focused on improving the conditions of the sick or impoverished. For the reader who buys the Internet marketer’s product, perhaps sustainability is created for the reader when he learns and applies the information from the product which was purchased.

Aside from these obvious forms of sustainability, there are other forces of sustainability at play. The most successful Internet marketers focus on repeat sales to the same group of customers, with the idea that making the first sale is the most difficult one, and successive sales are easier to make from there.

So, in a sense, each customer represents a certain amount of lifetime value (and lifetime revenue) to the Internet marketer, who focuses on methods for sustaining the relationship so that additional products or services may be purchased in the future.

The interplay between computers and online persuasion is also efficiently demonstrated by the computer aided processes after the sale is made. The process generally occurs as follows:

After the product is purchased, the customer receives a letter of thanks, which serve to reinforce the buyer’s decision (“you made a great choice by investing in our product today”) This represents an obvious manner in which computers are active creators of human experience.

For most buyers, receiving this message (even when they know it was sent by a computer) reinforces their (emotional) buying choice and convinces them (intellectually) that they made the right decision.

By computer technology, Internet entrepreneurs are able to congratulate their customer’s wisdom of purchase, when, in fact, the Internet entrepreneur may be on vacation. The immediacy of real time encouragement and feedback is one of the ways in which captology and persuasion are tightly linked.

A second demonstration of this linkage is when digital bonuses (such as e-books and audio recordings) are immediately delivered to the buyer just after purchase. From a psychological perspective, delivery of these goods (which have no true fixed cost) further reinforces the customer’s choice to buy: increasing the likelihood that he will purchase another product in the future; cementing the cycle of sustainability.

Aside from these elements, online sales and marketing also make use of the captology principles of recursivity and character based narratives to build and sustain interest. This principle is explicated by Jeff Walker, the so called “product launch guru” who was responsible for the very successful product launches by Reese and others.

Jeff Walker’s construct is based on the information marketer telling their story of how they first started making money at a specialized skill, itself often a form of computer-aided persuasive technology.

The revelations and explanations typically take place over seven days, giving the target audience optimal time to come to know the information marketer. Upon careful examination, this product launch construct is very similar to the lessons presented at Character and Narrative: Persuasion in Advertising | Captology.tv.

Walker’s construct details an optimal cadence, quantity of events and various subjects required to launch a successful new product. Recursivity is employed through the character based narrative of how this new product leverages previous skills to make possible what had previously been inaccessible.

These concepts work very well, as Jeff Walker’s model has been responsible for selling millions of dollars of products and services over the past five years. He utilized his own formula to create a very successful launch of his own, and continues to employ computer aided technology to deliver training, teaching, and services to his customers.

In 2006, using Warren’s model and leveraging Walker’s formula, Mike Long had the first entrepreneurial ten-million-dollar day. Whether these constructs will create forces of peace or the next generations of Orwellian pigs who become our new Farmer Jones is yet to be seen, but ignoring the strength of these entrepreneurial tools is denying captology the possibility of engaging hegemonic forces from a position of strength and a decent chance of our bright and creative friends.

The question is, in what ways is might it be okay to employ the most persuasive tools and techniques or does the use of these tools lead to a psychology of totalism?

Summary

The principles of online persuasion and captology are used widely in the daily processes of Internet sales and marketing. The most successful Internet entrepreneurs have learned that using the Warren model of encouragement of dreams, justification of failures, allayment of fears, confirmation of suspicions, and throwing of rocks at their enemies is the fastest and easiest method for creating personal wealth and financial freedom.

Financial success on the Internet would not be possible without the use of computers and computer aided technology. Computers convey traffic to websites, take orders, capture important visitor information, and follow up after the sale. Without them, the whole process of Internet marketing and selling would cease to function.

This would mean personal loss to the Internet entrepreneur. It may also mean loss of accessible and much needed information for those seeking it. While there are many forms of persuasion in our daily life, perhaps only on the Internet do we see such a tightly orchestrated interplay of computers, technology, and persuasion. Each focused on changing human behavior, one person at a time.

(end of pg 4; REFERENCES available online by Googling “Captology & Online Selling”)

This is one thread that really could use some white space!

You got that right!

It looks like an interesting topic, but because of readability issues, I was gone after the first couple of paragraphs.

Dale King

I can't see anyone consciously posting it that way. Makes me think some sort of forum posting bot was used.

Fixed it myself.

What an awesome read! Interesting take on product launches, too.

Beautiful friends,

Thank you for your comments, and Michel, for fixing my funky formatting

I guess I failed a turring test. hmmmm. Maybe i better retake that voigt comm test

Dr. Rachna Jain took a long ramble of mine and made it submittable for Stanford's "blind review"...I've done blindfold routines on stage. I know how
to rig a blindfold and this entry will stick out like a sore thumb.

Dr. BJ Fogg has probably read the entry here, because his aggregator is fairly sensitive. He found my original essay I posted over here:
Toxick Bloging: The Ten-Million-Dollar Man

Merry Festivus!

A friend of the art of persuasion,

Ben
p.s. Wiley is publishing my simple-worded business book on 1/29 called Think Two Products Ahead. I promise that book is much easier to read.

Aah Festivus... the holiday for the rest-of-us.

Gotta love a good Seinfeld reference.

Virtually unreadable and had a problem with facts as well.

Mike Long, who is a buddy, never had a 10 million dollar day. You must be talking about Andy and Brad who did way better than that. In the end, the copy was written by someone else - who isn't even a copywriter.

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