Compulsion Marketing:Making Your Campaign Irresistible

U N G A G G E D L A S V E G A S

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Who am I?

» Involved in search industry

since 1997

» Have managed several

thousand domains and

hundreds of clients

» I’ve been fortunate enough to

play in all facets of online

marketing, providing a broad

perspective

Joe Sinkwitz

CEO, Intellifluence

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What is Compulsion Marketing?

» Based loosely on video game concept of

compulsion loops, which continually entice a

user to keep playing.

» For marketers’ purposes, compulsion marketing

is the collection of activities that manipulate

psychological drivers, resulting in a compulsion

to purchase a specific product or service.

» It is as much a campaign strategy as it is a

tactic.

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How did I Stumble into Compulsion

Marketing?

» I knew from affiliate days the power of

pairing PPC, SEO, and email.

» At CopyPress I became a convert on

using content marketing paired with

native amplification.

» At Intellifluence I saw how the influence

can be magnified using those concepts

from CopyPress and my affiliate days.

» I started to string them all together and

play with ordering.

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Key Psychological Drivers

» Hero worship – aspirational psychological driver

» Appeal to authority – authoritative psychological driver

» Wealth signals – peer psychological driver

» Pack mentality (unity) – repetition psychological driver

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Hero Worship Explained

» We all want to “be like Mike”

» When we can’t be like our heroes, we try to

co-opt what he wears/does/says/eats/drinks

[Air Jordans]

» Aspirational influence is the most pervasive

of the methods; celebrity endorsements

have the capacity to drive awareness and

desire

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Appeal to Authority Explained

» Shoemoney is seen as an authority in the “make money online” space

» If Shoe hits his list to say “I am making so much money w/ prospects on

Intellifluence” then his acolytes likely to follow in his footsteps as they

perceive him to be an expert on the matter

» Authority can be wasted if the influencer is not consistent; reputation takes

only a short period to destroy after a lifetime of building up. For those areas

where one is considered an expert though, it is extremely powerful

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Wealth Signals Explained

» Keeping up with the Joneses

» We want our heroes have, but we absolutely feel a need to have what our

neighbors have

» Peer influence essentially saying “I have this; I use this; as my peer, you should

as well…and if you don’t, you may no longer be my peer”

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Pack Mentality (Unity) Explained

» Cialdini revised “Psychology of

Influence” to now include what he

refers to as ‘Unity’, the sense of

belonging

» Belonging can be manipulated; if

you repetitively see that your

perceived peers are doing

something, you are outside of the

pack and need (not want) to catch

up – did everyone really like

wearing Swatches in the late 80s

and rollerblading in the 90s? This is

where trends are made and killed

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So How Does Compulsion Marketing

Actually Work?

» The compulsion, for our purposes in a

marketing campaign, has the end KPI

of sales

» By taking the psychological triggers

and applying them in order to create a

desire, confirm that the desire is

rational, show that ones’ peers have

made use of it, and then continually

bombard that one is no longer part of

the pack for not acting…the

compulsion is set like a bear trap

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Compulsion Tactical Ordering

» Initiate desire via aspirational influence

» Confirm desire is “justified” via authoritative influence

» Manipulate wealth signalizing via peer influence

» Retarget to an extreme across native ad networks / FB / TW etc to

consistently highlight pack purchasing, pressuring for unity

» Tie back into mega content campaign

» Drip market to prospect list

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Determining Buyer Personas

» If you don’t understand who the buyer is,

the entire campaign is worthless

» Who does the buyer aspire to be? Who is

her hero

» Who influences the buyer on your

product/service subject matter?

» Who are your buyer’s peers?

» Where do those peers spend time online,

reading news or otherwise interacting w/

community?

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Example of Finding Buyer Personas

» Take your last 100 customers (or less — you just need to have “some” data in

order to test).

» Research each customers’ social profiles.

» For each customer, who does this person aspire to be? Who are the heroes being

followed, regardless of subject matter expertise?

» Who influences the customer on your particular subject matter?

» Who are your customers’ peers?

» Iterate. For the large lists of peers you’ve gathered, you’ll now need their social

profiles.

» On the filtered worksheet you probably have a fairly large number of peers that

seem to be influenced by the same celebrities and authority figures. You’ll likely

be able to segment these individuals into rough groups that now represent who

is more inclined to purchase what you’re selling than a random Internet user.13

What about that Mega Content

Campaign?» Each step of influence and retargeting should have corresponding content

that can be amplified and reinforced – mixed media types covers the most

bases

» Research KW/topical buckets well before kicking off any influence so you can

phrase requests in such a way that they’ll natively cover what you want

covered – one way is to use existing buyer data on queries used to enter the

buying funnel

» Quick example 1: If engaging 5 B-list celebrities to discuss your product,

take each of the video reviews and incorporate them into a blog series that

can be circulated back to your prospects and act as native ad fodder later

» Quick example 2: During the authoritative phase, getting expert testimonials

is great, but spending more to host interviews with the experts on your blog

creates more social proof and authority by co-occurrence of the content

existing on your site

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Start with Aspirational Influence

» Aspirational influence can be acquired, but is not cheap, as celebrities are

rarely free.

» Companies like Mediakix specialize in the area, but expect to pay $20,000 -

$100,000+/month for results

» Go for breadth and reach; think of it as top of funnel, so you need it to be

wide

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Appeal to Authority Time

» Authoritative influence is trickier because it is more difficult to infer perceived

expertise

» Rather than going through an agency, which can carry 20% talent agency

booking fees, approach directly

» Once you’ve identified the authorities, ensure your pitch is tailored to their

egos, but expect to offer a mixture of money, product, and guaranteed

exposure to seal the deal

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Have I No Peers?

» *cough* Intellifluence.com w/

coupon code “UNGAGGED” gets

75% off an annual plan

» Peers tend to be less expensive,

and many will perform review

activities in return for product

alone

» More is better here; due to the

relative expense-to-unique

exposure, overweighting on peer

reviews provides also for more

native / retargeting opportunities

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Caveat: Small budget?

» If you can’t afford celebrities and authorities, the next best thing you can do

is get some absurdity

» Absurdity can lead to ridicule, which can lead to press coverage and lots of

exposure

» Example: Combo product that no one asked for and you don’t really sell?

Sneak it into Reddit. Push; create false accounts and vote up/comment to

make fun of…watch it get shared elsewhere into Facebook Groups and on

Twitter. Next comes light press coverage – play coy and share the light

coverage with bigger outlets via throwaway accounts to ask if the product is

real and just watch what happens

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Reuse and Recycle

» Cherry pick your favorite reviews to

highlight on your website, borrowing

from the earlier example ideas

» If the video reviews aren’t transcribed,

do so just for your blogpost so you can

be the ranking asset

» Try to show different types of reviews

for different funnel stages of the

buying process: awareness, interest,

price shopping, purchasing time

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Retarget Like Crazy

» Not only should you retarget people that

viewed your site via the promotions, which

you should do

» Twitter promote posts of the best reviews

to both the original audiences and

lookalikes to get secondary flows from the

reviews – this can be done repeatedly over

time; also more effective because you’re

promoting an “organic” looking post vs an

ad of yours co-opting the post

» If you have the budget for it, you can also

hire someone like Aimclear to push this

hard for you

» Lazy retargeting also works, which feeds

into native 20

Going Native

» Remember the content you created to go hand-in-hand with influence?

Since most native ad networks will only push to content rich pages now

(unless you cloak of course), they make for excellent entry points

» Test out both retargeting lists, lookalikes, and general demographics of your

buyer persona to determine which is giving you best ROAS

» Repetition is key here; since you are looking to manipulate the unity / pack

mentality, you need to keep showing that the prospect is missing out

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Drip, Drip, Drip

» I will assume you have an email list. If you don’t, that’s probably the first thing

you should do before you leave this conference

» Each of those content rich blog posts in different funnel stages is ideal to

send to your list for their different funnel segments. You can use Customer.io

if you have a simple setup, but Getdrip is ideal for the more complex logic

segmentations

» At the end of the drip campaign, give a generous offer on a discount (near

free), asking that the prospect agree to provide an honest review, which

keeps the influence -> content campaign running forever

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Shades of Texas Window Tinting

» I don’t know if this is a competitor or the actual brand, but here we go!

» Specific product chosen: Norman Woodlore composite shutters

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Buyer Persona for Norman Woodlore

Composite Shutter

» Since we don’t have access to a customer

DB, used follower data

» Female, mother, 40+ in age, home owner,

household income > $100,000,

professional, lives in Austin, cares about

design aesthetics

» I am going to keep the specific sample

buyer anonymous; we’ll call her Cheryl

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Aspirational Influencers for Cheryl

» Austin native, mother, very affluent? Sandra Bullock

» Concept comedy video w/ Sandra: “I entrust my privacy as a Texan to Shades

of Texas with the posh and secure Norman Woodlore composite shutters”

while peppering in puns on her movies about defying gravy, protecting the

blind slide, and getting up to Speed while surfing on the Net

» Lesser known and likely less expensive option? Connie Britton of “Friday

Night Lights”

» Concept Instagram series w/ Connie: “After the big game, relaxing at home,

away from the Friday night lights”

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Authoritative influence for Cheryl

» As a member of Austin Chamber of Commerce, structured organizations

hold an authoritative appeal

» Picking from the AACC ambassador list for those closest resembling Cheryl:

Karen B, Amy C, Cindy E, Brenda L (giving them a bit of privacy)

» Concept: Offer a free design consultation and deep discounts in exchange

for sharing their experiences at sequential AACC meetings, fully disclosing

they received a good deal in exchange for their honest review

» Endorsement rights used throughout the main website w/ name, title, and

AACC status for social proof

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Peers for Cheryl

» There are a LOT of Austin professional women in the same demographic as

Cheryl

» As this can get expensive to offer each deep discounts, do a dual brand: CEO

from Shades of Texas picks a day/week and invites groups of the peers to his

home for a wine dinner to talk about design and the importance of shutters

vs basic window treatments, but only indirectly – it is a discussion on the

importance of female business professionals

» Each peer has their picture taken w/ CEO in front of the Norman Woodlore

composite shutter blinds on a series of short interview blog posts, which are

shared out on the main channel and by each of the peers (egobaiting). The

shutters are consistently highlighted in the photo and referenced in the

interview; as a joke question: “Aren’t these shutters lovely? What do you

think?” – peer influence will ensue.

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What if Budget is Limited?

» If celebrities are completely out of budget, get absurd

» Concept 1: CEO claims to have created the first zombie proof Austin area

home (working w/ other contractors) and challenges any local zombies to

smell the brains through the zombie blocking power of the Norman

Woodlore composite shutters he installed

» Concept 2: In a highly visible area, set up a public test shining high

luminescence into the shutters to show how incredibly effective they are;

everyone dressed as mad scientists. A few news trucks will inquire

» Concept 3: Shutterman, local hero decked out in an armor suit made of

Norman Woodlore composite, gives talks to kids about privacy online and

offline.

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Reuse All Influence

» Promote and tag appropriately all the

peer and authoritative blog posts, re-

sharing and liking all the posts made

from the influencers themselves as well

» Take the aspirational media and put it

everywhere; chop videos into Instagram

stories, post them into native formats

on Facebook and Twitter, transcribe

them for the blog, etc

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Retarget Those Shutters for Cheryl

» Obviously retarget in a series of ads for those that visited the site; set up

difference channels. First 10 days, show aspirational ad, then 10-20 days show

authoritative ads, finally w/ 20-30 day mark showing peer ads

» Test and promote the aspirational, authoritative, and peer reviews on Twitter

to both existing and then buyer persona peer audiences (this is a really great

audience too). I expect the AACOC ads to their audiences will be especially

good

» Call Aimclear if you have budget so he can do Marty can do some insane

things

» Since the demographic is fairly large, purchase some email lists on it and use

for retargeting lists initially and later in an attempt to opt-in whitewash for

the drip campaign

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Going Native

» The peer reviews will be great for

targeting over native networks to

publications targeting females over 40 in

the Austin area – lowball bids are ideal

here because you have no way of

knowing if the targets are in a buying

cycle for blinds

» Target a lookalike audience to your

authoritative and peer influencers,

pushing them into the aspirational

content sourced back onto the blog

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Drip Some Shutters

» For new entrants, start out with an email talking about working with Sandra,

Connie, or the absurdity angle – treat it as an awareness w/ loose intent

email

» Next batch of emails highlight a few of the authoritative review blogposts,

pushing conversion more but still playing on the psychology of “those in the

know and know which businesses to trust, trust us”

» Finish off with some peer reviews “people just like you bought Norman

Woodlore composite shutters from us, and you can do. Here’s 20% if you act

now.”

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How did Shades of Texas do?

» Across social, they almost certainly increased the amount of activity

associated with the product and brand – if they aren’t the most well-known

shutter provider in Austin after the influence campaigns, something is wrong

» The native and retargeting to such a strong demographic will result in a

significant amount of traffic, and because of the somewhat disjointed SEO

that exists on the phrase, chances are they now rank across the board and

are pushing people into their drip campaigns

» The drip campaign is gold – dripping the repeat of awareness and desire,

appeal to authority, and forcing wealth signals of unity that was mirrored on

influence and now in email only serves to reinforce and ensure that if the

prospect is on the market for shutters that Shades of Texas will likely be the

choice

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Thank you

If you want to save some money on the peer

influence component of compulsion marketing,

use code: UNGAGGED on Intellifluence to save

75% on the first year of an annual plan – you’ll

never see a less expensive rate in influencer

marketing.

Graphics courtesy of: flaticons.com