Reciprocity

How would you feel if I bought you a coffee?

Besides warm and fuzzy feelings, you may feel a desire to repay my generosity in some way. Repaying me would be reciprocity and this desire for reciprocity works in business as well as socially. Triggering reciprocity is the reason why waiters hand out mints with your bill or why food businesses give out free samples in supermarkets. Waiters and food businesses are trying to trigger the subconscious obligation you feel to give back to them — by buying their product.

When it comes to copywriting and CRO however, the reciprocity principle isn’t as persuasive as the other principles of influence. Nowadays, readers on a website aren’t often grateful to find a freebie like a downloadable PDF. Your customers expect that sort of thing in the online content mix, so even if your entire landing page is designed to give something away, that freebie is unlikely to trigger any itch to repay the favour.

Content marketers can build reciprocity over time because content marketing builds value cumulatively, whether that’s through blog posts, white papers or email marketing. After receiving enough content marketing, your potential customer might start to feel they owe you something. At that point, your content marketer can turn to talking about your value proposition. However, copywriters looking for the reader to take instant action are better off looking at the powerful benefits of Cialdini’s other five principles.

Could reciprocity help your SEO?

I might not be a big believer in reciprocity online in the true Cialdini sense, but I do think it’s a good SEO copywriting tactic. When you give away something useful in your marketing, people are more likely to hit that Facebook share button or to link to your giveaway in another way. As discussed above, all those backlinks are great for your SEO.