Use this trick well and your user conversion rate will increase exponentially!

Let me tell you a story first:

Smart little beggar

On a stormy night, a little beggar went to a rich man's house to beg for food. The servant treated him very badly and shouted at him, "Get out of here!"

The little beggar begged, "Please, let me in. I will dry my clothes by the fire and then leave."

The servant thought it wouldn't make any difference, so he let him in.

Then, the little beggar begged the cook with a pitiful look to lend him a small pot so that he could "cook some stone soup." "What? Stone soup?" The cook was very curious, so she agreed.

Then, the little beggar picked up a stone from the road, washed it clean and put it into the pot to cook. “But I have to add some salt.”

The little beggar's words made sense, and the cook thought it made sense, so she gave him some more salt and some chopped vegetable leaves. Finally, the cook put the remaining minced meat into the beggar's soup.

Soon, the soup was cooked. The clever little beggar fished out the stone and drank the delicious soup happily.

We actually often encounter such stories in life. When you ask others for help, if you make relatively high demands at the beginning, you are likely to be rejected.

However, if you make lower requests first, and then increase your requests when others agree, it will be easier to achieve your goal.

Imagine what would happen if the little beggar had said at the beginning, "Please, give me a pot of soup!" I guess he couldn't even get through the door, let alone the hot broth!

Isn’t it interesting? Don’t be impatient, let’s read another story.

Yamada Motoichi's long-distance running secrets

Motoichi Yamada is a famous Japanese marathon runner. He won the world championship twice in the international marathon in 1984 and 1987.

When reporters asked him to talk about his experience, he simply replied: Wisdom defeats the opponent!

Many people think that he is just being mysterious.

However, several years later, Yamada Motoichi revealed the answer in his autobiography:

“Before every race, I would carefully observe the route I would take and write down the most eye-catching signs along the way.

For example: the first sign is a bank, the second sign is a big tree, the third sign is a red house... and keep remembering this until the end of the race.

After the race started, I rushed towards the first goal at the speed of 100 meters. After reaching the first goal, I rushed towards the second goal at the same speed. In this way, I broke down the 40-kilometer race into several small goals and completed it easily. ”

Similarly, the above principles are not only applicable to others, but are also very effective for yourself.

When you want to achieve a goal, if you set a super high goal at the beginning, you may not be able to do it at all. If you divide your goal into several phased goals reasonably, it will be easier to achieve it.

This is the so-called foot-in-the-door effect, which means that once a person accepts a small request, in order to maintain consistency and avoid cognitive dissonance, he or she will continue to accept bigger and higher requests.

This phenomenon is very vivid, just like climbing a doorstep one step at a time, which makes it easier and smoother to reach a higher place.

This mentality is very effective whether it is for yourself or others.

At this point, some of you may have a light bulb moment: this effect is very suitable for use in marketing , operations , and copywriting !

That’s right, it’s not just suitable, it’s very suitable. Many marketing operations experts are using it, and I can say with certainty that everyone should have been affected by the door-in-the-door effect!

Psychologists believe that, in general, people are unwilling to accept higher and more difficult requirements because they are time-consuming, laborious and difficult to succeed.

On the contrary, people are happy to accept smaller, easier-to-complete requests. Only after achieving the smaller requests will they slowly accept larger requests.

When I saw this psychological research, I did not object at all, but nodded silently. Yes, I am that "people".

You see, isn’t this the essence of marketing operations, including copywriting - to get people to take the first step!

For example, many marketing strategies are linked together, and these “links” are small thresholds one after another. For example, there is a most basic marketing process, which is “attract consumers - build trust - guide conversion ”.

For example, when doing operations, you often need to attract new users to register. You can find that the current registration page is no longer cumbersome. The first step requires you to fill in a long string of information. Basically, a mobile phone number can do it. The first step is so simple.

For example, when you write a copy or make an advertisement, all the elements in an advertisement exist first of all for one purpose, which is to make readers read the first sentence of the copy, nothing more.

So what is the purpose of the first sentence of the copy? Just let the reader read the second sentence. What is the purpose of the second sentence? Yes, let the reader read the third sentence... and finally reach your goal.

Look at those amazing advertisements with shocking reversals. They all let you step one foot into the threshold first, and then each paragraph of copy is the threshold for the next paragraph, and so on.

This is the use of the threshold effect.

We need the target group to reach the threshold, first set a threshold that they are happy to accept, and then guide them to step over . Once they accept it and become interested or satisfied, they will be more likely to accept bigger and higher requirements.

For example, marketers often use the door-in-the-door effect, and usually they do not sell their products directly to customers.

Instead, start with a small request that most people are usually happy to accept, and then work step by step to eventually achieve your sales goal.

For a salesperson, the most difficult thing is not selling the product itself, but how to take the first step. The same is true for marketing operations.

I will give you a few examples below. Let’s think about them together. Maybe you will feel suddenly enlightened.

1. Public account fans fission

First, let’s talk about the application of the threshold effect in the operation of public accounts .

Let’s take an example, which is also related to increasing followers, which everyone is very concerned about - increasing followers through public account fission.

Just this year, we have seen many cases of using public account tasks to increase followers. The most typical way is to use Points Treasure/Task Treasure to generate fans. as follows:

The general path to increase fans in this way is:

Design a super tempting poster → share it on Moments / WeChat groups and other channels → new users see the poster and follow the official account → the official account background copy prompts the task copy → generate an exclusive task poster as required → share it on Moments/ WeChat groups and other channels → after a certain number of users follow the exclusive poster, the task is completed and the official account will automatically pop up a link to receive it → other users see the poster and repeat this process.

This is a perfect use of the threshold effect. Generally, fan fission activities require forwarding to friends circle, but basically no one says on the poster that it is necessary to forward to friends circle, and how many people are needed to follow it to complete the task.

The poster only contains core selling points, useful information sharing, instructions for scanning a QR code to participate, etc.

So you see, it does not ask users to forward the poster directly, but first "follow the official account" and then "generate an exclusive poster". Only after the generation is complete will it prompt the user to forward it.

Forwarding the poster is an act that is difficult for users to accept, but they are happy to accept the useful information obtained by scanning the code, and they are also acceptable to follow the official account. Step by step, users will forward it. (Sunk costs also affect

Let’s briefly analyze what these fan fission activities mainly do in order to get users to take the first step of “entering the threshold”?

1) First of all, you must have insight into the pain points of the target user group in advance, refine their needs, and find an "attractive point" that the target user group is interested in.

It is best if this attraction point is what is needed for the segmented target population, to avoid the attraction point being too general and failing to achieve the effect of precise fission.

For example, some offer live broadcasts by celebrities and discounts on new products, some offer free skills courses, event spots, useful information packages, new product discount codes, and so on.

Among them, the most commonly used ones are the practical information packages, and many public accounts have been built by relying on hundreds of GB of information packages.

Every industry has some specific useful information, such as " operation plan information package", "classic book information package", "copywriting tutorial", etc.

These are basically the basic needs of users, and they should not be missed. This has become the best attraction for users to take the first step.

2) It is not enough to just have information and content; it also needs to be presented so that users can see it directly, creating a visual impact. So we have to make posters. It can be said that posters have the most direct impact on the fission effect.

The poster needs to be attractive enough to attract target users to enter the door, otherwise the communication will be interrupted.

On the one hand, these activities have prominent and clear themes in the entire poster design, so that users can see and be attracted at a glance. For example, if you find a well-known industry KOL to give a lecture, you can directly put the big shot photo.

On the other hand, many poster copywriting of these fission activities is designed to make users want to participate as soon as they see them, such as "Scan the QR code to listen to XXX course and get XX information package immediately."

Others will highlight the limited time and quantity, as well as the urgency and scarcity, such as "free for a limited time", "only for the first 100 participants", "ends on XX day", "only for 1,000 people, 800 have already claimed it", etc.

The above two points should be the most critical points in guiding users to cross the threshold in such fan fission activities, but there is another point that is also crucial, and whether users can finally cross the threshold also depends on it. as follows:

3) This fission will only occur when the target user forwards the poster, so this type of fan fission activity requires prompting users to generate posters for forwarding after they follow the official account.

This prompt guide copy is similar, and can mainly include four aspects:

● Introduce the event and remind the target user group of the “attractions” that interest them;

● Guide target users to generate forwarding posters in a humorous and interesting way;

● Once again reminding of the limited time, limited quantity, urgency and scarcity, as mentioned above, "only the first 100 participants", "deadline on XX day", "only 1,000 participants, 800 have been claimed"...

● It is best to prepare "forwarding copy" for users, and users only need to simply copy it. This will reduce the user's action cost and better help users get through the threshold.

When the user generates the poster, the task is considered accomplished. At this time, most users will choose to forward it to their friends circle, and the purpose of fission is achieved.

So you see, if users are asked to forward to their friends circle from the beginning, the conversion rate of this activity will be much lower.

When the threshold effect is utilized, the conversion rate will be greatly improved in order to maintain consistency and avoid cognitive dissonance, thus achieving the fission effect.

Okay, that’s all I have to say about the fission of fans of public accounts. Now I will share my thoughts on how to use this effect in marketing.

2. The ubiquitous threshold in marketing

When we do marketing, one of the key goals is to motivate users to take action.

There is an AI DA law in marketing, or the law of purchasing behavior, which points out that there are four processes in the generation of purchasing behavior: Attention (attracting user attention) - Interest (generating interest) - Desire (stimulating user desire) - Action (final action)

You see, the last key item is still user action.

In order to get users to take action, this involves the cost of user action, including monetary cost, learning cost, image cost, trust cost, etc.

If the cost of this action exceeds the user's acceptable range, there is a high possibility that the user will be lost.

This is why many activities/products spend a lot of money on advertising, and users think they are great and are very interested in them, but they just don’t take the final action!

Because the cost of action is too high.

Therefore, if marketers ultimately fail to make it easier for users to take action, it is entirely possible that purchases will not be made.

what to do?

This is where the foot-in-the-door effect comes in handy, and smart marketing experts have long realized this and started to take advantage of it.

For example, simpler ones:

● Give consumers trial packs or free product trials;

● Selling courses, you can pay 1 yuan to listen to the course first, and then buy it if you think it is good;

● You can pay for goods in installments;

● Enjoy 50% off when dining in the restaurant with this coupon;

● It’s hard to get users to pay, but it’s easy to chat with them;

● It’s hard to sell products, but it’s much easier if you follow the official account first;

● It is difficult to download the APP, but it is much easier to experience the mini program first.

…

Another advanced example:

● If you are not interested in my product, I will tell you my entrepreneurial story first;

● You don’t want my phone yet, so let’s talk about feelings first so you can accept it;

● It is difficult for you to accept my products, so I will speak for myself and you must accept me first;

● You can get the highest benefits by recharging 10,000, and you can also enjoy discounts by recharging 500;

● Original price or 50% off? But you can only enjoy a 50% discount if you forward it to 10 friends;

● Is it difficult to make a decision when buying furniture? You can come to IKEA and sleep in the bed;

● You don’t like advertising or sales? Then let me be friends with you.

…

There are so many cases of user action splitting like this, it can be said that they are everywhere. In essence, they all allow users to take the first step and step onto the threshold.

Put aside the target actions that are difficult for users to achieve, and then provide an initial action that is easy to achieve, allowing users to move step by step.

Especially now, the effect of directly offering discounts or emphasizing the benefits of products to get users to buy is becoming less and less effective.

Only when you make users accept you, take the first step of contact, and let users step over your threshold, can you find more breakthroughs.

Here is also an example of how the conversion rate increased exponentially.

There was a furniture industry exhibition, and one company did customer promotion like this:

"Today, you only need to deposit 100 yuan in advance to us, and you can get a beautiful gift with an original price of 200 yuan (there are gift samples on display on site). You can take this card to our experience store to receive the gift, and you can learn more about the product after experiencing it.

If you need our products, this 100 yuan can be used as a discount of 400 yuan, and you can still enjoy the price of this exhibition.

If you are not satisfied with our product, it doesn’t matter, you can get back the 100 yuan deposit, and more importantly, the 200 yuan gift will still belong to you. ”

Although this kind of promotional method is not applicable to all activities, and cannot be directly copied, in my opinion, we can always find a point of combination and make revisions.

The key is that this strategy exponentially increases the possibility of customer choice and transaction. Even if it is not successful in the end, it is still a good form of communication.

Just imagine, if the same activity was just selling furniture directly, what would be the result? We don't know about this.

But one thing is certain: it will cost more at the beginning, and most consumers will hesitate or leave directly.

This strategy is obviously a good choice for them: either a deposit of 100 yuan = a fine gift of 200 yuan + a returned 100 yuan, or a deposit of 100 yuan = a fine gift of 200 yuan + a discount of 400 yuan.

What a great “foot in the door” marketing strategy.

Do you think this merchant is stupid? Isn’t he losing money?

Let's do a simple calculation. They are in the furniture industry. Assuming they can earn 5,000 yuan for each order, a 200 yuan exquisite gift would actually only cost 100 yuan if purchased in bulk (maybe even less in fact).

If the above marketing method is used, the store will not lose money if one out of 50 customers makes a sale. This store only needs a 2% conversion rate (this is just an estimate).

In short, it is generally difficult for consumers to directly accept your final goal , as it often requires them to incur a lot of costs, including monetary costs, image costs, trust costs, action costs, learning costs, health costs, decision-making costs, and so on.

When you have a higher and more difficult goal, think about whether there is a simpler and more attractive goal that will allow them to take the first step, followed by the second and third steps?

If you know that the ultimate goal is extremely unpopular, and you still try to push it out, then you are really like a stone in a toilet!

Okay, that’s all I have to say. I hope this can be inspiring to you.

Basically all big goals always have a small entry point. Try to build your threshold so that at least you can take the first step and enable consumers to take the first step.

above.