OK, as promised a few posts ago, here’s one more example of the law of reciprocity in action, before we move on to “social proof” - what a fun ride that will be!

In the meantime, this particular example had me go, “Wow!” because it had reciprocity and word-of-mouth built-in.

Terry Dean recently wrote on his blog about the law of reciprocity. In it he describes how he recently received a box from James Brausch, containing 100 copies of James’ “Earn An Income By Creating Your Own DVD”.

On top of the box was a note - it simply said that the contents were a gift, and that Terry could do with them as he wished.

This is pure marketing magic!

As a gift, don’t you think Terry’s going to return the favour in kind? And it appears he will be doing exactly that, by sharing the DVDs with his customers, thus promoting James a little bit more.

I admit, this example really fired my imagination, because I just love it when several different principles come into play! - in this case, reciprocity, with word-of-mouth. After all, if you received a box of 100 DVDs as a gift, wouldn’t you feel just a little obliged to share them out?

By the way - as it stands, this is not what marketers call “viral marketing”, because the buck, as it were, stops at those 100 DVDs. But if James were somehow able to contact those DVD owners, and offer the same gift, then he’d be responsible for a viral epidemic!

Still not convinced by the power of reciprocity? Here’s one final example for now. Donna Fontenot of seo-scoop.com has just written a dazzling article (and I mean that almost literally!) on applying the laws of influence in “search marketing”. It’s absolutely full of brilliant ideas.

But what made me mention it here? Well, just before I was about to type up this post, her post flashed up in my Wordpress admin panel as linking to me. (Isn’t it astounding at how fast information travels nowadays?)

Since it was such an excellent article, and because she’s so kindly referenced this site, guess what? You’re correct… here’s the link to her article on Search Marketing and The Persuasion Principles.

In the next post, we’re all going to discuss social proof - so bring your family and friends, because everybody else will be reading!

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