6 Universal Principles of Influence | Affiliate Summit Day 2

It’s Monday, day 2 of Affiliate Summit and started with Dr. Robert B. Cialdini giving the keynote address. Personally, I felt the keynote was excellent as it was based on his experience in using psychology within marketing. From his book, Influence: Science and Practice he conveyed the following principles that every marketer needs to keep handy:

Six Universal Principles of Social Influence

1. Reciprocation (must give an take to make this work in an offer)
2. Scarcity (people want something more when in limited supply)
3. Authority (experts help influence)
4. Consistency (positive actions are better vs. negative)
5. Consensus (people look to others for consensus before acting)
6. Friendship / Liking (people say yes to people they like)

Each principle is extremely important in everything from composing an ad to delivering good or bad news.

Wil Reynolds – Seer Interactive
Always a great session at Affiliate Summit, he shared the latest tools and trends in SEO and the strategies an affiliate marketer can use to combat universal search by Google.  He showed an example of universal search for the term “running shoes”. I just pulled it up and you can see what the issue is to seo. Ultimately, people are visual and like to click on images and organic listings are being pushed down the page.

Facebook Session – Killer Facebook Adverising Tactics
A popular session that was so crowded I had to stand on the side to listen. They panel was moderated by Jim Kukral and consisted of Markus Frind (plentyoffish), Dr. David Klein (purposinc), Alex Schultz (Facebook) & Shoemoney. They focused on CPM or CPC, conversions, ad rejections and using testing & tools to optimize CTR on ads. What was interesting to hear at Affiliate Summit was the discussion on going direct to the dating site to get a better deal. Obvious to me, but surprised to hear that during the show.

CPA Affiliate Marketing Opportunities in Europe
Interesting session on the differences between the US and European markets for affiliate marketing. The panel was made up of Dush Raamachandran (Clickbank), Jim Banks (Unanimis), James Little (Affiliate Future) & Matthew Wood (a4uexpo). They stressed proper translations and the concept that offers work in the states may or may not work overseas. Each country has unique rules surrounding email marketing and terminology varies in regards to CPL & CPS.

Ask the Experts – Evan Weber of Experience Advertising
Evan had a great session on niche site building and content production.

Overall, a solid day 2 of Affiliate Summit.

I am all set for my presentation at 11:30 on E-Commerce Deconstruction : Strategies for Affiliates and welcome you to attend. As an e-commerce developer, affiliate marketer and program manager for the last 11 years, I wanted to share for the first time insights on leading e-commerce conversion strategies, market statistics & recent holiday trends that can help affiliate marketers succeed. Stop by and learn which coupon sites are emulating e-commerce strategy and why they are leading the pack! (see Affiliate Summit Agenda)

See you at the show and if you liked this post please subscribe via Email, RSS, Twitter @michaelvorel, Twitter @vastplanet and encourage you to leave comments, additional tips and personal experiences below.