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The Fogg Model
It takes more than a few cool techniques or tactics to truly persuade someone and help them change their behavior. We know this all too well because many of us have tried to change our own behavior (and failed miserably). So understanding why some people are able to make changes while others are not, is a big part of persuasion.
And this applies equally to big changes like losing weight and saving money, and to small changes like making a purchase of less than $25.
Stanford professor and researcher BJ Fogg has written in depth about behavior change. His book, Tiny Habits, is an excellent resource you should consider reading. But in the short term, we’ll share the basics of his model to explain when people can be persuaded and when they can’t.
Fogg’s model is pretty simple… B equals M A T.
What does it mean? Behavior is the result of the combination of motivation (how much you want to do something), ability (whether a person CAN do something) and a trigger (the thing that gets them to do it RIGHT now).
Motivation is the primary driving force for persuasion. It creates the desire for a prospect or customer to do the thing we ask them to do…. Whether that’s read a case study, book a call, download a lead magnet, or make a purchase.
Often motivation begins off the page… but the job of your copy is to intensify the motivation to act before the reader will actually take action.
Ability is all about whether or not your prospect or reader can do the thing you ask. Do they have the money? Do they have the time? Do they have the skillset? Do they have the information they need? Do they believe they can make a change? If your customer doesn’t believe they have the ability to make a change, they won’t take action.
And finally the trigger… this is the thing that prompts them to take action. If you’ve done the work of increasing motivation and ensuring your prospect has the ability to act, all it takes is the trigger to get them moving. This is your offer and call to action.
This is how Fogg illustrates the model and ultimately where the person you’re trying to influence finds themselves in this model matters.
Notice the Action Line. To get someone to take action, your customer needs to be above that line. Either they need to be highly motivated or the action you are asking them to take needs to be very easy to do. And if you have both, your prospect will immediately take your offer.
But if they’re below the line… either they lack the motivation or they think what you are asking them to do is too hard, nothing will get them to act.
Your job as a copywriter is two-fold… first, attracting attention then increasing the motivation of your buyers with Alpha Persuasion Techniques, then making it easy to say yes by removing objections with Omega Persuasion Techniques.
If you’re successful at increasing motivation, you may not need to reduce resistance quite as much. Or if you’re very good at making the decision to change easy, you may not need to increase your buyer’s motivation.
But imagine if you can do both well. By increasing motivation and making it easier to actually take action, you’ll grow the potential audience for the products and services you sell.
The last step is to add the trigger.
This might be your call to action. It might be an invitation to engage in something else. Whatever it is, by keeping Fogg’s model in mind as you write your copy, you’ll have a sense of the kinds of persuasion techniques you should be using with your prospects. Keep on adding them to your copy until your prospect is above the action line.
We’ll revisit this model and show how many of these techniques are useful for increasing motivation and desire, or making it easier to purchase.
Stay tuned.
