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Reciprocity

In 1971, Dr. Dennis Regan conducted a lab experiment to examine what effect doing a small favor for someone would have on that person’s willingness to comply with a request for help later.

In that experiment, students at Cornell University were told they were helping with a study on aesthetics. They were asked to work with another person who they assumed was also recruited for the study to look at and evaluate several paintings and also share how the paintings made them feel.

Halfway through the experiment, there was a break and the second participant—who was actually part of the research team and only posing as a student—asked to leave the room for a minute. When he returned he had two cans of Coca-Cola. Then he said to the student… “I asked him (the experimenter) if I could go get myself a Coke and he said it was okay, so I brought one for you too.”

There was also a control group made up of a second set of participants who did not get a Coke from the researcher posing as a student.

At the end of the experiment, the second participant asked the first, “Would you do me a favor? I’m selling raffle tickets for my high school back home to build a new gym. The tickets cost 25¢ each and the prize is a new Corvette. The thing is, if I sell the most tickets I get 50 bucks and I could use it.” 

Students who had been given a Coke bought twice as many as the students who didn’t receive the favor. And they almost always gave more than the value of the Coke they had been given.

Dr. Regan concluded that giving “the favor affects compliance… because the recipient feels obligated to reciprocate the favor.”

Since Dr. Regan’s study, there have been numerous additional studies to see how one person’s generosity results in returning the favor.

In another study conducted by Andreas Diekmann at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, participants played an “ultimatum game” in which one player is given a certain number of tokens and is told to divide them up however they want, then offer some percentage of the tokens to player 2. Then in the next round, the roles are reversed.

When player 1 shared just 20% of the tokens with player 2, the majority of participants repaid a similar amount or less in round 2.

But when player 1 shared half or more, player two was far more likely to repay an amount over 50% in the second round of the game… even though they could keep the whole amount without any repercussions.

The researchers concluded that “participants will reciprocate, even if this behavior is not in their short- or long-term material interest.”

Reciprocity is a surprisingly effective persuasion tactic.

The act of doing a favor for someone or giving a gift, creates an obligation on behalf of the receiver to reciprocate that favor.

We see this happening all the time. When someone sends you a Christmas card, what do you do? You have to find a Christmas card to send back. And you probably add them to your list for next year.

And smart marketers have used this same tactic to increase response.

Nislesen, a company that measures what Americans watch on TV or listen to on the radio sends out thousands of homes every week. Tucked into every one of those letters is two crisp dollar bills.

Why?

Because the letter asks you to complete a multi-question survey about your viewing and listening habits. And that’s a relatively big favor that most people won’t take the time to do.

But when you pocket the $2 they just sent you, they’ve created a small obligation for you to return the favor. And while $2 doesn’t really cover the cost of the 5 minutes you take to complete and return the survey, that doesn’t matter. They did you a favor and now you feel some obligation to reciprocate.

Adding the money dramatically increases the number of people who return the survey and that improves the data Neilsen gets.

Copywriter Gary Halbert used the same tactic to get a response to one of his offers. Check out how Gary’s letter begins…

Gary says that he is sending the dollar bill to catch the attention of his reader—this technique is called using a “grabber” in the direct response world—and he says he’s attaching the money because the letter is all about how the receiver can make some money.

But the real reason Gary added the dollar is that by sending this gift, he created the obligation of the receiver to reciprocate with some action.

Incidentally, the dollar bill letter was invented by Robert Collier in the early 1900s to raise money for a hospital that served the needs of the black community. You can find his original in The Robert Collier Letter Book in the chapter called “Showmanship”.

Collier’s letter pulled 90%… and raised more than a quarter of a million dollars with the initial mailing, then raised an additional $10 million from those who responded.

That’s pretty amazing.

Now… maybe you can’t send a dollar bill to each of your potential customers.

So how can you use reciprocity in your copy or marketing efforts?

A lot of people would answer that by saying, “My lead magnet! I give them valuable information and they’ll return to buy my products.”

We hate to break it to you, but this isn’t a great example of reciprocity. Because your prospect has already given you their email address to get your lead magnet. If anything, THEY created the obligation for you to give THEM something, not the other way around.

Even Robert Cialdini, Author of Influence, has said,

“There is a strong cultural pressure to reciprocate a gift, even an unwanted one; but there is no such pressure to purchase an unwanted commercial product.”

We suppose, if your lead magnet is amazing… super valuable… then maybe that’s an example of this persuasion technique… but the vast majority of all lead magnets aren’t all that valuable… they sit in our downloads folders, gathering digital dust until we delete them.

But you can give your prospect a gift.

Joe Girard, who is listed by The Guiness Book of World Records as the world’s greatest salesman, used to send a card to all 13,000 of his former customers every single month. The theme of the card changed with the month, but the text always said the same thing: “I like you.” It’s no wonder he sold more cars than anyone else who ever lived. 

In the pharmaceutical world, it’s common for sales reps to bring food (often lunch or dinner) and other gifts to a doctor’s office in order to curry favor and get time with a physician.

Usually they just drop off the gift, knowing the doctor won’t have time then, but they’ll follow up with a request for a few minutes to talk about their products.

Does it work?

An investigation published by JAMA Internal Medicine surveyed 279,669 doctors who received a single meal valued at about $20 from a pharmaceutical rep who used the opportunity to talk about one of his firm’s drugs called Rosuvastatin.

Those doctors were significantly more likely to prescribe Rosuvastatin than doctors who didn’t get the free meal. $20 was enough to influence a doctor’s brand preference when writing prescriptions.

We’re not saying you should buy your clients lunch. But we’re also not not saying that.

Reciprocity is also at work in most PLF-style launches. These are launches that follow the Product Launch Formula model created by Jeff Walker. 

The course or product seller creates four different videos and the whole idea is to deliver a ton of information and value in the videos that the viewer can use in their business or personal life. Often prospects will be given additional resources like checklists and workbooks. At this point there is no obligation to purchase anything. And most marketers expect that most of the audience for the videos will not reciprocate.

But in many cases, the prospect gets so much value they DO reciprocate and purchase the course. 

Want to see what reciprocation looks when you go big-time? 

In order to raise money for his foundation, hip-hop billionaire Jay-Z sent invitations for the Shawn Carter Foundation Gala to a very select list of his wealthy friends. 

Along with the invitation, he sent a watch and a bottle of champagne. But not just ANY watch… a Daytona Rolex (worth ~ $40,000) and the champagne was a bottle of his own brand—Ace of Spades worth more than $300 a bottle.

Imagine getting an invitation like THAT. 

What are you—billionaire copywriter—going to do when you strut into the gala? You’ll bring along a chest full of cash. And loose diamonds. Or at least your checkbook. Or, if you’re a Millennial, you’ll just bring your iPhone and Venmo the cash to Jay-Z. 

When you use the persuasion principle of reciprocity, it’s important to remember this isn’t about quid pro quo. There are no conditions. You’re doing a favor or providing value knowing that the person on the receiving end has no obligation to pay you back. 

They may keep the Rolex. Or the information from the video series. Or your incredibly valuable lead magnet.

But chances are… eventually… they will reciprocate.

 

References:
Dennis T. Regan, “Effects of a Favor and Liking on Complance,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7, 627-639,1971.
Andreas Diekmann, “The Power of Reciprocity: Fairness, Rcciprocity, and Stakes in Variants of the Dictator Game,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 48:487, 2004.
The Gary Halbert Letter