The quick answer: The attention triad
To move someone you must (1) capture attention with attractors, (2) hold it with magnetizers such as self-interest, the unfinished and the mysterious, and (3) direct it to the element that favours your case, since what is focal is read as causal. Identify the decision moment first, then design what immediately precedes it.
Why Pre-Suasion matters for growth marketers
Pre-suasion is about what happens before the pitch: the privileged moment just before your message lands, when you can channel attention so the audience is already tilted toward yes. Cialdini's follow-up to Influence argues that the frame you set before the ask often matters more than the ask itself.
The top lessons growth marketers take from it
- 1
What's focal is causal
Whatever you make someone focus on, they assume is the important cause. Put a single metric, testimonial or benefit in the spotlight and the mind treats it as the deciding factor. Order and prominence are themselves an argument.
- 2
Channel attention with attractors
Certain things automatically grab and hold attention: the self-relevant, the unfinished such as open loops and cliffhangers, the novel, and the mysterious. Use them to earn the first few seconds, then deliver the message.
- 3
Openers open people up
A priming question or image set just before a request biases the answer. Questions that presuppose the answer, such as 'how much do you enjoy great coffee?', tilt the result before the real ask arrives.
When to read it
When you already have a solid offer and message, and the lever left to pull is sequencing and framing: what the prospect sees and feels in the seconds before the ask.
