Establishing such relationships is infinitely easier when interactions are face-to-face. But if you’re selling online, you may never meet your customers in person.

So how do you build enough rapport to make a sale when you can’t smile at someone or shake their hand?

One technique that direct-mail copywriters and subsequently internet marketers have used for decades is to give away valuable free content.

It eliminates barriers to response, demonstrates your expertise and starts a relationship on a firm footing.

And, as a new study shows, it lets you powerfully engage the rule of reciprocity.

Why you should give to get

Ever find yourself smiling back at a complete stranger, just because they smiled at you first?

Ever accepted a follow-up appointment with a door-to-door salesperson for a product you didn’t want in the first place?

Blame the rule of reciprocity.

In his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, social psychologist Robert Cialdini explains  that we’re hard-wired to repay someone when we receive a gift.

Study after study has shown that this works in face-to-face interactions, which has obvious implications for marketing and sales.

But does it also work online, when nobody’s looking? For example, if someone downloads free content that you created, or takes you up on a free offer, are they equally obliged?

Researcher Jerry Burger and his colleagues from the Department of Psychology at Santa Clara University have shown that the answer is yes.

We’ll even repay a gift when we believe our response is anonymous.

It works when nobody’s watching

As recently reported, Burger asked participants to take part in a “personality and perception skills” test—a cover for the actual study testing the powers of reciprocity.

During the study, one of the research assistants, acting as a fellow study participant, gave certain participants an unexpected gift—a bottle of water.

In another instance, the research assistant didn’t hand out bottles of water to anyone.

At the end of test, Burger asked half the participants to complete a survey and return it a few days later. He also told them that the gift-giving participant would be present on that day.

The remaining half of participants were asked to leave the survey anonymously in a drop-off box.

The result? Hugely significant (especially to marketers).

Many more people who were given a bottle of water completed and returned the survey compared to the group that was not given a bottle of water (30% vs 5%).

And importantly, the people who believed their response would be anonymous were just as likely to return the survey as those who believed that their act of repayment would be witnessed.

How to use reciprocity online

So, how do you put these findings into practice?

Here’s how you can turn a free, valuable gift into an ongoing relationship and, ultimately, sales:

1. Offer prospects a gift that has value. If you’re selling car audio systems online, for example, offer a free e-book that reviews the top 10 products for the year.
2. Ask for your prospect’s name and email address in exchange for the gift. Because of reciprocity, they’ll be much more willing to give you their information. (Just remember to let them know they’re giving you permission to contact them in the future.)
3. Send your prospect a follow-up email to further establish rapport. Introduce yourself, use your prospect’s first name and write your message in a warm, friendly tone.
4. Continue to engage reciprocity and cement your relationship with your prospect by giving away tips, tools and advice.
5. Offer your prospect your product or service. Because you’ve established a relationship and engaged reciprocity, your prospect is more likely to become a happy customer.
6. Practice good content optimization and constantly test and tweak to improve your results.

And let us know: have you ever used reciprocity in your campaigns?

Leave a comment and tell us how well it worked!

So when people tell you to give stuff away for free, you might think they’re insane.

But successful internet marketers would disagree.

Leading them is Eben Pagan, whose concept of "moving the free line" has proven infectious.

The question is: How much free stuff is too much (or too little)?

Why free stuff puts cash in your pocket

Moving the free line may seem counterintuitive.

But when you understand how it works, it makes sense.

The thumbnail version goes like this:

1. You give away something valuable.
2. Your prospects see this and recognize you have the goods.
3. They feel more comfortable buying.
4. You enjoy more selling.

What Apple, detergent and your website have in common

The concept isn’t new.

Direct marketers have known for many decades that sampling drives sales.

(Ever get a bag of laundry detergent in the mail?)

Retailers like Apple know this also applies to product interaction in stores.

So it makes sense that internet marketers would follow suit.

Particularly since establishing credibility is essential to online sales.

And online, a great way to establish credibility is to demonstrate your expertise.

(Confession: That’s why we publish our Breakthrough Web Writing e-book and our online guide to web writing.)

Obliterate the competition with generosity (and steal their customers in the process)

But how much must you give away?

The answer, in part, depends on your niche’s competitiveness.

Use competitors as a gauge.

And if you really want to destroy them, give away more value than their paid products provide.

Think about it.

If they’re charging $50 for an e-book, create a better e-book and make it free (preferably to people who give you their contact information).

Your absence of cost creates a vacuum.

The cost of their paid programs drives prospects into your arms.

And then?

Create higher-value products for higher cost.

Who needs $50 for an e-book when you can charge $1,500 for a set of DVDs?

And now, they can also learn how to score more sales.

A few weeks ago, DeAngelo, whose real name is Eben Pagan, announced that he would reveal the secrets of his success through a program called Altitude. And while the last thing the world needs is another self-proclaimed internet marketing guru, this isn’t a make-millions-in- your-sleep-through-affiliate-sales-and-AdWords kind of deal.

Rather, it’s the real deal, at least when it comes to fresh thinking with proven results. Because within about five years, Pagan has taken a business he started at home to $20 million in sales and more than 80 employees (but no office), all the while building email lists with more than a million subscribers.

Of course, learning the secrets of this success will cost you. But true to his teachings, Pagan has made some secrets widely available through YouTube and an email list. And at least one of those secrets will be particularly compelling to interactive marketers considering the use of newsletters and similar promotional tactics to build a brand’s value.

Move the free line

Pagan grew up poor. As a kid, he and his friends used to scheme about ways to make a million dollars. Most of these approaches, says Pagan, involved variations on the theme of getting a million people to pay one dollar each for some chuchka or another.

In marketing, we usually don’t stray far from this business model. We encourage people to buy things for more money than they cost to make, so we or our clients can make a profit and buy lots of candy.

When Pagan started his business, he took a different approach. Rather than strive to create something worth one dollar and sell it for two, Pagan worked to create something worth $100 and sell it for $10. In short, he worked hard to get the short end of the stick. So much so that he gives away products on good faith, only asking people to pay if they find the products useful.

And some products come completely free. Like those aforementioned emails, which include lots of dating advice given in Double Your Dating books and DVDs. Furthermore, when competition increases at the cheaper end of a product line, such as eBooks, Pagan considers giving them away free as well.

Pagan calls this approach "moving the free line," and encourages people to think hard about what they can give away. The benefits, he notes, are massive. They are partly explained by the reciprocity reflex which, as Robert Cialdini notes in Influence, compels people to purchase things from those who offer gifts. But Pagan has also found that moving the free line allows him to expand his repertoire of higher-end products, selling increasingly more expensive products to his best customers, who want to differentiate themselves from those receiving free products and gain an edge.

Think outside the cash box

Of course, few of us are selling dating advice. (Even fewer are probably qualified.) And not all the products we market are information-based—it’s easy to give away a dating eBook, far harder to give away a car.

But what about a car-related online product? Like an eBook of road trip itineries? Or a desktop gadget that allows you to track your fluid changes? The possibilities to give away valuable informational products related to brands you market are endless. And because they’re information-based, the cost of producing and distributing them is minimal.

Some of you might think this sounds like the traditional practice of sucking people into an email newsletter subscription and bombarding them with branded, low-value content . I would argue, and Pagan would likely agree, that the difference is in your frame, perspective and execution. The goal with moving the free line is to genuinely provide an increasing amount of value to people for free, while simultaneously offering increasingly expensive products and services higher up the value chain. The more solid your base of free products, the higher your peak of expensive products can reach.

And if you don’t believe it, just watch those guys who formerly couldn’t get dance partners date the Raptors dance squad after finding a Pagan product through one of his free dating newsletters.

This article was first published in One Degree.