Most SaaS marketers are trying to convert people at the bottom of a funnel that was never built to convert in the first place.
They obsess over button copy.
They A/B test “Start your free trial” vs. “Get started.”
They fiddle with colors, placements, pop-ups.
And then they wonder why nothing’s working.
The thing is, by the time someone reaches your CTA, their decision is already made.
It didn’t happen at the bottom of the page.
It happened in the first five seconds.
The second they landed on your homepage.
The moment they thought: “Oh—they get it.”
That’s the power of pre-suasion.
What Is Pre-Suasion—And Why Should You Care?
Robert Cialdini, the godfather of persuasion psychology, spent his career studying how people say "yes." But in his 2016 book Pre-Suasion, he uncovered something more fundamental:
"The best persuaders become the best through pre-suasion—the process of arranging for recipients to be receptive to a message before they encounter it."
Essentially, pre-suasion is the practice of creating moments of receptivity by directing attention to specific concepts before the delivery of a message. The key insight he discovered is that what we focus on immediately before a decision dramatically shapes our choices.
In traditional persuasion, we ask: How do I craft the perfect argument?
In pre-suasion, we ask: What do I want my audience to focus on before I even begin?
Basically: the content you lead with preloads the lens your audience sees the rest through.
And this principle matters exponentially more in SaaS, where:
- Buyers consider 3–5 alternatives—often before talking to sales
- First impressions form in milliseconds
- Most decisions are made emotionally, then justified logically
This is why so many technically "good" offers fail. You can have the perfect product at the perfect price, but if readers aren't psychologically primed to receive it, they'll leave.
Your prospect doesn't just need to be convinced. They need to be ready to be convinced.
Which means if you wait until the CTA to persuade, you’re already too late.
How Companies Accidentally Send the Wrong Message
Every message pre-suades—whether you mean it to or not. And most SaaS marketers are doing it wrong. Here’s how you might be priming the exact behavior you’re trying to avoid:
Fear-Based Onboarding Emails
"Your trial ends in 3 days!"
→ You’re creating urgency, sure—but also anxiety. And that emotion subconsciously gets associated with your brand.
Features Before Frustrations
Listing your capabilities before addressing pain is like pitching Advil before asking if someone has a headache.
CTAs Before Value
“Try now” buttons that show up before the reader feels any emotional pull are basically ignored. No one proposes on the first date.
Blog Intros That Sound Like Everyone Else
“In today’s fast-paced business world…”
→ You’ve already told me this is going to be boring. I’m gone.
"It's not what you say; it's what people are paying attention to when you say it." — Robert Cialdini
What Actually Works: The Pre-Suasion Playbook for SaaS
Let’s trade bad habits for research-backed tactics. Here’s how to pre-suade on purpose.
Strategic Social Proof Placement
Cialdini emphasizes:
"People see an action as appropriate for themselves when they see others performing it."
But timing matters. Most companies dump testimonials at the bottom of the page. But pre-suasion means placing social proof before the moment of skepticism.
In a study analyzing 300 SaaS landing pages, those featuring social proof elements above the fold had conversion rates 35% higher than those with social proof only at the bottom. Ahrefs uses social proof several times within their hero section alone“16,077 users joined Ahrefs in the last 7 days”
Better yet, they make social proof identity-driven, when they say "Ahrefs is trusted by marketers from 44% of the Fortune 500 companies."
This pre-suades by invoking group identity before asking for individual action.
Contextual Anchors and Unity
Cialdini highlights that shared identity increases persuasive power.
"Anything that unites us with the message source, that makes us 'one unit,' increases influence."
That’s why smart SaaS brands don’t just sell features—they sell belonging.
Notion doesn't sell itself as "project management software." Instead they use phrases like:
“The Happier Workspace”
“Your workflow, your way.”
"Everything you need to do your best work."
These messages help users to view the product as fundamental to their work identity, not just another tool.
Or take Hubspot, for example. Their evolution from "inbound marketing software" to "helping businesses grow better" increased their qualified lead generation by 45%, according to their own case study. By anchoring to a mission rather than a feature set, they got prospects to see themselves as being part of a movement.
To this day, HubSpot still uses the theme of “growing better” on nearly every page of their website.
Bottom line, when readers see themselves reflected in your copy, they lean in.
Open Loops and Curiosity Gaps
Our brains hate unfinished business. Opening a loop of curiosity creates cognitive tension that seeks resolution. (And yes, this article used open loops several times. Did you notice?)
Cialdini explains this effect as the power of unfinished business: "Humans are profoundly motivated to achieve cognitive closure—to put firm answers to questions, to resolve ambiguities, and to complete unfinished business."
This concept is backed by a 2019 neurological study by Loewenstein and Markey that found unfinished narratives triggered 46% more activity in the brain's "reward anticipation" centers than resolved stories.
Open loops are used everywhere - not just in marketing and sales, but in books, movies, and tv shows. Think of the cliffhanger at the end of an episode of your favorite tv show. That's an open loop - and it is exactly why it can be so easy to binge watch multiple episodes of something in one sitting!
This idea can be used in your landing pages, emails, ad copy - to name just a few.
For example, you might write in a blog post: "There are three types of SaaS homepages, but only one consistently converts above 9%. I'll show you which one after explaining why the others fail."
This gets readers to stay engaged through explanatory content to reach the payoff at the end.
Another great place to try this is in your email subject lines.
According to a 2021 study of over 10 million emails by MailChimp, email subject lines using curiosity gaps ("The unexpected reason your demos don't convert") increased open rates by 27% compared to direct benefit statements ("How to increase demo conversions").
Pre-Suasion Isn't Manipulation. It's Respect for the Reader's Brain.
If you’re thinking, “Isn’t this all just psychological trickery?” Nope, it’s not.
There's a critical difference between manipulation and effective pre-suasion:
- Manipulation creates false urgency or misleads
- Ethical pre-suasion aligns psychological readiness with genuine value
When done right, pre-suasion actually helps readers make better decisions by:
- Ensuring they're mentally prepared to process your message
- Focusing attention on what truly matters
- Creating clarity around problems before introducing solutions
Think of it as clearing a path before asking someone to walk down it.
The goal isn't to trick people into saying yes. It's to create an environment where saying yes makes perfect sense, because you’ve helped them see the full picture.
As Cialdini concludes:
"The basic idea of pre-suasion is that by guiding preliminary attention strategically, it's possible for a communicator to move recipients into agreement with a message before they experience it."
The P.R.I.M.E Framework: Your Pre-Suasion Audit
Before publishing your next piece of content, run it through this simple audit:
- Problem framing: Have I positioned the problem in a way that makes my solution the natural answer?
- Relevance signals: Have I established why this matters specifically to my reader?
- Identity alignment: Does my message connect with how my audience sees themselves?
- Mindset preparation: What emotional state will best prepare readers for my message?
- Evidence placement: Have I positioned social proof at key moments of skepticism?
Remember: By the time someone reads your CTA, the real persuasion work is already done. The decisive moment wasn't the button — it was everything that came before it. Your best marketing doesn't convince people to buy. It creates a context where buying feels like the only logical next step.
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