The Yes Ladder PR Strategy

The yes lad­der PR strategy is potent — and digital-first.

Getting people to a “big yes” via a series of “small yeses” isn’t rock­et sci­ence. However, the coun­ter­in­tu­it­ive nature of yes lad­ders can some­times elude organisations.

Here we go:

The Yes Ladder PR Strategy

The yes lad­der is a psy­cho­lo­gic­al prin­ciple based on a simple premise: 

People are more likely to agree to lar­ger requests if they’ve already said “yes” to smal­ler ones.

Imagine a series of small steps lead­ing up to a more sig­ni­fic­ant com­mit­ment — each one feels easy and harm­less on its own, yet col­lect­ively, they build momentum toward great­er engagement.

Arguably, the yes lad­der prin­ciple isn’t rock­et sci­ence:

Saying yes to some­thing that does­n’t require a con­sid­er­able com­mit­ment is found­a­tion­al to build­ing trust and for­ging rela­tion­ships. Step by step, yes by yes.

Although simple, the yes lad­der is eas­ily over­looked in organisations. 

Why?

The Challenge: Organisational Impatience

When work­ing with cli­ents, par­tic­u­larly those focused on boost­ing sales or gen­er­at­ing leads, it’s com­mon to be reluct­ant to “start small.” 

The front page of an organ­isa­tion’s web­site is a typ­ic­al (and pub­licly vis­ible) example of such organ­isa­tion­al impa­tience:

Many organ­isa­tions ask their vis­it­ors for too much too soon on their websites. 

I know why because I’ve atten­ded many such meet­ings. A com­mon theme is want­ing the web­site’s con­tent to dir­ectly reflect the organ­isa­tion’s found­a­tion­al object­ives, which often cor­res­pond with their biggest asks.

Small ask = a value pro­pos­i­tion that requires little effort and resources for a pro­spect to accept. It works best when the ask offers a swift, hassle-free solu­tion for an urgent pain point.

Big ask = a value pro­pos­i­tion that requires high engage­ment and a sub­stan­tial trans­ac­tion by the pro­spect. It works best when mutu­al under­stand­ing and trust are thor­oughly established.

While the big ask approach may seem tempt­ing, it often leads to cluttered web­sites, over­whelmed users, and missed oppor­tun­it­ies for for­ging rela­tion­ships that drive long-term success.

A Foundational PR Approach

The yes lad­der is the corner­stone of the deep con­tent PR strategy, found­a­tion­al for ice­berg pub­lish­ing, and the psy­cho­lo­gic­al per­sua­sion baseline for the prim­ing approach.

Start by ask­ing vis­it­ors to take more minor, low-stakes actions — such as sub­scrib­ing to a free news­let­ter or down­load­ing an e‑book — before ask­ing for their cred­it card num­ber or a sig­ni­fic­ant busi­ness commitment.

While small asks are object­ively less import­ant than primary busi­ness object­ives, they are the first steps in build­ing trust, cred­ib­il­ity, and engage­ment. Once trust is built, more sig­ni­fic­ant asks — like product pur­chases or ser­vice sign-ups — become far more likely.

This pro­gres­sion logic, which some­times seems coun­ter­in­tu­it­ive, is more (not less!) pre­val­ent in a digit­al-first land­scape of abund­ant choices.

Relationships Take Time to Cultivate

Small vic­tor­ies often lead to big wins in a media land­scape of algorithms, web­sites, con­ver­sions, and atten­tion.

It’s all about those small num­bers, not the big ones.

This is where yes lad­ders comes into play — a simple yet power­ful psy­cho­lo­gic­al approach that can sig­ni­fic­antly impact your mes­saging pri­or­it­ies, sales pro­cesses, and, ulti­mately, your bot­tom-line results.

Focusing on the yes lad­der PR strategy can help an organ­isa­tion to find its path to a more stra­tegic (and prac­tic­al) approach to mes­sage pri­or­it­isa­tion and progression.

PR pro­fes­sion­als must respect that repu­ta­tion and trust take time to build. The yes lad­der PR strategy allows you to nur­ture that trust over time, one small action at a time. 

Despite the instant­aneity of mod­ern inform­a­tion tech­no­lo­gies, cul­tiv­at­ing human rela­tion­ships remains firmly anchored in the unhur­ried pas­sage of time.

Implementing the Yes Ladder

Here are a few action­able tips:

1. Start with Low-Commitment CTAs

The first step is to move away from ask­ing for sig­ni­fic­ant com­mit­ments imme­di­ately. Instead, focus on requests that are easy and non-invas­ive. This could be some­thing like:

The goal is to get your inbound audi­ence to pledge a small, non-threat­en­ing “yes” that begins the jour­ney of trust-building.

2. Place Smaller Asks in High-Value Locations

Not all web­site real estate is cre­ated equal. Above the fold (i.e. what’s vis­ible without scrolling) on the homepage is typ­ic­ally the most valu­able real estate for your call to action. It’s where you should place your small ask — like sign­ing up for a news­let­ter or offer­ing a free resource.

3. Keep the Path Simple and Gradual

Don’t over­whelm your vis­it­ors with too many choices (the para­dox of choice). Create a simple path, with each step logic­ally lead­ing to the next. When they say “yes” to some­thing small, the next step should feel like a nat­ur­al progression. 

For example, after someone sub­scribes to a news­let­ter, fol­low up with an email offer­ing a free con­sulta­tion or a dis­count on a first pur­chase — this is an easy, logic­al next step in the yes ladder.

4. Make the Big Ask When Trust Is Established

Once the vis­it­or has gone through a series of smal­ler steps and you’ve estab­lished some trust, it’s time to make your primary ask — wheth­er it’s a product pur­chase, ser­vice sign-up, or anoth­er high-value com­mit­ment. At this point, your vis­it­or is much more likely to say “yes” because they’ve already said “yes” mul­tiple times.

5. Measure and Optimise

Tracking and meas­ur­ing how well the yes lad­der works is essen­tial, as is any digit­al PR strategy. Are vis­it­ors enga­ging with the small asks? Are they pro­gress­ing down the lad­der? Optimise your CTAs and mes­saging to ensure that the steps feel nat­ur­al and lead to high­er conversions.

Learn more: The Yes Ladder PR Strategy

Yes Ladder Fallacy

Yes lad­der: “First, we agree that increas­ing our digit­al mar­ket­ing budget by 10% will boost vis­ib­il­ity. Then we agree to increase our budget by 20%, and next, we’re all on board with adding addi­tion­al mar­ket­ing staff to man­age the growth.”

The yes lad­der fal­lacy occurs when indi­vidu­als or groups are led to make increas­ingly more sig­ni­fic­ant com­mit­ments by ini­tially agree­ing to small, seem­ingly innoc­u­ous requests. This tech­nique exploits the psy­cho­lo­gic­al prin­ciple that once someone agrees to some­thing, they are more likely to con­tin­ue agree­ing, even if the sub­sequent requests are more sig­ni­fic­ant or less reasonable.

In a busi­ness con­text, the yes lad­der can lead organ­isa­tions to make decisions or invest­ments they might not have con­sidered ini­tially simply because they were gradu­ally led down the path of agree­ment. This can res­ult in unne­ces­sary expendit­ures, pro­jects bey­ond the ini­tial scope, or com­mit­ments that don’t align with long-term goals.

To avoid the pit­falls of the yes lad­der, busi­ness lead­ers should care­fully eval­u­ate decisions at each step, ensur­ing that each com­mit­ment is made with a clear under­stand­ing of the full scope and implications. 

Encouraging open dia­logue and crit­ic­al think­ing and ensur­ing that all team mem­bers have a chance to voice con­cerns helps pre­vent gradu­al escal­a­tion into decisions that might not align with the company’s best interests or over­all strategy.

We some­times com­mit fully by tak­ing steps that seem so insig­ni­fic­ant we don’t even notice the path’s point of no return.

Learn more: The Yes Ladder PR Strategy

The Priming Wheel: 12 Steps To Yes

Persuasion is often a jour­ney rather than a one-off event. 

Priming (in per­sua­sion) = the pro­act­ive pro­cess of mov­ing an audi­ence into an action­able state of mind through mul­tiple PR activ­it­ies in a pre-planned sequence.

The prim­ing wheel is not just a lin­ear pro­gres­sion of argu­ments but a layered approach that addresses dif­fer­ent aspects of the recip­i­ent’s ration­al, emo­tion­al, social, and eth­ic­al decision-mak­ing process.

It’s a type of yes lad­der structure:

Each touch­point in the prim­ing wheel serves as a stra­tegic moment to subtly influ­ence and pre­pare the recip­i­ent’s mind­set, mak­ing them more amen­able to the final mes­sage or call to action.

The golden rule of per­sua­sion is to lay the ground­work; nev­er sug­gest any­thing to any­one who isn’t ready to com­ply — yet.

Of course, you can pick and choose rel­ev­ant prim­ing steps for your PR activ­ity — and even arrange them dif­fer­ently to fit your product/​service and narrative:

The prim­ing wheel’s multi-touch­point strategy is not just about deliv­er­ing inform­a­tion; it’s about cre­at­ing a men­tal and emo­tion­al envir­on­ment where the final mes­sage is deeply felt and under­stood, lead­ing to a more pro­found and last­ing impact.

“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.”
— Robert Cialdini (author of Pre-Suasion) ¹Cialdini, R. (2017, April 20). Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade. Amazon​.co​.uk. https://​www​.amazon​.co​.uk/​P​r​e​-​S​u​a​s​i​o​n​-​R​e​v​o​l​u​t​i​o​n​a​r​y​-​W​a​y​-​I​n​f​l​u​e​n​c​e​-​P​e​r​s​u​a​d​e​/​d​p​/​1​8​4​7​9​4​1​4​35/

Learn more: The Priming Wheel: 12 Steps to Yes

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