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“How to Persuade in Writing?”
To Persuade is NOT to Inform
Persuasion is difficult to master. In writing and speaking. Very often people inform, when they should be persuading. How do you know you’re wrong?
When you INFORM
The style of writing is the one in journalism, or the so-called pyramid writing:
Introduction: who, what, when, where, why, how;
Body: present each point in order of importance;
Conclusion or a brief summary, but it is not necessary in informative writing;
What are the BENEFITS for the reader?
Readers can stop reading when they have enough information. It gives them control of their time.
What are most common MISTAKES in informative writing?
The worst thing is to start writing about something chronologically, which may confuse readers or from the writer’s point of view, assuming what is relevant and interesting for the writer would be relevant and interesting for the reader as well.
When you PERSUADE
You persuade to – BUY. And people not only buy different products or services. Above all you sell your ideas, suggestions, yourselves (e.g. when you apply for a job).
Use the so-called persuasive paradigm, which consists of five steps:
Step One: Customer’s needs We must demonstrate that we understand reader’s needs, issues, problems. Our job is to summarize their situation very briefly, focusing on the gap to be closed or the competency to be acquired. The purpose of telling the readers what they already know is to reduce their anxiety, gain their trust and raise their level of confidence.
Step Two: Outcomes Focus on the outcomes or results the reader wants to achieve. Provide answers to the question: What’s in it for us? What must the organization see in terms of results to make their investment in your idea, wish, yourself, your product or service worthwhile?
Step Three: Recommend a solution When you do so, sound like you really believe it. Don’t lapse into informative writing and present your solution in a flat, factual way. Whatever you’ve got becomes a solution when it is immediately linked to a problem that your reader has.
Step Four: Prove you can do it Provide the necessary evidence that you can do it. Include evidence about time and budget. Include references, testimonials, case studies, third-party validations, such as awards, details about yourself, your company history.
Step Five: Ask for it! Don’t just assume they’ll buy it and don’t assume they’ll agree or approve of it by default. Ask them. Clearly and openly. If you don’t you lose credibility.
What are most common MISTAKES in persuasive writing?
1. To immediately recommend a solution after identifying customer’s needs. What you need to do before is to develop or raise reader’s awareness about the need for what you’re offering.
2. Where you recommend a solution, it is dangerous to use language and expressions, which indicate hesitation, such as:
We hope you will find our product useful in …
We will try to provide tailor-made service to meet your needs.
If you reconsider our proposal, we could …
3. Don’t start with a detailed description of yourself or your company in terms of “me, myself and I”.
A sample of POOR PERSUASION:
Dear all
I had a meeting today with Mike Croft, who introduced software their company produces, which could give executives immediate access to all most important data about the company business operations and thus make decision processes much easier.
Best, Bob
A sample of POWERFUL PERSUASION:
Dear all
Our executives need easy access to the corporate database. If we can provide that this means they’ll be able to work faster, easier, will have all data about clients at hand and be also able to recommend better solutions for our existing and new clients. In other words – a more effective decision making with better results.
I recommend we lease the software on six-month trial period. Mike Croft says the installation takes four days. His engineers will provide all support. A six-month lease costs $2.000 per month. I have estimated that this software can save between two to four hours per month per user, which means it will pay itself off well before the end of the trial period.
Shall we proceed?
Best regards
Bob
