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Chapter 16 Crafting Persuasive Messages   Purposes   Persuasive Strategies   Credibility   Threats   Organizing   Objections   Acting Promptly   Tone   Varieties   Organizing Sales/Fund- Raising Messages   Writing Style

Purposes  Primary  To have audience act or change beliefs  Secondary  To build good image of the communicator  To build good image of communicator’s organization  To cement a good relationship  To overcome any objections  To reduce or eliminate future messages on subject 16-3

Choosing a Persuasive Strategy 1.What do you want people to do? 2.What objections will audience have? 3.How strong a case can you make? 4.What kind of persuasion is best for organization and culture? 16-4

Three Aspects of Persuasion  Argument—reasons or logic communicator offers  Credibility—audience’s response to communicator as source of message  Expertise, image, relationships  Emotional appeal—making audience want to do as communicator asks 16-5

Building Credibility  Be factual—don’t exaggerate  Be specific—if you say X is better, show in detail how it is better  Be reliable—if project will take longer or cost more than estimated, tell audience immediately 16-6

Use a Direct Request Pattern When…  Audience will do what you ask without resistance  You need response only from people who can easily do as you ask  Audience may not read all of the message 16-7

Use a Problem-Solving Pattern When…  Audience may resist doing what you ask  You expect logic to be more important than emotion in the decision 16-8

Use a Sales Pattern When…  Audience may resist doing what you ask  You expect emotion to be more important than logic in the decision 16-9

Why Threats Don’t Persuade  Don’t produce permanent change  May not produce desired action  May make people abandon action  Produce tension  People dislike/avoid one who threatens  Can provoke counter-aggression 16-10

Organizing Direct Requests 1.Ask immediately for the information or service you want 2.Give audience all the information they need to act on your request 3.Ask for the action you want 16-11

Organizing Problem-Solving Messages 1.Catch audience’s interest by mentioning common ground 2.Define problem you share with audience 3.Explain solution to problem 4.Show that advantages outweigh negatives 5.Summarize additional benefits of solution 6.Ask for action you want 16-12

Developing Common Ground  Suggest you and audience have mutual interest in solving problem  Analyze audience to understand biases, objections, and needs  Identify with audience to find common goals 16-13

Dealing with Objections  Specify time, money required to act  May be less than audience fears  Example:  Filling out the forms should only take 10 minutes. Your responses will be put into our database—no more paperwork

Dealing with Objections, continued…  Put time, money in context of benefits they bring  Example:  Paying $17,500 for all three of us to attend the summer institute will enable us to get the thorough instruction we need to train the rest of the staff

Dealing with Objections, continued…  Show that money spent now will save money in long run  Example:  By spending $4,000 now, we can upgrade the labs in time to avoid a $6,500 fine for noncompliance with the new regulations

Dealing with Objections, continued…  Show that doing as you ask will benefit something audience cares about  Example:  By becoming an mentor, you’ll give an at-risk student the encouragement he or she needs to stay in school

Dealing with Objections, continued…  Show audience need for sacrifice to achieve larger, more important goal  Example:  If we each work just four additional hours each week, we’ll be able to keep the shelter open 24 hours a day, which will qualify us for the new urban development grant

Dealing with Objections, continued…  Show that advantages outweigh the disadvantages  Example:  Although relocating support staff to the fourth floor means losing storage space, having everyone in a central location will increase our efficiency greatly

Reasons to Act Promptly  Show that time limit is real  Example:  Returning the enclosed form by July 1 will let us include your responses in our Executive Board presentation on July

Reasons to Act Promptly, continued…  Show that acting now will save time or money  Example:  When you return the acceptance notice before October 1st, you will be guaranteed the lower interest rate

Reasons to Act Promptly, continued…  Show the cost of delaying action  Example:  The prices quoted are good until the first of next month. After that, everything will increase 5%

Building Emotional Appeal  Storytelling  Psychological description  Create word picture for audience’s senses  Hear  See  Smell  Taste  Touch  Help audiences imagine themselves doing, enjoying what you ask 16-23

Tone in Persuasive Messages  Be courteous  Give solid reasons for requests  Make requests clear  Give enough information for audience to act  Tone down requests to superiors  I expect you to give me a new computer.  If funds permit, I’d like a new computer

Varieties of Persuasive Messages: Performance Appraisals  Cite specific observations, not inferences  Include specific suggestions for improvement  Identify two or three areas that the worker should emphasize in the next month or quarter 16-25

Varieties of Persuasive Messages: Recommendation Letters  Be specific  Tell how well, how long writer knew applicant  Give details about applicant’s work  Say whether writer would rehire applicant 16-26

Sales and Fund-Raising Purposes  Primary  To motivate audience to act (send donation, order a product)  Secondary  To build good image of communicator’s organization  To strengthen commitment of audiences who act  To make audiences who do not act more likely to act next time 16-27

Organizing Sales/Fund-Raising Messages: Opener  Makes audience want to read entire message  Use of these main types  Questions  Narration, stories, anecdotes  Startling statements  Quotations  Sets up transition to letter body 16-28

Organizing Sales/Fund-Raising Messages: Body  Answers audience’s questions  Overcomes audience’s objections  Involves audience emotionally  Long letters work best: 4 pages ideal  Short letters, work too 16-29

Organizing Sales/Fund-Raising Messages: Body Content  Information any audience can use  Stories about history of product or organization  Stories about people who use product  Word pictures of audiences enjoying benefits offered 16-30

Organizing Sales/Fund-Raising Messages: Action Close  Tells audience what to do  Makes action sound easy  Offers audience reason to act now  Ends with positive picture  May recall central selling point 16-31

P.S. Many people read it first! Using a Postscript  Reason to act promptly  Description of premium audience receives  Reference to another part of package  Restatement of central selling point 16-32

Strategy in Sales Letters: Satisfying Need  Tell people of need product meets  Prove that product satisfies that need  Show why product is better than similar ones  Make audience want to have product 16-33

Dealing with Price  Link price to product’s benefit  Link price to benefits your company offers  Show how much product costs each day, week, or month  Allow customers to charge sales or pay in installments 16-34

Strategy in Fund-Raising Appeals: Vicarious Participation  Use we to talk about the cause  At end, use you to talk about what audience will be doing  Show how audience’s dollars help solve the problem 16-35

Fund-Raising Letters  Provide lots of information to  Persuade audiences  Give evidence to use with others  Give image of strong, worthy cause to non-supporters  Suggest other ways audiences can help 16-36

Always send a Thank You to every donor How Much to Ask For  Link gift to what it will buy  Offer a premium for giving  Ask for a monthly pledge 16-37

Logical Proof in Fund-Raising Messages  Body must prove that— 1.Problem deserves attention 2.Problem can be alleviated or solved 3.Your group is helping to solve problem 4.Private funds are needed 5.Your organization will use funds wisely 16-38

Writing Style 1.Make text interesting  Tight  Conversational 2.Use psychological description: vivid word pictures  Describe audience benefits  Describe problem product solves 16-39

Writing Style, continued… 3.Make message sound like a letter, not an ad  One person talking to another  Informal: short sentences and words, even slang  Create a persona—character who writes the letter 16-40