1. Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

2. Crafting Persuasive Messages
Chapter 11
Crafting Persuasive Messages
Purposes
Tone
Persuasive Strategies
Varieties
Sales / Fund-Raising Messages
Threats
Organizing
Writing Style
Objections
Technology
Acting Promptly
Chapter 11. Crafting Persuasive Messages.

3. Chapter 11 Learning Objectives
LO 11-1 Identify the purposes of persuasive messages
LO 11-2 Analyze a persuasive situation
LO 11-3 Identify basic persuasive strategies
LO 11-4 Write persuasive direct requests
LO 11-5 Write persuasive problem-solving messages
LO 11-6 Write sales and fund-raising messages
LO 11-7 Use technology for persuasive messages

4. Purposes Primary Secondary To have audience act or change beliefs
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
Persuasive messages have one primary purpose: to have the audience act or change beliefs. But, like any other message, there are also secondary purposes: to build a good image of the communicator and the communicator’s organization, to cement a good relationship, to overcome any objections, and to reduce or eliminate the need for future messages on the subject.

5. Choosing a Persuasive Strategy
What do you want people to do?
What objections will audience have?
How strong a case can you make?
What kind of persuasion is best for the situation?
What kind of persuasion is best for organization and culture?
Before you begin crafting a persuasive message, you need to choose a persuasive strategy. You can begin by asking five questions:
What do you want people to do?
What objections will audience have?
How strong a case can you make?
What kind of persuasion is best for the situation?
What kind of persuasion is best for organization and culture?
The answers to these questions will help you take the next steps in designing your strategy and organizing your message.

6. 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
When you are communicating, there are three aspects to persuasion:
Argument, which includes reasons or logic
Credibility, which includes the audience’s response to the communicator as the source of the message. This includes the communicator’s expertise, image, and relationships.
Emotional appeal, which includes making the audience want to do as the communicator asks by appealing to their emotions

7. Direct Request Pattern
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
There are three basic patterns of persuasive messages: direct request, problem-solving, and sales. You should use a direct request when:
The audience will do what you ask without resistance
You need a response only from people who can easily do as you ask
The audience may not read the rest of the message

8. Problem-Solving Pattern
Audience may resist doing what you ask
You expect logic to be more important than emotion in the decision
You should use a problem-solving pattern when:
The audience may resist doing what you ask
You expect logic to be more important than emotion in the decision

9. Sales Pattern Audience may resist doing what you ask
You expect emotion to be more important than logic in the decision
You should use a sales pattern when:
The audience may resist doing what you ask
You expect emotion to be more important than logic in the decision

10. 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 counteraggression
You may be tempted to use threats as part of your persuasive strategy. But threats don’t generally work. They don’t produce permanent change and they may not produce the desired action at all. They may make people abandon action. They always produce tension because people dislike and avoid someone who threatens them. And threats frequently provoke counteraggression.

11. Organizing Direct Requests
Ask immediately for the information or service you want
Give audience all the information they need to act on your request
Ask for the action you want
If you are using a direct request, begin your message by asking for the information or service that you want. Follow the request by giving the audience all of the information they need to act on your request. Finally, ask for the action that you want. The direct request is fairly simple and straightforward.

12. Organizing Problem-Solving Messages
Catch audience’s interest by mentioning common ground
Define problem you share with audience
Explain solution to problem
Show that advantages outweigh negatives
Summarize additional benefits of solution
Ask for action you want
Problem-solving messages are more complicated than direct requests, because you have to do more work to convince your audience to take action. Begin by catching the audience’s interest by mentioning common ground. Use that common ground to define a problem you share with the audience. Explain your solution to the problem and show that the advantages of the solution outweigh the negatives. Close the message by summarizing the additional benefits of the solution and asking for the action you want.

13. 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
One of the most important steps in persuasive messages is convincing your audience that you share common ground. To do this, you need to suggest that you and the audience have mutual interest in solving the problem. To develop this common ground, you should analyze your audience to understand their biases, objections, and needs.

14. Dealing with Objections
Specify time, money required to act
Put time, money in context of benefits
Show that money spent now will save money in long run
Show that doing as you ask will benefit something audience cares about
Show audience need for sacrifice to achieve larger, more important goal
Show that advantages outweigh the disadvantages
In persuasive messages, you need to anticipate the objections your audience will raise and deal with those in the message. You can:
Specify time, money required to act
Put time, money in context of benefits
Show that money spent now will save money in long run
Show that doing as you ask will benefit something audience cares about
Show audience need for sacrifice to achieve larger, more important goal
Show that advantages outweigh the disadvantages

15. Reasons to Act Promptly
Show that time limit is real
Show that acting now will save time or money
Show the cost of delaying action
In most persuasive messages, you want your audience to not only act but to act promptly. You can encourage them to act quickly by defining a time limit and showing them that it is real. You can also demonstrate that acting now will save them time or money or that delaying will cost time and money.

16. 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
Emotional appeal is a powerful persuasive tool, particularly in sales messages. Use storytelling to catch attention and create an emotional bond with your audience. Use psychological descriptions with word pictures to help your audience imagine themselves doing and enjoying what you ask.

17. 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.
Remember in persuasive messages that you are asking your audiences to do something. Make sure you use a professional, respectful tone. Be courteous and give solid reasons for your requests. Give enough information for the audience to act on your clear requests. Be aware of the feelings and position of your audience, and be more respectful in your requests to superiors.

18. 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
Although some people see performance appraisals as negative or positive messages, they really should be persuasive messages, where managers and supervisors persuade employees to improve performance. In a performance appraisal, cite specific observations, not inferences. Include specific suggestions for improvement and identify two or three areas that the worker can emphasize in the next month or quarter. Being specific and focused helps the worker want to work to improve by making the improvements manageable.

19. 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
In recommendation letters, you are persuading an employer that the subject of your letter would be a good fit for their position. In these letters, be specific and detailed. Tell how well and how long you knew the applicant, what you know about the applicant’s work, and whether you would rehire the applicant. The more specific you can be, the more persuasive the letter will be.

20. 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
Sales and fund-raising messages are another common variety of persuasive messages. Their primary purpose is to motivate the audience to act by sending a donation or buying a product. The secondary motivations are:
To build a good image of the communicator’s organization
To strengthen the commitment of the audiences who do act
To make audiences who do not act more likely to act the next time

21. 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
In organizing a sales or fund-raising message, begin with an opener that makes the audience want to read the entire message. Use questions, narration, stories, anecdotes, startling statements, or quotations to catch the audience’s attention and to begin to get them emotionally involved in your request. Then set up a transition to the letter body.

22. 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
In the body of a sales or fund-raising letter, answer the audience’s questions and overcome their objections. Continue to involve them emotionally by referring back to the opening of the letter and adding in more stories and facts. Generally, longer letters work better to catch attention and produce results, but shorter s and letters can produce results when written well.

23. Organizing Sales/Fund-Raising Messages: Body Content
Information audience can use
Stories about history of product or organization
Stories about people who use product
Word pictures of audiences enjoying benefits offered
The content of the body of the letter should focus on things that can help the audience act:
Information they can use
Stories about the history of the product or organization
Stories about people who use the product
Word pictures of audiences enjoying the benefits offered

24. 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
In closing a sales or fund-raising letter, tell the audience what they need to do. Make it clear and make the action sound easy. Give them a reason to act immediately and end with a positive picture. Many closings refer back to the central selling point to remind the audience why they want to act.

25. Using a Postscript Reason to act promptly
Description of premium audience receives
Reference to another part of package
Restatement of central selling point
Postscripts can be powerful additions to sales and fundraising letters. In fact, many people read the postscript first! In the postscript, give the audience a reason to act promptly, restate the central selling points and benefits, and reference the other parts of the package or letter to encourage the audience to read through the rest of the material.
P.S. Many people
read it first!

26. Strategy in Sales Messages: 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
When you are writing sales messages, you need to convince people to buy your product over other products in the market. One strategy is to satisfy a need. Define the need that the product meets. Prove that your product satisfies that need and show why it is better than similar products. Make the audience want to have the product by making them feel the need and see the benefits of your solution to the need.

27. 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
In any sales message, you need to talk about price. Link the price to the product’s benefits or to the benefits your company offers. You could break down the cost to show how much the product costs per day, week, or month to minimize the expense and make it more reasonable. You could also allow the customers to use credit or pay in installments, again to minimize the negative effects of the price.

28. 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
In fund-raising appeals, you need to gain a connection with the audience by helping them participate vicariously in the cause. Use “we” to talk about the cause. At the closing, use “you” to talk about what the audience will be doing. Show how the audience’s money help solve the problem by having a direct effect on the cause.

29. Fund-Raising Messages
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
In fund-raising messages, you should provide a lot of information to persuade audiences and give them evidence to use to persuade others. You need to give off an image of a strong, worthy cause to non-supporters. You can also suggest other ways the audience can help besides donating money. You want to give them multiple options to be involved.

30. How Much to Ask For Link gift to what it will buy
Offer a premium for giving
Ask for a monthly pledge
Always send a
Thank You
to every donor
In a fund-raising message, link how much you ask for with what it will buy for the cause. Offer premiums for different levels of giving or ask for monthly pledges to help keep people involved. After someone donates, always send a thank-you note to thank them and persuade them to keep giving.

31. Logical Proof in Fund-Raising Messages
Body must prove that—
Problem deserves attention
Problem can be alleviated or solved
Your group is helping to solve problem
Private funds are needed
Your organization will use funds wisely
Fund-raising messages cannot rely on emotion alone. You need to use logic to prove that:
The problem deserves attention
The problem can be alleviated or solved
Your group is helping to solve the problem
Private funds are needed
Your organization will use the funds wisely

32. Writing Style Make text interesting
Tight
Conversational
Use psychological description: vivid word pictures
Describe audience benefits
Describe problem product solves
In any persuasive message, you need to use an interesting, tight, and conversational writing style. Use vivid word pictures to describe audience benefits and the problem the product solves.

33. Writing Style, continued…
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
Finally, make the message sound like a letter, not an advertisement. It should come off as one person talking to another with short sentences and words, and even slang. Create a persona, or character, to write the letter to make it as engaging and persuasive as possible.

34. Technology and Persuasion
Television is traditional method to reach wide audience
Many organizations are now using social networking and websites
Smart organizations are getting people outside the company to be sales force
Although television is the traditional way for organizations to reach and persuade a wide audience, many companies now use websites and social media to sell products and gather donations. Smart companies have realized that their best sales force is made up of people outside the company who write reviews and talk about the products online. The organizations promote this kind of discussion about the company by making it easy for people to share information and reviews about the products and services.