Lecture Business and administrative communication: Chapter 11 - Kitty O. Locker, Donna S. Kienzler

Chapter 11 - Crafting persuasive messages. After studying this chapter, you will know: Identify the purposes of persuasive messages; analyze a persuasive situation; identify basic persuasive strategies; write persuasive direct requests; write persuasive problem-solving messages; write sales and fund-raising messages; use technology for persuasive messages.

Chapter 11

Crafting Persuasive

Messages

 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

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 the

situation?

5. What kind of persuasion is best for

organization and culture?

 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

 Direct Request

 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

 Problem-Solving

 Audience may resist doing what you ask

 You expect logic to be more important than emotion in the decision

 Sales

 Audience may resist doing what you ask

 You expect emotion to be more important than logic in the decision

 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

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

Messages

1 Catch audience’s interest by mentioning 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

1 Define problem you share with audience

2 Explain solution to problem

3 Show that advantages outweigh negatives

4 Summarize additional benefits of solution

5 Ask for action you want

 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

 Encourage audience to act promptly

 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

Messages: Opener

 Makes audience want to read entire

message

 Use of these main types

 Questions

 Narration, stories, anecdotes

 Startling statements

 Quotations

Messages: Body

 Answers audience’s questions

 Overcomes audience’s objections

 Involves audience emotionally

 Long letters work best: 4 pages ideal

 Short letters, e-mail work too

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

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

Use a postscript to highlight the central selling

point and get people to act promptly!

Satisfying Need and Pricing

 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

 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

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

 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

 Link gift to what it will buy

 Offer a premium for giving

 Ask for a monthly pledge

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

1 Make text interesting

 Tight

 Conversational

1 Use psychological description: vivid word

pictures

 Describe audience benefits

 Describe problem product solves

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

 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