WRITING PERSUASIVE MESSAGES

 is an attempt to change someone’s attitudes,

beliefs, or actions

 Persuasive messages include:

◦ Orders and requests
◦ Proposal and recommendations
◦ Sales and fund-raising letters
◦ Job application letters
◦ Effort to change people’s behavior, such as
collection letters, criticisms and performance
appraisals
 Step 1 : Planning a Persuasive Message
 Step 2 : Writing a Persuasive Message
 Step 3 : Completing a Persuasive Message
• Step 1 : Planning a Persuasive Message
– Analyzing the situation.
• Demographic: age, gender, occupation, income.
Education, and else)
• Psychographic ; personality, attitude, lifestyle, and
else)
• Motivation
– Gathering information
– Selecting the Right Medium
– Organizing Your Information
• Step 2 : Writing a Persuasive Message
– Welcome reception:
1. Using positive and polite language
2. Understanding and respecting cultural difference
3. Being sensitive to organizational cultures
4. Taking step to establish your credibility

Improve credibility in persuasive messages with below

techniques:
- Using simple language
- Supporting your message with facts
- Identifying your sources
- Establishing common ground
- Being objective
- Displaying your good intentions
- Avoiding the “hard sell”

• Step 3 : Completing a Persuasive Message

 Strategies for Persuasive Business Messages
◦ Structuring Persuasive Business Messages (AIDA
Model) :
 Attention : get the audience attention
 Interest : consice information that pay off promise you
made
 Desire : how the solution will benefits the consumer
 Action : motivate to take action
• To find optimum balance consider four factor :
1. The action you hope to motivate
2. Your readers’ expectation
3. The degree of resistance you need to overcome
4. How far you feel empowered to go in order to sell your point of view

• Emotional Appeals
– Calls on audience feelings and sympathies rather than facts, figures,
and rational arguments.

• Logical Appeals
– Calls on reasoning and evidence.
Three types of reasoning :
 Analogy : from specific evidence to specific evidence
 You can’t run a marathon on an empty stomach.
 A leaking boat is a sinking boat.
 Deductive : generalization to specific conclusion.
 Inductive : specific evidence to general conclusion.
 Specific Purpose :
To persuade management to fund an on-site daycare center
EMOTION
Proposal to inprove employee satisfaction and
work/life balance
Being separated during the day is stressful for both
parents and children
Many parents are now wrking more hours and
second jobs to make ends meet, so the situation is
getting worst.
The extra travel time every morning and evening to
put children in daycare adds to the stress and cost
of coming to work
When parents need to leave work to pick up sick
chrildren from daycare to stay home with them, this
often creates an unfair burden on other employees
to pick up the slack
Knowing that the company cares about them and
their children would boost employee morale.
Therefore, the company should provide an on-site
daycare facility with a separate infirmary where sick
children could stay during the day.
LOGIC
Proposal to boost productivity and reduce
absenteeism
Analysis of employee time record shows that
employee with children under the age of 10 take
unscheduled days off three times more often than
employees without young children
Daycare issues are cited as the number one reason
for thee unscheduled days off.
In the 98 exit intervies conducted last year, 24
departing employees mentioned the need to balance
family and cork commitments as the primary reason
for leaving.
In the last six months, HR has logged 14 complains
from employees who say they have to take on extra
work when colleagues leave the office to pick up sick
children from daycare.
Research shows that on-site daycare can improve
productivity by as much as 20 % - among parents
and nonparents alike
Therefore, the company should provide an on-site
daycare facility with a separate infirmary where sick
children could stay during the day.
◦ Avoid hasty generalization
◦ Avoid circular reasoning
◦ Avoid attacking an opponent
◦ Avoid oversimplifying a complex issue
◦ Avoid mistaken assumption of cause and effect
◦ Avoid faulty analogies
◦ Avoid illogical support
 Assessing Audience Needs
 Analyzing Your Competition
 Determining Key Selling Points and Benefits

◦ Selling points are the most attractive features of

product
◦ Benefits are the particular advantages purchases
can realize from those features.
 Anticipating Purchase Objections
 Applying AIDA or a Similar Model
• Getting Attention
– Techniques to attract your audience’s attention:
• Your product’s strongest feature or benefits
• A piece of genuine news
• A point of common ground with the audience
• A personal appeal to the reader’s emotions or values
• The promise of insider information
• The promise of savings
• A sample or demonstration of the product
• A solution to a problem
 Follow these guidelines :
◦ Facilitate community building
◦ Initiate and respond to conversations within the
community
◦ Identify and support your champions
◦ Don’t rely on the news media to distribute your
message
◦ Use the AIDA model at the right time and in the
right places
 Pay attention to the following legal aspects of
marketing and sales communication:
◦ Marketing and Sales messages must be truthful and
nondeceptive.
◦ You must back up your claim with evidence
◦ Marketing and sales messages are considered
binding contracts in many states
◦ In most cases, you can’t use a person’s name,
photograph or other identity without permission.