6-2 EFFECTIVE BUSINESS

COMMUNICATION

WRITING PERSUASIVE MESSAGES

 Purposes of Persuasive
Messages
You create persuasive message when
 you want your reader to do something,
 to act upon something,
 to accept a point of view

In short, you make your

reader to support,
believe and act in your
favor
Writing Persuasive Messages: Three Steps
Step 1

Step 3
Step 2
Plan Write Complete
your your your
message message message
 •Study your audience
•Analyze the situation
Step 1
Plan the
•Gather and organize
message information
•Select an effective
medium
 • Use simple language
• Support the message
Step 2 with facts
Write • Establish common
the ground
• Be objective
message • Display your good
intention
 • Proofread the message
Step 3 • Make sure the purpose
Complete of the message is clear
the
• Send it through the
message
right channel
Persuasive messages: AIDA
Developing persuasive business message

Know your audience

Balance emotional and logical appeals

Frame your arguments

Developing persuasive business message

Know your audience

• Demographic data
• Needs and wants
• Problems

Balance emotional and logical Appeals

Frame your arguments

 Know Your Audience/Readers

 Approach your readers from their point of view

 Demographic information (age, gender, income,
geographic location)
 Psychographic information (social, political,
personal preferences)
 Use: customer service, customer database, online
chats, colleagues
Developing persuasive business message

Know your audience

Balance emotional and logical appeals

• Emotional
• Logical
• Character-based

Frame your arguments

Balance emotion and logic

Gain Attention by Using the Winning Appeals

 Emotion
 appeals to the senses (feeling, tasting,
smelling, hearing) and sympathies, rather
than facts, figures, and rational arguments
 E.g. freedom, success, prestige, compassion,
security, comfort, etc.
 Character: uses the writer or spokesperson’s voice and
projected image to win trust and invite readers to
identify with the speaker; moral, ethics based
Gain Attention by Using the
Winning Appeals
 Logic
 appeals to the thinking mind (saving money, making
money, doing a better job, getting better use,
increasing quality, etc.)
Developing persuasive business messages

Know your audience

Balance emotional and logical Appeals

Frame your arguments

• Determine your strategy
• Gain attention
• Develop the appeal/Make request clearly and
positively
 Common Techniques for
Gaining Attention
 Offer: A free trip to Hawaii is just the beginning.

 Promise: Now you can raise your sales income by

50 percent or even more with the proven
techniques found in…

 Question: Do you yearn for an honest, fulfilling

relationship?

 Quotation or proverb: Necessity is the mother of

invention.
 Cont.
 Fact: The Greenland Eskimos ate more fat than
anyone in the world. And yet…they had virtually
no heart disease.

 Product feature: Volvo’s snazzy new convertible

ensures your safety with a roll bar that pops out
when the car tips 40 degrees to the side.

 Testimonial: “The journal surprises, amuses,

investigates, and most of all educates.” (the New
Republic commenting ton The Wall Street
Journal.)
 Cont.
 Startling statement: let the poor and hungry
feed themselves! For just $100 they can.

 Personalized action setting: It’s 4.30 p.m.

and you’ve got to make a decision. You need
everyone's opinion, no matter where they are.
Before you pick up your phone to call them
one at a time, pick up this card: ATT
Teleconference Services.
 Common Techniques for
Building Interest
Describe central selling points and make rational and
emotional appeals.
 Rational Appeal
You can bus the things you need and want, pay household bills, pay off higher-
cost loans and credit cards—as soon as you’re approved and your Credit-Line
account is opened.
 Emotional Appeal
Leave the urban bustle behind and escape to sun-soaked Bermuda! To recharge
your batteries with an injection sun and surf, all you need is your bathing suit,
a little suntan lotion and your Credit-Line card.
 Dual Appeal
New Credit-Line cardholders are immediately eligible for a $100 travel certificate
and additional discounts at fun-filled resorts. Save up to 40 percent while
lying on a beach , sun-soaked Bermuda, the year-round resort island.
 Common Techniques for
Reducing Resistance
 Testimonials: “Brand new skin starts from every single cell
which leads me to have a brand new life.”—Maggie Cheung,
HK, China.
 Names of satisfied users (with permission, of course):
Enclosed is a partial list of private pilots who enthusiastically
subscribe to our service.
 Money-back guarantee or warranty: We offer the longest
warranties in the business—all parts and service on-site for two
years!
 Free trial or sample: We’re so confident that you’ll like our
new accounting program that we want you to try it absolutely
free.
 Performance test, polls, or awards: Our TP-3000 was named
Best Web Phone, and Etown.com voted it Cell Phone of the
year.
 Common Techniques for
Motivating Action
 Offer a gift: You’ll receive a free cell phone with
the purchase of any new car.
 Promise an incentive: With every new, paid
subscription, we’ll plant a tree in one of
America’s Heritage Forests.
 Limit the offer: Only the first 100 customers
receive free checks.
 Guarantee satisfaction: We’ll return your full
payment if you’re not entirely satisfied—no
questions asked.
Action Plan

 Confidently ask for audience’s cooperation

 Emphasize the positive results of their
action
 Make the desired action clear and easy
 If applicable, include a due date for a
response
 Avoid negative or tentative statements and
only include positive and confident ones
Example: Persuasive request
Example: Persuasive request
Example: Persuasive request
Example:
Selling Quality Candy
Opening

Don’t you want to try the delicious French candies only

available in France?
Our candy shop BonBon will have a grand opening with
these custom made Bonnes Bouchées candies. Get
ready to enjoy this internationally advertised candy in a
week!
Example :
Selling Quality Candy
Body
Bonnes Bouchées, made in the French manner, are
coming to America and our shop, BonBon is the first to
have them ready for you. Our exclusive European
candies are successfully advertised through famous
magazines and TV commercials and they are in massive
demand.
You can pre-order them by picking from the six different
flavors pictured in the enclosed brochure. You’ll find
wholesale prices, order blanks, and a postage-paid
envelope addressed to us there, too. Look at the
“special” day features as well. Wouldn’t you like to have
the Easter display sent with your first order?
Come up with a closing for
this persuasive message