1. Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Chapter 11 Crafting Persuasive Messages

2. 11-2 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

3. 11-3 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 the situation? 5. What kind of persuasion is best for organization and culture?

4. 11-4 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

5. 11-5 Persuasive Patterns  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

6. 11-6 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

7. 11-7 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

8. 11-8 Organizing Problem-Solving 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 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

9. 11-9 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  Encourage audience to act promptly

10. 11-10 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

11. 11-11 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

12. 11-12 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, e-mail work too

13. 11-13 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

14. 11-14 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 Use a postscript to highlight the central selling point and get people to act promptly!

15. 11-15 Strategy in Sales Messages: 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

16. 11-16 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

17. 11-17 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  Link gift to what it will buy  Offer a premium for giving  Ask for a monthly pledge

18. 11-18 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

19. 11-19 Writing Style 1.Make text interesting  Tight  Conversational 2.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

20. 11-20 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