May
28
2015
Writing to influence and persuade
By Jakki Bendell.
6 steps to influence your reader in writing
In your career, and perhaps even your personal life, you may have to influence others with your writing. This might be to buy a product or service, but also to have others ‘buy’ an idea.
It's not about manipulating people – more about putting yourself in their shoes. Whether your medium is an email or a proposal, follow these six steps to create a strong, influential message.
1. Know your writing objective
What do you want your readers to do? It sounds obvious, but you can’t influence them if you aren’t clear about this yourself when you start writing.
Do you want them to buy or sign up for something? Or use the new leave-booking procedure? Or sign a petition?
Maybe you don’t want them to do anything – in which case, what do you want them to know or think? Whatever it is, write it down. It will help you keep your content focused.
2. Know your reader
Say you want to persuade your family to come on a volunteering holiday for the first time. What benefits can you think of that would appeal to your partner?
What about the kids?
Chances are you’d have to tailor your message to fit the audience. Your partner might be swayed by the fresh air, exercise and the feel-good factor that comes from doing good.
The kids may be more interested in fun activities and the chance to play with other children. And if you have teenagers…well, let’s just say you may have to work a lot harder to persuade them!
It’s the same when you are writing to influence readers. Who are they exactly, and what are their priorities? Senior managers may differ from front-line staff, for example. If you’re writing for different reader groups, segment them. For each group try to answer the question “What’s in it for them?”
3. Select your key messages
After steps one and two, you may have a long list of benefits. Some of them will be stronger than others.
Most people can’t process long lists of information easily. That’s why we tend to ‘chunk’ our telephone number into two or three sections so that we can remember it.
Pick the top three or four messages you think will have the most impact (remember, the trick is to convince them, not yourself).
4. Back them up with facts
Content often fails to influence because it stops at point three. In order to be truly influential, you also need to back up your claims with hard, verifiable facts. Otherwise they are just vague assertions that can be dismissed easily.
If I want my partner to believe that the volunteering holiday will make them feel good, I’d probably show them glowing testimonials from other adults (or even better, friends) saying just that.
We can use the same principle in a work context. For each key message, what facts, numbers, case studies or testimonials would your readers find convincing?
Think about pulling relevant quotes from industry experts and research studies. If there’s nothing out there, consider doing your own research – a survey or a pilot study for example.
5. Show risks and alternatives
To make a case watertight, you also need to show that you’ve done your homework. Try to anticipate and proactively answer any objections or questions your reader may have.
So, with our volunteering holiday example - if we get there and everyone hates it, what’s the back-up plan? What other options did you consider and why did you reject them? Did you look at Disneyland? (Yes. It was too expensive, but we can go next year).
6. Give clear conclusions and recommendations
Hopefully, your conclusions and recommendations will be obvious to your reader by now, but don’t skip the step of spelling them out.
Leave your reader with a strong sense of what you’re recommending and why. Make sure these follow logically from the objective you set out and the arguments you’ve made.
Following these six steps doesn’t guarantee your case will be successful, but it will give you the best chance of influencing and persuading your reader.
Jakki Bendell has over ten years' experience as a consultant, trainer and coach specialising in business writing skills. As a practising professional writer, Jakki draws on a wealth of stories and personal experience to illustrate her courses.
