How to write persuasively
Oct 12, 2008
To be frank, you’ll find hundreds of articles and blogs on how to write persuasively and in fact, I too have previously written on the subject of persuasive writing. So why this blog post on such a repetitive title? There are two reasons:
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The importance of the topic of how to right persuasively remains unmitigated no matter how many people have written about it.
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I am simply feeling like writing about it.
Let us first throw some light on what is persuasive writing. Is it some kind of deceitful textual legerdemain that you implement to make people buy from you or do your bidding? Well, this can be achieved by persuasive writing. But it doesn’t have to be deceitful. What you want to achieve through persuasive writing is convey your message to your readers in such a manner that they not only find your message convincing and believable they are also driven towards doing business with you.
One thing is clearly established that people don’t spend their hard earned money (stolen money, or even inherited many) easily; they really need to be coaxed into shelling out the green paper (or plastic money) and pay you for your product or service. They would rather get it for free and this is why it is a lot easier to promote free products and services. You have to "persuade" people into taking a decision and the executing it. How do you do that? There is no magic trick, you just need to be straightforward, to the point, engaging, and convincing, in a strategically ordered manner. In order to write persuasively try to do the following:
Grab attention immediately
This is the first most thing your persuasive writing must achieve. There is lots of noise on the Internet and an average surfer can find scores of web sites in a matter of a few minutes, So he or she is always in a great hurry to check out other links. There is this problem of plenty; since so much is available we cannot easily decide what to read and what to ignore and in this confusion we end up reducing our attention span. Whatever you have written it must grab the attention of your readers immediately so that your reader doesn’t go to another link and gives you enough time to make your point. You can accomplish this by creating a captivating heading; offer something to the reader he or she is desperately looking for. Focus on the need not the product. Offer to make a difference. Offer something that is not easily available. Talk with conviction and use clear words without scope of confusion or abstractedness.
Don’t hold back
Have got something very important to say? Say it in the beginning. The most annoying thing a reader encounters is verbal beating-around-the-bush sort of narrative. If you come to the main point in the first paragraph itself your reader can quickly make a decision whether to read the rest of the copy or not.
Organize your main ideas under headings, subheadings and bullets
This is not a technical rhetoric (because you may find this suggestion all over the Internet), this actually works. As mentioned above people these days have very little patience; they quickly want to arrive at a decision or else go somewhere else. So they want to go through your text as quickly as possible and when you organize your text under headings, subheadings and bullets it makes it easier for your readers to make sense of what you are trying to convey. If they are genuinely interested then they will also read your fine text. Organizing your content under headings, subheadings and bullets is also good for your search engine rankings because the search engine crawlers too look for important words and phrases under these tags.
Use action words
Whenever you persuade people you prompt them to do something. This can be done by using action words, not needless action words but action words that can really drive people and encourage them to take an action. For instance if you want people to subscribe to your newsletter then you specifically have to tell them to subscribe to it. If you want them to buy your eBook, you not only highlight the great benefits of your eBook, you also ask people to buy it – use the expression "buy this eBook". Don’t assume that since you have laid down all the great benefits and advantages of reading your eBook and you have the sleekest possible website people will buy. They’ll happily read whatever you’ve written, and then absentmindedly leave your website. Tell them to buy and tell them to buy now.
Close it with an impression
Make a closing that leaves a lasting impression upon your readers’ mind. They may leave your website after reading your copy, but your last few sentences should make them remember your website, possibly bookmark it to come back to it later on.
Persuasive writing is all about making an impact by stating the truth. It doesn’t have to be drab, but it shouldn’t also be so esoteric that your reader forgets why he or she is there in the first place. You have to empathize with your reader. What does he or she really want? What troubles him or her? Know that and you have covered 60% distance of writing persuasively; the rest is just your creativity and skill of writing.
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