Persuasive Strategies

Persuasion Definition

Let's start this explanation with a definition of persuasion.

Persuasion is a powerful tool that can help you achieve your goals in your personal life. For example, it can help gather people to work towards something dear to you, or it can help convince people about something you believe in.

It's also a great skill that can help you advance your career. For example, it can help you persuade people to buy a product or service you sell, it can help you negotiate a promotion, and it can help you convince your coworkers of your ideas in a teamwork effort.

Persuasion Effective Communication

Persuasion isn't necessarily a nefarious tool people use to manipulate others into doing something for someone else's interest. But, as Darkholme said, persuasion is a powerful tool that can move mountains. Suppose you can rally people around you and persuade them to work together and achieve a common goal. You can do many things alone, but you can do much more if you convince people to follow you.

As such, persuasion plays an essential role in communication, some even argue that most communications are, to a certain degree, a form of persuasion.

Rhetorical Strategies for Persuasion

In 1984, Robert Cialdini published a book called "Influence." He was interested in the psychological process of persuasion and wanted to understand how and why people agree to something. In his book, Cialdini described the six principles of persuasion² that affect people's decision-making:

1. Reciprocity: the first principle is about reciprocity. Cialdini realized that people like balance and tend to be fair to one another. If someone is nice to you, you will tend to be nice in return. If someone gives you something, you feel that you need to give something in exchange. It's why companies often give small gifts to prospective customers; it's a way for them to catch their prospects' interest and put them in a state of mind where they feel that they need to reciprocate and listen to their offer.

2. Commitment and consistency: People generally like to be consistent with their decisions and don't like to change their minds all the time. If they have an opinion and say something one day, they will mostly say something similar the next day. An easy way to have people commit to something is to start smaller first with something that seems insignificant and to continue asking for more and more. People might agree to something significant simply because they have agreed previously.

3. Social proof: people will most likely trust something if someone else agrees to it or has used it before. That's why book ratings and reviews by celebrities are so crucial in eCommerce: items trusted by users with five stars attract more attention than items with a low rating.

4. Liking: people are more receptive to someone they know and like, rather than someone they don't appreciate. That's one of the reasons why salespersons tend to be friendly, as people will be more receptive to them.

5. Authority: when someone has authority in a field, it gives that person credibility to what they say, and people will more likely trust them. For example, a famous economist talking about a new fiscal policy, dentists recommending toothpaste, or a doctor that promotes the benefits of a new medicine.

6. Scarcity: if something is rare, created in a limited edition, or for a limited period, people will be more interested in having it, as they fear they might never get it again. You can see many of these limited offers online: "only 30 min left for this discount", "only two items left," etc.

You can use the following visual aid to help you remember these principles:

Persuasive Communication Strategies

Many well-known strategies can help you persuade people. For this explanation, we will talk about four famous persuasion strategies:

• Ethos: this strategy is about convincing people by using their ethical sense. For example, a question that would appeal to any basic moral reasoning: "Would you like to save starving children?".

• Pathos: this strategy is about playing with people's emotions. People can become emotional, especially if they relate to a story. For example, if someone just lost someone to cancer, they will be very receptive to messages about cancer research.

• Logos: this strategy focuses on a person's logical sense. They can convince people by using high authority or scientific facts.

• Kairos: this strategy focuses on timing by creating a sense of emergency. For example, if it's a limited offer only available for three days, or there are only two items left, you need to make a decision quickly.³

Persuasive Strategies in Advertising

Persuasion is crucial in advertising, as its primary purpose is to convince a potential customer to purchase a product or a service. Therefore, advertisers often use the communication strategies described above to reach their goals.

• Ethos: Ethical brands often use this strategy to sell their products and NGOs to raise funds. For example, they often state that their products are ethical and allow the producer a fair wage, or they will directly appeal to people by saying that a small donation can help save someone.
• Pathos: Brands use a variety of emotions to sell their products: inspiration, amusement, admiration, etc. For example, sports brands often use inspirational messages; brands often have fun ads to be memorable, etc.
• Logos: Brands will often showcase their product's best features and compare them to others to appeal to customers' logic that their product is of better quality and use. For example, a washing powder product that cleans better than a competitor, a super strong tape that can even stick underwater, a more efficient solar panel, etc.
• Kairos: The objective here is to pressure the customer against time and have them make a fast and hasty decision to buy the product. You can often see this strategy with online ads. For example: "order now and get a 10% discount", "order within the next 20 minutes and get free shipping", "only one item left", etc.

Persuasive Speech Strategy

You can use the following visual aid (Figure 2) to help you remember these steps:

Example of Persuasive Strategies

Let's put Dr. Jay A Conger's strategy into practice with an example:

Let's imagine that a lab is launching a new pill that can revolutionize breast cancer treatment. The lab invites potential investors to a presentation to convince them to finance their new factory to mass-produce the medicine.

1. He's one of the medicine developers who made the presentation and is introduced as a world leader breast cancer expert.
2. The researcher state that with this new medicine, they hope that they can cure breast cancer, which is a goal that everyone can agree with.
3. The researcher presents the pieces of evidence that prove the efficiency of their new treatment.
4. They showcase some real-life examples of how this treatment has changed the life of some patient to help the audience connect with the benefits of this product.

Now that you have a better understanding of the persuasion principles, you know some strategies and have a method to persuade people. It is time for you to use these techniques and principles to reach your personal and career goals.