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PERSUASIVE LETTERS

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PERSUASIVE LETTERS

Hope toinfluence the

reader to takesome action.

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EXAMPLES OF PERSUASIVE

LETTERS

Collection letters Reminder stage Strong reminder stage

Inquiry stage

Urgency stage Sales letters

Job application

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WRITING STRATEGY

Open with a sentence or paragraphthat catches the readers attention.

Develop an idea that interests the

reader or show how the idea servesthe readers interest.

Develop the desire to have the

product or service or to respond toyour letter.

State in the concluding paragraph theaction to be taken.

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DEVELOPING PERSUASIVE

MESSAGES

Get your readers attention. Open with a reader benefit, a

stimulating question, a problem oran unexpected statement.

Discuss something your audiencecan agree on.

Demonstrate that you understandthe audiences concerns.

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Build your readersinterest.

Elaborate on the mainbenefit.

Explain the relevance ofyour message to youraudience.

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Increase your readers desire.

Make audience members want

to change by explaining howthe change will benefit them.

Back up your claims withrelevant evidence.

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Motivate your reader to take action. Confidently ask for the audiences cooperation. Stress the positive results of the action.

Include the due date for a response and tie it inwith the audience benefits.

Include one last reminder of the audiencebenefit.

Make the desired action clear and easy.

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Balance emotional and logicalappeals.

Use emotional appeals to helpaudience accept your message.

Use logical appeals whenpresenting facts and evidence for

complex ideas orrecommendations.

Avoid faulty logic.

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Reinforce your position.

Use semantics to build

credibility and enhance theemotional content of yourmessage.

Use a variety of critical thinking

and effective writing tools tostrengthen your case.

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Deal with resistance. Anticipate and answer possible objections.

Turn them into opportunities when possible,

otherwise give assurance. Try What if? scenarios to poke holes in

your theories and then find solutions.

Let others help you find solution to

problems that you uncover.

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Present the pros and cons of alloptions.

Avoid common mistakes such asusing a hard sell up front,resisting compromise, relyingsolely on great arguments andassuming persuasion is a oneshot effect.

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Increase the effectiveness ofyour AIDA (attention, interest,desire, action) plan.

Use the AIDA plan for both directand indirect approaches.

Be careful not to give your

message away in the subject line.

Limit your objectives by focusingon your primary goals.

PERSUASIVE CLAIMS AND

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PERSUASIVE CLAIMS AND

REQUESTS FOR

ADJUSTMENT Attention For your opening, use one of the following:

sincere compliment, rhetorical question,agreeable comment or assertion,statement of the basic problem, or briefreview of what has been done about theproblem.

At the beginning, state something that

you and the audience can agree on or thatyou wish to convince the audience about.

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Interest and Desire Provide a description that shows the

members of your audience that theirfirm is responsible for the problem.

Make your request factual, logical andreasonable.

Appeal to the audiences sense of fairplay, desire for customer goodwill, needfor a good reputation, or sense of legalor moral responsibility.

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Emphasise on your goal of havingthe adjustment granted.

Present your case in a calm,logical manner.

Tell the audience how you feel,your disappointment with theproducts, policies or servicesprovided may well be the mostimportant part of your argument.

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Action Make sure the action request is a logical

conclusion based on the problem and

the stated facts.

State the request specifically andconfidently.

Specify a due date for action.

State the main audience benefit as areminder of benefits in earlierstatements.

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COMPOSING SALES AND

FUNDRAISING LETTERS

Attention Design a positive opening that

awakens a favourableassociation with the product,need or cause.

Write the opening so that itsappropriate, fresh, honest,interesting, specific andrelevant.

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Promise a benefit to the reader. Keep the first paragraph short,

preferably two to five lines, andsometimes only one.

For fundraising letters, design anattention-getter that uses ahuman-interest story.

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For sales letters, get attentionwith a provocative question, asignificant/startling fact, asolution to current event, anillustration, a comparison, an

event in the readers life, aproblem the reader may faceor a quotation.

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Interest State information clearly, vividly and

persuasively, relating it to the

readers concern.

Develop the central selling point.

Place benefits first, or interweave

them with physical description.

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Feature the product or charitableneed in two ways: physicaldescription and readers benefit.

Describe the objective details of theneed or product.

Use psychological appeals to presentthe sensation, satisfaction or

pleasure readers will gain.

Blend cold facts with warm feelings.

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Desire Enlist one or more appeals to support the central

idea (selling point of fundraising goal)

If the product is valued mainly because of itsappearance, describe its physical details.

If the product is machinery or technicalequipment, describe its sturdy construction, finecrafting and other technical details in terms that

help readers visualise themselves using it.

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Include technical sketches and meaningfulpictures, charts and graphs if necessary.

For sales letters, provide test results fromrecognised experts, laboratories or authoritativeagencies.

To raise funds, detail how donation are spent,using recognised accounting/auditing firms.

To elicit donations, use strong visual details,good narrative, active verbs and limitedadjectives.

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Emphasise readers benefits.

Anticipate and answer thereaders questions.

Use an appropriate form of proof.

Include verifiable report/statistics

about users experience with theproduct or organisation.

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Provide names of satisfied buyers, usersor donors.

Present unexaggerated testimonials

from people or firms whose judgment,readers respect.

In sales letters, offer a free trial or aguarantee, and refer to samples if they

are included.

Note any enclosures in conjunction witha selling point or reader benefit.

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Action

Clearly state the action you desire. Provide specific details on how to order

the product, donate money, or reachyour organisation.

Ease action with reply cards, pre-addressed envelopes, phone numbers

and follow-up phone calls.

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Offer a special inducement to act now; timelimit or situation urgency, special price for alimited time, premium for acting before acertain date, gift for acting, free trial, no

obligation to buy with more information ordemonstration, easy payments with nomoney down, credit card payments.

Supply a final reader benefit.

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In a postscript, conveyimportant donationinformation or an

important sales point.

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EMAILS

In business today, high speedcommunication and informationtransfer is essential.

Most of the activities today in theoffice are computer-based.

Email/Electronic mail has become

an effective, low cost and quickmethod of communication amongfriends and also colleagues.

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A single message may be simultaneouslysend to many recipients.

This will save a lot of time and also effort.

If needed a printed copy can still be obtain.

Most of the message will be short and will bedeleted after a few days.

Longer and more important ones mayberetained for a longer period.

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ADVANTAGES

High speed send/receive cycle. Direct input and retrieval from

keyboard.

Virtually instant dispatch/retrieval.

Simultaneous circulation to pre-selected groups.

Other files can be attached for easydownload.

Instant response can be sent.

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REMINDER!

Email maybe quick and

easy but do not forget therules in business writing.Do not use abbreviationsfor instance, BFN, PCM

etc

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REMINDER

Check the email address messagesare sent within a few seconds and itmight take days to receive an errormessage informing you.

Always write a subject heading - thisgive the recipient a good idea of thecontent of the message and makes it

easier for handling. Check the time easier to sort the

message chronologically.

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Keep caps lock off it indicates shoutingand look threatening.

Express yourself - emoticons can be

used to show your mood in your email. Greetings replace formal salutations

with something less formal for instance,Dear David, Hello David or David, also

do not use yours sincerely, replace it withregards or best wishes.

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Check your syntax keep sentenceshort and simple, the more effortuse in composing your message the

more successful you will be in beingunderstood.

Keep copies of your emails.

Check your message as soon asyou hit the send button, there is nocalling back.