Persuasive Writing Requires Style & Design

Alligator or Wolf?

When developing a print ad campaign for a Minnesota CPA firm that is trying to gain visibility in the Florida business community, would you choose an alligator or a wolf as the primary image?

Maybe neither. It depends on the message.

However, a wolf image in a Florida business magazine is unusual since they are rare in Florida.

This is called Visual Incongruity. “What is going on? I’m curious to take a closer look!”

The point here is that persuasive copywriting starts with the concept. Unless you take time to understand the buyer and know how to get the buyer’s attention, you can’t write persuasive copy.

Build Your Framework

Let’s break down the fundamentals of human persuasion that have led to our modern marketing communications theory of Emotion + Logic + Proof + Action. This theory was built upon Greek philosophy and enhanced by modern theorists such as David Ogilvy and Robert Cialdini.

Emotion – Trigger an emotional response from the viewer/buyer. This means that you appeal to the emotion of that buyer by understanding their social location, geographic location, expectations, fears or hopes.

To understand the buyer, conduct persona and market research or interview clients and prospects.

Logic – Once you have the buyer’s attention, appeal to their rational brain about their need or desire to justify an action. Share data on the consequences for people who choose or don’t choose to buy.

You can build your data through past client experiences and engagements, the positive outcomes from your solution and the timely current events that support it.

Proof – Continue to build trust by emphasizing why your solution or team are the best.

You can do this through videos, linked articles, the credentials of your team or other authoritative testimonials and statistics.

Action – All of this information is great, but you also must tell the buyer what to do once they’re convinced. Do they click, download, call, visit, explore, attend something?

Here is an example of this framework in an ad targeting small business owners:

It’s 11:42 PM.
You’re still thinking about cash flow.

When financials get harder to trust and harder to manage, owners call ABC Firm.

We help owners regain clarity, confidence, and control over their numbers.

“Within 90 days, we cut our close time in half and finally understood which clients were driving profit.”
 — Dave Weiland, Founder, 100-person manufacturing firm

• 37% improvement in cash flow visibility

• Close time reduced from 18 days to 9

• 20+ years of experience in manufacturing

Sleep better about your numbers.
Book a Financial Clarity Call [link]

Why visit this framework that everyone in marketing should already know?

Because humans make decisions with their emotions and justify with their logic.

Emotions begin with the eyes. Offer a captivating visual image or a pleasing layout. Use an emotionally engaging subject or headline. Start with the emotion you want to elicit and then move into the copywriting and structure of your message.

Pro Tip: Have your writer and designer work together on this emotional component, regardless of the marketing application. Prospects identify with images and visual elements much faster than words.

Engaging and Persuasive Writing Styles

Have you ever taken a poetry class? Techniques such as alliteration and genres such as haiku can support a more imaginative and persuasive style of writing. Once you have learned the rules of grammar and syntax, poetry invites you to break them and appeal to the emotions of the reader.

In our digital and voice-to-text world, brevity and abbreviation are also celebrated. These trends can influence our ability to get to the point while engaging and persuading our audience.

Here are some techniques for creating visual as well as persuasive interest in your writing.

1. Build Curiosity Through Information Gaps

Rather than giving readers the whole answer, share a breadcrumb that intrigues them to read more.

Example: Supply chains fail every time without this.

Behavioral Basis: Information Gap Theory, Lowenstein

2. Disrupt Autopilot Scanning by Varying Sentence Structure

Most people scan or read on autopilot. Break the rhythm and pattern of sentences to jolt them.

Example: Us. Tax Guidance. Happy You.

Behavioral Basis: Cognitive Schema Disruption, Berlyne

3. Use Familiar Analogies to Engage Emotional Interest

Put your reader into a universal scenario or familiar situation and compare it to your service offer or experience as a preferred outcome.

Example: Your audit never went this well.

Behavioral Basis: Conceptual Blending Theory, Fauconnier & Turner

4. Use a ‘Zeigarnik Hook’ for Emotional Tension

This technique, made popular by Bluma Zeigarnik, disrupts the reader by leaving a thought incomplete on the page.

Example: We didn’t realize how important this service was, until…

Behavioral Basis: Zeigarnik Effect, Zeigarnik

5. Empathy Flip for ‘You’ Writing

Too much marketing copy is still “I” focused when we know that putting ourselves in the buyer’s shoes is more persuasive. Make sure you understand the buyer’s perspective before trying this out.

Example: You’ve wasted hours exploring property accounting software with zero progress. Choose an ‘ok for now’ solution? Not an option.

Behavioral basis: Theory of Mind & Mirror Neurons, Gallese & Goldman

6. Loss Aversion Framing to Create Urgency

You can layer behavioral principles like loss aversion and urgency in your writing by sharing the unwanted results of a bad decision.

Example: Gambling is for casinos, not your tax return. Set up a planning appointment with us today.

Behavioral basis: Prospect Theory, Kahneman & Tversky

Let’s Practice!

Lay out your messaging. Use the persuasion framework and example provided at the beginning of this article as your outline. Emotion + Logic + Proof + Action

Use other writing techniques to capture attention such as:

• Varying sentence length
• Trying –ing verbs to disrupt flow and reduce resistance
• Contrast with short, punchy calls to action or statistics
• Bold a key sentence
• Interject a callout testimonial in a bigger font
• Try alliteration in your headline
• Offer a short analogy
• Read your copy out loud

Try these techniques for your next writing assignment. Share the results with a colleague. How did they respond? What worked and what needed more work?