Tips for becoming a persuasive content writer
As a content writer you need to persuade people with your writing. You wear multiple hats. Sometimes you inform with your content writing, and sometimes you persuade with your copywriting. When you are writing for the homepage of a website, you are persuading. When you are writing for a landing page, you need to persuade people to do business with your client.
How do you write persuasively?
Through persuasive writing you convince your readers. You draw inspiration from personal experiences, logical arguments and emotional appeals to leave an imprint on people’s psych. You don’t simply inform. You make an impact. You make people believe that what you are telling them is trustworthy and they can make a decision based on what you have written.
Is persuasive writing like copywriting?
To an extent it is. What is copywriting?
Copywriting is the text that appears in advertisements, email marketing campaigns, website homepage, social media advertisements, and landing pages. Many people define copywriting as the process of writing persuasive words to inspire or motivate people to take a specific action.
A copywriter does copywriting. Does it mean if you are writing persuasive content you are not merely being a content writer but a copywriter? It might be the case.
In terms of professional writing, as a copywriter or as a persuasive writer, your job is to make people buy. If you write copy for a website then that copy must prompt people to buy something, whether it is a product or a service. As an effective copywriter, if you can persuade people, you are successful.
Why should you be a persuasive content writer?
A content writer needs to achieve multiple objectives. He or she needs to improve search engine rankings. He or she needs to inform and educate people. Through persuasive writing, he or she also needs to convert casual visitors into interested visitors and interested visitors into paying customers and clients.
As a professional content writer, I often write for business websites. When you are writing for a business website you don’t simply present information in a dispassionate manner. You need to write persuasively. The purpose of writing on a website is to increase conversion rate as well as improve search engine rankings. There is a dual purpose.
But when you are writing for a website, more than search engine algorithms, you need to focus on people. How are they going to react when they read your copy? Are they going to fill up the contact form? Are you providing them all the information they need? Are you persuading them to take an action?
It is difficult for you to achieve all these unless you are a persuasive online copywriter.
A few writing tips to help you become a persuasive content writer
Learn to be repetitive without sounding repetitive
When you want to persuade people often you need to repeat your statements. But you can’t repeat the same sentence over and over. So, what do you do?
First you state a fact: our gadget works wonders with your productivity.
Then give a live example: give an example of how the gadget tremendously improves a particular task.
Then tell a story: talk about Peter who used the gadget and within two months got a promotion in his office due to the gadget.
You are saying the same thing again and again – how awesome the gadget is, but after the first time, you repeat the same statement through multiple means.
Learn to handle the “why” persuasively
Whenever you ask someone to do something, the first expression the person throws at you is “why?”.
Why should you hire my content writing services? Why should I be your copywriter? Why do you need quality content to improve your SEO?
You should hire my content writing services because…
The “because” statement must be powerful, convincing, and reassuring.
In a conversational manner try to answer all the “why” questions so that the person is convinced and takes the action that you want him or her to take.
Make use of ethos, pathos and logos for persuasive writing
If you want to make a compelling argument, use the rhetorical triangle ethos, pathos, and logos. These are modes of persuasion put forth by Aristotle in his treatise Rhetoric, more than 2000 years ago. Since then, they have become the core of modern persuasive writing.
Ethos stands for the values and the credibility that the writer represents. This enables a writer to make an emotional connection with the readers. Always have the readers’ best interest in your mind when writing. Be truthful to them. Present the information in a manner that helps them take an educated decision rather than simply leading them to clicking the “Buy” button. If you are truthful to them, if you establish your credibility, they will believe you.
Pathos means catering to emotions and feelings. In advertising, when people are writing, they want to cater to people’s emotional sides through a sense of jealousy, want, urgency, or need to do something, prestige, love for family, or a sense of insecurity. Are you not putting your family in financial jeopardy by not taking this insurance policy?
Logos means logic and reasoning. This is also called “the logical appeal”. You use statistics, citations, facts, statement from people you may trust, and charts and graphs.
Be consistent with your messaging
Sometimes there is a tendency to go astray when you are trying to pack too much information and trying too hard to persuade people. In the headline of the web page or the landing page you are writing, you create a sense of interest. You make a statement, or you make a promise.
Stick to that statement or promise in the first paragraph. Even the second paragraph. Third, fourth, fifth – no matter how long your copy is, appear consistent. Don’t sound unsure.
Compare with other products and services
Why is your product or service better than your competitors’? Yes, sometimes you cannot directly name your competitors, but you can compare your washing machine with another washing machine and explain to your readers why your washing machine fares a lot better.
For example, I can say that compared to other content writers, my content writing is conversational, and yet professional as well as search engine friendly. Very few content writers will tell you that they won’t be representing you, but your customers and clients. I often tell my clients that I will be advocating the cause of their customers and clients rather than theirs.
Use storytelling
Most of the buying decisions are emotional in nature. Through your persuasive writing you need to make an emotional connection with your readers and storytelling is the best way of doing it.
Facts and figures, no matter how impressive, cannot motivate people beyond a certain point. They need to be able to relate to your narrative. When you make people feel something you make a connection. Since time immemorial humans have been using storytelling to convey important information that needs to be retained.
Storytelling uses real people and seemingly real events to convey a message.
As I have explained above, it is better to understand how Peter got promoted after using a certain task management technology than simply laying down benefits and features. Through storytelling you can actually explain how Peter could use the features to improve his way of working.
In final remarks, when writing persuasively, appeal to the ego of the person. Convey authority. Speak in the language of the buyer. Put your point across through stories. Highlight benefits over features. Advocate the cause of the reader. Address every possible objection. Write for a single persona. Make sure every sentence encourages the reader to read the next sentence.
