Persuasive texts: everything you need to know to learn how to write them
Today you will become a master of persuasive texts! Get comfortable because we will tell you everything you need to achieve it.
Persuasion is one of the most important communication skills for your personal and professional life. Great leaders in history have always known this, and that's why they dedicate long hours to strengthen this skill both in their written and oral speeches.
In this article, we will focus on explaining persuasive texts, their characteristics, and how to convince your reader using the power of words. Get ready to give a 180° turn to your writing skills! Start writing like a professional dissertation writer!
What are persuasive texts?
Before you start developing your persuasive writing skills, knowing exactly what persuasive texts are and how they differ from others is essential. How do you know how to identify this type of text?
The answer is simple: persuasive texts have an evident intention since they are composed in such a way that they exert a certain type of influence on their reader, inviting or even convincing him or her to assume some position, perform some action or simply think in a certain way.
When we are faced with a good persuasive text, it can be hard to resist thinking like the writer or performing the action he wants to achieve from us. That's his goal!
Now, how is this purpose achieved? Thanks to different persuasion strategies, which can range from argumentation that is, exposing reasons and motives aimed at defending a point of view, to seduction, which consists of appealing to emotions and sensations, that is, the less rational and logical part of our brain.
Persuasion is a basic skill among the world's most influential leaders. This ability has allowed them to influence others, either positively or negatively.
Ready to create your own persuasive copy? Let's see what the magic ingredients are to convince your reader.
What are the characteristics of persuasive texts?
Persuasive texts are composed of a number of key points that make them unique and differentiate them from other types of texts. Externally, they have the following characteristics:
Attractive beginning
Regardless of the medium, this type of text has a structure divided into different stages, characterized by an attractive beginning that serves as a hook to attract the reader. The beginning is always a key element in persuasive writing.
Verbal or iconic organization
Persuasive texts use two forms of expression to convince the reader: the verbal, characterized by short sentences, attractive phrases, and separation into paragraphs or columns; and the iconic, where images, tables, and graphs stand out, showing relevant data pointing to the visual.
Among the internal characteristics, we can highlight the following:
Argumentation-oriented strategy
Persuasive texts are a system of interrelated arguments aimed at convincing the reader to assume a position, think in a certain way, or perform an action.
Rational persuasion
With the aim of convincing, the writer presents the arguments clearly and objectively to achieve them through rationality. For this reason, they use data and information that confirms ideas. Do you remember that product you bought and didn't really need? Your purchase may have been the result of persuasion in marketing!
Emotional persuasion
As we said before, persuasive texts appeal to emotions and sensations, and to achieve this, and certain statements have been used that appeal to emotionality. They have an impact on the other person, such as associations with values, desires, and ideologies.
Linguistic resources
To achieve the communicative purpose, these texts have a very careful lexicon, syntax, and vocabulary, and the statements are used based on persuasive strategies, taking advantage of each style to emphasize certain points of the discourse.
What are persuasive texts used for?
There are some areas in which persuasive texts and speeches are essential. The characteristics of persuasive texts will vary depending on the motivation of our messages. Therefore, it is important to ask ourselves:
- Who do I want to convince?
- What do I want to achieve?
- Through what arguments and resources do I want to convince?
Knowing the answers to these questions is necessary to adapt correctly to the style required in each area and to develop the appropriate persuasion strategies. Persuasive texts are indispensable in the following areas:
Advertising campaigns or copywriting
In advertising, any persuasive text or speech seeks to make the receiver of the message perform an action with the advertised brand. For example:
- Buy a product.
- Participate in sweepstakes.
- Subscribe to the website.
- Schedule an appointment.
To achieve this purpose, it is common to resort to emotive language that aims to affect people's feelings and sensations, as seen in these 8 great examples of emotional marketing.
Communication: journalism and politics
Although journalism and politics have different purposes, the receiver is the same: the citizens. In this sense, political propaganda, after all, is nothing more than advertising about political parties, and here persuasion techniques are worth gold!
In this field, unlike the previous one, ideas and intangible imaginaries are sold, and in order to "buy" them, you have to vote. So persuasive texts in this area seek to influence ideologies and emotions to convince the reader.
Academic field
When it comes to expressing certain ideas, persuasive texts are very well adapted. The best example is essays, in which argumentation supports the idea to be developed. I bet you've had the chance to write one, haven't you?
In this way, academic texts make use of argumentative and rational language to influence the reader's ideas. We can see this represented in academic articles, indexed journals, and essays, among others. Although the persuasion strategies differ from the previous ones, the objective is to convince.
Negotiations
Many successful business deals start with a text. Large companies know this, which is why their sales team cannot lack people who have well-developed written and oral persuasion skills.
A simple email or LinkedIn message can be enough to convince a potential customer to know a product or service, or, on the contrary, it can make them decide to close the message at the first line and not to know more about it. How important it is to learn persuasion techniques!
How to write persuasive texts?
Now that we know what persuasive texts are and their characteristics, you are probably wondering: how do I write one of those? This is not over yet!
As promised, in this article, you will learn how to write persuasive texts, and for that, we will give you three fundamental questions to start with:
- How do I want my reader to FEEL?
- What do I want my reader to KNOW?
- What do I want my reader to DO?
Be very clear about your intentions. Detail the "effect" or "impact" you hope your text will have on the reader. Only then you will be able to start writing. Now we will give you a series of tips that will help you structure your persuasive texts:
Write titles that encourage further reading
Imagine this scenario that you surely experience every day: you do a Google search, and, as usual, you get several results. What makes you choose to read one over the other? That is probably the title! The importance of persuasion is reflected, even in the smallest thing.
Use the strength of the title to grab attention. Seduce with a benefit or promise. There is a scheme called AIDA with which you can better structure your persuasive texts. This acronym stands for:
- Attention
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
Put it to the test, and you will see how your persuasive texts will convince the reader in the blink of an eye!
Construct simple, short, and precise sentences of approximately 30 words.
If they have more, it is easy for the receiver to get tired and abandon the reading. Sentences of 10 words or less are easier to read. All good persuasive copy is clear, concise, and to the point without beating around the bush.
Write paragraphs with only one argument
We know you probably have many reasons to convince your reader. But have you ever heard the saying: "He who grasps too much grasps too little"? In persuasive texts, a lot of care is taken in the argumentation so as not to bore the reader or make him feel that you want to convince him at all costs.
Use action verbs instead of passive verbs
Using the active voice will help you be clearer about your intention. This way, you'll make it clear to your reader what you want them to do. "Log in to" and "Sign up for" are examples of action verbs.
Divide and conquer: number the points
Structuring your persuasive text with clear numbering and bullet points is key to making it easier for your reader to digest. Instead of absorbing a large amount of text, they will be able to remember each fragment better.
Be clear about the call to action and apply it
Remember that being clear about the intention of your text is essential to know how to develop it and, in this case, how to finish it. Do you want your reader to:
- contact you as soon as possible?
- keep you in mind for a future project?
- buy a product?
- make a donation?
- register for an event?
- fill out a questionnaire?
Analyze what your reader wants to do and link this intention to your final call to action. He won't be able to resist!
You now have the essential tools to write persuasive texts that will convince your reader and lead them to take the action you want. Are you ready to put your skills into practice?