How to use per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion in ad­ver­tis­ing

Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion is a form of in­ter­per­son­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion, just like verbal com­mu­ni­ca­tion and nonverbal com­mu­ni­ca­tion. The aim is to persuade the in­ter­locu­tor. When per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion is used correctly in marketing and ad­ver­tis­ing, it can appeal to new target groups and compel customers to purchase a product or service based on their opinions, feelings, and desires.

What is the de­f­i­n­i­tion of per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion?

Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion derives its name from the Latin word “per­suadere” and uses the art of per­sua­sion to com­mu­nica­tive­ly influence a person’s thinking, behavior, or attitudes. This result should illicit a par­tic­u­lar action or change an opinion.

Many people com­mu­ni­cate per­sua­sive­ly in private con­ver­sa­tions without realizing. Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion is con­scious­ly used as a rhetor­i­cal device in many other contexts, such as mass com­mu­ni­ca­tion, ad­ver­tis­ing, marketing, PR, sales pitches, and political com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion is ben­e­fi­cial when selling products online to sway visitors into buying your store’s products.

What are examples of per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion?

Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion uses a variety of rhetor­i­cal tech­niques. The following examples il­lus­trate the concept of per­sua­sion:

• Foot-in-the-door technique: This technique gets its name from door-to-door sales. A person asks for a small favor, which the other person cannot refuse. This gets your “foot in the door” and opens the dis­cus­sion for the actual, bigger favor. People will often agree to this to appear con­sis­tent.
• Door-in-the-face technique: This technique is the reverse form of the foot-in-the-door technique. A person begins with asking for a favor that is so big and out­ra­geous that it is sure to be refused. Then the person asks for the actual favor, which is sig­nif­i­cant­ly smaller. There is a good chance that the other person will agree to the smaller favor.

What are the goals of per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion?

Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion primarily aims to influence the target group. The other goals of per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion include:

• Raise brand awareness: Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion can be used to raise awareness of something, such as a product, idea, or topic.
• Change attitude or point of view: Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion can be used to change the other person’s attitude or point of view about a par­tic­u­lar product, idea, or topic.
• In­flu­enc­ing beliefs: Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion can be used to influence beliefs on a par­tic­u­lar topic.
• Change behavior: A customer’s behavior can also be in­flu­enced and even changed with per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion in marketing and ad­ver­tis­ing

Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion in ad­ver­tis­ing and marketing can leverage the interest of target groups or change their opinion on a product or brand, thereby pos­i­tive­ly in­flu­enc­ing the purchase decision. Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion can be used for con­ver­sion rate op­ti­miza­tion. The rhetor­i­cal tool can also increase existing customer’s loyalty to a brand and raise its profile. Per­sua­sive marketing and per­sua­sive ad­ver­tis­ing assume that people often act more emo­tion­al­ly than ra­tio­nal­ly. This leads customers to make their pur­chas­ing decisions based on feelings, pref­er­ences and beliefs that have been in­flu­enced by ad­ver­tis­ing and marketing messages.

Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion in marketing and ad­ver­tis­ing is not only about in­flu­enc­ing the actions of customers, but also their attitudes. The customer should feel like they have made the purchase decision them­selves. Most im­por­tant­ly, they should feel like that they have made the right decision with the purchase. Instead of focusing on the benefits of a product, per­sua­sive ad­ver­tis­ing tries to evoke an emotional response in customers by using their own feelings and emotions to build a positive as­so­ci­a­tion with the product.

The role that emotions play in a purchase decision and how they can be in­flu­enced is explored in neu­ro­mar­ket­ing. Per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion is also fre­quent­ly used in con­junc­tion with gender marketing. This involves tailoring per­sua­sive tech­niques to men or women when ap­pro­pri­ate.

Cat­e­gories of per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion in ad­ver­tis­ing and marketing

The per­sua­sive strate­gies, ethos (cred­i­bil­i­ty), logos (reason) and pathos (emotions), originate from ancient rhetoric theory. Per­sua­sive marketing utilizes these strate­gies in marketing and ad­ver­tis­ing tech­niques:

• Ethos: This category focuses on messages that are intended to convey cred­i­bil­i­ty and trust. This is similar to the halo effect in marketing. This usually involves an expert or well-known per­son­al­i­ty endorsing the product or brand. Customers consider the person to be trust­wor­thy and reliable due to their authority.
• Logos: Tech­niques in this category use logic, reason, and ra­tio­nal­i­ty to persuade customers. This type of per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion is based on data, facts, and sta­tis­tics. The goal in this case is to appeal to the mind and convince customers that a product or service is something special.
• Pathos: Customers are addressed on an emotional level in this category. These can be positive and negative emotions, which are intended to stimulate an action. Examples of pathos tech­niques include puppies, a loving mother with her child, a desperate family, or a terrible illness.

What are per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­niques in ad­ver­tis­ing?

There are several different tech­niques that can be used when im­ple­ment­ing per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion in marketing and ad­ver­tis­ing. These are often based on the principle of cognitive bias and aims to make customers believe the ad­ver­tis­ing message and compel them to buy a product or use a service, similar to the decoy effect and the anchor effect. The most important per­sua­sive ad­ver­tis­ing tech­niques are:

Carrot and stick

The principle of the carrot and stick technique assumes that people fun­da­men­tal­ly prefer rewards to pun­ish­ments. The carrot refers to the potential gain or advantage as­so­ci­at­ed with using a product, for example, the customer will have better skin after using the mois­tur­iz­er.

The stick refers to a potential loss or fear as­so­ci­at­ed with behaving a certain way and en­cour­ages customers to choose an al­ter­na­tive. For example, an ad­ver­tise­ment might highlight the increased like­li­hood of a burglary if customers do not purchase a par­tic­u­lar home alarm system. Anti-smoking campaigns are another example of the carrot and stick technique.

Principle of scarcity

The principle of scarcity assumes that people value things that are in limited supply or which not everyone can own. This instills a feeling of power and boosts self-esteem. Certain words and phrases, such as “exclusive offer” or “limited avail­abil­i­ty”, can increase the perceived scarcity and evoke a sense of urgency. This pos­i­tive­ly in­flu­ences the purchase decision by in­creas­ing customer demand, similar to the loss aversion principle.

One message per display

Using a single message can im­me­di­ate­ly engage customers and convince them to read the rest of the ad. Drawing attention to the main benefit or feature of the product makes it easier for the customer base to see value in the product. In addition, the like­li­hood of closing a sale increases because the main message is stating that the product will improve customers’ lives.

Writing in the second person

Using “you” and “your” pronouns is another per­sua­sive ad­ver­tis­ing technique. It connects with potential customers on a more personal level. It can be used to attract attention and help in­di­vid­u­als envision a future where a product or service improves their lives.

Control

The need for control is a bi­o­log­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal necessity, i.e., people need to feel that they are in control of their own lives. When customers read or see ad­ver­tise­ments, they should feel they have the choice between buying the ad­ver­tised product or a different product. However, if they feel they are being pressured into buying a product, they are likely to react badly and reject the message.

Call-to-value

While call-to-actions are crucial for getting potential customers to take the next step, they don’t always convince skeptical customers to act. A call-to-value can be useful in this case. This technique focuses on conveying the value or benefit of taking the next step to the user. Examples of call-to-value include “Subscribe to our newslet­ter and get exclusive expert tips” or “Become a member and get instant access to our high-quality content and offers”.

Bandwagon effect

The bandwagon effect is also a popular per­sua­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion technique in marketing. This exploits the fact that people tend to follow the crowd rather than con­sid­er­ing their own opinion. The bandwagon effect leads to an already popular and trendy brand becoming even more popular. This can be re­in­forced by word-of-mouth marketing.