Content Creations

Have you ever thought about the essence of writing? Probably not but I recently gave it a whirl. I came up with the theory that the foundation of writing is persuasion.

1. If you are a copywriter, your job is to persuade people to buy the products or services you are writing about.
2. If you are a fiction writer, you have to persuade people that the world you are describing is real.
3. If you are an educator, you want to persuade the reader that you or your version of the facts are right.
4. If you are a freelance writer, you want to persuade people that you are the best person for their writing assignment.

So for a professional writer persuasion is everything. In the next few posts I will to talk about what tactics are used to persuade people. If you want to read about the subject in more depth, Robert B Cialdini literally wrote the book on the subject.

Let’s start with Reciprocity, better known as “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”. People have been hard wired to return a favor in order to even the scales. You know the feeling you get when someone gives you a present but you don’t have one to give back? That is reciprocity urging you to do something for the person that gave you a present. That urge has no sense of proportion and salespeople take advantage of that fact.

For example, when you go to buy a car the salesperson will usually offer to add in some extras or take a little off the price. This “favor” will cost them a few hundred dollars at most. They do it to trigger the urge to reciprocate and you become much more likely to pay the 15,000 dollars for the car because you feel beholden to them for the favor.

You are probably wondering how this principle is used in writing. Well, it is most commonly used to promote your writing or your website. Many websites will offer a free Ebook or some kind of special offer but only if you register for their website. Most people don’t like giving websites their personal information but by doing you a favor, they engender loyalty and make you much more likely sign up.

This principle is employed hundreds of times a day to influence us in various ways. It is the reason that they put toys in Happy Meals and include a free vacation if you will just attend one short time share seminar.

Can you come up with more ways to use this premise in your writing? Tell me in the comments.