Persuasive Marketing
Part 1

Remember your parents' or grandparents' response when you begged for that one “perfect” baseball bat, pair of hip shoes or cool sweater that you HAD to have? You asserted, “I HAVE to have that!” They responded with, “You don’t have to have it, you want it.” Does that conversation seem familiar? What a lesson in persuasive marketing! We can all think of a time when marketing created an urgency of need rather than want by tapping into our emotions.

Effective marketing is ultimately, persuasive marketing. Marketers want to gain your trust, provide you with important information and evoke emotion that motivates you to purchase. The following is the foundation of a marketing program that persuades potential customers to purchase your products or services:

Establish Credibility
The source of information must be above all, credible. Straight forward and clear information from reliable sources establishes credibility and helps readers to believe the marketing message.

Credibility of the source of information is key for persuasive marketing to be successful.

Create Effective Content and Message
The message is based on a positioning statement, planned strategy and evidence to support the message. This is the traditional approach used for marketing writing and communications. The message content and information address the cerebral cortex of the brain to persuade.

A good marketing message provides persuasive data which allows readers to analyze and compare information. Readers usually then determine some decisions or perception (about the product or service), while storing the information.

Appeal to Emotions

Whether it is cultural, psychological, sociological, economical or historical, persuasive marketing must stimulate psychological associations for potential customers. When someone’s emotion is piqued, you have their attention. In the world of marketing, emotions are many times the final decision maker and thus rule purchases.

In order to appeal to a potential customer’s emotion, the marketing message must click with the customer and allow them to create positive associations with your product or service.

This article will be continued in the next edition of the marketing minute, same marketing time, same public relations channel.