Writing is a big part of every student’s life. Whether you are studying literature, history, or any other subject, rest assured that you will face tons of written assignments on your academic path. And business students are not an exception.
In business courses, writing plays not only an educational but also a practical role. The thing is that all specialists in this field, from managers to entrepreneurs themselves, have to communicate a lot with different people and, often, this communication takes place in a written form. Therefore, mastering the art of persuasive business writing is a MUST for future success. So, don’t be surprised when you are assigned dozens of papers while acquiring your degree.
Okay, that’s clear, but how can one handle this challenge? An easy way to deal with such assignments in college is to get professional help. Students can pay for papers through trusted services and, thus, save lots of their time and receive high grades. This is a good solution for keeping your performance high. Still, even if you delegate your schoolwork, you will have to study the basics of business communication. So, let us give you an introduction to this topic!
The Role of Persuasion in Business Communication
Business communication can have many shapes and kinds. Whether it means having a discussion with customers, prospects, partners, investors, or employees, it plays a massive role in the success of every organization. And, persuasion is one of the keys to success in any dialogue.
The ability to convince someone of the validity of your ideas or point of view, make someone change their opinions about something, or resolve disputes – are just a few of the many uses of persuasion in corporate communication. There are many other uses too. But, the main point is that building any relationships in the world of commerce requires you to be convincing. Thus, persuasion plays a huge role.
Types of Persuasive Writing in Business
Now that you know that persuasive writing plays a huge role in the corporate world, you might be wondering what specific examples of such communication are. Let’s look at some of the most common examples:
- Business Case Analysis is a tool entrepreneurs use to assess potential decisions. In the corporate world, it is used to provide a best-value analysis that studies different quantifiable and non-quantifiable factors of a particular decision.
- Industry Analysis is used to analyze and assess a particular market. It is used by companies to understand the dynamics, competitiveness, and other features of a particular industry. For example, such an analysis can be used before entering a new market.
- Claim Letter states an existing problem with a service or product. Simply put, it can also be considered a letter of complaint. Typically, such letters are sent by customers to product or service providers.
- Business Brief is basically used to urge a decision-maker to address an existing problem or situation faster. It is used to provide the decision-maker with all the details they need to know before addressing the issue.
- Memo (or memorandum) is a form of writing used to inform someone within a particular company about something of immediate importance.
These are just a few of the many examples of business communication. As you can easily say from their descriptions, they all are used to deliver information on an existing situation, problem, etc. Therefore, each of these types of writing must be informative. But, at the same time, they must be persuasive too.
Whether it is a memo, claim letter, or any other form of appeal, it has to be supported with strong evidence and logic.
5 Secrets of Persuasive Business Communication
Now that you know a bit more about the importance of persuasion in business writing, let’s move to the practical part of this guide. Be it for writing proposals, documents, or other types of business communication, the five tips provided below will help you be as persuasive as possible.
Understand Your Audience
Whenever you want to convince someone of something, you have to know who you are appealing to. Otherwise, all your attempts will fail. So, the first secret to success is to always know your audience.
If you know who you are trying to reach, it will be easier to identify the right approach. Apart from this, to be as convincing as possible, you also want to know the key pain points, needs, and motivations of your audience.
Define Your Purpose
The second key to success is to always know the purpose of your communication. You might be striving to win new investors, make a partnership, solve a problem, etc. Understanding the specific goal for each piece of writing is the solution to attaining it.
Build Trust
In the corporate world, trustworthiness is one of the most vital things to make people want to listen and hear you. So, it plays a huge role in business communication too. Thus, whenever you want to reach someone and convince them of something, you want to establish trust and credibility first.
How can you do this? First of all, work on your image. Secondly, if you are connecting with someone who doesn’t know you or your company yet, be sure to state what makes you qualified to talk about a specific subject.
Address the Interests and Objections of Your Readers
In business or any other type of writing, the first goal you need to accomplish is to hook your audience. Until you do this, it would be impossible to convince them of anything. So, if you want to master the art of persuasive communication, you have to learn how to address your audience’s interests and objections first.
That’s where a thorough understanding of your audience will come in handy. Define what your readers are interested in and what objections they might have against what you are trying to prove. Address these things accordingly in your appeal, and you will hook them!
Combine the Appeals
When it comes to persuasive writing, there are three most common appeals that you can make to achieve your goals. These include appeals to:
- Emotion. A method of persuading someone through tapping into something that makes them emotional. Some of the common tactics used for this include using exaggerations, hyperbole, flattery, and adding personal touches.
- Authority. Another common persuasion trick is highlighting the authority of the writer in order to make the readers trust his opinion. Some examples of such appeal include highlighting one’s credibility and qualifications, boasting influencer partnerships, showing reviews, etc.
- Logic. Finally, one more way to convince your audience of something is to appeal to their logic. For example, you can do this by providing reasonable arguments, verifiable facts, and factual statistics that support your claims.
Now, while you could certainly rely on only one type of appeal, it will be much more effective to combine them. For example, you can make your readers emotional about the subject and then resort to reasoning and logic to confirm your statements.
These were some of the key secrets to convincing anyone through business writing. As you see, it’s quite straightforward and you don’t necessarily need to read a book before starting. Gather your confidence and start! Hopefully, this introduction to business communication will help you master this art and ensure success both in college and in the future!
