Category Archives: Persuasion
Many Roads Lead to "Yes"
June 18, 2009
Last year, The Editorial Advantage took a long look at Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, with posts on scarcity, keeping it simple, calling attention to your faults to get your audience to invest in your strengths, and priming your audience for a large request by first making a small one.
We were pleased, [...]
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Must Winners Really Take All?
June 1, 2009
You can skip this if you’ve read the book Nudge and you’re already incensed about the proliferating “most popular” lists on the Web.
But maybe you want your organization to present “most popular” information in a positive way and need some more ammunition. Carl Bialik, “The Numbers Guy” of The Wall Street Journal, recently slammed the [...]
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Now for Something Completely Different
December 26, 2008
When it comes to persuasion, Robert Cialdini has no illusions. That’s why everyone in publications should pay attention to his work. We recently wrote about Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion. Now this, from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
It’s called the contrast principle, and it’s frighteningly simple. If two things are presented [...]
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A Road Map to Common Ground, Part 2
June 17, 2008
Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read a book on the subject from the Harvard Business Press, Persuading People by Harry Mills. The book is meant for oral presentations, but it applies just as well to written persuasion.
As discussed in the last post, Mills suggests different approaches to persuasion depending on the audience’s [...]
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A Road Map to Common Ground
June 14, 2008
Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read a book on the subject from the Harvard Business Press, Persuading People by Harry Mills. The book is meant for oral presentations, but it applies just as well to written persuasion.
What does it take to persuade an audience? Among other things, Mills says, it requires that [...]
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Four Steps to a Unique Value Proposition
June 12, 2008
Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read a book on the subject from the Harvard Business Press, Persuading People by Harry Mills. The book is meant for oral presentations, but it applies just as well to written persuasion.
Most developers of persuasive communications appreciate the difference between features—what a thing consists of or how [...]
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How to Get Givers to Keep on Giving
June 6, 2008
I just led a Birthright tour to Israel, and I learned a few useful things about keeping short-lived groups loyal to the cause.
Birthright provides a free peer group educational trip to Israel for Jewish young adults ages 18-26 who have never participated in a peer group program. The program’s purpose is to strengthen participants’ Jewish [...]
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More Reasons to Keep It Simple
March 30, 2008
Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read an excellent book on the subject, Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, so far distributed only in the United Kingdom. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some of its insights with you.
Successful persuasion requires your audience to perform some mental work: to [...]
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Nobody’s Perfect
March 21, 2008
Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read an excellent book on the subject, Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, so far distributed only in the United Kingdom. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some of its insights with you.
How can you get your audience to trust in your strengths? [...]
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The Value of Thank-You Notes