Content Enhancement Strategies for More Persuasive Writing

Content Enhancement Strategies for More Persuasive Writing

In the age of information overload, we all want our content to resonate with people. While you might have the best idea for a new book, business, or post, your passion and the impact that your idea carries boils down to how you communicate it. 

At Purposeful Prose, we aim to ensure that your writing best represents your intentions and reflects your message. In this post, we will discuss three specific techniques you can use

to convince your readers that you are worth their attention. 

Know Your Audience and Talk to Them in Their Terms

A writer who aims to persuade is highly audience-focused. The first step in making your writing effective is putting yourself in your audience’s shoes. When a customer walks into a store, the store usually has signs labeling the products or sales going on. Those signs are the expectations of the customer and how the store appeals to their audience, persuading them to purchase items. If you’re writing a book, your book isn’t a store, and the expectations of your audience are going to be different. Use those expectations to your advantage.

 If you own a business and are writing a book to support that business, you’ll want to know what problems your customers face and be focused on solutions. Someone writing a memoir might want to empathize, forming a connection with their readers through their story.

Don’t try to talk to everyone. Your audience will not be universal. Don’t try to pack more information in your book than you’re prepared to substantiate. 

As an exercise, try to focus on your ideal reader, and make the content speak directly to that one reader. When someone feels that you understand them, they will be more likely to listen to what you have to say.

Use Stories to Make Your Points

Remember, no matter how technical or serious the subject at hand is, people are still hardwired to respond to stories. When people care about who you are, they will care about your endeavors.

If you are writing a business piece, instead of writing down a list of benefits or features,

go back to those customer needs we were talking about. You might have a story about how your solutions have worked in the past or how certain features could benefit a customer in the future.

If you are writing a memoir, storytelling comes front and center. Significant parts of your life will become chapters in a book, given a clear and compelling emotional arc, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Again, this shouldn’t look like a list. Instead of just rehashing “this happened, and then this happened”, tell the story, and turn your information into narrative prose that readers will find informative and resonant.

Know When to Use Passive Voice and “To Be” Verbs

We often hear writers say that you should “write with authority,” but what does that

mean, and how do you do it? Your usage of active or passive voice will set the tone for what you are writing. If you aren’t confident in what you are writing, filler words become habitual.

“Is” and “are” are small, but essential words. Use them, but also take advantage of sentence structures that don’t use them.

Scan your sentences, and be ruthless in replacing weak verbs with more active, vivid language that will help paint a picture in your reader’s head. You’re being vulnerable, inviting your readers to experience and feel with you. You might not remember every physical description, but you’ll remember how you felt and how events in your life shaped you. Use specific, detailed language. 

While there are multiple tools that can empower you to catch yourself and revise, it can be difficult to step back and look at your work from an objective perspective. That’s where a good editor (again, an editor that fits you and your needs) comes in. To help you take your writing to the next level, Purposeful Prose offers a free consultation and a sample edit to those working with us for the first time. 

No matter what you’re writing, let us show you the power of an objective pair of eyes. Contact Purposeful Prose at www.purposefulprose.org today to find out more and get your free consultation!