Welcome to your first Magneto e-zine, designed to give you practical persuasive-writing tips you can implement NOW. We’ll help you get more people reading what you write, acting on your advice, and buying.

This edition’s “all about YOU,” which is the fundamental shift needed to get people interested in your writing in the first place.

Your Brain Food is served below – enjoy!

P.S. What's your biggest writing challenge? Click here to take our 1-minute (2-question) survey — we’ll share the results in our next e-zine.

P.P.S. For a real boost to your results, check out our writing masterclasses in Sydney and Melbourne in June 2006. Early-bird rate closes 12 May, so jump to it!

Scene: Typical workday, 11.30am.
Hero: You (of course).
Props: Keyboard, screen, fingers.
Task: Convince an important prospect to buy from you.
Aaaand...Action!

“Dear Prospect,

XYZ Widget Consulting Services is Australia’s best widget service provider, offering 5,490 different widgets...”

“CUT!!” [director glares at you]

Time for some off-camera coaching: Who is this letter to? [Hint: the prospect.]

Yet who is it about? YOU, not them. Big boo-boo, Boo-Boo.

The first step to influencing readers is to make your message all about THEM. Why? Because most of us are highly interested in...us!

To help make your message all about them, use the word “you” a lot. Apart from being engaging, it helps you include more benefits for them.

The American researcher Dr Rudolph Flesch (no relation to Hannibal Lecter) found people are more likely to read writing if it contains two or three times more instances of “you” and its variants (“your,” “yours,” etc, and the reader’s name), than references to the writer (“me,” “I,” “our,” “we,” etc, and the writer’s name).

It makes sense. If you met someone at a party who only rabbitted on about themselves, you’d exit stage left! So do the opposite, charm your readers, and they’ll keep reading.

If it’s “all about THEM” you’ll grow the relationship, and with it your business!

Tips are from persuasive business writing course, Write More Business. Public courses in June 2006 in Sydney and Melbourne (selling fast).

If you really want to get a handle on persuading others, Dr Robert Cialdini’s “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” is a must-read.

One story he tells highlights the importance of speaking directly to people to get their attention.

Dr Cialdini was in a bad car accident. Immediately afterwards, he was dazed and bloodied, and the other driver unconscious. But no one stopped to help. They thought someone else must already be helping.

Robert realised he needed to single people out to get them to act (which is what using “you” does in your writing). So, pointing directly at a man, he yelled, “You, sir, in the blue jacket, I need help. Call an ambulance,” and so on. They instantly swung into action, calling the ambulance and police, and helping the two victims.

Cialdini’s book is a fascinating insight into psychology that will help you at work and personally. His “weapons of influence” include Reciprocation, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Liking, Authority and Scarcity – all of which can be applied for powerful effect in your writing (naturally our Write More Business course explains how!).

More great learning ideas in our Knowledge Store. Cialdini’s book is available from good bookstores.

Magneto Communications Pty Ltd

Phone/fax 1300 658 580

Website: www.magneto.net.au
Comments? info@magneto.net.au


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