Want to make your writing more persuasive?  Taking a few final steps after drafting your persuasive writing will make a big difference in how effective it is. Apply these simple tips to make your writing more persuasive – whether you are writing a brochure, website copy, a speech or an email.

  1. Persuasive writing is simple and easy to understand.

Using complicated words, technical jargon and corporate buzzwords will make your persuasive writing more difficult to read. As a result, fewer people will want to read what you have written and those who do read it might not be able to understand it. In order to make your persuasive writing more effective, start by using the simplest words possible, remove technical jargon, if your target readers won’t understand it, and get rid of corporate buzzwords. For more details, read our post on Using Simple Words.

  1. Persuasive writing contains short and simple sentences.

Research shows that long and complicated sentences are more difficult to read and understand. If your persuasive writing includes many sentences longer than 35 words, edit them to make them shorter. An effective way to begin shortening your sentences is to look for conjunctions — such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘however’, ‘yet’ and ‘so’. Often, a good point to break up a sentence in your persuasive writing to make it smaller is when you use a conjunction. For more information and examples, go to Copywriting Basics – Aim for a Short Average Sentence Length. 

  1. Persuasive writing focuses on your readers.

Persuasive writing involves getting your readers involved, so ‘speak’ to them directly by using the word ‘you’. Let’s look at the following two contrasting examples:

We ensure our clients get the most competitive carrier costs along with cutting-edge service levels. As Australia’s first wholly integrated carrier management service, FreightWorks gets our clients’ freight delivered better, faster and cheaper.

We ensure you get the most competitive carrier costs along with cutting-edge service levels. As Australia’s first wholly integrated carrier management service, FreightWorks gets your freight delivered better, faster and cheaper.

Changing ‘our clients’ to ‘you’ and ‘your’ addresses the reader directly and makes your writing more persuasive. To learn more about customer-focused copy, go to What Many Advertising Agencies Don’t Know about Copywriting.

This persuasive writing tip applies to websites, brochures and other formats that directly address your readers.  However, it would not apply to writing proposals, reports or other formal business documents.

  1. Persuasive writing is free from grammatical and typographical errors.

A key element of persuasive writing is building trust and credibility. It’s a simple fact that spelling mistakes and grammatical errors will lower your image in the eyes of your readers. As a result, your writing won’t be a persuasive. For example, UK entrepreneur Charles Duncombe found that his online sales per site visitor doubled after correcting spelling mistakes. His experience was published in a BBC article.

Similarly, other research showed that 59% of online shoppers said they would not purchase from a website with poor spelling and grammar.

Regardless of the type of business you are in, persuasive writing can play an important role in building your credibility and making more sales. By following the simple steps outlined in this article, you can boost the effectiveness of your writing.

Michael Gladkoff