Persuasion - Understanding Persuasion

Understanding Persuasion
from https://homepages.wmich.edu/~bowman/c4dframe.html

Of all aspects of business communication, persuasion is perhaps the most studied and the least understood. From Aristotle until today, persuasion has been the focus of tremendous interest and study because it plays such a central role in life. We would all like to have the power to persuade others to buy from us rather than the competition, to see one movie rather than another, to help us fix our car, and to accept our proposals rather than those of others.Persuasion is not simple, and we should be grateful that it is not. Can you imagine a world in which someone had so mastered persuasive techniques that he or she could talk anybody into anything? Fortunately, most people resist persuasive messages most of the time. Also fortunately, each persuasive message must compete with a number of other messages for alternative products, services, and ideas. For this reason, persuasive messages work best when they meet the preexisting needs of the audience.

The Nature of Persuasion

All communication is persuasive to the extent that it attempts to influence behavior and thinking. In business communication, along with whatever else we are communicating, we are attempting to sell a favorable image of ourselves or our organization, and most business messages contain persuasive elements even if persuasion is not their principal objective. Messages designed to convey positive or negative information, for example, often succeed best when they contain appropriate resale or new sales material.In terms of structure and content, a message is considered persuasive when its primary objective is to sell a product, service, idea, or course of action when that reader may ignore or resist the message. All persuasion involves a shift in the receiver’s perceptual frame. Successful persuasion convinces the reader to view the product, service, or idea in a new way and to act on that new perspective. Before you can ask your reader to take a particular action, you must convince him or her that your message has something worthwhile to offer—a benefit—and that what you say is true. Furthermore, you must achieve these objectives in spite of the fact that your reader may suspect that all persuasive messages—yours included—are untruthful to some degree.
The most successful persuasive messages are those that offer the audience real benefits or other helpful information. The more the reader has to gain, the easier it is to prepare a persuasive message.

Reader Resistance and Appeals

The three most important factors that will influence the degree to which your readers will resist or welcome your persuasive message are your credibility, their degree of interest in the subject of your message, and the content of your message.Credibility.
Your ability to persuade will depend heavily on whether the reader perceives you as authoritative and honest. Many TV ads use sports figures to advertise products in the hope that the figure’s success in sports will carry over and convince viewers that the person knows a lot about how to treat painful injuries or select comfortable underwear. There are four basic kinds of credibility:

Long-term credibility:  You are a well-known authority, and you have always been honest before.Short-term credibility:  You offer facts and figures to prove that you are an expert, and your evidence is sound (logical).
Carry-over credibility:  You know a lot about one subject and have been honest about it, so you will probably be honest about a new subject, too.
Official credibility:  Your particular position or office shows that you should be credible.

It is an unfortunate fact of modern life that people have become accustomed to being lied to. No group—including business leaders, politicians, military leaders, teachers, doctors, the press, scientists and even rabbis, ministers, and priests—has consistently demonstrated that it deserves to be afforded high credibility. The public lacks trust because members of these groups have provided false information in the past, covered up mistakes, and otherwise misled people who relied on them.
Because credibility is currently in such short supply, it may well be the single most important factor in persuasion, and the single most important factor in credibility is character. Fortunately, you have almost absolute control over your character: If you want to be believed, do not lie, withhold important information, or otherwise mislead those who look to you as an authoritative source of information.
First, be sure that you are authoritative. Your expertise, or knowledge of a particular subject, plays an important role in whether you are perceived as credible. Make sure that you know your subject, product, or service thoroughly, and admit it when you don’t know something. No one expects even an expert to know everything. When you need additional time to answer a question, say so, and then follow through.
Second, you will also be perceived as more credible if you are friendly, warm, and open. Indeed, in the short term, the audience’s perception of your credibility may hinge more on your attitude of friendliness and openness than it does on your actual record of expertise and honesty. Remember, however, that the opposite is true for long-term credibility. That will depend on a consistent record of honesty.
Reader Interest:
You cannot expect someone who has no interest in your subject to be persuaded by even a first-rate message. Direct-mail advertising—persuasive messages sent to groups of people who theoretically have a lot in common—typically has a success rate of less than 10 percent; fewer than 10 out of every hundred people who read them have sufficient interest in the product or service to feel motivated to buy. Not all people find the same appeals equally persuasive. More so than other messages, a persuasive message prompts the reader to ask, “How will this message benefit me?” You will need to provide an answer to that question quickly, interestingly, and believably if you are going to overcome your reader’s natural resistance to being persuaded. Such resistance may be caused by one or more of the following factors:

1. Negative previous experience.  Your reader may have had a bad experience with you, your idea, your company, a similar product or service, or with other persuasive messages.
2. Time.  Your reader may not wish to take the time to read your message, or your message may require the reader to spend time in a way he or she would not normally choose.
3. Money.  Acting on your suggestion may cost the reader (or the reader’s organization) money that the reader would rather spend in some other way.
4. Belief systems.  Your reader may hold beliefs incompatible with the action you desire him or her to perform. People are not easily persuaded to change their religious beliefs, for example.

Unless your readers have had a definite positive experience with the suggested behavior, they will be inclined to focus on the negative aspects and the associated costs. To overcome the reader’s tendency to accept the negative in the absence of a strong belief in the positive, you will need to appeal to the reader’s self-interests. You need to convince your reader that the action you are suggesting will prove desirable and will be more beneficial than the many other ways that the readers’ time or money could be spent.

Appeals and Motivation

In general, people do things either because they desire a particular outcome sufficiently to spend time or money to achieve it, or they wish to avoid the consequences of not acting enough to spend time or money. Basically, people are willing to invest time or money to gain pleasure or to avoid pain. Appeals to what can be gained are often more effective than to appeals to the negative consequences of not acting. For a negative appeal to be successful, the reader must be convinced of both the likelihood of loss and of its proximity.Using negative appeals to persuade people to stop smoking, for example, has not been especially successful because people tend to think that the negative consequences of smoking will not apply to them, that they will be one of the exceptions, and that, even if the negative consequences do apply to them, it will be many years in the future before they will need to worry.
Another factor to consider in the persuasive process is the difference between your reader’s current situation, perspective, and beliefs and the situation, perspective, and beliefs you would like to persuade him or her to have. The greater that difference, the more difficult the persuasive task. The more expensive the product or service, the more deeply held the conviction, the more effort usually required to persuade the reader to act, whether that action is placing an order or adopting a new belief. Buying a house and buying a pack of gum are both purchasing decisions, but the energy required to make the one decision greatly outweighs that expended on the other.

Categories of Appeals

The general categories to which virtually all people respond are health, wealth, pleasure, and curiosity. Will your product or service help the reader be healthier or avoid illness? Can you help the reader gain wealth (measured by time, money, or anything symbolic of either) or protect current wealth? Can you help the reader gain pleasure or help him or her avoid losing pleasures he or she is now enjoying? Can you satisfy the reader’s intellectual curiosity?These categories correspond roughly with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and are also somewhat hierarchical. Abraham H. Maslow (Motivation and personality, 2d ed., New York: Harper & Row, 1970, pp. 35-58) hypothesized that human needs fall into five categories.

1. Physiological needs:  Food, water, air, sleep, shelter, and other requirements for sustaining life.
2. Safety and security needs:  Protection from physical and psychological injury.
3. Social needs:  Relationships with others, human affection and acceptance, and group membership.
4. Ego needs:  Self-esteem and recognition from others.
5. Self-actualization needs:  The desire to become all that one is capable of becoming.

Maslow’s theory was that we satisfy the basic (lower-level) needs, for safety and security and social needs first, and then we turn our attention to satisfying the higher-level needs. Although recent studies have shown that Maslow was not entirely correct, the theory of a hierarchy of needs does help explain why people may or may not respond to a particular persuasive message. Because the basic needs contribute directly to survival, people desire to have them satisfied all the time.
If you can demonstrate that your product or service is able to satisfy a basic need, your message will appeal to a larger audience than it will if you are appealing to a higher-level need. Also, if you can show that you can satisfy several needs at the same time, your message will have a greater chance for success.
Appeals to health and wealth (when believable) will appeal to larger numbers of people more strongly than appeals to pleasure or curiosity. A number of recent polls have indicated, for example, that people are more willing to spend tax dollars on new prisons (an appeal to safety—a negative appeal to both health and wealth) than they are on education (a positive appeal to pleasure and curiosity).
You must begin, however, by selecting your appeals from the standpoint of what the suggested behavior, idea, or product will do for someone rather than by examining the full range of human needs. Begin by asking yourself how the behavior, idea, product, or service will contribute to the reader’s health, wealth, pleasure, or curiosity. Your appeals may be either positive or negative.
Positive appeals focus on what the reader will gain by taking a particular action. Negative appeals focus on avoiding a loss. Positive and negative appeals correspond with the polarities of the direction metaprogram. For more information on the direction metaprogram, see the section on metaprograms in Relationships and Rapport.

	Health	Wealth	Pleasure	Curiosity
Positive	Acting will make your reader feel better or live longer.	Acting will help your reader earn or save money or time.	Acting will make the reader think better of him- or herself, or the reader will enjoy acting.	Acting will answer questions the reader would like answered.
Negative	Not acting will make your reader feel worse or die sooner.	Not acting will cost your reader time or money.	Not acting will deprive the reader of enjoyment or make the reader think worse of him- or herself.	Not acting will leave important questions unanswered.

Appeals may also be either emotional or rational, depending on whether they appeal primarily to the reader’s emotions or reason. Emotional appeals rely on feelings and presuppositions rather than on logic, whereas rational appeals attempt to be objective in evaluating the evidence available. Emotional appeals may use emotionally charged labels; use explicit and implied analogies as proof; omit or distort logical, objective evidence; and use sensory-based vocabulary.

1. Emotional:   Smoking should be illegal because smokers not only pollute the air others must breathe with noxious fumes and rotten breath, but also because they create mountains of disgusting litter by dropping their cigarette trash everywhere they go.Rational:   Smoking in public should be illegal because nonsmokers are exposed to the unwanted effects of second-hand smoke.
   
2. Emotional:   Just as vitamin C works from within to protect you from catching colds, IQ-mite provides your brain with more of the essential nutrients for learning.Rational:   Just as your body requires a variety of vitamins and minerals for good health, your brain also requires a variety of nutrients. IQ-mite provides the essential nutrients for the health of your brain.
   
3. Emotional:   You can quit wasting precious fuel and polluting the air by switching to modern, pollution-free electric heat.Rational:   An all-electric home gives you clean, efficient heating.
   
4. Emotional:   If you are busy and have a full schedule, it’s probably hard for people to get hold of you. So you have two choices. You can become a hermit and camp by your telephone. Or you can get yourself a Code-a-phone.Rational:   Busy people are sometimes hard to reach. Code-a-phone can help make sure you receive your important calls, regardless of where you are when people call.

Emotional appeals tend to manipulate the reader’s feelings. In some cases, such manipulation may be unethical. In other cases, emotional appeals are the only appeal possible. Why eat at one restaurant rather than another? Chew one brand of gum rather than another? Attend one movie rather than another? People do many things for emotional satisfaction. People eat cheeseburgers and french fries because they like the taste and not because they have a logical reason for it.
Emotional appeals become manipulative when the decision is so important that it should receive careful, objective consideration (important health issues, major purchases, and other major life decisions). Regardless of whether a decision should have a logical foundation, however, emotion always plays a role in the decision-making process. People don’t buy one house rather than another only because it seems a better investment. They also consider the feel of the house based on a variety of intangible, emotional factors.
For this reason, persuasive messages are typically most successful when they appeal to whatever logical, objective evidence is available and include appropriate emotional appeals. Regardless of the logic of your message, the final component in the decision-making process is always a feeling—people act because doing sofeels right.

Types of Persuasive Messages: Solicited or Unsolicited

How a persuasive message is handled also depends on whether it was solicited. Solicited persuasive messages are those responding to a reader’s request for information. If I write to your organization and request information about your products or services, I have essentially invited you to send me sales material and will be expecting it. On the other hand, if you have simply decided to purchase a mailing list and send an unsolicited persuasive letter (a piece of direct-mail advertising) to everyone on that list, you would need to use a different strategy.Rapport is easier to achieve when you are sending a solicited persuasive message than when you are sending an unsolicited message. As with positive replies to requests, solicited sales letters may use answers to the reader’s questions to help establish rapport. Unsolicited sales letters need to capture the reader’s imagination by using an appeal designed for a particular audience (men, women, home owners, automobile owners, subscribers to a specific kind of magazine, and so on).
Because unsolicited sales letters are typically prepared as forms for mass mailings to large numbers of people, they typically use a headline and simulated inside address to catch the reader’s attention while maintaining a fairly traditional letter format.
Unsolicited sales letters also try to create visual interest by using color, changing the width of paragraphs, using numbered and unnumbered lists, and adding graphics to break up the text. Also, because people frequently quit reading at the end of the first page, unsolicited sales letters often include a lead to the second page to help encourage the reader to continue.
Unsolicited sales letters also typically include a postscript that provides the reader with an additional benefit or some kind of increased value for acting promptly. In business letters, postscripts have only two legitimate functions: The first is to add a personal note to a business letter. Such notes must, in fact, be personal, and they are often handwritten. Their second legitimate use is to add a benefit to an unsolicited sales letter. In other letters, a postscript suggests bad planning.
The persuasive process has often been viewed as a four-step process, known either as the Four Ps of Persuasion or AICA or AIDA.

Four Ps	AICA/AIDA
Promise	Attention
Picture	Interest
Prove	Conviction/Desire
Push	Action

Either of these ways of viewing the process of persuasion fits nicely with the standard structure for all effective communication: Pace, Lead, Blend Outcomes, andMotivate.
Pace
What exactly do you want your reader to do, think, or believe, and what is he or she currently doing, thinking, or believing? You can catch your reader’s attention and establish rapport by promising something your reader desires or wishes to avoid.

• Either Model A or Model B would meet your needs for a reliable XYZ, Mr. Smith. [In a solicited sales letter.]
• Why pay high monthly fees for cable service when you can enjoy better reception and more channels with one of our low-cost satellite dishes? [In an unsolicited sales letter.]
• If your home were destroyed by fire or a natural disaster, would your insurance completely cover your loss? If you’re like most people, the answer is no. [In an unsolicited sales letter.]

Lead
After catching the reader’s attention by promising a benefit (or the possibility of avoiding a loss), maintain his or her interest by creating a believable picture—a mental image—of the reader enjoying the benefit or avoiding the loss.

• Both Model A and Model B come with the most popular word processing, spreadsheet, and database software already installed, so you can be working on your important projects in less than an hour after your new system arrives.
• Unlike the large, unsightly satellite dishes you have seen cluttering people’s yards, the XYZ dish is a mere 2 feet diameter and mounts on your roof, where it will be virtually invisible to you and your neighbors.
• The homes in your area have increased in value by more than 600 percent since they were originally constructed in the 1960’s, and the chances are that your insurance policy has not kept pace with your home’s increase in value.

Blend Outcomes
In persuasive situations in particular, be aware that you have a vested interest in what the reader does. For this reason, be especially careful to recognize that the reader also has an interest in the outcome. As the one doing the persuading—as a salesperson—one of your jobs is to help your reader make good decisions.
That requires that you honestly assess whether the decision that would be best for you is also the decision that would be best for your reader. Can your reader really afford the product or service you are selling? Is your product or service well-suited for meeting your reader’s needs?
In general, ethical answers to such questions will serve you in the long run. If decisions prove less than good for those doing business with you, they will experience what is commonly known as buyer’s remorse. Unhappy customers complain, may demand their money back, and they certainly will tell others.

• Because you indicated that your primary use of the computer system will be word processing, I recommend the Model B. It does not have the math co-processor that is standard in Model A, which is important only for those whose work includes a lot of mathematical calculations.
• The enclosed comparison chart shows you just how much more service you can receive with the XYZ Satellite System than you are currently receiving with cable—and how much money you can save.
• Check your current policy to see whether it covers the full replacement value of your home and your possessions. How much would you have to pay, for example, to replace your furniture at today’s higher prices? Does your current policy provide that kind of coverage, or does it allow for reimbursement at purchase price only—or perhaps even depreciate the value of possessions that you would need to replace in the case of fire, theft, or natural disaster?

Motivate
The action you request, the push you give your reader, will depend on the kind of product, service, or idea you are selling. When your product, service, or idea requires a major change or commitment on the part of the other person, you will generally be more successful if you ask him or her to take small steps in the direction you want him or her to go rather than asking for a major commitment all at once.
Whatever action you are requesting, make the action clear and as easy as possible (include a form, reply card, or toll-free number), and encourage the reader to take some action quickly, even if only to request more information.

• To order either Model A or Model B, or to ask any additional questions you may have, please call me at 800/555-5555.
• To see for yourself the excellent reception and wide variety of options you can receive with the XYZ Satellite System, visit our showroom at 101 Washington Avenue in downtown Gradula.
• After you’ve had a chance to review your current policy, give me a call to see how little it will cost to have the full coverage that will give you peace of mind about the safety of your investment in your home.

Presuppositions will work either for you or against you. There are no neutral presuppositions when it comes to motivating the reader to act. Use presuppositions to encourage your reader to act in the way you desire, but avoid presupposing that your reader has no other options because readers are well-aware that they do.

Not this:  If you would like to order. . . . [Presupposes that the reader might not want to order.]Not this:  Why not place your order today? [Presupposes that the reader might not want to order.]
Not this:  Because you can’t afford to miss this opportunity, I am sending you an XYZ today. When the carrier arrives, simply give the driver your check for $129.95. I’m sure you’ll agree that it was well worth it. [Presupposes that the reader has no choice but to purchase the product from you.]
Say this:  To order. . . . [Presupposes that the reader will order.]
Or this:   When you place your order by 1 September, you will also receive. . . . [Presupposes that the reader will order.]

Message Development

Persuasion is a complex process. Communicating clearly and presenting a definite reader benefit are not in themselves always sufficient to persuade a reader to change his or her behavior. Successful persuasion requires a very skillful audience analysis, careful application of the principles of persuasion in an artfully constructed message, and—because human behavior is not wholly predictable—a fair share of luck.Persuasion is always a matter of percentages. A letter that is technically perfect (in grammar and style) may fail to persuade, whereas a letter that is poor in many respects may succeed. The differences between successful and unsuccessful persuasive messages are not always obvious. Technical perfection, however is rarely a principal factor. What counts the most is the reader’s perception of how much he or she will benefit from acting as you suggest. In addition to writing the best letter you can—to avoid losing those readers who expect technical perfection—control your reader’s perception by image building.
Building the Image
Successful persuasive messages usually have a quality of life not found in routine positive or negative letters. This quality of life comes from the mental image the writer has of the objective of the message; the audience; the product, service, or idea; and the possible benefits. The clearer and more positive the writer’s mental image, the more persuasive the message will be.
Your first task as a persuasive writer is to create an image of the benefit that will be clear enough and dramatic enough to catch the reader’s attention. To do this successfully, you must pace the reader by beginning where he or she is. You cannot build an image for which a foundation does not already exist in the reader’s mind. In many ways, the persuasive message is a journey from a foundational image the reader already has to the image you wish to create. For your reader to seeyour finished image, you need to begin with the one the reader sees already and alter it in a step-by-step process until the new image is established. The following are typical beginning images:

1. A Problem that needs solving.    Describe a problem that plagues your reader and promise a solution.
   
   • What can you do about the rising costs of office technology?
   • Since January 1, 19XX, 15 people have died in 42 accidents at the intersection of Drake Road and Stadium Drive.
   • Because U.S. culture is changing from a role-centered to a goal-centered society, Carthage Industries should anticipate changing patterns of organizational communication.
   
   
2. A well-established cultural image.    When the reader already accepts an image, you can use it as a starting point.
   
   • Because your family is important to you. . . .
   • Are you working too hard when you should be enjoying yourself more?
   • Saving time is just as important as saving money.
   • Your family will appreciate cleaner smelling clothes.
   • How do you measure success?
   
   
3. A specific benefit.   When the benefit you can offer your reader is definite and obvious, you can use it as an opening image.
   
   • By providing our employees with connections to the Internet, TRB can save more than $256,000 a year in fax and telephone charges.
   • You can increase your gas mileage by 46 percent regardless of the kind of car you drive.
   • Imagine yourself enjoying the luxury of a new Mercedes sedan. . . .
   • With Sweeto Mouthwash, you’ll never have to worry about your breath again.
   
   
4. A desired benefit.    Benefits less specific and obvious can still make effective opening images.
   
   • What mysteries of life can we solve by exploring Mars?
   • When was the last time you took time to learn something new?
   • Would you like your job better if you had the chance to help make some of the decisions?
   • If you’ve owned your home for more than five years, your house may be underinsured.
   • Because comfort is important to you. . . .

Moving the Reader
As mentioned previously, not all people will respond to a given persuasive message. People who are afraid to fly, for example, will not only fail to respond to airline ads, but will actively avoid reading them. Persuasion begins with the right opening image for the selected audience.
Once you have used an appropriate attention-getting image for your audience, your next step is to begin leading the reader from the starting point to your goal—the image that will elicit the desired action. Introduce changes in your opening image carefully, and keep the reader in the picture as you build on the original image. The following techniques will help you keep your reader with you as you move from the opening to the final image.

1. Make sure that the opening image is appropriate for your message.    Each sentence should lead naturally to the next.
   
   Not this:   Flying gets you there faster. But why fly when you can take a train ride. [The transition between sentences is too abrupt.]Say this:   Flying gets you there faster. But more important than how fast you get there is how ready to work you are once you arrive. [The transition between sentences is a logical comparison.]
   
   
2. Subordinate physical description and explanations to the accompanying reader benefits.    Keep the focus on the value the reader will receive.
   
   • Not this:   The Moonbeam paint mixer has a 1/2 horsepower motor. [Provides physical description only.]
   • Say this:   With its 1/2 horsepower motor, the Moonbeam paint mixer lets you mix two gallons of paint in only 60 seconds. [Subordinates the physical description to the benefit it provides.]
   • Not this:   Currently each office has a secretary who is responsible for all staff support functions, including . . . [Provides explanation only.]
   • Say this:   By having individual secretaries for each separate department, our current office organization is costing us thousands of dollars a year. [Subordinates the explanation and emphasizes the potential savings.]
   
   
3. Focus on one main appeal and develop it fully.   The main appeal, often called the central selling point, presents the reader with the final image. Select your appeal—health, wealth, pleasure, or curiosity—based on your reader’s needs. Introduce other appeals as they relate naturally to your main appeal, so that the reader’s final image will be complete.In Sample 27 the underlined words and phrases indicate the main appeal. The appeal to wealth—saving time and being more efficient—is stressed throughout. Secondary appeals—to the pleasure of flying in a private plane or owning a status symbol—might well be added to a full sales message, but the focus should remain on the single, primary appeal throughout the message.

Securing Action
As you move your reader from the original image to the final image, you are setting the stage for the action you desire. Your final image should lead naturally to the action you want your reader to take, but unless you provide a gentle push, the image you have so carefully crafted is likely to fade before the reader acts. The push, however, must be gentle. If your language is too strong, you will increase your reader’s natural resistance to action.

• Don’t delay; act today!
• You simply must order one now!
• You’ll have to hurry on this one!
• You have no choice but to act today!

On the other hand, if your language is not strong enough, your reader will lose confidence and interest:

• If you’d like to try one....
• Why not place an order today?
• By now you should be able to see the advantages....
• I hope that this has convinced you....

In general, the best requests for action tell the reader explicitly what to do and how to do it, make the action as easy as possible, provide a reason for acting promptly, and give the reader one last view of the benefit to be gained:

• To order, simply complete the enclosed postage-paid reply card and drop it in the nearest mailbox. You’ll receive your first issue of The Human Psyche in about three weeks.
• By signing the enclosed purchase form for the Mentor Information System, you’ll enable the market research staff to complete analyses in less than half the time it now takes.

When your audience’s belief system differs greatly from yours, you may have to begin by asking for a smaller action. Because a small commitment will often lead to a larger one, it may be better to ask for a series of smaller commitments than to ask for the final action you desire:

• Send no money now. Examine the books for 15 days at no risk. If you’re not absolutely convinced that Big Ideas is the best available collection of the world’s great writing, simply return the books and pay nothing. To keep the books, send only $19.95 a month for the next 12 months.
• The installation of a network and file server is an important decision which requires careful consideration. If the equipment works as anticipated, we could save thousands of dollars a year. Because of the potential savings, I recommend that we visit the list of users supplied by DataComp to gain a better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of a networked environment.

Audience and Appeals

When you are writing to one specific person, you have a much wider choice of appeals than when you must address a group of people. You can refer to the reader by name and include the kinds of details that will help the reader accept your image of the proper action. When you are sending the same message to many people, however, you have not only all the problems of persuading one person, but also the task of overcoming the impersonal nature of form communication.Because we all consider ourselves unique, we have a natural tendency to be skeptical of messages that do not seem to address the needs that are uniquely ours. One of the standard ways persuasive writers attempt to recognize individuality is by identifying the reader by group membership:

• Dear Reader:
• Dear Homeowner:
• Dear Californian:
• Dear Voter:
• Dear Student:

The problem with group identifications like these is that in today’s society most of us do not identify strongly with the groups to which we belong. Homeowners, for example, do not all perceive their needs to be the same, and the same appeals would not work equally well with all of them. A message to homeowners in general may fail to acknowledge the uniqueness of the individual reader.
To make sure that each of your readers feels that you understand his or her situation sufficiently well to be able to help, address your readers one at a time. When possible, use a mail merge program and a database to create individual, personal letters. When the cost of that would be too high for your purposes, use a simulated inside address to help make the letter seem less like a form:

Not this:	Dear Homeowner:
Say this:	Because your home is Important to you...
Not this:	Dear Student:
Say this:	As a student You know how Frustrating it is...

Naturally, your reader will still recognize your message as a form and will suspect that it may not apply to him or her. You can help overcome that resistance by designing your message for easy readability and by mentioning your main benefit early.
Special techniques—such as color, narrow columns o