Business Communications Final Exam Study Guide(New Chapters Portion)CHAPTER 9: PERSUASIVE MESSAGE-Credibility is very important with this era of mistrust and skepticism-Persuasion is implying you are communicating with someone that doesn’t think orfeel the same way you do about something -Applying AIM planning process to persuasive messages- Understand your Audience- Understand methods of Influenceo Reciprocation: returning favorso Consistency: once people make an explicit commitment, they tend to follow through or honor that commitment, staying consistent with statements madeo Social Proof: People determine what is right, correct, or desirable by seeing what others doo Liking: People are more likely to be persuaded by people who they likeo Authority: People follow authority figureso Scarcity: If people think there’s limited availability of something they want or need, they act faster to get it- Persuade through Emotions and Reason-Set up Structure and Components:- Gain attention- rhetorical question, interesting face, statistic, testimonial- Raise a need- make the reader need to read this, explain something they’re missing- Deliver a solution- explain how you can fill the missing something- Provide a rationale – think about your audience and how straight forward you should be or rationale you should be - Show appreciation – validate your readers by showing you appreciate their views- Give counterpoints (optional) – risky, causes me vs. you to object to their ideas- Call to action – conclusion, asking reader to take a specific step toward accepting idea, not pressuring though, but explicit step stated-Direct: Begin with main idea or argument and provide supporting reasons-Explicit: Nothing is implied, statement contains full and unambiguous meaning*Both of these help reader understand message and show respect for their time, these are most business writing message formats-Indirect: Provide rationale for request before stating specific request-Implicit: Sometimes the reader needs to read between the lines as the request or rationale is only implied *This is how persuasive messages are written-Guidelines for tone of message- Apply the personal touch- Use action-oriented, lively language- Write with confidence- Offer choice- Show positivity-Persuasive message voices- You voice- use in external persuasive messages to emphasize reader benefits- We voice- use in internal persuasive messages to emphasize shared work goals- I voice- use in all persuasive messages sparingly- Impersonal voice- use in persuasive messages to emphasize objectivity and neutrality-Statements to avoid- Trust me- Unbelievable- “Your call is important to us”- Too good to be true- “We give you guaranteed results”- Excuses- “Our hands are tied”- Explanations- “I can explain”- Fear tactics- “Act now or you’ll miss this opportunity” -Internal Persuasive Message: more focused on promoting ideas, more direct and explicit, based on logical appeals-External Persuasive Message: more focused on promoting products and services, more indirect and implicit, based on emotional appeals-Mass Sales Messages: sent to large group of consumers and intended to market a particular product or service, often forms of email, online ads, or sales letters; raisecompany’s brand awareness even if products aren’t bought instantly -Construction of message- Gain attention- Generate interest- Build desire- Call to action-Contain a central sales theme- most common is sales price-Reviewing Persuasive Messages - Get feedback and reread- imagine you’re the reader- Apply the FAIR test- Facts, Access, Impacts, Respect; be careful of manipulationCHAPTER 14: PLANNING PRESENTATIONS-Audience: analyze them in terms of message benefits, learning styles, and communicator styles-Identify your Audiences- Benefits- Existing knowledge- Concerns- Decision makers- Appeals- Communicator Style- Learning style -Think about who are the key decision makers in the group you’re presenting to-target them -Feelers: appreciate ability to discuss business relationships, benefits to work teamsand colleagues and loyalty to customers and clients; connect with use of “we” language; attracted to holistic approach to business benefits, logic that includes more than the bottom line measure of performance -Thinkers: appreciate ability to provide all the facts, avoid rushing to judgment about conclusions, pride themselves on a non-emotional approach to decisionmaking, turned off by irrelevant appeals to emotions, emotionally connected to precise language, well designed and conceptualized charts, models, have ability to handle tough questions-Intuitors: appreciate ability to present visionary ideas, connect to out of the box thinking, emphasis on strategic initiatives, want to feel a part of something bigger than themselves, respond to discussing concepts first and facts last-Learning styles- Visual: 40 percent of population, learn from illustrations, simple diagrams showing relationship and key ideas, enjoy gestures and metaphors, text based slides don’t work but image rich ones do- Auditory: roughly 40 percent of population, loud, clear voices, believeemotion is best conveyed through voice- Kinesthetic: about 20 percent of population, need to participate to focus attention on your message and best learn, need group activities, hands on activities, or breaks at least every 20 mins-Components of Presentation- Preview (10-15 percent of time) : Attention getter, Positioning statement, Overview(takeaway messages)- View (85-90 percent of time): 3 different takeaway messages- Review (5 percent of time): Recap, Call to action-Develop a positioning statement: frames your message in appealing terms to your audience members and demonstrates clear and valuable benefits to them, concise as possible, one or two sentences-PREP method- Position- Reasons- Examples- Position-Developing effective slide presentations: good visuals can increase communication effectiveness and persuasiveness by 50 % (75% of what people learn come from visual)-Slide designs for ease of presenter and reader- Limit amount of info- less than 10 words per line and 5-6 lines, reader should be able to grasp info in 10-15 seconds- Use at least 24 font size for titles, 18 for body text- Focus on and highlight key info- bold, italics, etc- Use plenty of white space for borders and between items and text on slide, it provides an uncluttered appearance- Use high-contrast backgrounds
View Full Document
Unlocking...