Last year, The Editorial Advantage took a long look at Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, with posts on scarcity, keeping it simple, calling attention to your faults to get your audience to invest in your strengths, and priming your audience for a large request by first making a small one.

We were pleased, then, to see that software engineer Alex Moskalyuk had placed his own summaries of all 50 secrets on his Website. (Secret #6 is “Giving away the product makes it less desirable;” nonetheless, please check out the link to the book itself as well.)

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You can skip this if you’ve read the book Nudge and you’re already incensed about the proliferating “most popular” lists on the Web.

But maybe you want your organization to present “most popular” information in a positive way and need some more ammunition. Carl Bialik, “The Numbers Guy” of The Wall Street Journal, recently slammed the growing scourge of “top 10″ news stories on Websites. He went on to cite several well-regarded academic studies explaining why people behave like herd animals.

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When it comes to persuasion, Robert Cialdini has no illusions. That’s why everyone in publications should pay attention to his work. We recently wrote about Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion. Now this, from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

It’s called the contrast principle, and it’s frighteningly simple. If two things are presented one after the other, and the second is different from the first, people tend to see the second as more different from the first than it actually is. Read the rest of this entry »

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Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read a book on the subject from the Harvard Business Press, Persuading People by Harry Mills. The book is meant for oral presentations, but it applies just as well to written persuasion.

As discussed in the last post, Mills suggests different approaches to persuasion depending on the audience’s initial frame of mind. Here are a few more specific persuasion techniques he suggests for each type of audience. Read the rest of this entry »

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Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read a book on the subject from the Harvard Business Press, Persuading People by Harry Mills. The book is meant for oral presentations, but it applies just as well to written persuasion.

What does it take to persuade an audience? Among other things, Mills says, it requires that you find common ground. That takes knowing their frame of mind in advance and structuring your argument accordingly.

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Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read a book on the subject from the Harvard Business Press, Persuading People by Harry Mills. The book is meant for oral presentations, but it applies just as well to written persuasion.

Most developers of persuasive communications appreciate the difference between features—what a thing consists of or how it works—and benefits—how a thing will help users. One feature of a new computer might be the very latest microprocessor. The benefit is that the computer will let the user work faster and use new applications.

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I just led a Birthright tour to Israel, and I learned a few useful things about keeping short-lived groups loyal to the cause.

Birthright provides a free peer group educational trip to Israel for Jewish young adults ages 18-26 who have never participated in a peer group program. The program’s purpose is to strengthen participants’ Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish people and to Israel. Funding for this extraordinary program comes equally from leading Jewish philanthropists, Jewish communal institutions and federations, and the Government of Israel. More than 160,000 young people from 52 countries have taken part.

The ten-day program takes participants on a frenetic dash through Israel from top to bottom—from the northern Galilee to the southern Negev desert—with numerous stops at spiritual and historic locations including Jerusalem. From camel-riding to rafting down the Jordan River to interactions with Israelis, the program is filled with adventure.

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Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read an excellent book on the subject, Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, so far distributed only in the United Kingdom. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some of its insights with you.

Successful persuasion requires your audience to perform some mental work: to understand what you’re saying, evaluate its merits, and decide if they agree. The more effort you ask from your audience, the less likely they are to meet you halfway. Read the rest of this entry »

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Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read an excellent book on the subject, Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, so far distributed only in the United Kingdom. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some of its insights with you.

How can you get your audience to trust in your strengths? Draw attention to your faults.

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Magnificent Publications specializes in persuasive publications. We just read an excellent book on the subject, Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, so far distributed only in the United Kingdom. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some of its insights with you.

If something is rare, difficult to obtain, or disappearing, we value it more highly than otherwise. It follows that your audience is far more likely to do what you want if you tell them they might not get a chance unless they act now.

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