Persuasive communication is the most important skill to develop in the 21st century. While skills like email marketing, graphic design, and artificial intelligence are valuable, they all rely on the ability to persuade and understand human psychology. As humans exchange value in relationships and business, persuasive communication allows you to showcase your value so others will exchange value with you. This article will provide tactics to master the art of capturing and holding attention through persuasive communication.
Why Persuasive Communication is the Greatest Skill
Persuasive communication is the base layer for countless professional skills today. However, it’s often framed as more specific abilities like copywriting and marketing. The key is to understand the framework of how persuasive communication works and how it taps into human psychology.
People exchange value in relationships and business. If you can’t persuade others to see your value, you won’t receive the value you want in return, usually money. Without psychology skills, it’s difficult to persuade anyone in business, dating, or even casual conversation.
You must learn to guide people through emotional journeys that highlight the value you provide. Life is like a story with high and low points. Effective communication follows those patterns to resonate with people.
Ten Tactics for Capturing Attention
Here are 10 proven tactics for capturing attention with your writing, speaking, social media, and any communication:
1. Use Specific Numbers
Statistics, metrics, amounts, and lists with numbers grab attention by making people curious about the significance of those figures. The more specific, the better.
2. Interrupt Conditioned Patterns
Break people out of their normal scrolling and reading habits. Lists, unexpected questions, and unique formats interrupt patterns to capture attention.
3. Leverage the Negativity Bias
The brain instinctively focuses on negative information. While staying positive, use occasional negative framing to catch interest.
4. Call Out Specific Groups
Even if your audience isn’t in the group, calling them out makes people compare themselves and pick sides.
5. Point Out Problems
Bring painful problems to the surface. People often ignore their struggles until reminded, which grabs their interest.
6. Highlight Potential Benefits
Contrast current frustrations with an aspirational future state. Curiosity about bridging that gap holds attention.
7. Subtly Display Social Proof
Credentials and results imply you have valuable insights others lack. But avoid blatant bragging.
8. Be Confident and Direct
Confidence makes communication more compelling and helps utilize other tactics effectively.
9. Use Active Voice
Active voice draws readers into a story. Passive voice exposes the story too soon and bores people.
10. Offer Cautions and Warnings
What challenges might people face on the path you propose? Warning them builds trust.
Four Keys to Structuring Content that Holds Attention
Once you capture curiosity, compelling content structure holds attention by guiding readers on a journey:
- Use bullet lists and line breaks. Avoid long paragraphs. Break up ideas into scannable steps and sections.
- Start with short, punchy sentences. Ease into longer, more creative sentences once you have interest.
- Break apart long sentences. Use dashes, parentheses, and line breaks instead of commas to pull readers along.
- Novel perspectives. Consume long-form material. Then share fresh angles others haven’t considered before.
The 3 Elements that Create Engagement
Remember, people connect with how your writing makes them feel, not the words themselves. To engage audiences, focus on:
- Education: Teach novel insights through stories and examples people relate to.
- Inspiration: Help people connect the dots without commanding them.
- Entertainment: Sprinkling appropriate humor keeps people engaged.
Mastering persuasive communication requires practice. But by capturing attention with psychology tactics and holding it with compelling structures, your communication will engage, educate, and inspire.