WWN34 : Pillars of Persuasion

First up, a quick reminder in case you forgot last week's letter already...

Persuasion is not:

• sales

• cheap tricks

• manipulation.

Simply put, persuasion is communicating the truth in a way that makes your message heard.

And like I said last week I know that’s not the dictionary definition but it’s what I’m using.

And like I also said last week, everything rests on this stuff - especially sales.

But if everything rests on persuasion, what does persuasion rest on?

Is it turtles all the way down?

Nope, it is not.

Persuasion has a solid resting place on the three great pillars of persuasion.

Now, people want to jump to the hacks and stuff. Get down to brass tactics, tell me what magic words to use darnit!

But first you get to brass tactics, you need to know the basics. You need to understand persuasion strategies, what you’re actually trying to do. How you create the right environment for persuasion and so on.

And the basics of persuasion are ancient. Nothing new here, dear reader, just solid wisdom that goes all the way back to the Greeks, who in their fancy way called these three pillars of persuasion “Ethos, Logos and Pathos”.

Let's break them down, shall we?

Ethos is your authority and identity. Or in other words, it’s the answer to the question:

Why should I care what you think?

Ethos is who you are. Why should someone buy from YOU and not the other guy? Why do people like you buy my stuff instead of Write of Passage or Shit30?

Well, I’d like to think it’s the killer persuasion tactics that I weave into the sales pages and my emails.

It’s partly that.

It’s partly also the shape of the product, the quality, the price (criminally underpriced in most cases) and so on.

But primarily?

It’s because you know me. It’s because you know that I’m a practising writer, not just a preaching writer. It’s because I’m working with publishers like Crossway, apps like Dwell, clients who I can’t name. It’s because I’m followed on X or subscribed to on here by writers like John Bejakovic, Kieran Drew, Dakota Robertson, David Deutsch, David Garfinkel and so on. It’s because I’ve written real books with real sales.

It’s authority.

It’s identity.

It’s ethos.

So if you want an action point spelled out for you, here it is. Sit down and brainstorm the answer to this question:

Why YOU? Why should anyone follow you? Buy from you? There's a million accounts out there, and a thousand solutions. Why YOU?

Now tweet it. Email it. Blog about it.

Whatever your platform, use your story and your unique selling point whenever you can. Make yourself an authority and everything else goes easily.

I’d be committing marketing malpractice if I didn’t break for one second to say that there is still enough in the pot for half a dozen people to get the Better Writing Bundle at a staggeringly large year-end discount. And as always, if you already own any of the courses in the bundle hit reply and I’ll discount it by even more than you paid.

Because that’s part of how I protect my ethos as a writer who will never let a previous customer down and always reward my early buyers generously compared to anyone else.

More on that in a second.

But first…

The only bit of this that Ben Shapiro likes

Which is Logos. FACTS and LOGIC.

A.k.a. Is what you’re saying true?

Here's where we use statistics, numbers, studies and so on.

Now, it's important that you don't get bogged down in details. I mean, this is the internet after all.

Especially on a platform like X-Twitter, where nobody cares. Nobody wants you to be a “source please” ass in the comments.

But if you have a study, an example, a statistic - all of that will make your point more persuasive. Doesn’t take much, even a “studies show” at the start of the tweet is often enough. Doesn't mean you have to source it all out with references and stuff.

(Sorry, nerds.)

Important caveat to that though which is that YOU DO NEED TO HAVE DONE THE WORK TO FIND THE STUDIES THOUGH, EVEN IF YOU DON'T CITE IT.

Making stuff up will destroy your ethos in seconds. You are not the source.

Find it, cite it, just don’t bore people about it.

But the best logos if you're trying to sell anything?

Results and Testimonials. Show the results you get, and you'll make sales easily.

But that's not all there is, if all you use is Logos then you end up making lame YouTube videos where you DESTROY that ignorant leftist with FACTS and LOGIC and never persuade anyone to change...

...Don't be that guy.

Instead, include the third pillar.

The one that people actually make decisions on

Pathos. Which is the fancy word for feelings and stuff.

A.k.a. What do you want people to feel?

This is the motherload, my friends. And it's where much of the online “writing” crowd fall flat on their face.

Because, honestly?

They’re a bunch of dorks and don’t get this stuff.

They're always like "you need to cut words, make it as short as you can while conveying the information". "Be clear, not clever." Yadda yadda.

But they forget writing isn't about conveying information.

It's about creating emotion.

If you have read anything that I’ve written you’ve heard that a million times already but I will keep banging on about it until the cows come home or whatever.

Writing is about what you make people FEEL.

And sometimes that means taking longer to go through something.

Go back and read this piece, there are a lot of words I could cut out - but I decided to write it in this jokey, matey tone so you’d feel like a friend coming alongside to drop a few tips.

Worked, didn’t it?

I mean heck, every time I rewrite this piece I add more words.

But let's move on before I add a lot more words ranting about bad online writing advice (that’s for another time)...

I promised I’d come back to Ethos and protecting it and so let me wrap up with

ONE FINAL WARNING

Guard your ethos with your LIFE. Don't steal tweets, lie, plagiarise content etc. You can mess up the other two (pathos, logos) and you’ll lose a sale or two but you can recover. Lose character and you're toast. Forever. People remember and you’ll be forever known as a liar and a cheat. Shortcuts destroy reputations.

So shield your ethos like you shield your pipe from a stiff breeze,

James Carran, Craftsman Writer

fin

But not quite fin for the fine folks in Craftsman’s Corner who keep the lights on around here.

For them, a behind the curtain confession with an important lesson tied into it. Because the truth is?

I wrote this entire piece in twenty minutes and they’re going to find out how and why and what the lesson is they can learn from it...

P.s. if you scrolled this far let me remind you to pick up the Better Writing Bundle before that offer closes. The latest it’ll run to is next weekend but it may shut down any minute if I hit my target before then.

Save $246 here.