Have you ever wondered why your proposals get turned down?

Why do people read your landing pages and yet you have low conversion rates?

Why do people see your email broadcast and never click?

Why do people seem uninterested in your proposals?

The answer boils down to simple psychology - Persuasion.

This is because you haven't triggered that little thing in your readers’ brains that snaps them to attention, gets the heart rate pumping, and compels them to keep reading.

Persuasive writing will not only enhance your writing skills but will also convince readers to take action. It is therefore important to hone your persuasive writing skills.

These timeless persuasive writing techniques will help you craft the perfect proposals to convince and trigger a positive response from funders.

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1. Empathy

Everyone has problems - your organization/project is designed to solve one or more of those problems. A common mistake is that people are quick to explain the solution they offer. One of the most powerful persuasion tactics is to demonstrate a deep understanding of the problems/challenges your target audience is facing. The credibility of your solution shoots up if you can demonstrate that you truly feel the prospect’s pain.

Empathy is putting yourself in someone else's shoes and walking in them - the child that goes to bed hungry, the jobless youth, the community that lacks good water, the girl that can't afford hygienic feminine products, the farmer that lost his investment to post-harvest loss.

Prove to the reviewer/reader that you understand the problem because you have dealt with it or you are experienced at eliminating the problem.

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2. Tone

What is tone in writing? It means writing as you would talk in real life. Your tone breathes life into your writing, it determines how your writing comes across to the reader. Your tone may be authoritative, logical, passionate, humorous, intelligent, or neutral. But you must avoid coming across as rude, or overly casual unless your readers are expecting that tone from you.

People react according to what they see in your writings, if your words are heart-touching, they’d be moved to tears. If you crack jokes, they’ll laugh (or at least give you a smile).

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3. Rhetorical questions

Did you know rhetorical questions draw attention to your writing?

Did you see what we did right there?

If your questions can easily attract a "yes" or "no", it won't interest people to continue reading. Rhetorical questions are meant to lure people to continue reading. Ask questions that make the reader think, “What does this mean?” or, “How will you do that?”

Here’s an example:

Despite being the economic capital of West Africa, with businesses springing up in every corner of the city that never sleeps, did you know that over 10 million Nigerian youth remains jobless in Lagos state?

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4. Start small

Avoid hitting the nail on the head at once­­––especially when you’re writing on a complex topic or for an audience that’s pretty tough to persuade. Imagine dishing out all your interesting points at once in a 1500 words context, you'd end up beating around the bush, and you would most likely bore out your reader(s).  

Give your readers simple valid points to agree on before they get to the complex parts of your writing. This will help you persuade them to read on with ease no matter how complex the topic is and have them nodding their heads in agreement as they read on.

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5. Tell Stories

Storytelling is an ancient tactic of persuasion.

Want to teach morals? Tell stories.

Want to it stick to memory? Tell stories.

Want to grab attention? Tell stories.

Facts tell but stories sell.

Stories are effective transportation devices. They help you move hearts from where they currently are, to where you want them to be. Stories allow people to see your point of view just the way you want them to see it. Transportation leads to persuasion.

When you write with empathy using a tone that is appropriate, and you then deploy rhetorical questions to build up your points from simple to complex using compelling stories, your writing will not only grab attention, it will persuade.

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