Is persuasive speech manipulation of emotion?

Persuasive Speech
Persuasive speaking done well is powerful because it can draw our emotions and change the way we think and act.

The art of persuasive speaking involves taking an audience from a certain position (A) to a new position (B) in their thinking and ideally their actions.  Most modern persuasive speech is directed at us through the advertising industry and increasingly those persuasive messages need to be honed and reduced down to the smallest quantity of words in order to get our attention in a short space of time and cause us to desire something and take action to buy it!

Much like successful advertising, great persuasive speech should concentrate on the formula of persuasion: AIDA (create Attention, get Interest, achieve Desire in the audience, get Action taken – usually to buy the product being advertised).  In this way, persuasive speech is not so much manipulation of emotion but appeal and stimulation of emotion.  As human beings we are emotional beings and we want our emotions to be stimulated and allow our actions to be also directed by feeling.  If they were not, we would be robots.

Of course emotional control is important and we need to know when our emotions are being used to change the way we think, but by the same token emotions make us compassionate, human and allow us to enjoy our lives.  Buying things based on a degree of emotion is one of the simplest human pleasures.

Well, you are probably reading this blog because you are interested in learning how to use persuasion to foster emotional engagement in order to get your own message across.

In applying these techniques to your messages either in public speaking or presentations, you can dramatically increase the value of the outcomes achieved.  It also pays to be aware that a significant obstacle to persuasion these days is credibility.  With business rapidly moving online, the trust factor is vital.  In order to develop successful persuasive messages, we have put together the following checklist to go through as you prepare:

1. Does your opening get strong attention and break through inertia?

2. Do you then establish credibility by proving that you are the right person or company to be sending out this message?

3. Do you maintain interest throughout the message and build it and develop it toward a climax?

4. Is your overall intention good and noble and does it resonate with the better side of human emotions?

5. Do you generate a desire to do something?

6. Do you create a strong and immediate willingness to take action?

Here at SpeechSchool.TV we have developed the leading persuasive speaking course on the internet based on the presenter’s years of experience as a Creative Director in a top advertising agency:

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