Using Persuasive Messaging to Motivate Customers to Buy Your Products

Motivating Customers through Message Optimization

Our work with message optimization suggests that persuasive messaging usually contains two essential elements, emotion and logic. While each element can be persuasive on its own, the most persuasive messaging finds a balance between emotion and logic. The challenge lies in identifying that balance. The emotional element often generates initial interest and desire, but logic provides the “final push” in the consumers mind to make the purchase and help them justify the purchase.

Determining the Right Mix

Conjoint Analysis can be used to determine the specific elements (short phrases) of a message which generate the greatest impact. Companies can measure a series of alternative emotional elements in conjunction with logical elements, and isolate the impact each element has on the purchase decision.

Isolating the Persuasive Elements

During a Conjoint Analysis exercise, participants are asked to respond to a combination of message elements presented as one offer. Market Researchers have found that asking a participant to rate a single message element 1-at-a-time results in an inaccurate representation of the true impact of that element. A more natural way of understanding the true impact is by getting the participant to respond to a series of holistic concepts (each concept is made up of a combination of phrases or elements), requiring the participant to make internal “trade-offs”. By not asking the participant to focus on and over-analyze a specific element, they can more accurately portray their “true” feeling through trade-offs.

The series of concepts that is shown is designed as a rigorous experiment. Then, through a series of algorithms, Market Researchers are able to isolate the elements of greatest impact, aka the most persuasive elements.

What This Means for You

Marketers are always looking for ways to make more confident decisions. By optimizing messaging through Conjoint Analysis, Marketers can quantifiably identify the most persuasive messaging for their audience. Finding the perfect balance of emotional and logical elements will have a tremendous impact on the success of your messaging.