Persuade Your Reader By Raising Objections
Address the elephant in the room before your reader does, and you’ll win him over
One of the most powerful persuasive writing tips you can use is to raise objections. That is, anticipate why your reader may protest, question, doubt, embrace skepticism about your content. Then address those objections head-on in your copy or content.
But won’t raising these objections lead the reader to jump ship even before you’ve made your argument? Maybe you’re hesitant to make your audience aware of other viewpoints.
Not so, according to social psychology researchers — especially when you raise objections and then refute them with a counter-argument. In fact, when you raise an objection and counter it with solid evidence, you are twenty percent more persuasive than when you simply present a one-sided message, according to Mike Allen of the University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee in the Western Journal of Speech Communication.
Four reasons you should raise objections
There are at least four reasons why this works for readers. By presenting objections (and refuting them) you …
