How to Convince Your Readers

7 lessons for compelling nonfiction

There’s more written content in circulation now than ever. Everyone has something to say. It’s a blessing and a curse — a blessing because we have lots of information in our hands and a curse because it leads to information overload. This is a problem for another day, though.

I’m interested in helping you get people to read what you write and see things your way. It’s different when you read your friend’s content because naturally, you would want to support your friend.

Everything starts with the influence you have over your readers through your words. When you can do this, people would easily see things your way without stress. That’s the aim of all writing, right? To make people see things your way.

The influential writers have mastered the art of persuasion with their written words. Even if you’re not a copywriter, the art of persuasion is essential to any other form of writing because you need people to take action or see things your way.

Whether you’re writing a blog post, sales letter, video scripts, or whatever, these points come in handy.

Write How You Speak

At one point or another in your writing career, you have been guilty of this. I don’t know if there’s a name for it, but we have this voice in our heads that we believe is the right way a writer should sound. I’m guilty of this myself. If you scroll down to my first articles, you would see what I’m saying.

It’s a big mistake because nobody would want to read something that sounds like a textbook. You wouldn’t even like to read it. That’s how you feel sometimes when you read your articles. It’s because it doesn’t sound like you.

You know how you speak — write like that. A way to ensure that your article is conversational is to read what you’ve written out loud. This way, you can listen to yourself — literally.

Understand That You’re Writing to People and Not Yourself

Before writing, whether it’s for a client or a personal project, find out who your specific audience is. Don’t be a generalist. No group of people is the same.

You start to get it right when you can identify who you’re writing to. That’s when you can get your readers to see things your way and take action. You can understand their fears, dreams, motivations, wishes, desires, whatever.

You should understand that people care more about the benefits your article gives than you. People aren’t altruistic, as you may think. Feed into this and see how much more enjoyable your content can be to them.

People read to satisfy a need. Everything you write should help to solve a problem, not create one.

Show a Bit of Yourself When You Write

It could be through stories or examples, but either way, it makes people want to know more from you. Why do you think celebrities have so much love? They’ve shown a vulnerable part of themselves to the world.

When you show a bit of who you are, people would want to see more, and the more they see you, the more they get attached. That’s it.

I used to be worried about this before. “What would I even say?,” I usually said. I just went with using my experiences as examples. You can do that, too. It doesn’t mean you should expose your personal stories. Just tell stories that relate to the topic. This way, people would identify with you better.

Write Visually

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Do you know your words can be visual too? What happens in your mind when you read a book? It creates images, right?

When you write and want to be persuasive, you have to understand how the mind works. It’s about working on your readers’ minds.

When you give a point, amplify the point with a because. Without a reason, most of us wouldn’t do anything. We’re different from robots because we have reasons for the things we do.

When you can make people understand why you have given a point, you have an edge. Use examples, stories, quotes, images, memes, or whatever you can to make their mind’s eye have something to hold onto when they try to remember your point.

The Structure of Your Article Is Half the Work

What do you when you open an article without paragraphs, subheadings, or bullet points? Even me, I hardly read to the tenth line because I can’t punish myself.

You should consider the people reading your articles. Can they glance through and get your point? If they can’t, then it’s a problem.

• Bullet points
• Are important because
• They make going through
• Your article easy.

Use Simple Vocabulary

Nobody would give you an award for how deep your grammar is. Remember, you’re not writing to impress anybody, but to inform. How would you inform if nobody understands what you’re saying?

It still boils down to writing how you speak. Your everyday English is what you should use. If you use heavy vocabularies naturally, try to simplify it for your readers. Put everything in layman’s terms.

Repeat Your Points More Than Once

You may think that your readers take in everything you write, but it’s a lie. At some point in every article, we zone off. That’s why when you reread an article, you see new things that you didn’t see before. It’s completely normal.

Repeat your points in subtle ways. Rephrase your points and use quotes to repeat them. This way, you’re sure that your points would stick in your readers’ heads one way or the other.

But please, don’t repeat your points the same way over and over.

As you can see, I didn’t say anything about spelling errors, commas, brackets, and all that. It’s because they aren’t as important as the message you’re trying to pass across.

They only add credibility to your writing skills. They are essential, but not as important as giving the readers what they want.