How can you persuade and influence through digital communication?

1 Know your audience

Before you craft your digital message, you need to understand who you are communicating with, what their needs, goals, and preferences are, and how they might react to your message. This will help you tailor your content, tone, and style to suit your audience and achieve your desired outcome. For example, if you are writing an email to a potential client, you might want to use a formal and respectful language, highlight the benefits of your product or service, and provide some evidence or testimonials to support your claims. If you are posting a social media update to your followers, you might want to use a casual and friendly tone, share some insights or tips, and invite feedback or questions.

2 Choose the right channel

Different digital platforms have different strengths, limitations, and norms for communication. You need to choose the channel that best fits your purpose, audience, and message. For example, if you want to convey a complex or sensitive information, you might want to use a video call or a phone call, rather than a text message or an email. If you want to reach a large or diverse audience, you might want to use a blog post or a podcast, rather than a direct message or a chat. If you want to create a dialogue or a relationship, you might want to use a social media comment or a forum, rather than a newsletter or a website.

3 Craft your message

When crafting your message, it is essential to consider the goal, structure, content, and language of your communication. Your goal should be to inform, persuade, motivate, or inspire your audience. To ensure clarity and coherence, use a catchy introduction, a strong body, and a memorable conclusion. Additionally, make sure to include relevant and interesting content such as facts, examples, stories, or statistics. Furthermore, use simple, precise language that avoids jargon and errors. Lastly, use a positive, polite and confident tone to make your message effective and persuasive.

4 Engage your audience

Digital communication is not a one-way street. To engage your audience and invite them to participate in the conversation, you can ask for their feedback, respond to their feedback, and build rapport. For instance, you can ask for opinions, suggestions, or questions to show that you value their input and perspective. You can also use surveys, polls, or quizzes to collect data. Additionally, you can acknowledge, thank, or answer your audience's feedback to demonstrate that you care about their satisfaction and experience. Furthermore, you can use compliments, empathy, or humor to build rapport and trust with your audience. You can also share personal stories, anecdotes, or examples to connect with your audience on a personal level.

5 Evaluate your results

Finally, you need to evaluate the results of your digital communication and measure its impact and effectiveness. You can track metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, or engagement rates to analyze the performance and outcome of your digital communication. Additionally, you should review feedback from your audience to assess their satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. Finally, you can use the data and feedback collected to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your digital communication and find ways to enhance your skills and strategies.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?