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Media & PsychologyPersuasion & Influence

Persuasion Strategies (and When To Use Them)

Letting audience characteristics determine the approach.

Jerry Silfwer
by Jerry Silfwer

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

Table of contents

I’ve out­lined per­sua­sion strategies and when to use them.

Based on the work of Lars Palm, I’ve placed cer­tain situ­ation­al vari­ables into a mat­rix to under­stand bet­ter which per­sua­sion strategies might work best — and provide a hint as to why. 1Palm, L. (1994). Övertalningsstrategier — Att välja bud­skap efter utgångsläge. Studentlitteratur. 88 – 92.

Here we go:

Situational Persuasion Strategies

Persuasion strategies (and when to use them).
Persuasion strategies (and when to use them).
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Situational Persuasion Strategies

Lars Palm sug­gests four vari­ables affect­ing the suc­cess of vari­ous per­sua­sion attempts: 2Palm, L. (1994). Övertalningsstrategier — Att välja bud­skap efter utgångsläge. Studentlitteratur. 88 – 92.

  • Topic involve­ment. How engaged and know­ledge­able is the sub­ject of per­sua­sion with the issue — accord­ing to themselves?
  • Decision involve­ment. How much does the decision mat­ter to the sub­ject of per­sua­sion — accord­ing to themselves?
  • Proclivity for dis­cov­ery and iden­ti­fic­a­tion. How likely is the sub­ject of per­sua­sion to dis­cov­er and identi­fy with the message?
  • Proclivity for elab­or­a­tion. How pre­pared will the sub­ject of per­sua­sion be to learn more and assim­il­ate new inform­a­tion about the issue?

However, I’ve chosen to sim­pli­fy Palm’s frame­work into two basic variables: 

  • Involvement (topic/​decision). What level of per­son­al involve­ment does the sub­ject of per­sua­sion have with the issue?
  • Proclivity (discovery/​identification/​elaboration). What level of pro­cliv­ity does the sub­ject of per­sua­sion have to find and pro­cess new inform­a­tion about the issue?

Situational Variables for Persuasion

Any group will have pre-exist­ing opin­ions, ideo­lo­gies, belief sys­tems, reas­on­ing frame­works, etc. As per your per­sua­sion attempt, what’s their baseline?

  • Supporting. The sub­ject of per­sua­sion will likely agree with the per­suader­’s basic premise.
  • Opposing. The sub­ject of per­sua­sion will likely dis­agree with the per­suader­’s basic premise.

At first glance, per­suad­ing a sup­port­ing group to take action seems easi­er. However, stud­ies have shown that oppos­ing power­ful opposers can have sig­ni­fic­ant out­comes. 3Silfwer, J. (2016, August 25). Stupid Majority PR Strategy: How Underdogs Dominate. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​t​u​p​i​d​-​m​a​j​o​r​i​t​y​-​p​r​-​s​t​r​a​t​e​gy/

Situational Persuasion Strategies

Depending on the start­ing point for the per­sua­sion attempt, the per­suaded can choose between the fol­low­ing per­sua­sion strategies:

AttitudeInvolvementProclivityPersuasion Strategy
SupportingHighHighReinforce
SupportingHighLowSimplify
SupportingLowHighEncourage
SupportingLowLowAffirm
OpposingHighHighChallenge
OpposingHighLowClarify
OpposingLowHighQuestion
OpposingLowLowDissuade

There are inter­est­ing par­al­lels with the­or­ies like cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance, the hos­tile media effect, con­firm­a­tion bias, con­ver­sion the­ory, and many others.

Learn more: Situational Persuasion Strategies

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Thanks for read­ing. Please sup­port my blog by shar­ing art­icles with oth­er com­mu­nic­a­tions and mar­ket­ing pro­fes­sion­als. You might also con­sider my PR ser­vices or speak­ing engage­ments.

PR Resource: Free Persuasion PR Course

Free Persuasion PR Course - Doctor Spin - Public Relations Blog
Free per­sua­sion PR course.
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Doctor Spin’s PR School: Free Persuasion PR Course

Use this free Persuasion PR Course to elev­ate your pub­lic rela­tions game with power­ful insights. Drive impact and influ­ence like nev­er before.

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

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ANNOTATIONS
ANNOTATIONS
1, 2 Palm, L. (1994). Övertalningsstrategier — Att välja bud­skap efter utgångsläge. Studentlitteratur. 88 – 92.
3 Silfwer, J. (2016, August 25). Stupid Majority PR Strategy: How Underdogs Dominate. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​t​u​p​i​d​-​m​a​j​o​r​i​t​y​-​p​r​-​s​t​r​a​t​e​gy/
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at Spin Factory and KIX Communication Index. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.
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