Flip the script:

Picture this. You’re at your desk and an email lands in your inbox. It’s from the Digital Transformation and ICT team. ‘From next week, we’re no longer using Google Workspace and we’re moving to Microsoft 365 instead. Cool… you think to yourself… I like Microsoft so this will be an exciting change. Until you overhear someone across the room say, ‘but we’ve always used Google.’ Another voice pipes up, ‘why should I change to Microsoft when I don’t know how to use it?’ Your colleagues make excellent points, and the email fails to address either one. There’s no information on how to make the switch, the benefits or why it’s in your best interest.

This example may seem trivial. But many digital transformation projects are worth millions of dollars and have hundreds of internal and external stakeholders. There’s a lot at stake if these projects go wrong. This switch from Google to Microsoft is destined to fail because the communication, or lack thereof, surrounding the project, creates more questions than answers.

This is where persuasive writing techniques can be used to not only educate and inform but convince your audience to get on board with your digital transformation initiative.

Know your audience

Before you write anything, understanding your audience is crucial. After all, how can you persuade someone when you don’t know what convinces them? What compels a senior leader will be different from an entry-level graduate.

To get to know your audience:

Do your research. Identify your key stakeholders, their interests, pain points and value The more you can tap into your audience’s mindset and address the potential blockers to them adopting the change, the more compelling your message will be.

Tailor your communication. Your message won’t resonate if you write something and hit send to all. Instead, adapt your tone and style to suit your audience. For instance, a formal tone will be more appropriate for senior executives while a conversational tone may land with junior staff.

Engage emotionally. Use language and examples that resonate with your audience emotionally, not just logically. Persuasion is as much about feeling as it is about reasoning.

Find your golden thread

A golden thread is the central theme that ties your entire message together. Like a key message, it’s the steady component of your narrative, ensuring your message is consistent, coherent and compelling, and speaks to your target audience.   

To develop your golden thread:

Keep it short and sweet. You should be able to clearly articulate your golden thread in one to two sentences. Along with the audience research mentioned above, if you’re in need of inspiration, revisit your organisation’s mission and vision statements for inspiration and conduct a competitor analysis to ensure your messaging is clearly differentiated.

Reinforce your golden thread. Consistently reference your golden thread through all of your communications, using data, case studies and testimonials to back up your narrative. While you may feel like you’re on repeat, you’re going to need to reinforce your golden thread more than you’d expect. A Microsoft study revealed that a message should be repeated between six and 20 times for optimal retention.

Stay focused. Your golden thread should be clear, transparent and use strong language to minimise confusion. Avoid tangents that loosely relate to your message. Everything you write should fortify your message; if you’re wasting words, your audience won’t remain engaged.

How to write right 

There are many rhetorical devices you can use in your writing to persuade your reader. The human brain is naturally drawn to patterns and repetition because they require less cognitive power to process.  

Therefore, use the following when you can:  

Repetition. Every election cycle you’ll see political parties do this with their short slogans. “Make America Great Again” has been everywhere since Donald Trump entered politics and “Kevin 07” was screamed by supporters when Kevin Rudd campaigned in – you guessed it – 2007. Why do politicians say these buzzwords? Because the repetition makes them easy to remember.  

Alliteration and assonance. Alliteration takes the same letter or sound and uses it at the beginning of words in quick succession. We used this technique for the heading ‘how to write right’, and when talking about finding your Golden Thread with ‘consistent, coherent and compelling’. Assonance is a similar technique that uses vowel sounds that are not necessarily at the start of the word. Common examples are ‘too cool for school’ or ‘surf and turf’ but in a professional context you’re more likely to hear assonance from “innovate to elevate”, “quick win” and “pay grade”.

Rule of three. As mentioned, the human brain hunts patterns and three is the smallest number for a pattern to emerge. Classic examples include “slip, slop, slap”, “I came, I saw, I conquered” and “blood, sweat and tears”. Look at that…we just gave three examples.

Lights, camera, call-to-action

A call to action (CTA) should be included in every form of persuasive writing. It tells your audience what you need them to do next such as click a button, make an account or support a change.  

Clear and concise. The best CTAs are specific, easy to understand and avoid vague language. For example, “click this link to read more”, instead of, “more information is online”. 

Action words. Use action-oriented language that motivates your audience to perform your desired response. Here’s a few of them: 

• Attend 
• Discover 
• Download 
• Join 
• Learn 
• Order 
• Register 
• Search 
• Try 
• Watch 

Positioning. The most common place for a CTA is at the end of your writing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the only place. Be open to inserting your CTA at the start or in the middle of your writing, especially if you’re anticipating the reader to skim over your words. Ideally, you want your audience to see the call to action, and immediately do it. Placing a CTA in the middle of your message is fine but have it at the end so they read your entire message before taking action and moving on.  

Testing and feedback

Testing and feedback is crucial to the success of your digital transformation. You need it to ensure things are on the right track. Without it, you run the risk of user dissatisfaction, missed opportunities or reputational damage.  

Test your content. When possible, share your content with a small group of people that represent your target audience. You’ll do yourself a favour by gathering their feedback and suggestions before a full roll out.  

Surveys and polls. Use surveys and polls to collect data from your audience by asking specific questions about what they found compelling and what could be improved.  

Improvement. The feedback you get in Step 2 is good! It may sting, especially if it’s delivered poorly, but it’s needed for continuous improvement. Without feedback there’s no improvement, with no improvement your writing gets stagnant, and stagnant writing leads to poor communication.  

If your writing is strong, your communication will be clear and insightful. Conversely, miscommunication will lead to a disconnected audience and potentially limit engagement and adoption. If you’re the one announcing the move from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365, presenting a new policy or introducing change, the steps above can be a key driver in your success. Now go pick up that pen or start tapping away at that keyboard!