What Are Persuasive Strategies?
According to About.com, persuasive strategies are techniques that a person uses to influence another person or group of people to take a certain action. This phrase is often used in business settings, but the strategies apply to any situation in which one person wants to subtly gain influence over another.
Thousands of years ago, Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that there were three main strategies a person must master to effectively persuade others, according to About.com’s Grace Fleming. He named these strategies Logos, Pathos and Ethos, and claimed that they are all equally effective when used verbally or in written form.
Logos involves using facts, numbers and concrete information to make arguments more convincing. Regardless of how knowledgeable a person is, arguments sound more credible to others when statistics and other solid proof back up claims. Pathos requires persuaders to evoke emotion in the person or group they are addressing verbally or in written form. A persuader must invoke happy, sad or angry feelings in the target about the information presented. The final persuasive strategy is Ethos, which involves trust. For a person to feel comfortable taking a certain action, he must trust the person telling him to take that action.
