Generally people’s attitude towards something new or different is to keep their distance. That’s because in the most ancient part of our brains something new or different is still registered as a danger. Our nature then, tends to make us lean towards a ‘no’. That’s pretty tricky if you have a message to bring over which is intended to move people to action. In this blog we’re discussing writing tips aimed at moving people to a ‘yes’.
1. No means no
You can probably still hear your mother’s voice ringing in your head from the times as a child when you asked for just one more cookie: ‘no means no’. In this way your mum taught you the importance of being consistent. And for many mothers that worked, because the majority of people hate inconsistency.
This also applies when it comes to a person’s standpoint. Once you have an opinion, you stick to it. Which means you have a very clear no. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with that. If a sports car salesman asks you whether you like driving fast and your answer is no, then you probably don’t fit that target audience. If you ask a man if he also has trouble with his monthly period… well, yeah, you get the point.
But then you have the subscription-salesperson for a newspaper. You are just struggling out the door of the supermarket, with shopping bags bursting at the seams, and they approach to ask you if you ever read the newspaper. Yeah, of course. But there’s a big chance that your answer is: ‘no, I don’t have time now’. Then, because you don’t want to be inconsistent, it stays a no.
Yes, well, that last example may seem a little silly. But in actual fact that is something that you do as a consumer time and time again. With all the ad-impulses thrown at you, all those companies that want something from you, your first reaction is more likely to be a no than a yes.
But now, the good news: the difference between a no and a yes oftentimes is simply a question of timing.
2. Weight loss
Let’s take a little look at a concrete example.
Imagine, you get the job of making a series of online videos for a slimming product. Naturally, you don’t want to come in like a bull in a china shop with: ‘lose 10 kilos now, by taking part in our programme!’ The trick is to take little steps, and so work towards your end goal.
For this you need to look for a point of acceptance. That’s a point upon which everyone can agree. This revolves around so-called normative arguments: things that we all find important or urgent. In other words, points on which there can only be one answer: yes.
OK. Weight loss. It is beyond dispute that we all want to be healthy. To that we would all reply yes. So, wrap that up in a beautiful opening line. A good relationship with your family, warm friendship and nice colleagues are important. Come with that next, because nobody is going to argue with that either.
In this manner you build, one line at a time, a so-called ‘argument ladder’. With such a ‘ladder’ you take your audience with you one step at a time as you tell your story. From the top, all the way down to the last yes. And, if you have managed to get a yes about 4 times with this method then science would indicate that, because people like to be consistent in their behaviour, the chance of you getting a 5th yes is high.
Now you can launch an attack. By making a suggestion for an easily accessible, simple to maintain lifestyle programme through which participants will lose weight. The chance that your viewer has become more receptive to the possibility of giving a yes to your final goal, has increased greatly.
3. Yes, yes, and again yes
Being able to answer sentence after sentence with a yes, means that the chance of your viewer quitting gets smaller with every line. And, the reverse is also true, if they can answer ‘no’ or ‘dunno’ to a line, then there’s a big chance that the viewers will quit. That was true in the paper era and that is still true in the digital one.
Sentence structure of this kind is actually a technique that is largely used in direct marketing. This method generally works when we’re talking about texts in which you want to persuade and move people to action.
How can you put this into practice then? The ‘argument ladder’, of course, works brilliantly. But you can also start by writing the sentences in such a way that they can only be answered with a yes (or at any rate not with a no). Just by doing that you increase your chance that someone will want to hear your story through till the end.
Want to learn more on scriptwriting? Download our ebook with 52 tips for writing persuasive voice over scripts!
