Persuasive Writing: Audience Benefits

One of the easiest ways to reach your audience is to prove that what you are attempting to persuade them of will help them achieve their own goals and meet their own needs. In other words, you need to determine  and emphasize how your idea will benefit them.

This technique is particularly vital when you might be suggesting a solution with will involve spending money or changing long-established ways of doing things.

Group Benefits

This tactic works effectively with a group. All organizations (companies, schools, clubs) have goals, so you must show how what you’re proposing will help that organization achieve their goals. Create specific sentences that make the connection between action and the potential benefits of that action: 

SAMPLE 1
Adopting and enforcing more stringent rules about the use of bicycles, motorized scooters, and other forms of transportation on campus sidewalks could reduce potential accidents and improve pedestrian safety, thereby showing students that the university is willing to meet even the simple need of sidewalk safety.

SAMPLE 2
Designing and deploying an updated version of OneCampus that is more interactive and includes simplified directions for best use would enable students, faculty, and staff to use the system more efficiently, thus saving them time and alleviating frustration that some feel with the current interface.

SAMPLE 3
A coordinated plan that would reduce the price of selected meals at key VT dining halls and better publicize avenues by which students in need can access local food sources when needed is in keeping with the university's motto of Ut Prosim.

SAMPLE 4
Although our suggested solutions will involve additional expenditures on the part of the university, the plans will ensure that accessibility standards are met in buildings that currently exhibit insurmountable barriers to students, faculty, and staff with disabilities.

Individual Benefits

But the technique works just as well with single readers. People are motivated by growth needs, desires for recognition, good relationships at work, a sense of achievement, personal development, and enjoyment of work itself. Show how what you’re proposing will let the reader accomplish one or more of these personal goals. Create specific sentences that make the connection: 

SAMPLE 1
Because of the great strides you have already made in upgrading the grammar programs available to students in the writing center, we would very much like to work directly with you while we create this new program based on ChatGPT.

SAMPLE 2
Your work with creating a database of accessibility resources has made great strides in enabling VT students to find information they need. As a result, we hope to partner with you to expand the vital work you have begun.

By emphasizing the ways in which what you propose benefits your audience, you will assure them that you have their goals and desires first in mind. Being careful with the tone of your writing is a major component of achieving these goals.