Did I get your attention? Was the blog title enough to catch your eye? At the very least, if you’re reading these words, then you were ‘persuaded’ to look further.
What is persuasion? Merriam-Webster defines it as “the act of causing people to do or believe something; the act or activity of persuading people; a particular type of belief or way of thinking.” In that respect, we all engage in persuasion every day – whether it’s trying to get someone to be your friend, someone to believe your story of your dog eating your homework, to give to your fundraising cause, or even to vote for a particular candidate (did you really think I’d go through a blog on persuasion without mentioning voting?) Persuasion done well is truly an art; when it’s not done well, it’s just sloppy and annoying.
As a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, I receive multiple emails for various reasons. Some are asking for more time to volunteer and some are asking for money. There are definitely some creative ideas that come out of our central team in Ottawa, and recently there was a fundraising campaign where you needed to give a certain amount to receive a limited edition t-shirt and postcard of a drawing by Justin Trudeau.
I believe strongly in giving back to the community and working to elect a Liberal team out of Manitoba and Canada. To that end, I am a monthly donor already. The idea of making an extra donation doesn’t usually work on me. However, for some reason, I paused to think about this request. What was it that made me actually pull the plug and make the additional donation? The fact that it was a limited-edition t-shirt. Simply having that shirt identified me as a member of a select group of supporters, and that was something that is important to me.
Great campaigns focus delivering things that people want, build that excitement and feed the anticipation. The result of the LPC campaign I mentioned? It raised over $500,000 in a short time. Now that’s results.
The limited edition t-shirt
What recent marketing campaign caught your eye? Try to think of one that actually changed your mind and let me know in the comments below what it was, as well as what made you buy in to the campaign. Looking forward to reading your thoughts!
For further reading, feel free to take a look at the following links:
The World According to Danielle 
Hey Dani, Great Blog. I like the fact that you used an example of something that you have actually been a part of. Your passion for politics is admirable. What I’d like to know is, what were the key messages for this campaign? Do you think the reason the LPC was able to collect the funds they required because of their reputation or was it because of powerful messaging and strategies? I, personally, think that it was more to do with the reputation of the LPC. Would this campaign be equally popular if it came from another source? This blog was a great read. I hope to hear from you soon,
Good luck!
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