There are three ‘modes’ of persuasion: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. If you want to convince your audience and become a persuasive and powerful speaker then you need to apply these three persuasion techniques and demonstrate them within your presentation.
Let’s look at each one in detail and how you can practically include them in your presentation to persuade your audience:
Ethos
What you say is important, but WHO you are is perhaps even more important. Ethos is about convincing your audience that you have authority, credibility, and character. When you persuade your audience, you’re asking them to change, buy, act upon, or challenge thinking and therefore you need to establish trust first.
Practical ways to demonstrate ethos:
- Identify similarities with you and your audience and find ways to draw upon these in your story, the characters you choose and how you introduce yourself
- Use language that is inclusive, like ‘us’ ‘we’ and ‘together’ that creates instant relatability in inclusivity
- Show humility: a great way to do this is by telling your personal story. It could be your journey from failure to success or your struggles through to triumph. Everyone can relate to making mistakes and by using personal storytelling, it shows the audience you are relatable.
- Command the stage: Be aware of your body language. Adopt an upright posture and avoid overusing gestures. Make your gestures meaningful so that the audience focus on your language and words.
Logos
Logos is a Greek word that derives from the English word, Logic. It appeals to the audiences’ rationale or reasoning. As a persuasive speaker, your role is to present the necessary steps (or facts) in your argument so that your audience arrives at a logical conclusion themselves.
Logos is used in advertising all the time to convince people to buy. They often use facts to back up their point, such as “You get 100% of your vitamin D from a glass of milk,” or “an hour of play helps prevent childhood obesity.”
Your message needs to have a strong argument and be logical for your audience to follow.
Let me share some practical ways to demonstrate Logos in your speech:
See AlsoEasy ways to persuade people- Use visuals: If the context allows, effective visual aids are powerful in allowing the audience to easily understand your message through visual facts and graphs that back up your point.
- Be as explicit as possible: Using examples and comparisons with facts the audience may already be familiar with.
- Repeat facts that are in line with your argument to reiterate your ONE BIG MESSAGE®
Pathos
No matter how logically sound your message is, Logos alone will not invite your audience to take action – you need pathos.
Pathos is all about emotional impact. It’s the ability to persuade by appealing to your audience’s emotions.
Some of the most memorable and persuasive speeches I’ve heard have used lots of Pathos, stirring up incredible emotions that compelled me to change my thinking or take action. I would say that pathos is the hardest, yet most powerful thing to get right in persuasive speaking.
The most powerful way to achieve pathos is by telling stories.
- Identify which emotion(s) you want your audience to feel and the highlight areas of your speech that are going to draw on this emotion.
- Show passion and emotion yourself in a way that feels natural to you. It doesn’t need to be overly dramatic, but by genuinely feeling that emotion yourself, you will influence your audience too.
- Articulate your WHY: This is your reason why anyone should care about what you have to say. Make it relevant and timely to the HERE and NOW.
To make sure you achieve the right balance of Ethos, Logos and Pathos, ask yourself: Does the audience respect you? Does your message evoke emotions? Does your ONE BIG MESSAGE® make sense? If you can answer yes to all three questions, you’re well on your way to persuading your audience.
If you want to really improve your persuasive communication techniques, enrol on my online course “The Art of Persuasive Speaking in Global Business” where I delve deeper into the practical detail of how to apply Ethos, Logos, and Pathos to your presentations.
