For the head, for the heart.
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Bonjour. ¡Buenos dias. Guten morgen. Zǎo ān. And good morning.
How is your day shaping up so far, |NAME|?
For many of us today, it’s common to be reaching out to audiences where someone’s native tongue is not English.
And even where English does happen to be the primary language being spoken, many are thinking about what you’re saying in another language.
Have a look at your own client list. Odds are good that it’s like mine in that you’re at very least communicating to two language groups. Sometimes even more.
Take for instance the speechwriting (http://thinkitcreative.com/blog/better-speechwriter-and-public-speaker-think-like-a-spy/) and web copywriting (http://thinkitcreative.com/portfolio/web-copywriting-and-seo/) work I do in Canada. In the vast majority of cases, I’m writing for both francophone and anglophone audiences. For my clients on the Pacific coast, Cantonese and Mandarin often come into play. For my American clients, the growing Hispanic and Latino populations are key audiences.
Business is more multilingual today than ever before. Yours is no exception.
And when it comes to earning and sustaining the attention of your audience, there are some really important points you need to keep in mind.
Framing is everywhere
In speechwriting—and business writing of all kinds, really—framing (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/insight-therapy/201012/framing-your-most-important-and-least-recognized-daily-mental-activity) is a time-honoured tool used in the art of persuasion. We’re exposed to it daily. It’s rooted in generations of behavioural studies that say when presented with a choice, people tend to favour the one that represents a gain, rather than the one that suggests a risk of a loss.
For instance, let’s say you’re at the hardware store and you’re trying to decide between two similar yard tools. The first one promises a 98% reliability rate against breaking. The other one boasts a 2% breakage rate. Even through we know this adds up to the same thing, framing makes the first choice seem more inviting. The fancy term for this is choice asymmetry.
It’s why copywriters always talk about the importance of communicating in benefits ahead of features. It’s why speechwriters are more prone to package compelling points as gains rather than as mitigating risk.
But what happens when your audience consists of people whose first language is other than English? Well, some interesting things occur. And that takes me to my second key point.
Framing can vanish (!)
This study (http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2012/04/25/thinking-foreign-language-helps-economic-decision-making) by the University of Chicago suggests that the asymmetry that we all rely on to be persuasive tends to disappear when a person makes decisions in a foreign language.
In other words: people are more rational and less prone to be swayed by emotions if they are listening to what you have to say in one language and processing it in another.
This has two interesting implications for speechwriting, copywriting and business writing of all kinds. First, if you rely on traditional framing in your message, it’s less likely to make an emotional benefit seem attractive to many in your audience. But just as important, it means that people are more likely to be open to taking favourable risks, provided you can back it with solid data and compelling reasons.
So don’t be afraid to weigh the facts for your increasingly multilingual audiences, |NAME|.
Write for the head as much as you do for the heart: appeal as much to reason as you do to emotions.
That’s the secret to bolder storytelling today.
Very best, Patrick
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