The Elaboration Likelihood Method in Practice
How Audiences and Persuasion Go Hand In Hand
As a media practitioner, it is important to understand how your audience will acknowledge, consider, and respond to the messages you send them. You must be able to truly know your audience and know the ways they receive information best. This is necessary to meeting the audience where they are and presenting information or messages that resonate the most to them in an appealing way and allow them to think about the messages presented.
Persuasion in advertising is key to making a sale or getting the audience to take your side. There are different ways to persuade audiences and influence them to take the desired action. The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion observes how individuals process the information being shared with them. The central route is rooted in logical motivation and requires audience to evaluate a message and engage with the information. The other path of processing information is the peripheral route. In this route, the audience is less analytical and, instead, finds persuasion from outside cues such as credibility, emotions, or celebrity or influencer endorsements. The peripheral route tends to associate the product or message with positive characteristics as opposed to facts and analytics. The variables that are used to influence one’s thinking can increase or decrease persuasion towards the desired result.
Therefore, knowing your audience and their relationship with your product, brand, or company is helpful to determining how to reach them most effectively. For instance, if they are highly engaged and pay close attention to your messaging, they may be persuaded to purchase new products most effectively best through your own advertising via the central route. On the other hand, if your product or business does not receive a ton of user engagement, or you are trying to change an audience’s viewpoint on your product, partnering with a celebrity influencer or sharing customer testimonials may foster a change of attitude toward your business by utilizing the peripheral route.
Sometimes all a customer needs is that final push and change of attitude to pull the trigger and make a purchase, buy into a marketing campaign, or sign up as a loyal customer. Utilizing different methods within the elaboration likelihood model can alter the way individuals think and influence their persuasion.
