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Persuasive Communication: What Makes Messages Persuasive?

Understand what makes message persuasive and learn how to develop more persuasive messaging for PR, marketing and advertising.

13,991 enrolled on this course

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  • Duration

    3 weeks
  • Weekly study

    2 hours

Understand what makes message persuasive and how to develop persuasive messaging

What makes one message more convincing than another? In a noisy world, knowing the answer to this question is crucial. In this course you will discover the processes strategic communication professionals in fields such as public relations, marketing and advertising use to develop persuasive communication. More importantly you will learn strategies for evaluating your own organization’s efforts at developing more persuasive messaging strategies.

What topics will you cover?

  • What is strategic communication
  • What are “persuasive campaigns” and “persuasive messages.”
  • Tailoring messages to specific audiences
  • Message factors that impact message persuasiveness
  • How media choice impacts persuasiveness
  • Assessing and evaluating message effectiveness.

The Brian Lamb School of Communication is one of the world’s leading communication programs. The lead instructor, Dr. Bart Collins, directs the Lamb School’s Master of Science program in Communication, and the graduate certificate program in strategic communication management. He also teaches coursework in principles of persuasion and social influence.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 2 seconds Hello. I’m Bart Collins and I’m with the Brian Lamb School of Communication in Purdue University. And in this three week course we’re gonna spend a lot of time talking about components of the persuasive process. But in a nutshell, persuasions about changing strategically and systematically in the context that we’re talking about. Either beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors in a target population. And this involves the systematic development of persuasive messages or even collection of messages what we might call campaigns. Over the next three weeks our goal is to introduce you to this concept of persuasion in strategic communication concepts, such as PR marketing and advertising through short lectures, recommended readings, and even insights from industry professionals.

Skip to 0 minutes and 52 seconds We hope to help you understand some of the basic ideas associated with persuasion, and how you can apply these concepts, in your own organization to help improve the type of work you’re doing.

What topics will you cover?

  • What is strategic communication
  • What are “persuasive campaigns” and “persuasive messages.”
  • Tailoring messages to specific audiences
  • Message factors that impact message persuasiveness
  • How media choice impacts persuasiveness
  • Assessing and evaluating message effectiveness.

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Describe the key elements of a persuasive message
  • Identify audience characteristics that need to be taken into account in persuasive message design
  • Evaluate message strategies that are most likely to be persuasive in a given situation
  • Identify media that will maximize message effectiveness
  • Develop strategies for measuring campaign and messaging success

Who is the course for?

The course is ideal for anyone considering postgraduate study, such as Purdue’s three-course online Graduate Certificate in Strategic Communication Management or ten-course online Master of Science in Communication.

What do people say about this course?

"This course was really helpful to me and it's been the first time I really understood some mechanisms behind strategic communication. I've learned a lot and I will apply it in my own (small) business. Thank you, Dr Collins, staff and fellow students! "

Who will you learn with?

Bart Collins is a faculty member in the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. He serves as Lamb School's Director of Graduate Studies.

Who developed the course?

Purdue University

One of the four best public universities in the US, Purdue delivers an engaging learning experience and a world-class degree.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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