The 3 steps for writing persuasive internal emails

Generative AI may help you automate draft copy, edit what you’ve written or tweak the language to the personas you ask it to, but there’s still no one who understands internal stakeholders like communicators (for the time being).

The ability to write persuasively still falls squarely on your judgment, discretion and knowledge of the cultural nuances that help your workforce engage and thrive.

Earlier this year, writing coach and author Jack E. Appleman joined Ragan to explain his three steps of persuasive writing.

Here’s what we learned

An evergreen acronym among journalists, WIIFM prompts you to think about everything you write through an audience-first lens.

Appleman began with an example of sending an internal email to convince a team to learn a new course-booking system. The email might begin:

We’ve introduced a new course-booking system. An online training module is now available.

“The average employee says, ‘Forget about it, leave me alone. I’m not learning any new system, I have no time,’” he said. “Why? Because you’ve given the average employee no time to learn it.”

Regrouping from an audience and goal-minded approach, however, allows you to pull out the team member WIIFMs: to save time and simplify the course-booking process.