Want to make your statements stick in your audience’s minds and also prompt them to act on the spot?
Let’s start with a real-life example and data to enlighten the question further.
Have you ever said something to someone and that person doesn’t believe what you say?
Or maybe someone asked you where you got your opinion from or how it was formed
And if you didn’t give them a worthy answer, they most likely brushed your viewpoint off, claiming it was worthless.
Sound familiar?
If so, then you may have presented your opinions and ideas without the essence of reasoning and rhetoric.
That’s how it is — people trust information that comes from authentic sources or data that comes from proven studies and research.
LOGOS DEFINITION
What Is Logos?
In rhetoric, Logos is the persuasive power of an argument that derives from logical reasoning.
When you are trying to persuade someone, you want to make sure they think about what you are saying logically or reason through their thoughts before deciding on a course of action.
Logos is persuasive because it appeals to the intellect, rationality, and reason. A good argument contains logos by using facts or data to support the idea without attacking the opponent’s position.
The three main types of rhetoric are Logos (logic), Ethos (character), and Pathos (emotion).
Logos – An Introduction
Simply put, people believe ideas and arguments that are backed up with concrete evidence.
And as for the ones that aren’t, they simply ignore them without a second thought.
Fortunately, the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, came up with the three persuasive techniques that convince people: pathos, ethos, and logos. They were founded 2000 years ago, and they are still effective to this day.
Out of this trio, logos is the one that’s tilted towards your issue and is also the one that solves it.
Do you want to know more about this concept?
If so, I’m going to tell you all you need to know about logos. You will know it in and out, and also, you will have a solid take on this concept that will enable you to use it in real life.
What Is Logos?
Logos is the persuasive technique that convinces people with logic and reasoning. To do so, it uses facts, statistics, graphs, and charts to prove its authority which, in turn, will help convince an audience.
Contrary to the other persuasive appeals, this one is all about establishing authority to make you come off as authentic.
That’s why it uses well-thought statements or arguments that are already proven to grab your audience’s attention.
People are more likely to trust ideas that correspond well to their logic, not ones that are farther from their reasoning.
That, in turn, will win over an audience.
That’s all there is to logos. As you can see, it’s nothing fancy or complicated.
Here’s our video breakdown of ethos, pathos, logos and what each one means:
Understanding The Other 2 Persuasive Appeals
Logos is good, but if you use it alone, it won’t make your advertising reach full potential. You need a perfect balance of the 3 techniques to spice up your persuasion.
That’s why you must know about the other modes of persuasion before I explain logos further.
Here are the other modes of persuasion explained in a nutshell:
Ethos
This one focuses on conveying credibility to an audience to convince them to act on your offer.
There are many methods it uses to boost credibility, for instance, the use of public figures to endorse a product or testimonials and reviews.
These methods increase a brand’s credibility, which makes it more trustworthy for people.
Pathos
This persuasive appeal convinces people through their emotions. People are prone to act on how they feel, and that’s why there is the ethos — it sympathizes with their feelings to trigger them to act on your offer.
Importance Of Logos
Now you know what logos is all about. Given its definition, there is no doubt it can increase the persuasion of your ads.
Right now, I’m going to enlighten you on how it can be crucial to your advertising and also your brand’s growth.
Authority And Professionalism
When you showcase logos in your advertising or speech, you will be using facts, statistics, or basic logic to support your viewpoints.
The thing is: it makes you come off as an authority in your field. You will be perceived as an expert, and also, people will appreciate your vast knowledge.
As a result, you will create a sense of professionalism since you will look knowledgeable.
People trust experts, not rookies who claim they know everything but can’t back it up.
That’s what logos does for you — it helps you come off as more authoritative, which will boost your persuasiveness.
Adds To Your Credibility
Since you will have more authority in your field, you will establish authenticity. As I mentioned before, people trust experts in a field.
As you will use logos to level up your persuasion, you will come off as a professional. That means people will trust you more as you will be genuine.
Because of that, you will have more credibility, which will make your advertising more persuasive.
Limitations Of Logos
Logos is incredibly useful, but it has its flaws.
One of such is that everyone isn’t reasonable. Logos focuses on the logical reasoning of people, but if some don’t have that logic, you will have problems with them.
How can you convey your authority to someone who doesn’t even have an idea about what you are saying?
It’s worthless — your logical reasoning won’t work on that person. In turn, that means logos won’t persuade them.
As far as Logos goes, lack of logical reasoning is the only drawback of this technique.
How To Use Logos In Your Advertising?
Now you are aware of the definition of logos, its benefits, and drawbacks. Seeing that logos is useful to your advertising, you are probably itching to know how you can incorporate the technique to boost your convincingness.
Fortunately for you, it’s simple to do so. There are many ways you can do that, and some of them are below:
Use Facts And Statistics
Here is the thing: if you don’t back your claims when advertising, people will assume they are fictional. Your audience will guess what you say is made-up, up and is only there to persuade them to act on your appeal.
When that happens, your advertising won’t convert. It would be bad, and it can massively reduce your persuasiveness.
How then can you avoid that?
It’s simple — use facts and statistics.
If you use facts and statistics to back up your statements, people will logically understand what you mean. You will be making a promise and telling your audience what they should expect to get from your offer.
To make it even more compelling, if the facts are backed up by proper research, people will trust you more. What you say will have gone through trial and error to finally come to a worthy conclusion.
That will add up greatly to your credibility, and as a result, you will persuade people to act on your offer.
Use Basic Logic To Illustrate Your Product
Clarify to your audience how your offer can help them with basic logic and reasoning.
When you are outlining your benefits to them, don’t tell them simple statements. Go a step further by showing them how exactly your product can be a huge help to their lives.
Tell them all the details about your appeal. In turn, it will lead your audience to think of functional reasons as to why they need your offer.
With that in mind, your ads will be more compelling and meaningful.
Use Examples
Examples are often overlooked, yet their effectiveness can’t be doubted.
Here is how examples can be effective in boosting persuasion in your advertising:
- Make statements clearer.
- Give your audience more information.
- Helps your audience apply your offer or ideas in the right way in real-life situations.
With all this in mind, we can conclude examples are a good way to showcase logos in your advertising. They can help your audience understand the message you are presenting to them.
So go ahead — use them more. Instead of explaining your offer’s benefits, move a step further by giving a real-life example of a story.
Some people think examples are worthless, but trust me, they aren’t. They are effective, and they can increase the persuasion of your ads.
Use Quotes From Experts
The use of quotes is something else that’s often neglected, yet they are effective in showing logos in your advertising.
Quotes from popular experts work because people trust those professionals.
For instance, you say your statements and back them up with Albert Einstein’s quotes.
What do you think will happen?
It’s simple — people will trust what you say because they trust Einstein.
The use of quotes will reinforce and clarify your ideas. They will appear more reasonable to your audience and in turn, that will help you persuade them.
How Do Brands Use Logos?
Big brands use logos since they are aware of this technique’s effectiveness. They state facts and logical reasons in a way that draws people’s attention.
An example of logos in use is a speech by Barack Obama on the State of Union Address in 2015.
This example isn’t tilted to advertising, but it’s a political speech that was meant to compel people and assure them of the nation’s good health.
To back up his claims, Obama used economic data from the past years and they all showed a substantial boost in the economy. Using those statistics strengthened his arguments, and undoubtedly, it was convincing to the audience.
Another example of a brand that uses logos well in its ads is Samsung.
Have you ever seen ads or commercials made by this popular cell phone manufacturer?
All of them use logos rhetoric. Yes, logos used alone may seem boring, but Samsung does a good job when it comes to using this technique.
The videos are shot perfectly and the music is on point. All of that makes the commercial look flashy, and that adds up to the logos appeal effectiveness.
Logos – Final Thoughts
You have got all you need to know about the logos appeal. It’s an effective technique you shouldn’t ignore.
So go ahead — use it more often on your ads, commercials, sales copy, or speech. You will grab people’s attention, and they will trust your claims.
But remember to use it alongside the other rhetoric appeals. Of course, logos can work on its own, but it doesn’t have to.
As I already mentioned, your advertising is more persuasive when you use all the elements of the rhetoric appeal.
With all of them combined, you will persuade your audience to act on your offer or follow your idea.
