Secret Sauce: How to Pack Your Messages with Persuasive Punch

  • 1h 7m
  • Harry Mills
  • AMACOM
  • 2017

The new rules for persuasive messaging.

When it comes to messaging, what worked in the past won’t work today. Our noisy, digital world has undermined our ability to focus.

For a message to grab attention and persuade, it now has to pass the SAUCE test and be: Simple, Appealing, Unexpected, Credible, and Emotional.

Secret Sauce shows you how to transform unconvincing messages into compelling copy. It comes with a 15-question SAUCE test and a Heat Gauge which allows you to precisely measure the persuasive impact of your messages. Short, easy to read, and packed with visuals, Secret Sauce provides:

Clear examples of what works and what doesn’t • Fascinating insights from behavioral and neurological research • Powerful lessons from successful and failed campaigns

Less than 10 percent of marketing messages are truly compelling—engaging the head and heart. Secret Sauce helps you weed out the clutter and craft messages that stick.

About the Author

HARRY MILLS is founder and CEO of Aha! Advantage, an international consulting and training firm whose clients include Unilever, IBM, Toyota, Oracle, and Astra Zeneca. An in-demand speaker, he is the persuasion expert at Harvard Business Review’s Manage/Mentor program and author of Artful Persuasion, The Rainmaker’s Toolkit, and other notable books.

In this Book

  • Secret Sauce: The Magic Recipe for Measuring Persuasive Impact
  • Simple: One Central Truth, Easy to Grasp and Picture
  • Appealing: Different, Valuable, and Personalized
  • Unexpected: Surprising, Intriguing, and Seductive
  • Credible: Trusted, Transparent, and Verifiable
  • Emotional: Warm, Arousing, and Plot-Driven
  • The SAUCE Persuasive Impact Test
  • Predict, Test, Learn: Lessons from J.C. Penney
  • Make it Easy, Make it Effortless: Don't Make it Hard to Say Yes
  • Message Magic in the Twenty-First Century: Lessons from BuzzFeed
  • The Power of Situations: How Context Shapes the Way We Behave
  • The Confirmation Bias: The Mother of All Misconceptions
  • Framing: It's Not What You Say—It's How You Say It
  • Social Proof: Everyone Is Doing It
SHOW MORE
FREE ACCESS

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Book MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Beware the Pitfalls of Agility
Book MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Why Text-to-Image AI Requires a New Branding Mindset
Book Using Semiotics in Marketing: How to Achieve Consumer Insight for Brand Growth and Profits, 2nd Edition