Get Out of Your Head
When you’re writing to sell, facts and figures are great–as a supporting actor. But you can’t load down a letter, presentation or anything with numbers and think that will do the job. If you’re looking to persuade people to act, you need the other part of the Reese’s cup–emotion.
The movement to convince people to stop smoking is a perfect example. You’d have to be living under a rock the size of the Grand Canyon to say you’ve never heard that smoking significantly ups your chance of getting lung cancer. Anyone else remember those “don’t be a dragon lady” commercials from the 1980’s? Yet thousands of people are still lighting up their first cigarette every day.
Lately, anti-smoking campaigns have been making a dent with ads that show people talking about having lung cancer or a loved one with lung cancer, or even showing someone with speaking with a digital voice box. Facts are easy to dismiss–”It won’t happen to me.” But the emotional appeal makes it more real. And that’s true whether you’re trying to show the consequences or benefits of doing something.
Every significant buying decision we make has some type of emotion wrapped up into it. (Even some insignificant ones–such as when you buy something at the grocery store because your mom used to always buy it.)
For example, Take something as mundane as an office copier. What do you think the office manager is looking for when buying a new one for the office? Good price, great features, reliability? All three of those things, and several companies could probably meet those needs. But what’s going to get her to buy your copier? What is she ultimately looking for? Relief.
Relief from employee’s complaints, from the frustration of having to interrupt something else she was doing to figure out why it jammed again, and from the stress of not being able to locate a repair person when it breaks down in the middle of tax season. And maybe she’d also like to feel like the office hero for a day–getting this great new copier everyone loves, which gets the boss’ reports done faster, and comes in under budget.
There’s a reason the adage is “Facts tell but emotion sells.” Your case will always be more compelling with both.
Posted: June 11th, 2008 under Copywriting, Magnetic Messages, Savvy Marketing.
Comments: 6
Comments
Comment from Warren Whitlock
Time: June 11, 2008, 2:11 am
I once interviewed influence expert Kevin Hogan about emotions.
He said “97% of people buy on emotion”
My reply “and the other 3% buy to feel rational”
It’s all emotion
Comment from Dr Wright
Time: June 11, 2008, 2:26 am
I think a lot of us are concerned that we will use some tired old line when we try to go for the emotion. We don’t want to sound corny.
Dr. Wright
http://www.wrightplacetv.com
Comment from Mark Gilbert
Time: June 11, 2008, 3:17 am
It’s always so easy to forget that people buy benefits not features. We get so wrapped up describing HOW our widget works, while forgetting that the prospect wants to know WHAT IT MEANS TO ME!
Appealing to the emotions tells your prospects WHAT your widget means to THEM, instead of HOW the darn thing works. Although it’s important to know HOW the darn widget works, what means more to the reader is HOW the darn widget will benefit them.
Comment from Tracy Needham
Time: June 11, 2008, 2:27 pm
Warren–completely true! Although many shy away from the “e” word when it comes to B2B marketing, it’s still true. There’s something underlying the purchase or they wouldn’t care enough to make it!
Dr. Wright–I can certainly understand that concern, I think the trick is to sound authentic, and not trite. Is this something you’d feel comfortable saying to a friend? Also, asking questions to provoke an emotional response is another option.
Mark–So true but often we don’t go far enough into figuring out what it means to them. It’s one thing to talk about how this widget will save them time–it’s another to talk about (or imply) how it’ll give them more time with their kids. The second is how they’ll ultimately benefit, and that’s what they’d pay almost anything for.
Comment from Jeremy
Time: October 1, 2008, 8:41 pm
Man! For a while there, I thought my bro and I were the only ones that remembered the “dragon lady” commercials! In fact, we have an old family video where my brother’s singing “don’t you smoke, you dragon lady!” LOL!
I like the above comment (about people in sales being more wrapped up in how a product works, than realizing what it means to the customer) and think it is so true.
A common market technique, is to play on the “need” of “keeping up with the Joneses.” People may feel like they are behind in the times, if they don’t have the newest, or the same gadgets (for example) that others have. Emphasizing this tends to play on American’s emotions and produce sales.
Comment from Tracy Needham
Time: October 7, 2008, 1:34 pm
Are you kidding–those are legendary! Those and the “This is your brain on drugs–any questions?” which I believe are on YouTube.
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