When I say copy needs to have emotion, I’m not saying it has to sound like a Hallmark card commercial.

There are A LOT of emotions that can come into play based on what you’re selling…feeling proud, excited, anxious, angry, defeated, energized, relieved, annoyed, overjoyed, surprised…the list goes on and on.

But you need to know two things about your prospects:

1. WHY your audience really wants what you’re offering
2. WHAT you should NEVER make them feel

And then you have to know how to weave emotions effectively into your copy.

To make the lesson more fun, I’m going to share my thoughts about a sales page for an info product on “eating for your body type” I recently reviewed.

Turning Them Off at Hello

Headlines have to immediately spark the reader’s interest and make them eager to find out more. So making them feel pain is good. Getting them excited is good. But landing somewhere in the middle–not so good.

The headline started off OK by offering a promising the program will give you “more than enough energy.” You could say that a bit snappier but still, who wouldn’t want more energy? Also, the word “energy” conveys a degree of excitement.

But then it went on…suggesting you could use that energy “to get through your chores.”

Chores is definite a mood-killer. Chores are annoying. And they put the reader in a negative “have-to-but-don’t-want-to” mindset–which is a big problem since that’s also how most people feel about eating healthier.

Just tweaking it to having enough energy to “power you through the day” improves the headline immensely. Power is much stronger and more positive than “get through” and the phrase itself could be referring to anything from chores to surfing the waves on a Hawaiian beach.

It would also help to pull one or two other benefits from testimonials–such as lowering stress and effortlessly losing body fat–to ramp up the sales appeal.

Too Much Logic Leads to Nap Time

The rest of the copy focused heavily on nutrition and eating healthy. Yawn. We all know it’s good for you–but who gets excited about good nutrition? Virtually no one chooses to eat healthy for the sake of eating healthy.

If you want to motivate people to buy–or even keep reading–choose benefits that tap their desires and reflect what they really want. In this case, it may things such as:

• Reflecting back on all you’ve been able to accomplish that day
• Smiling as you notice your favorite pair of pants feel much more comfortable now
• Awakening each day refreshed and raring to go
• Happily chasing the kids around the yard without getting winded

While I could refine and tweak these more, you should be able to see how getting more specific and choosing words carefully helps you evoke emotions in a very subtle yet powerful way. The result–they’re MUCH more likely to keep reading and buy.

That’s not to say you always have to use positive emotions. As I said, pain can be a pretty compelling motivator too. But again, getting more specific and choosing words that are more “charged” than “neutral” will go a long way in getting the results you want from your copy.

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