Using Emotion for Persuasion

Written by Robert F. Abbott


Using Emotion for Persuasion

By: Robert F. Abbott

The other day, I receivedrepparttar last issue of a business magazine before my subscription runs out. Now, I like this magazine, but I'm swamped with reading matter so I won't renew.

Of course, I've received many reminders and offers about renewing; magazines try very hard to keeprepparttar 108112 subscribers they've got. So whenrepparttar 108113 last issue came with a special promotional wrapper onrepparttar 108114 cover, I wasn't surprised.

But, what made this one interesting was a clever piece of copy that hit an emotional chord: insiderepparttar 108115 back cover ofrepparttar 108116 special wrapper wererepparttar 108117 words, "You're about to be dropped from our list of active subscribers. Unless you act now."

Personally, I thought it was an effective piece of copy (even though I still won't renew). It made an emotional case for what is essentially a business-to-business offer.

Many people who write persuasive copy, whether in sales letters or internal memos, sayrepparttar 108118 rest of us underestimaterepparttar 108119 power of emotion in gettingrepparttar 108120 response we want from our messages.

There's a sort of rule of thumb that goes like this: Consumers buy on emotion and justify on reason. In other words, we, as buyers, think we're being rational in making a decision to purchase, or in choosing among different offers, but in reality we makerepparttar 108121 decision with our hearts and then justify that decision with our reasoning powers.

Inrepparttar 108122 case ofrepparttar 108123 magazine copy, I was about to be dropped -- Imagine! Me being dropped! -- fromrepparttar 108124 list of active subscribers. I'm not sure what active subscribers are: do they also have passive subscribers? But,repparttar 108125 meaning comes through. I'm about to get dropped from an exclusive club unless I act now.

Get 'em Clicking with Good Ad Copy!

Written by Linda Offenheiser


Never mind if you haven’t had good response from your ads in repparttar past. That doesn’t matter. You can learn how to write an ad that will have people clicking their little fingers off! I’m going to teach you how to do that right now.

We all know how importantrepparttar 108111 headline is. We also know it’s repparttar 108112 hardest part ofrepparttar 108113 ad to write. So we’re going to leave that until last. Know why? Because you can spend so much time creatingrepparttar 108114 perfect headline that you never get torepparttar 108115 ad itself. Besides that, if we leave it until last we’ll be writing a headline that goes withrepparttar 108116 ad, not an ad that goes with a headline.

Okay, so what’s our first step going to be then? We're going to define our ideal customer, get inside her skin and find out who she is, what she's looking for, what she wants. This is very important because if we don't have this information, who are we going to write our ad to? Are we just going to send it out into cyberspace with no destination in mind? Not if we want response we aren't.

Now that we know who we're directing our ad to,repparttar 108117 second step is to list allrepparttar 108118 ways our ideal customer will benefit fromrepparttar 108119 program, product or service that we’re promoting. Notice I referred to benefits, not features.

The Focus is on Benefits . . .

There is a big and important difference here. Benefits tell people “what’s in it for them”. Benefits tell them what they will gain from your product. Features, onrepparttar 108120 other hand, are things that describe your product.

For example, let’s pretend that you’re promoting cell phones. A feature ofrepparttar 108121 cell phone is that it has an extra long-lasting battery. A benefit ofrepparttar 108122 phone is thatrepparttar 108123 purchaser can talk longer with her pals without having to worry aboutrepparttar 108124 phone dying.

Another feature might berepparttar 108125 unique design. The corresponding benefit would then be that, not only can you talk longer, you’re more comfortable while you’re talking. Benefits are things that appeal torepparttar 108126 emotions and that’s usually what makes a person buy.

Okay, now we know we have our list of benefits. Next, we're going to choose which benefits to focus on. If we're writing a small classified or ezine ad we'll choose only one benefit and concentrate on that. With longer solo ads we could choose several benefits. We're going to write an ezine ad today butrepparttar 108127 same guidelines apply to any ad you need to write.

Write like you talk . . .

If we want our ad to be interesting we need to write in terms that everyone can understand. Leave allrepparttar 108128 $50 words in repparttar 108129 dictionary and just use a conversational tone. We aren't writingrepparttar 108130 ad to impress people with our vocabulary; we're writing it to appeal to their emotions. A stiff, formal tone isn't going to do that.

So . . . we're going to write like we were talking to a friend. We're going to use short, punchy sentences and omit any words that we don't positively need. Remember, we only have a few lines to convince our ideal customer that she wants to click on our link and learn more. We have to choose our words carefully and make each one of them count!

Don't use an ad to sell your product . . .

The purpose ofrepparttar 108131 ad is just to get our ideal customer to our site. We aren't trying to sell her on our product ~ that'srepparttar 108132 job ofrepparttar 108133 sales page. We're simply putting her in a "buying" frame of mind. We're creating interest and leaving her wanting to find out more about our product. That isrepparttar 108134 sole purpose of our ad.

Just start writing . . .

Now we're ready to start writing. The best way to do that is just to start writing without thought of how it's going to sound, spelling, puctuation or any of that stuff. We're just going to write down what comes into our minds. Okay, ready?

We might end up with something like this:

If you want to talk all night with your best friend, you don't want to worry aboutrepparttar 108135 battery on your cell phone dying. You want to know that you aren't going to miss allrepparttar 108136 juicy details of her dinner date with a new guy. You wantrepparttar 108137 confidence that you won't lose your connection inrepparttar 108138 middle of her story. That won't be a problem withrepparttar 108139 new XYZ cell phone. Check it out here and see how it meets your needs.

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