The Way to My Heart (Emotions and Copywriting Strategy)

Todays topic is an essential part of copywriting strategy.

How do you play on emotions with your copywriting?

The song that comes to my mind when I think of the best love song of all time is “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan. Now I know, the combination of her piano playing and unbelievable voice could make you want to slow dance with your significant other to a remix of  “There’s something in the Fridge” by Weird Al Yankovic. That’s not my point. The point is, that her copywriting ability is beyond most artists.

In the song “Angel” she pulls at your emotions, painting a picture of ecstasy in the midst of despair. You feel what she wants you to feel. This is the essence of good copywriting strategy. The same thinking that led to creating a song that my wife and I chose to dance to at our wedding, is what you want to do with the words in your copy.

When you write something, don’t give me a version from the Encyclopedia Britannica. I want to feel something when I read. Whether you make me laugh or tick me off, if my emotions are involved I will continue to read. I don’t want to be remembered for writing an encyclopedia, I want people to feel something when they hear the name Chris Owen. Feelings bring back memories, and memories stick for the long haul.

It is not always simple to keep someone hanging on every word, especially when you put out a lot of material. You can keep your readers involved though, just by playing to emotions in your copy. So here are some emotional tips for copywriting strategy.

1. Add a little humor. My last post was titled “Get Your Tail Behind You”, and was about using a funded proposal marketing system instead of leading with your back end (your primary opportunity). It left me wide open to use a little humor in the copy, and got me a compliment by email from master copywriter David Garfinkel. A man I totally respect and the co-founder of the Copywriters Guild. Just find a theme and stick with it. Your readers will love it.
2. Play on Fear. Sometimes fear based copy can get great results. For a promo brochure I worked on recently for a congressional campaign I used the headline, “Your Freedom Was Sold”. It stirs up feelings that are running deep in the minds of many Americans today. And the text throughout sticks with the fear based headline. Building on the emotion that made you want to read it to begin with.
3. Go for their heart. Use something inspirational and uplifting. People like to feel good. Reading an inspirational story can take hold of their heart and brand you to their memory. A post I recently placed on this site, “Sometimes Motivation Sucks”, talks about my experience of being injured in Iraq and spending the next year and a half learning to walk again. In the end I wrote about running along side my 4 year old as he road his bike without training wheels for the first time.
4. Yen and Yang. Write something enlightening. Tell a story or give advice that makes people say to themselves, “I never knew that”. I wrote an article about Beethoven recently, and when my wife finished reading it, those were her exact words. “I never knew that about Beethoven. “
5. Teach Something. Always give your readers a lesson. Give them something they can take away and use. If you give your readers something they can go use right away, and keep using, they will remember you.

This type of copywriting strategy, in action, is the fastest way to build a brand. Branding yourself and your business is essential when marketing in a world this crowded. Everyone wants to be known. To stand out you have to be different and tug at peoples emotions.

If you are new to all of this, or if your personality leans strongly towards one specific emotion, stick with it. Later you may want to branch out, but maybe not if it becomes a part of your Brand. Who is Chris Owen? Is he a comedian? Will he enlighten me? Think this way about yourself when you begin to write. I like to hit several area’s depending on what I am writing.

The one thing you don’t want to do is mix emotions too much. When working with a client recently, to gain better conversions from his sales funnel, I noticed some extremes in emotion shifting. The landing page started with a video of a computer geek type guy talking about the system from his point of view. It was a nice stand alone to get some opt-ins. But once you moved on to the sales page, it was laid out to show you achieving rock star status. With enough graphics to set off a seizure in a prospect with epilepsy.

You can be extreme, but don’t be two extremes. It will turn people off quickly. I don’t want people to think Chris Owen is bi-polar, and you should feel the same way. Instability in the emotions your  prospects feel when going through your sales funnel, will lead to a lack of confidence in you as a leader. So you may get the leads, but you won’t get the sales.

Put this to work today. Go through your ads and sales pages. Tweak the emotional content to fit what you want your prospects to feel. I guarantee better conversions. Start thinking copywriting strategy, instead of just quality and value, and it will pay off.

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Chris Owen

P.S. I love comments. Tell me what you thought of this, or ask a follow up question. I respond to all comments and love to keep the conversation going.