One of the most powerful truths about advertising and human behavior is that people make their buying decisions based on emotion and then justify their decisions with logic. For your ads to be most effective, make sure your ads are pushing your prospect’s emotional ‘hot buttons’ or they will lack the magnetism to compel your prospect to take action.
How do you do that?
This is where market research and knowing what matters most to your prospect comes in, because in order to push someone’s emotional hot spots, which are inherently linked to their deepest desires, you first need to know what they are.
Let’s use the men’s razor industry as an example to illustrate what we mean:
The men’s razor industry is known for a distinctive advertising style that drives the emotional triggers of its target quite unabashedly. In this highly competitive industry, the hot spot is almost always sexual desire or attention from beautiful women.
A typical ad like this might start with a man standing in front of the mirror, shaving his face and looking impressed with the close shave he just got and how good he looks as a result. Next, for one reason or another, the man is often suggestively admired by a beautiful woman because of how irresistible he now is because she used this particular razor.
Words like “look your best,” “a cut above,” or “the best a man can get” do not so much suggest that this man will improve his business performance in a meeting he is about to attend, but rather your success. He will surely have his very attractive female colleagues who will be there with him!
Does a particular razor manufacturer really make a man look more attractive to beautiful women than other brands?
Not likely.
But what every maker of razors, beer, and even cars knows for a fact is that by showing images of what men want most (usually sex and being desired by beautiful women) in their ads, they effectively link the fulfillment of this powerful emotional desire with their product. And by doing so, your ads achieve better response rates and ultimately sell more razors.
Does this mean that in order to sell more of your own product or service you need to use images of beautiful women in your ads? Not necessarily. But it does mean that you need to pay close attention to who your target audience is and what emotions they naturally associate with your product.
For example, if you sell infant car seats, you can appeal to a mother’s need for her child’s safety by describing the material as “protective and impact resistant.” If she is selling a sports car to a young man, one of her emotional triggers might be a need for admiration from peers, so she might use words like “the envy of all road warriors…”
But on the other side of the decision coin is always ‘logic’.
Although people are driven to make their decisions by the emotional attachment they have to certain products, if they can’t find logical reasons to support their decision, they may still walk away.
Why? Because although all people love to shop, nobody likes to be sold. That is why having other logical reasons to justify the decision and showing that it also makes practical or economic sense is essential to close the sale. People need logic to finalize their emotional buying decisions.
So when you write any type of sales copy, remember these two proven copywriting tips:
1. To make your ads more effective, push your prospect’s emotional buttons by highlighting the specific benefits of your product and placing them in a way that emotionally links your buyer’s wants directly to your product. And later…
2. Support the emotional decision your prospect is reaching with a healthy dose of logical reasons why they should buy.