Emotional Appeal in Copywriting: Captivate, Connect, Convert
When I injured my back lifting weights recently, I would have done ANYTHING to get out of pain and back to my daily life. Pain changes you. I had to stop all my lifting, martial arts training, slow down, and tend to my back. In that one week, I spent hundreds on treatment. And if the pain lasted longer, I would have spent hundreds more.
Your brain processes emotions 20% faster than sensory data. In fact, “if it takes the cognitive area of your brain 60 seconds to process an ad, it takes your emotional area just 12 seconds.” In this digital age, where attention is the new currency and people’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, advertisers have about 8 seconds to capture attention. And it’s much faster to do that by using emotional appeal. You have to find people’s pain points.
But you also don’t want to use people’s pain against them and sell to people that don’t need your products or services. It’s about finding the people who need YOUR solutions. And guiding them to become clients. How?
Captivate
The best way to captivate people is through storytelling. People haven’t changed much from cavemen days when we’d sit by the fire and tell stories that passed down through generations. This is what keeps culture alive. This is where your grandparents get their weird sayings from. The ones that don’t make sense, but you know they heard it throughout their childhood.
Speaking of cavemen days, content that produces anger has a 38% chance of going viral. Because anger appeals to our primal nature of when a “member of your tribe is threatened, you’ll likely feel empathy for them and come to their aid to help everyone feel safe.
Culture has a role to play here as well. Italians have the highest rate of buying emotionally, followed by Brazilians, Americans, and Spaniards. And industry matters too. Although people may think they make financial decisions based on logic, it ranks the highest in emotional engagement.
I’m not saying go make content that makes people angry, so you go viral. But get creative in your copywriting to reach the audience that’s right for you. Or hire a professional freelance copywriter to do it for you!
2. Connect
Whether it’s the love of your life or your childhood bestie, the relationships that have the deepest impact on you are the ones where you feel the most connection. These are the people you keep going back to. The ones you want to spend time with and don’t get tired of. The ones that give you life. And when you do business with professionals like your financial planner, personal trainer, or hairdresser, you’re likely choosing people that you have a connection with. Someone you trust to take care of your finances and not steal your money. Someone you trust to help you build your body without making you uncomfortable or insecure. And someone you feel comfortable with touching your crown!
The same goes for brands who sell products. People are 70% more likely to recommend brands they have an emotional connection to. So show your personality. Use your humor, your compassion, and creative genius. Because when people do business with you, they’re also buying YOU.
3. Convert
Not everyone is going to be your client. But if you’re captivating and connecting well, you will attract the clients that are right for you. The ones you want to serve. That need your services. It’s not about selling to everyone and anyone. But keep doing business you love ethically, add a touch of copy magic, and watch it grow!
If you need a creative copywriter to capture your brand through storytelling or to build a connection with your ideal audience, reach out to me for a complimentary consult.
