The Power of Emotion: Writing Better Sales Copy

What convinces your prospect to make a purchase? How does your customer decide to buy a specific product? Does emotion play a part?

According to marketing research, many consumers are already “convinced” to buy a product before they even set foot in your store or navigate to your website. For such individuals, the sales copy is not about persuading them to make the decision, but reassuring them and reinforcing that the purchase is a good idea.

Words have an incredible effect on us as people, and the savvy business owner capitalises on this knowledge, using words to their maximum potency. There’s no substitute for a professional copywriter, but knowing the basics of human nature and persuasion can help anyone learn the subtle art of influence. And what is more influential for human beings than our experiences and our emotions? The most successful salespeople know that emotion drives our desires, our impulses, and our decisions. Tapping into this emotional fount gives you access the the most powerful tool for influence that exists.

Appealing to Emotion Isn’t Always Emotional

Harnessing the impact of emotion doesn’t necessarily translate to an “emotional” style of writing. In fact, many businesses avoid such tones, as they can come off as disingenuous or pandering. Depending on the particular business or industry, overly “flowery” language does not perform well, either. What works well most often is simple language, using common words and phrases that nearly anyone can understand and relate to. There’s no sense hiding your copy in complex metaphors; consumers don’t want to be left guessing. The best copy is straight and to the point, and yet also uses the power of emotion. How?

Incorporating Emotion in Your Copy

The best sales copy is subtle. Even if your customer realises they’re reading an advertisement, or knows full well that they are on a corporate website, exceptional copy still gets the job done. This is because great sales copy tells us a story. Whether that includes a case study of a satisfied client or paints a picture of your customer’s life after purchasing your product/service, the story elicits an emotional response.

The key is to figure out precisely what it is your customer wants. What problem will your product or service help them solve? What challenge will it overcome? Often, the answer is not immediately clear. A landscaping business will provide stunning lawn care and garden maintenance for a property, but is that the customer’s main goal? Getting inside their head, one might discover the landscaping frees up time for the customer to spend with his or hr family. Perhaps having a beautiful yard allows the customer to feel proud of their home and on par socially with their neighbours. Outstanding copy finds the pain points that trouble your average customer, and shows clearly how your business will remove them. It’s clever, it’s effective, and it drives an emotional reaction.

Words That Influence

Truly good copy is an art and a science that professional copywriters spend years perfecting. But to start improving your blog posts, ad copy, and websites today, you can make the simple change of incorporating emotional power words. These words are specifically designed to create an emotional response and to have immediate influence over a reader or customer’s reaction. A simple Internet search will yield hundreds of words for you to include in your copy, but here is a short list you can use as a starting point.

❏ Remarkable
❏ Now
❏ Offer
❏ Proven
❏ Immediately
❏ Trust
❏ Learn
❏ Guarantee
❏ Health
❏ Profit
❏ Learn
❏ Secret
❏ Results
❏ Elite
❏ Jackpot
❏ Respected
❏ Fortune
❏ Challenge
❏ Hurry
❏ Limited
❏ Bonus

If you’re after superlative sales copy, we’d love to help you out with your content needs. From increased leads and sales to SEO improvements, we can help you reach your goals. Get in touch with our Webics team today.