Long copy works! Better copy for your leaflets in 7 easy steps. Part 3: Push Their Emotional Hot Buttons

This is where research really pays off. Because in order to push those buttons, you need to first know what they are.

To demonstrate what I mean, let me tell you a story: Once upon a time a young man walked into a BMW dealer’s showroom to check out the new 3-Series. He had the money, and he was ready to make a buying decision. But he couldn’t decide if he wanted to buy the BMW or a similar Mercedes from the dealer up the road.

A salesman approached him and soon discovered the man’s dilemma.

“Tell me what you like best about the 3 series,” said the salesman.

“It’s a fast car. I like it for its speed.”

After digging a bit deaper, the salesman learned the man had just started dating a new girlfriend. So what did the salesman do?

Simple. He changed his pitch accordingly, to push the hot buttons he knew would help advance the sale. He told the man about how impressed his new girlfriend would be when he came home with this car! He placed the mental image in the man’s mind of he and his girlfriend cruising to the beach in the 3-Series. How all of his friends will be envious when they see him riding around with a beautiful girl in a beautiful car.

And suddenly the man saw it. He got it. And the salesman recognised this and piled it on even more. Before you know it, the man wrote a nice fat cheque to the BMW dealership, because he was sold! The salesman found those hot buttons and pushed them like never before until the man realised he wanted the 3-Series more than he wanted his money.

I know what you’re thinking… the man said he liked the car because it was fast, didn’t he?

Yes, he did. But subconsciously, what he really desired was a car that would impress his girlfriend, his friends, and in his mind make them love him more! In his mind he equated speed with thrill. Not because he wanted an endless supply of speeding tickets, but because he thought that thrill would make him more attractive, more likeable.

Perhaps the man didn’t even realise this fact himself. But the salesman certainly did. And he knew which emotional hot buttons to press to get the sale.

Now, where does the research pay off? Well, a good salesman knows how to ask the kinds of questions that will tell him which buttons to press on the fly. Unfortunately, when you’re writing copy for a leaflet, you don’t have that luxury. It’s therefore very important to know upfront the wants, needs and desires of your target audience for that very reason. If you haven’t done your homework, your prospect is going to decide that he’d rather keep his money than buy your product. Remember, copywriting is salesmanship in print!

It’s been said many times: People don’t like to be sold. But they do like to buy.

And they buy based on emotion first and foremost. Then they justify their decision with logic, even after they are already sold emotionally. So be sure to back up your emotional pitch with logic to nurture that justification at the end.

And while we’re on the subject, let’s talk a moment about perceived ‘hype’. Many of the more ‘conservative’ advertisers have decided that they don’t like hype because they consider it to be old news, been-there-and-done-that, my customers won’t fall for hype, it’s not believable anymore. What they should realise is that hype itself does not sell well. Some less experienced copywriters often try to compensate for their lack of research or for not fully understanding their target market or the product itself by adding tons of adjectives and adverbs and exclamation points and big bold type.

If you do your job right, it’s just not needed. That’s not to say some adverbs or adjectives don’t have their place…only if they’re used sparingly, and only if they advance the sale.

But I think you’d agree that backing up your copy with proof and believability will go a lot farther in convincing your prospects than 'power words' alone. I say power words, because there are certain adverbs and adjectives that have been proven to make a difference when they’re included. This by itself is not hype. But repeated too often, they become less effective and they take away (at least in your prospect’s mind) from the proof.

Long copy works! Better copy for your leaflets in 7 easy steps:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7