Capture Attention By Tapping The Emotion
Posted on : 09-12-2007 | By : Dave | In : Make Money Online
5
I?ve started a series about capturing attention in the overcrowded internet. I?m basing the series on the book Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Thrive and Others Die written by Chip and Dan Heath. This book has 6 great principles that will help your site stick in people?s minds. Today we?ll talk about the 5th principle, Emotion.
Have you ever noticed how illogical we are especially when we spend money?
We buy products out of impulse because of the way the products make us feel. We buy stuff we don’t need with our credit cards. Ever heard of buyer’s remorse? When was the last time you made a pros and cons list before buying a product? When shopping, we use emotion more than logic.
Examples in Different Niches
Online businesspeople in the make money online niche are notorious for using emotion to capture attention and increase sales. They don’t talk too much about how much money you’ll make with their products. Instead, they say you’ll be able to:
- buy a bigger house
- buy a Lamborghini
- spend more time with your family
- take three months vacation in exotic locations
- travel the world
- fire your oppressive boss
- avoid your annoying coworkers
Notice how the things in the above list tap into the emotion more than simply promising a higher monthly income.
Webmasters in the weight loss niche don’t only talk about how many pounds you’ll lose with their products. They also talk about being able to impress the opposite sex, fit in your old clothes, and be confident in a swimsuit.
I’m planning to jump in the popular gaming niche with a new website. I could talk about helping my niche audience win more games and be a better player. However, to tap the emotion, I’ll write about having their name plastered all over the internet because they won a prestigious tournament. Also, I’ll talk about having their picture taken with the winner’s trophy.
Multimedia
Pictures tap into the emotion better than plain text. Think of the average landing page for a make money online product. Oftentimes they have pictures of luxurious houses, expensive supercars, and beautiful vacation spots. Also, videos work well too. The conversion rates for video are higher than just having plain text. Add audio and video to your site along with text and you’ll do a better job of tapping the emotion of your readers.
Feedback
What are some ways to tap the emotion of your niche audience?
AKA the classic copywriting trick of selling benefits not features.
Thanks for this. I’ll definitely be bookmarking, just help make sure I don’t forget this principle.
Re. “ways to tap the emotion of your niche audience?”
You mention multimedia, which is right on the money. So let’s look at how and why it helps. Combining text message, graphics, photography, and MOTION creates what’s called a “compound language,” which is a kind of “meta language.” The emotional effect of this caused by the combination of elements being registered in areas of the brain that do not relate to language specialization. That is, in the temporal lobe, not in the frontal lobes.
Point is, if you want a message to register emotionally (and it is not always best or appropriate), use motion, emotive imagery (be familiar with the visual vocabulary of your target audience), short/easily absorbed and meaning full messages, use space and pattern well (higher a well trained designer), and, basically, be subtle: don’t over do it. Unless the project is for Disney or DreamWorks, then the gloves are off.
Also, if you use sound via web, give users full control of it, including starting it. Wlse you’re just showing you don’t care about them, and they will return the favor.
Oops: “Hire…” not “Higher a well trained designer.” “Else…” not “Wlse…”. ;-)
Great article, Dee. When you get right down to it, much as we hate to admit it, we make purchasing decisions based more on emotion than logic.
Selling benefits rather than features isn’t a copywriting trick, because it’s the benefits that our market are really buying. By focusing on the benefits we’re conveying to our market what they most want to know. They don’t so much care how we deliver the benefits as they do what they’ll get or achieve as a result.
For example, my clients aren’t really buying business consulting. They’re buying the deeper benefits they’ll receive as a result of business consulting: increased productivity and income, less frustration, struggle and overwhelm leading to the even deeper benefits of feeling more financially secure, having more time to enjoy with loved ones, renewed passion for the work they do and for their lives, etc.
The deeper the benefits you can express to your market, the more you’ll tap into their emotion. It’s not about “tricking” your market into purchasing something they don’t want or need, it’s about expressing what you have to offer in a way that will resonate with those already wanting and looking for what you have to offer.