We often hear people advising us to not make decisions with our emotions, or to prioritize facts over feelings.

While making decisions based on data and numbers is objective and fair for an accountant allocating a marketing budget, a marketer should make decisions that appeal to your audience’s emotions because it is a game-changer! 

Emotions evoke consumption desires and encourage purchasing actions. Many consumers believe that their purchasing decisions are the result of careful analysis, however in reality, emotions play a huge factor in influencing their buying decisions.

This is why marketers must include emotional copywriting in their strategy! Going beyond the traditional approach of using facts and benefits to market a product or service, it instead takes advantage of storytelling, images, and metaphors to create an emotional bond with the audience.

Learn how to influence consumer behavior and decision-making with these emotive writing tips:

1. Emotions steer you to take action more effectively

These days, consumers seek out brands that have a relatable “human” image, as opposed to brands that only sell a product and thereby feel less of a personable entity. In brand advertising and promotion, it is fundamental for brands to construct an image with a narrative to convey emotions – a story that communicates about “who” that brand is, “why” it is important, and “what” it represents. Customers need to be made to feel good about products or services for them to make a purchase, and a strong emotive copy can push them to take action!

An advertisement for the ride-hailing platform Uber begins with the words “Move the way you want.” This simple headline kills two birds with one stone, as it appeals to both drivers and riders who want to enjoy seamless mobility. Their two primary personas are either going into the gig economy to have more flexible hours and make more money or they are choosing on-demand transportation to get to their destinations faster. It frames the options of “flexibility” (for the drivers) and “speed” (for the users) with on-point emotional copywriting, which makes people want to join the gig economy and be a part of this disruptive, forward-looking industry.

2. Your brain processes emotions faster than rational thought.

When we have to make a decision, we assign a value to the options we are considering based on feelings from similar situations in the past. These emotions create preferences that affect our decisions. Advertising research shows that a consumer’s emotional reaction to an advertisement induces an intent to purchase more than its content: 3x more for TV commercials and 2x more for print ads.

One of the most common and effective ways to boost sales is to make people afraid of missing out, a.k.a “FOMO” (fear of missing out), with emotive writing. People are more likely to act when they feel like they might miss out on something good. If you are having a promotion on a product or service, create a sense of scarcity with sentences like “limited time only”, or “get it before it ends” to get your customers to check out their cart as soon as possible!

Another great way to do so is to highlight your products’ popularity and how quickly they’re selling out with customer reviews and testimonials. Big numbers and testimonials also trigger the “Jones’ effect,” which means people will do whatever others are doing — because a lot of us feel the need to keep up with the others, don’t we?

3. You are more likely to be persuaded by emotion than by reason.

Humans form mental representations of the people and things around them. These information structures in our minds help us perceive, process, and understand someone or something — including brands — according to our own emotions and experiences. Crafting a brand image gives your brand a personality that your customers can relate to and form mental representations of. Just like with people, your customers can be attracted to a “brand personality”, which is emotionally-driven. 

Marketers show the personality of a brand through packaging, product varieties, and the copywriting that describes and accompanies it. Sandwich cookie brand Oreo conveys a playful personality for adults and kids alike with its iconic “Twist, Lick, and Dunk” slogan. Oreo also creates a trendy and cool brand identity by partnering with celebrities like Lady Gaga and Blackpink to launch new, interesting flavors. As expected, celebrity-endorsed Oreos fly off the shelves very quickly; fans who purchase Oreos because of their favorite celebrities are examples of how emotions influence purchase decisions.

How can you inject emotion into your copy?

1. Pack a punch with emotion-inducing words and phrases.

There’s more than one way to show what you feel. Replace commonly-used words with words that strongly describe a feeling or emotion.

• Swap “happy” for”cheery”, “radiant”, “beaming smile”, “delighted”
• Swap “sad” for “sorrow”, “feeling blue”, “despair”, or “misery”
• Swap “angry” for “furious”, “enraged”, “raging”, or “provoked”
• Swap “fear” for “horror”, “unrest”, or “dread”

2. Use emotional triggers to engage with your audience.

As copywriters, we should gauge our audience to better understand their desires to craft emotionally-engaging copy. Emotionally-engaged customers are at least three times more likely to recommend your product and make a repurchase. Engage your audience with the following emotional triggers in your sales copy to push them to act:

• Trust: Be transparent and remove any doubts surrounding your product or services
• Guilt: Evoke strong responses with copy that brings attention to a serious issue
• Fear: Make people imagine what might happen if a threat or a crisis befalls them
• Love: Include messages in your copy that shows care, affection, and appreciation for someone or something
• Curiosity: Use enticing headlines or teasers to spark conversations and drive purchase motivation

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Copywriters should always be asking how pieces of copy can be made more engaging.

Facts and statistics alone will not do the job – we should leverage emotive writing to hit our readers right in their hearts! While we’d all like to believe that we humans are rational and logical beings, good copywriters know that our emotions still affect the bulk of the decision-making process. 

After all, our emotions and feelings motivate responses, determine our preferences, and help us communicate with others. Copywriters should harness the power of emotive writing to build awareness, engagement, and sway buyers down the marketing funnel.

If you need copywriters who can put themselves in your customers’ shoes, take the first step and drop us a message today!