The 4 most persuasive emotions and how to use them in your copy to increase conversion and sales…

Emotions affect our decisions, much more than you imagine.
In most cases, we think that we have decided to buy a specific service or product based on a rational justification. But in reality, our “emotional self” has already made the decision before …

You like to think that you’re an entirely rational person making completely logical decisions, right? It’s nice to believe that you haven’t made any major life decisions based on how you were feeling.

You are so wrong…

Consider the irrational power of “free”. In an experiment, people would rather accept a free $10 Amazon gift card than buy a $20 gift card for $7. In another test, when Amazon (French) removed their (negligible) shipping fee of $0.20, sales dramatically increased.

• Is it rational to accept $10 for free instead of $13 for free? No.
• Is it logical to let a $0.20 shipping fee deter you from buying online? No.

The reality is that even though we think that we are conscious buyer, purchasing with our reason, we actually buy with our emotions…

All the emotions that you feel in your life influence your decision making.

It is so true that some studies claim that people unable to feel emotion have many problems to make decisions.

As a copywriter, when you’re doing conversion optimization, you absolutely need to know Cialdini’s 6 principles of persuasion.

But how can emotion play a part in persuasion?

The neuroscientist Antonio Dámaso did a study with mental patients whose pathology was the impossibility of feeling emotions. Their reasoning capacity was intact, so they were presented with situations in which they had to make a decision. In all cases, these people had many difficulties to decide.

The psychologist Bart Schutz says that our mind is not rational, but is rationalizing. It is a further interpretation of other psychological studies that show that in our brain, there are two very different regions: one is automatic (emotions) unconscious, low effort and fast, and the other is controlled, conscious, high effort and slower (reason). This is how it is explained that decisions are made instantly, with our emotional region.

And then we justify it by reason.

• Apple or Android?
• Pepsi or Coca-Cola?
• McDonalds or Pans and Company?
• Coffee or tea?
• Beach or mountain?

We choose quickly, unconsciously. Then we justify it with the reason: “I prefer Apple because I like its design and it is a very reliable brand”.

Even the most analytical thinkers are predictably irrational; the brilliant ones acknowledge and address their irrationalities. ~Dan Ariely

What are the 4 most persuasive emotions?

People unable to feel emotion have many problems to make decisions

All your emotions play a role in your decisions (not just your buying decisions), but 4 of them have superior persuasive power.

There are a few emotions with which the automatic region of the brain I was talking about earlier is very familiar:

• sadness
• anxiety
• admiration
• anger.

If you can appeal to these 4 emotions, you will undoubtedly be able to persuade any visitors and influence their decisions.

The 4 buying emotions explained

Sadness

Sadness is an emotional pain associated or characterized by feelings of

• disadvantage
• loss
• despair
• helplessness
• disappointment
• pain.

When we feel sad, we want to solve it soon. That’s why we make decisions that provide us with short-term benefits or immediately.

We seek happiness in the short term, without taking into account the long-term consequences of the decision we make at that time.

Do you remember the typical movie scene in which a girl that her boyfriend has just left does not take a second to say “yes” to the ice cream her friend offers her?

When you feel sad, this is how you will react to decision making because you will:

• make decisions more slowly. Sadness fogs your brain & makes even the most routine decisions more difficult.
• make decisions based on immediate gratification. When you’re sad, you’ll seek happiness as quickly as possible, regardless of the long-term implications.
• undervalue yourself and your possessions. Study participants were induced to feel sad and then asked to price an item for sale. They were likely to set a lower sale price than their neutral peers.

Sadness will skew your decision making to the immediate benefit notwithstanding the negative consequences of long term effects… This phenomenon is called “Immediate gratification.” The contrary of this state is “Delayed gratification” (1).

Anxiety

According to the RAE, anxiety is a “state of agitation, restlessness or anxiety of the mind. The anguish that usually accompanies many diseases, in particular to certain neuroses and that does not allow the patients to rest “.
If you are stressed, it is difficult for you to interpret the context clearly.

A recent study showed that when we are anxious, we have problems to understand if a situation is stable or changing, which can make us make bad decisions. Therefore, in cases where we feel anxiety, we seek advice.

We let ourselves be advised. We are also more selfish and less ethical while adopting a survival mentality. We do not reflect too much on the consequence of our actions.
How does all this apply to the sale?
In a state of anxiety, by not trusting too much of our own decisions, you will:

• prefer to take the path of the majority
• be unable to interpret environmental cues & context accurately
• be less confident in your decision
• be more selfish and less ethical
• take less time to reflect on the consequences of your actions

Admiration

Admiration works like a magnet. When you admire someone, you try to imitate them. Or help him Because you trust them. We can also feel admiration and amazement for ourselves, for having achieved a challenging goal or for having overcome a significant obstacle, for example. This feeling makes us more “present” and satisfied. We feel fulfilled and predisposed to help others. If you awaken admiration among your readers, you will have earned their trust.

Anger

Anger is an intense emotional response. It usually appears when essential personal boundaries are violated.

We can think that anger makes us less analytical in our decision-making, that we act without thinking.

However, 2 teachers recently discovered that furious people were better able to distinguish between weak and persuasive arguments.

In a state of anger, we feel empowered.

Has it ever happened to you?
Anger actually sharpens your senses.

You feel more qualified to do anything.

In fact, anger is an action booster.
Have you ever been “stung” by a friend or friend to do something?

Surely it has made you feel bad and, just then, you have thought: “now he is going to find out, I am going to do what he has proposed (and he thinks that I am not capable of doing it), and much more …”.

Emotional Copywriting: words make us sense more

That’s a fact: words awaken our emotions.

If you want to convince your readers to perform an action, you should make them feel something that comes straight to his heart. or to the stomach.

There are 2 main ways to do it:

• Use emotional words
• Tell stories (emotional storytelling)

The first are words that are associated with specific emotions, and when reading them, we can not help feeling what they evoke:

• sadness
• joy
• disappointment
• surprise
• hate
• resentment
• cruelty
• kindness
• friendship
• racism

The more you stir emotion with your words, the more persuasive your message will be.

On the other hand, emotional storytelling consists of telling moving stories.

You can use them (and you must):

• in the construction of your personal brand
• in your email marketing campaigns
• in the sales pages of your professional services
• anywhere you need copy

Emotional persuasion begins with an understanding of your audience.

Carrying out the qualitative research will help you to understand the emotional state of the users who arrive at your Web.

As a personal development professional, you should ask yourself these questions:

• What is the mental state of your ideal client?
• Where are your emotions directed?
• Why are you feeling those emotions?

Once you have a conceived idea of how the average person feels when they arrive at your Web Page, then you can decide to exploit the existing emotions or if you have to create new emotions in the users to be able to connect with them.

Emotional Persuasion in a nutshell

It is essential to be more aware of how your emotions are affecting your decision making.

By doing so, you can really understand how to use emotions to persuade your visitors and increase conversions on your Web pages (and in your emails or social networks).

You can concentrate on the 4 emotions described in this article. But you can also try others that work for you.

Use in trial-n-error technique and analyze the results.
Change, for example, the texts of your Call to Action or your Titles in the Sales Pages.

The most important thing is to find out what your audience feels. And what solution do you expect you to contribute?

Keep in mind that, in addition to words, colors also evoke emotions. What are you using associated with your personal brand? And … What about the images? The emotional strength of images is beyond doubt.

Whenever possible, state an emotional benefit. It is what moves us to act.

Repeat verbs that call for action in your texts and keep the emotion in them. Write stories that connect with your target audience and awaken feelings in your readers.

Conclusion

Of course, that’s just the basics… There’s much more out there… That’s why I wrote a complete guide about how to increase conversions using Emotional Persuasion…

This guide will teach you:

• the psychology of emotional storytelling
• how emotions have been used in advertising within the past 10 years (with lots of examples)
• who’s using emotion to convert you?
• how to increase conversions using emotional persuasion
• creating vs. exploiting emotions
• emotional design
• emotional copywriting

Dear Friend:

My name is Xavier Lannes and I have been working as an Internet Marketer for the past 20 years.
I am the CEO of MyAdGency.Com and several other ecommerce websites.
I am also a certified Digital Marketer.

The training that you are about to download will greatly help you, but if you think you can't do it yourself (because you don't have the skills, of the time to do it,) I can do it for you.
Do not hesitate to contact me at xavier@myadgency.com.
Take care
Xavier Lannes

Sources:
https://www.depressedcopywriter.com/
https://www.coursehero.com/file/p72mf1c/The-most-important-thing-is-to-find-out-if-theyve-seen-him-today-Not-yesterday/

Credit Pictures:
ID 126617566 © Swietlana Malyszewa | Dreamstime.com