According to Aristotle, a persuasive speech makes appeals to reason (logos), the speaker’s character (ethos), and to the emotions (pathos).
Every aspiring copywriter should take note of these three important elements, but when it comes to writing sales letters, appeal to the emotions reigns above all as the one element that can make or break a piece of sales copy.
Of course, appealing to reason should not be underestimated, but copywriters have to realize that reason is mostly used after buying a product, not before. The reason lies in something called “buyer’s remorse”, which is the regret most people experience after making a purchase decision.
In order to justify the buying decision, the mind comes up with reasons to sooth the feeling of having bought on impulse, rather than on logic. But the reality is that most buying decisions, if not all, are based on emotions, rather than calculation.
So every copywriter has to have a firm grasp of human psychology to know the emotional buttons that push people to take out their credit cards in order to make a purchase.
But what emotions should a copywriter arouse in the reader’s mind? The sad truth is that “higher” emotions like respect, altruism, and integrity do not compel people to take out their wallets. On the contrary, “lower” emotions such as greed, lust, and pride typically guide most buying decisions.
Imagine you are trying to sell fitness equipment to a crowd of overweight people. How do you think you will sell more, by appealing to vanity, or by giving a dissertation on the chemical processes of fat loss induced by using the fitness equipment you are trying to sell?
If you answered vanity, give yourself a pat on the back. Remember that when people read your sales copy, they are thinking about themselves, not you or your product. They are thinking about how your product can benefit their ego, not how smart or beautiful you are for creating such a product.
This does not mean that the product creator should not appear in a sales letter, but this is only done to provide fodder to the logical mind to justify the purchase.
Let’s go back to the example of fitness equipment. Suppose I were overweight, and I tried to sell you the equipment. This would be a complete failure, of course. Instead, if I showed you pictures of how I went from being fat to having six pack abs, you would probably be more willing to buy my product.
But again the customer will not praise me for having six pack abs. The potential customer only cares about my six pack abs insofar as he/she can picture him or herself having those six pack abs. Remember that it’s all about appealing to the selfish desires of the ego.
So the next time you write some piece of sales copy, remind yourself to see human beings for what they are most of the time (selfish egoists), rather than selfless saints.