Love. Fear. Lust. Envy. Pride: They Have Their Uses

Those are power-filled words that move us all to some kind of action. Just reading them evokes a response deep within us. This is part of the mystery of human nature.

We all learned about the power of emotions in Marketing 101, but it was a long time ago, and the edge dulls over time. Let's sharpen the edge again.

For thousands of years, emotions have been used as an effective way to stimulate people, and to control them. This is because, in general, humans are strongly motivated by their emotions.

The most talked-about emotions are the Seven Deadly Sins: Fear, Greed, Vanity, Lust, Envy, Pride, and Laziness!

Some other powerful emotions are Generosity, Curiosity, Love, Compassion, Regret, and the human need to "belong" or be part of a group.

Guilt is a heavily exploited emotion, recognized more than two millennia ago, for its effectiveness in motivating people to do what's wanted. Unfortunately, there are still a few companies, today, who use guilt to gain and retain customers.

Marketing and advertising people rely heavily on the use of emotions to sell their products. Politicians smother us with these emotions during campaigns. Parents use threats (Fear) and praise (Pride) to raise their children.

Bottom Line: Emotions sell, if you know how to use them correctly.

What's The Best Way to Use Emotions?

You do it by turning your features into benefits. Those benefits can be filled with the emotions you choose. Paint a word picture, supported by graphics that will appeal to the desires of the reader. Put in enough details that your prospect can visualize himself in the picture.

If you're a clothing manufacturer, talk about how meticulous you are in finding and using the best fabrics, the most up-to-date, flattering fashions, or the feathery softness of your silks, the unbeatable comfort and endurance of your cottons. Describe the stunning beauty your dresses bestow on the wearer. Paint pictures with the lively colors of the fabrics. Show them the cloud of downy softness that will surround their customers.

If you manufacture a unique ingredient, paint a word picture describing how your ingredient will transform your customer's product. Tell how it will give their product an irresistible flavor, or make it smooth and creamy, mouthwatering. Make the unique ingredient the one thing they can not do without.

If you are in the restaurant business you can paint a savory, mouth-watering picture in th mind of your reader by describing some of the aspects of creating a dish: "The Master Chef then gently adds a splash of fruity wine to the golden sauce, bringing a hint of summer days to delight your palate and tickle your senses." Or, "When our steaming dishes are placed before you, your eyes will be bathed in the eternally delightful combination of earth-brown mushrooms, golden garlic, and glowing green peppers, all of it caressing the mouth-watering, juicy sirloin nestled beneath.

Remember: Benefits support features. You can illustrate the benefits by painting word pictures with the features. When people can envision your product, and experience an emotional response to your message, the features magically transform into benefits!

Emotions Plus Repetition

Repetition locks your company into a buyer's memory. The real secret here is to combine the use of emotion with repetition.

As a Clinical Hypnotherapist, I knew that if a client could evoke the desired emotions to go with a desired behavior change, the awesome power of the subconscious mind would almost always guarantee success. Emotions, combined with repetition, helped people lose weight, give up smoking, recover from panic attacks, sleep better, and deal with chronic pain.

When you evoke an emotion, coupled with a repetitive idea, you sell more products. Emotions super-charge the subconscious mind, and drive it to achieve it's strong desire. Repetition locks the desire in memory.

Emotions, plus repetition, are an unbeatable combination.

Your customers will remember you, loyalty will grow, and your ROI will soar.