Can "spiritualizing" your copy help you sell better?
First-off I think it can. Proceed with caution however.
Here's why:
The word "spirituality" has very different meanings to different people.
For example: back when I was running a sales staff I would hire outside sales guys. Being fairly gregarious and willing to connect, I would not always keep the conversation "strictly business".
One time I was interviewing a guy and the conversation drifted into "spirituality". Now, being a freaky-deaky yoga-practicing Californian vegetarian brought up by a Quaker mom and an atheist dad, I have a pretty open view of what spiritual life can mean.
Now to this guy "spirituality" meant one thing.
"Battling the Evil One"
Oh my. I sure walked into that one. I had no idea some people really thought that way. Needless to say, none of the people I hung out with talked that way, and growing up in the Society of Friends ("Quakers" - and no, we don't dress in pilgrim hats) not even the old church ladies talked that way.
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The main warning then with using abstract words like "spirituality" in your copywriting you'll blunder into deep value differences between people. To some folks spiritual life means Zen meditation. To others it means handling poisonous snakes and exercising demons. Some groups might even consider other groups to BE demons.
Ugh.
So you have to find a way to frame your offer so it taps into your prospect's need to indentify themselves - that is build their internal representation (NLP term) around the set of cultural ideas they choose to embrace. For example: "Punk" is a powerful cultural meme representing rebelliousness and youthful exuberance. People who choose to identify with punk may build a substantial part of their self image around the indentification.
People are tribal. They wish to participate in the activities, have the knowledge, and own the same sorts of things as other members of the tribe. When you understand this tribal tendency you'll begin to see how you can steer your prospects into indentifying their tribal identity with owning your product or possessing the knowledge your product teaches.
Once you've got people figuring the people they want to be like own your product, selling it to them becomes a slam-dunk, more or less. Case in point: basketball shoes. Air Jordans.
Young, inexperienced consumers are the most vulnerable to manipulative selling. All selling is manipulative; If you've got a problem with that you should work it out within yourself. Young people are manipulated by toy advertisers, cereal companies, the list of ways is crazy - if you've got kids you know.
Manipulation of buyer self-image using the weapon of "spirituality" as a cultural meme is done with great facility by women's magazines. Check it out. They've got women buying the idea that to "have it all" - skinny body, career, good sex, health and wealth, they've got to "get spiritual" - and let me assure you, how "spiritual" is defined in these magazines if pretty different from the Pentacostal definition... ie. "battling the evil one"
Here's why:
The word "spirituality" has very different meanings to different people.
For example: back when I was running a sales staff I would hire outside sales guys. Being fairly gregarious and willing to connect, I would not always keep the conversation "strictly business".
One time I was interviewing a guy and the conversation drifted into "spirituality". Now, being a freaky-deaky yoga-practicing Californian vegetarian brought up by a Quaker mom and an atheist dad, I have a pretty open view of what spiritual life can mean.
Now to this guy "spirituality" meant one thing.
"Battling the Evil One"
Oh my. I sure walked into that one. I had no idea some people really thought that way. Needless to say, none of the people I hung out with talked that way, and growing up in the Society of Friends ("Quakers" - and no, we don't dress in pilgrim hats) not even the old church ladies talked that way.
###
The main warning then with using abstract words like "spirituality" in your copywriting you'll blunder into deep value differences between people. To some folks spiritual life means Zen meditation. To others it means handling poisonous snakes and exercising demons. Some groups might even consider other groups to BE demons.
Ugh.
So you have to find a way to frame your offer so it taps into your prospect's need to indentify themselves - that is build their internal representation (NLP term) around the set of cultural ideas they choose to embrace. For example: "Punk" is a powerful cultural meme representing rebelliousness and youthful exuberance. People who choose to identify with punk may build a substantial part of their self image around the indentification.
People are tribal. They wish to participate in the activities, have the knowledge, and own the same sorts of things as other members of the tribe. When you understand this tribal tendency you'll begin to see how you can steer your prospects into indentifying their tribal identity with owning your product or possessing the knowledge your product teaches.
Once you've got people figuring the people they want to be like own your product, selling it to them becomes a slam-dunk, more or less. Case in point: basketball shoes. Air Jordans.
Young, inexperienced consumers are the most vulnerable to manipulative selling. All selling is manipulative; If you've got a problem with that you should work it out within yourself. Young people are manipulated by toy advertisers, cereal companies, the list of ways is crazy - if you've got kids you know.
Manipulation of buyer self-image using the weapon of "spirituality" as a cultural meme is done with great facility by women's magazines. Check it out. They've got women buying the idea that to "have it all" - skinny body, career, good sex, health and wealth, they've got to "get spiritual" - and let me assure you, how "spiritual" is defined in these magazines if pretty different from the Pentacostal definition... ie. "battling the evil one"
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Don't be an arse and try to flip something you clearly have no knowledge of against me.