Want to Hook Your Reader's Emotions... Here's How

Want To Hook Your Reader's Emotions... Here's How


We were sitting on my neighbor's elevated deck. Our whole village gathered, as it does several times a year, to eat, drink modestly and talk non-stop. There must have been twenty-five of us, or maybe even a few more, but Kristine, my direct next door neighbor was holding court. She had just returned from a three week, summer tour of Rome and Tuscany. Krisie talked about how every day was a perfect, blue-sky, 80 degree, no-humidity, top 10-day-of-the-year type day. Then she dropped it into low gear. Dish by dish she worked her story through Tuscany's rolling hillsides, sandy roads and vineyard rows of baby green vines. We heard about home-cooked food at farm houses and then about gourmet diners in Roman restaurants. I kept trying to figure out how I could get there and then stopping myself and listening to more of her story.


That's how it works; people tell stories that make you feel as if part of you went along on the trip. You follow the story and your emotions bubble up with the appropriate responses. But for copywriters this is only part of the work. There are other tricks that firmly hook into every reader's emotional foundation, when they are used correctly, and then snap those readers into action. So how do these tricks work?


It starts with the reader's self-esteem. Yeah, that sounds a little sneaky and manipulative right off the bat, but good writing - of any kind - does guide the reader. Copywriters want to hook into your emotions. Fortunately, everyone's emotional foundation is built on three essential needs: safety, sex and appetite. Hey, the opening story used appetite as an emotional hook. Food in Tuscany is likely touch a nerve, so the story builds some basic emotional desire. These bodily needs directly trigger primary emotions: fear, lust and hunger.


Now if I carry my neighbor's story further and tell you how she learned to cook shrimp and muscles in shallots, garlic, capers, pears, tomatoes and olive oil, the story might really stoke your hunger and I could sell you some food. But the copywriter is usually selling something less immediately satisfying than a steaming plate of well-spiced seafood, so he needs to get a little deeper. He only uses these primary emotions as a hook to get inside. All other emotions are secondary behind these three heavy hitters... fear, lust and hunger. But remember, it's self-esteem, the seat of your emotional foundation, that the copywriter is after. And self-esteem, just like your emotional foundation, is tied to these primary emotions.


Self-esteem organizes the three primary emotions into a time flow. You either have access to the emotions that are being conjured up in the present moment by your senses, or you don't. So you either draw on your past, when you have access to emotions appropriate to what you are sensing, or you project into the future, when you don't have access to the emotions that are being stimulated.


You see, I've never been to Tuscany. I have experienced perfect beautiful days, sandy roads, hillsides, vineyards and great food. So I draw upon memories to conjure up an image of what Tuscany must be like for Kristine. But a real experience of Tuscany, if it's going to exist anywhere for me, can only and has to only exist in my future. I have to imagine that future and the emotions that it will involve. Kristine's story has already seduced me into feeling envious and desiring a first-hand experience of Tuscany. You see, when people communicate with each other, emotions start being sorted out in a time flow. I'm standing here in the present, but I'm starting to believe my future should include a trip to Italy. The story is trapping me and the only escape is in the future. Bingo!


Now back to self-esteem. Your self-esteem forms around two simple, time-oriented propositions, which are: The person you want to become, and The person you know you are. This is the way that little voice inside your head organizes things. It sorts things out in terms of who you know you are and who you want to become. So good copywriting taps into these two parts of your self-esteem and thereby plays with your emotional buttons. Of course story telling is a part of good copywriting, simply because stories touch emotions. In fact, when a story is well told, it touches your heart. So here's how that works.


To have positive self-esteem, you have to understand both sides of who you know you are and who you want to become and even beyond that, you have to be able to accept and embrace the difference between the two. Everybody works at this in one way or another. Whether you have high self-esteem or not, you keep trying to get a grip on these two pieces and feel comfortable with them. For example, while I was listening to Kristine's travel story, I had to admit to myself I hadn't ever been to Tuscany. That didn't make me feel wonderful. And yet, I also had to admit that what she was describing sounded very enticing. So what are my emotional options if I don't want to feel bad?


I started to play with the possibility that the person I want to be, might be someone who has traveled in Italy. And I started to feel slightly uncomfortable that I had not already been to Italy... I wanted to be able to remember being in Tuscany. At the center of all this was the arrangement of time. A time line just makes it easier to continue sorting out emotional stimulation; so you work at understanding and establishing positive self-esteem by sorting out what is in your past and what you would like in your future. And, of course, there's a great opportunity here for writers. This is the doorway through which copywriters hook a reader's emotions and then call them to action.


How does good copy help the reader acknowledge who they know they are and articulate who they want to become? Here's the answer. The writing shows the reader a way to move from who they know they are towards who they want to become. It's a huge emotional step built with tiny nuts and bolts. If I was writing copy, selling trips to Italy, I'd start with an introductory story to catch attention, but I'd also try to hook my reader's emotions. And, of course, if you are that reader, you'd have to face up to the fact that you have either never been to Italy, or that you would like to return to Italy if you have been there before - assuming your memories of wine and garlic and sun-drenched roads are good memories.


Next I'd move onto prove that there are real advantages and value for traveling to Italy. I'd try to make sure that you know your feelings about Italy are real feelings - this is where the hillsides, vineyards, sandy roads and steaming seafood all come in. Finally, I'd make an offer. Of course, my offer has to help you become that person who is on his or her way to Italy. That's what stories, proof and offers are all about. Copywriters employ stories, proof and offers to stimulate how you sort out your emotions. Their words touch your sense of self by way of your memories and your desires for your future. The copywriter's words touch on who you know you are so that he can help you... in fact, more than help you - so he can get you excited about reaching for that person you want to become. You start to see the value in his offer as it connects with your excitement about becoming the person you want to become.


The formula is this: use a story with strong evocative description to capture the reader's attention and hook her emotions. Next offer a product that appeals to the reader's desires. Then provide proof that the product actually works. Finally ask the reader to purchase the product, warning her, especially with emotional hooks, that she can only get where she wants to go if she acts now. There are other tools, but this is the underlying emotional structure that actually moves readers to making a purchase.