I’m getting ready for my 15 minutes of fame next week at the Copy Accelerator event.
I have 15 minutes on a copywriting panel to stun and amaze the attendees… and give them some useable material.
To help prepare myself, I shared a few of my insights in a Clubhouse chat I was invited to be a part of.
If you haven’t heard of it, Clubhouse is a new social media platform that is audio based. Most of the content isn’t recorded, which means that you have to be there, or you miss out. It’s a clever strategy.
Anyway, I was invited to talk about being a female copywriter. It’s something I know a lot about. Although I really don’t like the label “female copywriter.” And “no” it has nothing to do with gender etc.
I don’t like the label “female” anything because my male colleagues don’t have the same qualifier in front of what they’re called.
For example, I have never… ever seen Parris Lampropoulos, John Carlton, Dan Kennedy, Bond Halbert… or any other male copywriters referred to as “male copywriters.” They are simply known as copywriters.
It’s an interesting thing… but not what I want to share with you this week.
Part of the Clubhouse conversation was about how I’m able to tap into the emotions of my reader and create empathetic copy.
And what I shared with the panel and listeners surprised them.
In fact, one veteran copywriter said he was going to use something I shared in his writing straight away.
After the call, I felt a bit bad because I shared some absolute copy gold with a bunch of strangers… but I haven’t shared it with you.
So, here it is…
In copywriting and marketing, we are taught to dive deep into:
Demographics: which usually include age, gender (I can’t say the “s” word as it sets off the spam filter), income level, race, employment, location, homeownership, and level of education.
And…
Psychographics: which include personality, values, attitudes, and lifestyles.
Then we ask about the persons:
- Hopes, dreams, desires, fears, and frustrations
But one area I think we don’t touch on, is what I call “Emotigraphics.”
You’re probably thinking “What in the heck! I haven’t heard of those before!”
Well, there’s a reason for that (and it’s not even a good one!)
I’ve been talking about this concept for years, but I thought it was something everyone else did.
But I was wrong!
It turns out I may just have something a little bit new on my hands.
So, if you haven’t heard about Emotigraphics… it’s not your fault. It’s mine!
Now before you think this is about tapping into emotions like the Dan Kennedy “Famous 5” … Fear, Guilt, Greed, Pride and Love… you’d be wrong.
When I talk about Emotigraphics, I’m talking about:
- Knowing which words emotionally trigger our prospect… both positively and negatively
- Pre-existing emotional biases people have towards companies, businesses, and topics
- How emotionally ready people are to engage with our marketing
- What our market is passionate about and what they hate/ despise
- Relevant emotional experiences our prospect has had leading up to this moment
All of these Emotigraphic factors come into play when we craft an emotionally engaging message.
For example…
A common word that was in use around 5 to 10 years ago, has a way different meaning these days. Now when we use that word, we can’t control the picture in our prospect’s/ reader’s mind.
And that word is the word “Trump.”
I know I’ve used that one recently, but it’s a fantastic example. And it illustrates this week’s knowledge nugget perfectly.
Knowledge Nugget #287:
When People Read Your Copy…Keep Them
On The Page and Out Of Their Head
The absolute worst place a person reading our copy can be is in their head.
And the reason is, when they’re in their head… they’re open to distractions.
That’s why when we write our copy, we need to seriously consider the emotional experience of our reader.
Our writing needs to create what I call an “Attention Trance.”
Now that’s nothing manipulative or anything. It’s just that your writing is so interesting and clear that the reader doesn’t have to think about it to understand it.
Have you ever lost yourself in a well-written book, or a great movie before? If you have… it’s like that.
Here’s something I know about attention trances… they’re extremely fragile and they’re easily broken by… you guessed it, emotions. Especially unexpected emotions.
That’s why we need to consider emotigraphics when we write copy or create marketing.
We need to lay out the emotional path our reader experiences when they move through our copy.
One wrong word can snap the person into an unplanned emotional experience… and you and your copy are done!
And that sucks! All that hard work only to be derailed by one careless word.
Now, I know some people may think I’m being a little extreme here, but we need to be cognizant (aware) of how our copy “lands” on our reader. (I’ve used the word cognizant on purpose. It’s the name of a copy program I’m working on with my mate Lo Morgan.)
And that awareness begins with knowing our reader better than they know themselves.
That’s where demographics, psychographics and emotigraphics comes in.
With all 3 working for us, our message and copy will hit our reader where they live.
Until next week, stay awesome, and let’s get emotional.
Pauline x x x
Pauline Longdon
a.k.a. “The Copy Alchemist”
P.S. Years ago, when I first started copywriting, I had Dan Kennedy’s Famous 5 emotions (fear, guilt, greed, pride, and love) drilled into me. But fortunately for me, I found out that there are way more emotions than 5.
A common mistake I see copywriters make is writing to an emotion that doesn’t resonate with the reader. For example, financial writers often use greed as a target emotion. But the problem is, greed is not a label people use on themselves. I have never met a rich person who thinks they’re greedy.
P.P.S. It is so important for us to see the world as it is and not how we think it is… or want it to be. Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of newer copywriters trying to impress more experienced folk such as me with their opinions on humanity. Sadly, they have a very restricted view on the world, and it will affect their copy.
But worse than that… it will affect their client’s return on investment. So, perhaps they should write to their opinions in their own time and on their own dollar… not their clients.
P.P.P.S. Today I secured 2 more speaking gigs in the next few months. I’m excited to be sharing more of my insights with the world. I’ve kept a lot of them to myself for too long. I thought they were only good enough to help me. Turns out I was wrong. I don’t mind being wrong once in a while.