TIPS 11-15:
Emotional hooks

An emotional connection turns your words into a powerful mental image

#11 Metaphors

Did you know we use some form of metaphor every 25 words? They're so embedded in our language that most people aren't aware of their frequency, but they add emotional context to our writing that can have a huge influence on audience perception.

A recent Stanford study gave participants two versions of the same text on crime in a hypothetical city. One version described crime as a “virus infecting” the city and the other as a “beast preying” on the city. Everything else remained the same. The participants were then asked to come up with solutions to solve crime: The participants with the “beast” metaphor opted for punitive measures, whereas those with the “virus” metaphor chose more reformative measures.

#12 Talk about people

Statistics are a marketer's best friend when it comes to emphasizing the importance of an issue. But, swapping out your percentages for people-centric terms can help encourage your readers to think of how the issue might affect real people. Instead of 90% of people, try 9 out of 10 people.

Slovic, Monahan, and MacGregor (2000) have studied how the framing of statistics affects behavior. They took two different framings and presented them to two groups of clinicians.

Frame 1: Patients similar to Mr. Jones are estimated to have a 20% chance of committing an act of violence.

Frame 2: 20 out of 100 patients similar to Mr. Jones are estimated to commit an act of violence.

While both frames have essentially the same meaning, double the amount of clinicians refused to discharge the patient after reading frame 2.

#13 Tangible savings

When you're talking about cost savings or numerical benefits that you offer, you can help readers visualize what that could mean for them in tangible terms. This means taking a term like "You'll save $100 a year" and changing it to "You'll save $100 a year that can go towards your next vacation". This boosts the value of your offer as it helps them visualize the experience.

Frederik et al. (2009) conducted a series of studies that concluded it's better to emphasize specific uses for leftover cash: “…firms may better promote low-price products by cueing consumers to think about the leftover cash and possible attractive uses for it. For example, Volkswagen could emphasize the economy of purchasing their vehicle in terms of the new wardrobe of clothes one would then be able to afford...”

#14 Pain points

Offering up a solution without painting a picture of the problem first is asking a lot from your readers. You first have to make them remember or even realize what the issue is. You should mirror and emphasize their disdain and frustrations to prime them for your solution - this allows them to build an empathetic connection with you.

Research has found that our support for a political candidate is much stronger when our attitude is based in opposition of the other candidate, rather than pure support for our chosen candidate. Building a common enemy is one of the most powerful emotional triggers you can create.

#15 Law of 250

The Law of 250 is an idea that every person has 250 people in their lives who would attend their wedding or funeral. It was coined by a car salesman who realized that if he was liked by a customer, he could earn 250 new customers, but if he was disliked, he would lose 250 potential customers. When you're writing in your brand's voice, you control how likable your brand is.

You make someone like you by humanizing your brand through your writing. This can involve self-referring in your copy or pages/sections specifically designed to offer up more personal information about your company. A study that had pairs of people negotiate over emails found that one third of them could not come to an agreement. However, when the negotiators were told to swap personal information before the negotiations began, the failure rate dropped to just 6%. Being human eases communication.