The Only Emotion That Matters in Marketing
Keep reading... https://sean.co/copy
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it*."
— Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)
ew. way to be overdramatic Harper Lee.
2400 words. That’s the number of words an average person writes per day (based on a stat I just made up). I'm sure there's a stat out there somewhere, but you don't need a specific number to know just how important writing is to our daily lives. Most people write with the goal of accomplishing tasks, without much thought to the structure or deeper meaning behind the words…
This lack of attention to not just what you’re saying, but HOW you’re saying it is dangerous.
It can be the difference between closing a deal and failing; and that failure might just serve as the catalyst for you giving up. Ok maybe that’s just as dramatic as Harper’s reference to crawling into someone's skin, but you get the point.
I'm sure you send at least one piece of writing out daily that is critical to the success of your business or goals. It could be a simple email to your team trying to get them to use the frickin' CRM you paid out the rear for, or it may be to a customer asking them (nicely) to send over payment for services rendered. Even some of the more important pieces of writing we do, say an email to 100,000 person email list, can be scratched out in a whim without any real thought to who’s actually reading it.
Granted, much of what we write isn't all that significant, but there are key pieces that really deserve extra attention.
One of the most critical for entrepreneurs to consider is marketing copy... copy that, as entrepreneurs, is the life-blood of every sale - every dollar - we make. Even if you're not an entrepreneur (yet) I'm sure you've seen awesome marketing copy in action. We've all purchased a course, bought a book, invested in a mastermind, based on eloquently crafted marketing copy… whether we’d like to admit it or not.
One of the most practical ways I know to improve ones writing is to get into the head of my reader (not literally, Mrs. Harper Lee)... study their pains, recognize their fears, muse on their desires.
It's not easy to slip into someone else's swimsuit, it doesn't always fit right - and sometimes their style just makes no sense to us. BUT, it's a key part (if not the key part) of creating writing that drives action.
... and we can't do any of that without one key emotion.
EMPATHY.
Yes, it's the emotion we need to connect with people we love, while also the same emotion we can use to better understand why our idiot boss made the ridiculous decision to hire Tammy. It's a powerful emotion and a foundation of persuasion... (key) You can't persuade someone effectively if they don't feel like you understand them first.
Here's what Siri told me when I asked my iPhone what empathy was...
"Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. There are many definitions for empathy that encompass a broad range of emotional states. Types of empathy include cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and somatic empathy."
Sean Vosler
“Helping Mildly Successful Entrepreneurs Become Wildly Succesful Entrepreneurs.
