Emotion runs high in direct mail copy

Posted on by Chief Marketer Staff

When I’m in this car, women want to go out with me. When my friends see my new house they’re amazed I can afford something so beautiful. I got these sandals because my girlfriends could never afford to buy shoes like these. The latest cellphone makes me look cool.

Surprisingly, people never say things like this when you ask why they made an outrageously expensive purchase. Instead, they offer some rational explanation about good mileage, neighborhoods in top school districts or excellent arch support. Why?

Simple. All purchases are emotional. The only time logic enters the equation is when a buyer is trying to justify why he or she bought what they bought.

What does this mean for marketers? It means that if you expect to get straight answers about purchase decisions, you’re out of luck. People lie. Not because they want to, but because they have to.

Most people have no idea why they buy what they buy. It’s only after the fact that they try to analyze what’s going to show up on their credit card statement.

The mind plays amazing tricks when emotions are high. If seven people witness a car accident, you’ll get seven different descriptions of what happened. Give them a second round of interviews and you’ll probably add another two or three descriptions.

Emotion is a key tool in direct mail. When writing a sales letter you have to appeal to the emotional triggers that will hook your prospect.

You also have to provide just enough evidence to convince them that the purchase is a sound one, because that’s what they’ll need when its time to justify the buy.

It is a careful balancing act because you must continue the emotional appeal throughout your sales letter. If you snap them completely out of the emotional appeal and have them focus on the logic of the purchase, you will kill the sale.

You avoid this by carefully mentioning a feature or fact in relation to a benefit and use that to reinforce the emotional hook. You don’t want your prospect to begin dwelling on what does or doesn’t make sense. That would end your entire seduction with a harsh snap back to reality and the sale would be over

A good copywriter keeps the illusion going through the letter, reinforces it with the postscript, and carries the prospect through the order form, the writing of the check and fulfillment.

Albert Saxon is president of Saxon Marketing, Indian Orchard, MA.

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