Three Simple Steps to Persuade, Sell and Seduce With Emotional Language

As Maya Angelou famously put it - “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

We all like to think we’re rational creatures. We all pride ourselves on our clear thinking and intelligence (which are important, and uniquely human) but the science is clear; it’s our emotions that are actually in charge.

This is because decision making is ruled by the Limbic System - our "emotional brain". The upshot of this for innovators is that if you want customers to connect with, be persuaded by and act upon your words, you have to make them feel something.

So rather than communicate the whizzy, innovative features of your widget, work on bypassing your audience’s cerebral cortex (the home of rational thought)… and connect with their emotions instead.

If you want your reader to act, you have to make them feel.

In my view, nothing beats storytelling for connecting with your customers, for making them feel and for making them act. We’re going to look at that in more detail in an upcoming post. For now, let’s look at a simple way to weave emotional language through your copy and boost your persuasion power.

Three simple steps to tap into the emotional brain

1. Ask yourself this question - how do you want your reader to feel? Supported? Inspired? Shaken awake? Free? Loved?

2. Brainstorm words, phrases and stories that connect with this desired feeling. Add these concepts to your brand’s lexicon.

3. Third, put yourself in your customer’s shoes when you write. See through their eyes, listen through their ears, feel what they feel and then reach out to them with your words.

Three useful resources for emotional language

1. Dive into a good thesaurus or check out this emotional thesaurus available on Amazon.

2. Get inspiration from the writer’s Feel Wheel, which we’ve pinned on Pinterest.

3. Browse Bushra Azhar’s stellar list of ‘high emotion’ words - there’s even a free downloadable swipe file.

Next week I’ll share with you our go-tool for building empathy and putting ourselves in the reader’s shoes.