The secret sauce to writing compelling content is emotion, and nothing else. While this might sound like an oversimplification to some, a stellar and moving piece of content, regardless of its niche, is always expected to achieve something. Also, nothing concrete can be accomplished unless the readers take a decision after reading the drafted piece of content, which then has to relate to a certain emotion to influence decision making.
The emotion can either be of urgency, love, attraction, or fear but regardless, it can still make the reader do something, at least. More static pieces of content that do not invoke or beckon any emotion within the reader are expected to fail, despite them being getting atop the Google rankings.
Therefore, the next time you plan on hiring copywriters or content writing firms to create actionable drafts for you, ensure they are putting their best foot forward and deploying the following emotional hooks to make every piece actionable and explorative enough.
-
Present Content as a Story
If you want to keep the audience engaged with the piece, the prime focus should be on developing the same, as story. It takes no rocket science to understand that storytelling, despite being a simple tool, can grab people’s attention in a jiffy. Also, a story is often followed by actionable points to address the potholes that come along.
You should know that most readers will only stick to the page if one line of your content leads to the other. For instance, if you are planning to highlight a particular product, a good way would be to start talking about how the product was even envisioned to help people solve certain existential issues.
Projecting the product or service as a gripping narrative increases the likability quotient of the brand. Besides establishing the recital, you can even put forth certain customer-specific success stores to validate the offerings, better. But then, it would still require a gifted creator to make the story worth reading and engaging with.
-
Explore and Leverage FOMO
Have you ever considered using headlines like, “Miss these 10 tips to growth at your own peril” or “7 ways to pet a cat that you didn’t know before”? Headlines like these can inspire a sense of curiosity in readers, especially by leveraging the sense of ‘Fear of Missing Out’. FOMO or as we call it is quite a lasting emotion in the digital world where every person wants to be a party to the latest information that is available online.
Plus, if you plan on launching a new product, it is better to craft content pieces that can establish a sense of anxiety or even urgency in the minds of the reasons. The feeling that you should look to explore is fear, precisely mixed with curiosity, as over the web, the lines between apathy and positive fear often get blurred in time.
Also, if you want us to put it simply, people hate losing out on good products and this is why most brands launch limited-edition pieces at times. This is how they make some good money in a very short period of time, simply by tapping into the emotion called FOMO.
-
Empower the Readers
This, by far, is the hardest emotion to project when it comes to drafting content. However, it is also the most rewarding as every prospective customer wants to feel empowered while considering a product. A good way to harness this drive is to ensure that you project the brand, product, or offering as something insanely powerful and productive.
If the reader believes that the product can make a difference to his or her lifestyle, acceptance becomes easier. Also, if you are in dearth of power words, project your happy customers as the reasons for the new ones to make.
-
Evoke a Sense of Belonging
If you have not considered including your audience in the thick of things, I presume you might have been missing out on something more lucrative. However, it is a tad difficult for a new brand to evoke such a feeling and it is better to first start with the elementary steps of adding emotional hooks. However, if you are already a brand with some relevance and exposure, it becomes easier to make the audience feel involves by setting up select content strategies that work well with their inputs.
Regardless, the trick here is to build a lasting brand image to start with and ensure that there is a sense of exclusivity around the product for it to be relatable much.
-
Include a Sense of Mystery
Creating an air of intrigue around the product, service, or the brand itself is a great approach to generate traffic and views. The idea here is to leave open-ended questions for the readers as the general human tendency is to find answers and eventually dig deeper.
But then, you should consider implementing this emotional hook with discretion as only the right amount of mystery would work and anything else would skew the readers towards a more definitive product or offer.
-
Make Promises that you can Keep
Purchasing a product or investing in service should feel like a personal achievement for the buyers. This emotional hook can be best explored if you, as a brand, can weave promises in and around the created content. Your skill sets should target tapping into the fears and desires of the readers whilst subtly ensuring them that the goals will be fulfilled.
Lending a helping hand throughout the read is there a dependable strategy to make the product or service counted. However, incorporating this idea as a part of your content strategy can be a tad trickier. A good approach, here, is to answer a few pertinent reader questions by being proactive regarding their thought process. Simplifying further, you should think like a prospective customer if you want to create content that can resonate with them.
-
Make Humor your Ally
Even if your product solves something important, you need not be all grim and gloomy about its depiction. Instead, you can always add a bit of humor to make the piece more readable. Also, if the reader ends up smiling or laughing out loud while reading through the content, you are expected to have forged a lasting connection with him or her.
But then, humor addition shouldn’t feel like a caricature and must fit in naturally. Also, you should be able to gauge the situation proactively as you cannot fit in humor while talking about yourself as a mortician.
Humor can be versatile but it still needs to tread on the lines of being insensitive and as a brand, you should hire content writing firms that are capable of understanding the very blurry distinction.
-
Throw in Elements of Surprise
You are expected to make quite an impression with your content if you can keep surprising the readers at every stage. For instance, start talking about the shoes whilst cutting the discussion with how you have a better alternative that doesn’t require you to tie laces or clean the footwear. Surprise and mystery work together as highly associated emotional hooks, which need to be incorporated with care and intrigue.
You should try and not be overbearing but the content shouldn’t fall flat either. It is always good to keep challenging the thought process of the reader by being pre-emptive; thereby ensuring that they can hardly expect what is to come. This approach adds to the readability of the content and makes it more saleable.
-
The Pop Culture
As writers, we hardly add pop-culture tidbits and references into the mix, especially to make the content more relatable to the millennial and the z-gen audience. While the pop-culture reference might sound disparate to a few, it is a good way to establish a ‘connect’ that lasts and is even relatable. For instance, if you are talking about an educational website, why not bring ‘Walter White’ from ‘Breaking Bad’ as a reference and what he ends up achieving with the amassing knowledge of Chemistry as a subject.
Bottom-Line
Emotional hooks are the secret keys to creating actionable content that is effective and memorable at the same. However, you should focus more the positive emotions like a sense of harmony, amusement, and empowerment to make the readers resonate better with the vision. But then, if you can get hold of skilled writers, even negative emotions like fear and anxiety can be used resourcefully to get the audience to act by spurring them, inadvertently.
Regardless, the approach to effective brand-specific copywriting must revolve around invoking action by pushing certain buttons. Not to mention, the approach should differ for different types of content pieces, with different emotions being targeted on web pages and others for blogs, forum posting, and more.
The trick to succeed is to hire a resourceful, enterprising, and proactive content creation firm that can handle every requirement by simply drafting what’s relevant and interesting.