Robert Collier’s phenomenal success as a copywriter during the 20th century made him a figure that many ad writers turn to today for advice and inspiration.
In his classic work, The Robert Collier Letter Book, he dissected a series of ads to show what it was that made them work – or fail to work. It’s like a graduate course in how to right copy that sells.
One of the chapters in this book, “How to Arouse That Acquisitive Feeling,” analyzed ads based on the emotions they aroused. Collier believed (and proved) that ads that touched readers’ emotions were more successful than ads that only touched the intellect.
Collier advised that before you put even one word down on paper, you had to decide what effect he wanted to have on the reader. He had to know the feeling he had to arouse so that the person would be moved to take action. The point of the ad was not to make the reader think “what a clever ad.” Rather it was to arouse in readers the feeling, “Let’s go!”
So when writing copy, you have to ask yourself, what feeling would have to be aroused in me to make me want to take action?
Then, from that point of self-knowledge, you must consider what kind of argument must be presented to readers to get them to the point where they too would take action. As Collier put it, “Isn’t the prime requisite arousing in your reader the feeling that he must have the thing you are offering, or that he cannot rest until he has done the thing you are urging him to do?”
Of course, people don’t want to feel as though their emotions are being manipulated. They want to believe they’re making decisions based on logic. So, the biggest challenge is to present arguments that seem to convince the intellect, while it, in fact, “aims its real appeal at the emotions!”
Collier gives examples of two letters. The first letter had only moderate success, while the second letter pulled better than twice as many responses. The letters sold boxes of greeting cards, and while the first presented some sound intellectual arguments, the second went right for the emotions. You can see the difference right in their opening paragraphs:
Letter One – Intellectual appeal:
“Some people have a sort of sixth sense that enables them to send greetings and the like to all the proper relatives and friends on every appropriate occasion. But most of us are likely to overlook such things.”
Letter Two – Emotional appeal:
“How often have you promised yourself to keep in touch with some old friend, to cultivate some new one–and then gone your way forgetting them, and letting them forget you?”
The second letter immediately brings up the image of a potential loss readers could experience if they don’t follow up on the offer. It’s that twinge of guilt and loss that keeps the reader going to the next paragraph and the next to learn how to resolve those feelings, and primes the reader to follow the easy solution that the letter offers.
The purpose of either of these letters is to get readers to place orders for personally inscribed cards in time for Christmas. Let’s look at the final two paragraphs of each letter to compare the intellectual vs. the emotional approach.
Letter One – Intellectual appeal:
“The time is getting close now. It won’t be long before you will be wanting to mail these cards. Better fill in your name now on the payment blank–tell us how many more cards to send you, and drop it in the mail.
“Then the days may come and days may go, but you’ll be sure of having attractive greetings with which to keep green all your friendships.”
Letter Two – Emotional appeal:
“And of all ways to recall yourself to your absent friends, none is more pleasant or easier than sending them a lovely Christmas greeting, like the box of fifteen that we mailed to you a short time ago, for they are not only good to look at, but they carry with them a warm-hearted greeting that every friend will welcome.
“Remember, it is not the intrinsic value of what you send that counts. It is the spirit that goes with it. As Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, ‘If uncounted wealth were thine, thou couldn’t not to thy cherished friends a gift so dear impart, as the earnest benediction of a deeply loving heart.’ ”
It takes a lot to get people over the inertia of just sitting there, as opposed to getting up and doing whatever is required to obtain whatever it is you’re selling. It takes a lot to get someone to consider spending money on something. You have to convince them that they will feel so much better as a result.
People may know that exercising is good for them. But if you want them to buy a membership in your gym you have to play upon their guilt, fear, and vanity.
People may know it would be nice to have a lot of money. But if you want them to buy your course on investing in commodities, you have to paint a picture of how good they’ll feel when their money problems are over forever, when they can supply their loved ones with everything they need, when they feel the pride of accomplishment.
Try to determine the main factors that impel people to take action, and appeal to those – while also placating the intellect with arguments that satisfy it.
As Collier explains: “Appeal to the reason, by all means. Give people a logical excuse for buying that they can tell to their friends and use to salve their own consciences. But if you want to sell goods, if you want action of any kind, base your real urge upon some primary emotion!”
People have not changed. We are just as emotional as ever, and that is the way to reach your reader. As a copywriter, start with yourself. Ask yourself, what would get me over my inertia so I would take action? Then build your sales piece around that.