You’re probably familiar with the saying that people buy on emotion and then justify that decision with logic.
It’s true, reason why storytelling and vivid copy works.
Stirring up your readers’ feelerz can have a huge impact on them taking action.
But I’ve come to realize that as with most things, there’s a lot of nuance here too.
People don’t buy merely because you make them feel something.
They need to believe, first.
They need to believe in you, and then in themselves.
Creating or emphasizing existing strong beliefs, not only strong emotions, should be your goal.
It’s the same for entrepreneurs when they’re pitching their next grand idea.
In order for their dream to get support and funding, they might need investors to believe in what they’re building.
How do they do it?
Peter Diamandis in his book Bold, talks about the “line of super credibility”.
“In each of our minds we have a line of credibility. When you first hear a new idea, you place it above or below this line. If you place it below, you dismiss it immediately, often as ridiculous. If you place it above, you’re willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, follow it over time, and continue to make serial judgments. But we also have a line of super-credibility. When a new idea is born above this line, you accept it immediately and say, “Wow, that’s fantastic! How can I get involved?” The idea is so convincing that your mind accepts it as fact and your focus shifts from probabilities to implications.”
The same way an entrepreneur with his moonshot idea strives to get investors as close as possible to the line of super credibility, even before they heard their idea, you should too with your prospects.
And it’s important to differentiate between the rollout of your big idea (where the idea starts from, with what claims and promises) and the performance (where the idea ends up, the actual delivery and result).
You always want to make sure your rollout is as accepted and as believable as possible and then exceed expectations with your performance.
In other words, aim to for super credibility, don’t settle for “just” credibility.
As Diamandis says, you want your prospects to shift from probabilities or “Can this really happen if I buy this? What’s the chance?” to implications, when they ask themselves “What will it look like when I buy this”?
This is why I don’t think emotion should always overrule your approach to writing copy.
It’s important to trigger the right emotions and direct them effectively, but first you have to make sure this emotion stands on solid, credible foundations.
Some food for thought.
Today, I’m recording a new Youtube teardown. It’s a fitness coaching website. Thought I’d shift from SaaS and Ecommerce a bit. You’ll find it soon on my channel. If you’re not in on the fun, I’d love a subscribe 😊
Quote and reflection of the day:
“Every day is a new one and you must earn confidence daily. You need to earn your answers daily. You need to reassure yourself with action; confidence is simply a byproduct of consistent implementation”
Wes Watson, Non-Negotiable
Lack of confidence just means you’re either not taking action on your plan, or that your plan is too high level and doesn’t allow you to see the daily, incremental, consistent achievements. Make your goals smaller in the short term to achieve the bigger ones in the long term.
