Emotion in Email Copywriting and Storytelling
The problem with stories you often read in emails is there is no emotion. You don’t have to make things up, but avoid just describing the sequence of events: “Then this happened, then that happened, zzzzzzzz.”
Part of what makes it a good story is your reaction to what is happening.
You might talk about how you’ve been waiting for years for your favorite band to go on tour, and now they are! You can’t wait to get tickets.
But why? Because they are your favorite band!
We know that.
Tell me about the first time you heard your favorite song from the band on the car radio your senior year of high school, the same night your school won the state football championship.
You REALLY want those tickets, and now I know why. I’m much more interested.
Readers get invested when there is more at stake. That’s why movies spend the first half hour getting you to fall in love with the protagonist’s kids. So when the kids get kidnapped by the bad guys, you feel the parent’s pain. You feel it deeply when Mel Gibson yells “Give me back my son!” in Ransom (extra points for the phrase “rain of s***):
Ransom: Give Me Back My Son Scene HQ – YouTube
No, you don’t have to have your kids kidnapped to inject emotion in emails. Just don’t be a robot. Tell us what happened, and tell me why that is important to you. If you just tell a story without attaching some emotional anchors, we don’t care.
It’s also why it pays to show vulnerability.
For example, copywriting legend Gary Halbert was an ace at self-aggrandizement…
“Listen, I don’t want to ramble on and on about this so let me get to the point: You may never be able to ride a bicycle like Lance Armstrong. You may never play golf as good as Tiger Woods. You may never become as wealthy as Bill Gates. You may never be able to play a guitar like Dickey Betts. And… let’s face it… you’ll probably never be able to…
Write Copy As Good As Gary Halbert!”
One reason he was able to pull it off so well is he showed vulnerability as well…
“…I think it’s time I socked away some money to prepare for my “golden years”. It’s a funny thing but, I seem to be somewhat of an optical illusion. Not long ago, I was on stage in front of approximately 200 people who didn’t know me from Adam. I told them I was going to give one of them a valuable prize. To win this prize, they had to guess my height, my weight, and my age.
Well, when I averaged up all the answers, it turned out the average guess of my height was exactly right. It turned out the average guess of my weight was 29-pounds less than my actual weight. And when averaged all together, they had guessed I was 15-years younger than my actual age.
The truth is, it doesn’t matter how young and thin I actually look to other people. The calendar and scales don’t lie.”
Let readers in to your world, and you’ll likely get more response when they are ready to buy.
