When was the last time you read something – say an ad in a magazine, a few pages of a website, a Facebook page or even a billboard – and have been busting to go and do something about it?
Hardly ever, probably.
Most of you will glance at it, maybe read it and then (perhaps if the writer is really lucky) you’ll think “that’s nice,” or “that’s interesting.” And then you’ll forget about it.
Death by a thousand other thoughts.
Often we’re unreceptive to many marketing messages because they don’t directly appeal to our specific wants and desires.
I hope you just noticed that I didn’t say, it should appeal to peoples’ (prospects) needs?
It’s an important distinction to make, if you plan on being an ace copy or marketing writer. Especially one that creates sales and converts readers into buyers.
Needs are very different to wants. Wants outsell needs every time.
Needs can be boring. They’re about necessity, are utilitarian and the requirements we need to continue (or survive). That’s the reason it’s called of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Wants are exciting. They drive our desires, they make us salivate, crave and dribble (figuratively), and most often include the intangibles of a product – the way they make you feel – as well as the actual product.
Wants are all about our emotions, our sense of self and beliefs about our own status in the world.
Wants are related to what we think others think of us.
And if you really want something, you can’t get it out of your head. You crave it, long for it and dare I say that obsession makes you want to go and get it – no matter the size of the obstacles (if any) in your way.
Where does that lead your writing, and thinking?
Always appeal to the wants and desires of your audience or reader. Not their needs.
That way your copy will be a woven through their mind, and into their heart.
Logic doesn’t sell or persuade. Emotion does.