ArticlesReader.com Menu
Newest Articles
Most Viewed Articles
ArticlesReader.com RSS
Submit Article
Login
Signup
Search the articles

Articles Main Categories
Advice
Animals
Automobiles
Business
Career
Communications
Computer Programming
Computers
Entertainment
Environment
Family
Fashion
Finance
Food
Health & Medical
Home & Garden
Humor
Internet Business
Internet Marketing
Legal
Leisure & Recreation
Marketing
Other
Politics
Reference & Education
Religion
Self Improvement
Sports
Technology & Science
Travel
Writing
Subscribe
Receive alert message from us when new articles submitted to our site for free.

Enter your name

Enter your email

Syndicate

















Related Products
Home::All

How to Profit From Fear and Greed

Author : Vincent Czaplyski
reed and fear may be just a couple of the more unsightly
blemishes on the underbelly of the human psyche. But they're
also two of the greatest all time motivators ever invented.
If you want your copy to sell, you need to understand how to
put these powerful emotions to work for you in your written
copy.

Greed and fear (and a whole bunch of their emotional first
cousins) reside inside of everyone. They well to the surface
at different times and for different reasons in each of us.
When they do, it's as if they grabbed us by our lapels and
shook us to get our attention.

And getting your prospects' full attention is a must if you
want them to reach for their wallets.

Here's an example of how this works.

Imagine you're walking all alone through a graveyard at
night. The full moon disappears behind a cloud as a distant
clock tower ominously strikes midnight. Suddenly you hear
what sounds like a large stone slab scraping against stone.
Your eyes must be playing tricks on you in the gloom,
because just ahead, the door to that crypt seems to be
opening all by itself�

I'm pretty sure this situation would have your complete
attention. In fact, I bet you would be highly receptive to
taking action (a headlong race to the front gate?) depending
on what was offered up next. All because of a little fear.

And so it is with a well written sales letter or other
persuasive piece of copy. Before any selling takes place,
you first have to get the attention of your prospect. You do
this by connecting with your prospect on some emotional
level. This sets the stage for the selling message, and
ultimately the call for action.

While the copywriter has many arrows to draw from in the
emotional quiver, greed and fear are two of the most
powerful.

There are many kinds of fear - fear of financial loss, fear
of lost health, fear of humiliation, fear of pain, fear of
losing out on a once-in-a-lifetime golden opportunity. The
list could go on and on. It's the job of the copywriter to
identify which will resonate the strongest with the target
prospects.

Greed too comes in many flavors. While the word itself seems
to suggest base human instincts, greed has its positive
attributes. Is it greedy to want a better standard of living
for your family? Is it greedy to want to advance to the top
of your profession, or to be a more talented pianist? A
better lover?

If you stop and think about it, fear and greed cover a lot
of emotional territory. Again, it's the job of you the
copywriter to determine which particular flavor will most
likely evoke the desired response in the prospect's heart.

But that's just part of the equation. You also need to paint
that fear or greed in ways that are believable to your
prospects. And you need to offer a real solution to the
emotional needs triggered by your copy. That's what prompts
your prospects to buy.

For example, let's say "fear of never finding a soul mate"
is the emotional trigger you want to exploit in marketing an
online dating service for hopeless romantics.

You might begin such a sales letter like this.

"Dear Friend,

"Last year I received a letter that broke my heart. It was
from a woman named Kathy who had completely given up on ever
finding true love.

"Life held no special joys for Kathy. Her words on that
single hand written page painted a grim portrait of an
empty, lonely life..."

If someone reading your letter fears never finding true love
themselves, this opening will probably evoke an immediate
emotional response. They can identify with Kathy. You have
their attention, now what do you do?

You need to offer a solution, perhaps to Kathy's immediate
problem, but certainly to your prospect's problem. (They're
really one and the same, aren't they?) And you need to offer
lots of specifics to help make it believable. Maybe
continuing the letter with something like this:

"But there's a happy ending to this story. Only four months
afterwards I received a second, much longer letter from
Kathy. She told me about just returning from an incredible
honeymoon in Paris, and all about her wonderful new husband
Brian.

"She shared their plans for an exciting, bright future
together in a picturesque New England town. She told me
about some of the little things in life that suddenly held
special meaning, like picking apples together and long walks
on the beach. About what it meant to have finally found her
true soul mate after so many years.

"I was ecstatic for Kathy of course. But hardly surprised.
In fact I could tell you about 5,735 other success stories
just like Kathy's. That's how many couples have gotten
married after first connecting through Soul Mates Forever.

"And you could be the next success story."

Deciding which emotional trigger to emphasize in your copy
can be challenging. You need to carefully study the nature
of both the product and the prospects to choose the right
one. When in doubt, look to those old standbys fear and
greed and you won't be far off the mark.

This article may be reprinted freely as long as the author's
resource box is included and the article content is not
changed in any way.

About the Author

Copywriter and consultant Vincent Czaplyski is founder
of http://www.impressive-resumes.com, your online source for
professionally written "industrial strength" resumes and
cover letters guaranteed to land you an interview. Contact
him at vincent@impressive-resumes.com.

Spam emails More free articles

Related articles


  1. Is Your Web Copy "Plain Talk"?
  2. A Quick Free 'n' Easy Content Writing Course
  3. Pharmaceutical Copywriter? Maybe?
  4. Copy Makeovers Made Easy
  5. Copywriting Makeover: Subtle Changes Make A Big Difference, Part 2 of 2
  6. Copywriting Makeover: Subtle Changes Make A Noticeable Difference Part 1 of 2
  7. Top 10 Ways For Copywriters To Overcome Writer's Block
  8. How To Personalize Your Headlines For Increased Profits!
  9. Writing Suitable Copy for the Press
  10. How to Write Ad Copy that Sells
  11. Working on the Internet: Role of Proofreading and Copy editing OnLine
  12. Tech-writers: A Necessary Evil
  13. Web Copy � How Much is Enough?
  14. Online Promotion Beats Traditional Ten-One
  15. Writing Copy for Voiceovers
  16. Somebody's Distributing Your Copyright Content Illegally? Know Your Facts Before You Accuse
  17. Web Legalities: Copyright
  18. Things You Might Like to Know about Copyrights
  19. Why Good Copywriting Matters
  20. Why Dream Merchants Make More Money
  21. Why Copyright?
  22. The Top 7 Rules of Power Copywriting!
  23. Revealed: The $12,500 Copywriting Formula
  24. What is Advertising - and What Does it Mean on the Internet?
  25. 7 Emotional Appeals You Can Use To Super Charge Your Headlines
More related feeds
The Old Razzle-Dazzle
The only “morals” driving the markets are fear and greed; that’s common knowledge in the markets themselves. I spent that 12 grand learning that intellectually, and living it personally, discovering my own inner fear ‘n greed (far more ...

Taxpayers can profit from fear and greed too...
Hank Paulson wasn't head of Goldman Sachs for nothing, I trust. World stock markets are surging this morning, maybe 'exploding' is the right word, because of Hank's plan to form a 'bad' bank that will accept the supposedly toxic paper ...

Fear, Uncertainty and Greed with CEG Merger Arbitrage
Constellation Energy Group’s (CEG) stock to me for a wild ride today. Thankfully, as a value investor, I knew that I had to keep my fear in check in order to profit. Let me share with you my story of fear, uncertainty and greed with ...

How to Profit From Fear and Greed
reed and fear may be just a couple of the more unsightly blemishes on the underbelly of the human psyche. But they're also two of the greatest a.

Stainless Steel Rats
We strive to be disciplined and resist emotions like fear or greed, and we reject cognitive biases tempting us to bend or even break our own rules. We recognize that despite the fact we all compete against each other there is strength ...

Capitalism's Grief vs Islam's Ethics
But 'fear' that China's growth will now be slowed has meant that the price of mineral shares has dropped significantly. Rumour, fear and greed have been the reason d'etre of share prices for many years now. The Prophet of Islam though, ...

Are Greedy White Men to Blame for the Financial Crisis?
Both the mainstream media and the political elites have portrayed the crisis as a result of white greed. Banks are going under and the stock market is plummeting, in this view, because of a conspiracy between the Republican Party and ...

Looking out for the next big trade
But for Chanachai Leenabanchong has a pithy explanation for what drives the stock market: greed and fear. “Consider that in a bull market, what is it that is driving people to buy? Greed. And in a bear market, why aren’t people buying? ...

109th Festival of Stocks
Fear, Uncertainty and Greed with CEG Merger Arbitrage posted at Fat Pitch Financials. My look back at the wild ride that Constellation Energy Group provided as fear, uncertainty, and rumors created a profitable merger arbitrage ...

Fear and Greed on Wall Street
Fear and greed. These are the two main human emotions that primarily drive the world of finance and investing. Sanity prevails when fear and greed are in a state of near equilibrium. Things go badly out of kilter when one of these ...

 

 

� 2007 articlesreader.com - All Rights Reserved