Every successful consumer goods brand is selling based on who their audience wants to be, on who their customers want to be, what they want to feel.

Maybe they want to feel professional, or competent, or elevated, or rich, or attractive, or satiated. There’s so many different options.

Because once we know how they need to feel in order for this to be like an easy decision – and how they want to feel – then we can reverse engineer the kinds of things that we need to say to stimulate that cluster of emotions – whatever you have decided on – and whatever’s come out of your market research as well.

We’re going to be talking about this. You can reverse engineer it and figure out how to create that emotion.

Now, all of this is very achievable. We can all immediately name pieces of writing. These are usually books that have changed us, that have changed our emotional state, things we’ve read, essays, blogs, books we will never forget. And it’s super acceptable to talk about in that context of kind of literature and journalism and essay writing.

But can we also acknowledge that businesses and brands have done this to us too? Can we also acknowledge that like the creative expression of professional marketers has done so, so much to impact us personally and as and culturally societally as well. And as I said this is so easy to do human beings are so we’re suggestible our tender little hearts are wide open, and in general we want to believe what people tell us. Most people are inclined to believe us and most people can also very easily be cued to experience certain emotions just by having them suggested or described.

Okay, so using language in this way, so well researched, there is a huge amount of education in this world about persuasive writing. In fact, I am opening doors to a course on this very topic and this very week.

But, you know, my daughter, my daughter’s 14, and she is practicing, they’re doing a persuasive writing module at school, how to pitch. They’re doing this really cool exercise. And, you know, I recommend you give it a try, even if it’s just as a thought exercise.

They’ve each been given a piece of art that they don’t particularly like. I think they had a selection of art postcards. They had to pick one that they didn’t particularly like and then they have to write three paragraphs or something selling it you know dragon’s den style pitching it figuring out how to turn the things that you don’t like about the piece of art into something that somebody else can feel excited about or moved by or interested in or entertained by.

The motive of persuasive writing is to figure out how to make the person you’re talking to feel a certain way about the thing you are talking about.

Okay, this is taught in schools, and we can all remind ourselves about it. There’s so much information. And you know, a lot of this is actually just about mindfully and intentionally expanding your vocabulary, right? So looking at what you’re writing and adding a layer of nuance and sophistication so that it does become more specific.

You know, like how wine experts have 12 different words for dry wine. So they call it flinty or smoky or burnt toast because they have, through training and years of practice, acquired a very sophisticated palette. And, you know, writing in this way is very similar in some ways. So the more precisely you can name an emotion or experience, the more precisely you can evoke it in your audience.

So if you are only describing your work as helpful or transformational, you are working with very blunt tools. But if you can identify a specific feeling that your ideal client is desperate to experience, is it vindication? Is it relief? Is it permission, clarity, hope? Now you can speak directly to that hunger.

And this is why tarot and astrology are such incredible resources for marketers because they give you this whole vocabulary of kind of emotional states and archetypal energies that a lot of people aren’t always conscious of, like maybe they couldn’t actually name or describe the state themselves, but they do recognize that state when they’re introduced to it; and that recognition – that oh wow – that’s what’s been going on for me – it literally changes their consciousness: they’ve become aware of a layer that they hadn’t been aware of before.

So if you can provoke a strong emotion, you can be remembered. People don’t remember what you say. They don’t remember details, but people do remember feelings.

That is what changes our brain chemistry. It changes our neural pathways. So the more frequently we can do it, the more memorable we’re going to be.

And that’s the name of the game, right? Brand awareness. People seeing your marketing content and not being starting from square one every single time they see it because they remember that you made them feel something. If we can do that, then your marketing kind of almost circumvents logic.

We still need logic. We know people, we know the details are important, right? The deliverables are important. But we know that people don’t use logic at the front end of the decision. So yes, it’s still important, but we’re not setting it aside entirely. We’re just recognizing that what is most important in the decision making process is not the rational brain. It’s the deeper layers of the psyche.

And it’s through this capacity to change people’s states that your brand just becomes a part of people’s awareness, a part of people’s consciousness. Your takeaway is this: we are deliberately and shamelessly provoking specific emotions.

There are a lot of people in your industry who are writing clear, concise copy that does not make people feel anything. It only gives details. And that type of copy is only attractive to people who have already decided. They’ve already decided from their heart, from their emotions. Maybe they have a personal connection with you. Maybe you shared something that they just really vibed with. They have already decided that they want to work with you.

And if they haven’t reached that place yet, the details are irrelevant.

So this, creating emotion, changing people’s states is how you create followers, how you create fans. People want to support you. People want to encourage your business. They want to work with you. But they can only do so if they remember you. and they can only remember you if you make them feel something.

Family and friends, people you know in person, it’s much easier for them to support you because you mean something to them, you make them feel something. But if you want to experience the encouragement and support of others, we have to make them feel something.