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Introduction.
As marketeers our business is to put out offers. People's decisions whether or not to buy our products or services are based on very basic emotional principles. The way to achieve a sale is to appeal to your prospects' emotions not to their logic.

We buy on emotions and justify on logic. If we feel enough emotion, if we want something badly enough, we can justify anything. Everything we do, we do emotionally first.

Focus of Attention.
In the market place, our focus of attention must be on generating in our prospects emotional feelings about their perceived benefits of our commodities. We need not unduly concern ourselves with the logical aspects.

Logical considerations are conjured up in the evaluating, planning, rational area of the brain. Another part of the brain deals with the creative, artistic, emotional aspects of our thinking. The two functions are separate. For the purpose of clarification it can be helpful to visualise this demarcation of the brain's functions when writing your advertising copy.

When a prospect is contemplating whether or not to buy it is this latter area of the brain we must stimulate into action to achieve a successful sale. We need to help it create suitable images, dreams and fantasies in relation to our product or service. To achieve this a thoughtfully placed, relevant picture can be worth a thousand words.

Benefits v Features.
I feel at this point it would be useful to recap on the distinction between the benefits of our offers and their features. Never forgetting, people's buying decisions are based on benefits, not features or logic.

Simply, a feature is about the product, a benefit is about the prospect. Anything that addresses the prospect and how its likely to make him or her feel is a benefit. On the other hand, if we are referring to such things as colour, size, shape and the like, we are identifying features.

Benefits.
There are direct and indirect benefits.

Direct benefits can be considered in terms of cause and effect. A slimming pill is taken and the person loses weight. Simple cause and effect.

As far as marketing is concerned the focus of your attention must be on indirect benefits.

For example, there is nothing very appealing about taking a pill and losing weight. What is relevant is the prospect's illusions about the consequences of losing weight.

Not only might they envisage themselves as being slimmer but also and crucially more sexy, lovable, vibrate etc.. All these secondary aspects have strong emotional foundations. It is by artfully creating and supporting these desires we greatly enhance our chances of turning prospects into a clients.

Connection.
A good place to start when considering indirect benefits is with the idea of "connection". We are designed to connect with other people i.e. interact with others. Connection can be utilised at 3 levels. Incorporate all 3 levels in your advertising and sales will rocket!

The first level simply implies connecting with other people, being in their company, talking to them etc. The powerful selling phrase associated with this is "Join us" or just "Join". "Join our newsletter" "Join the elite" "Join us at our seminar" Work the word "Join" into your advertising copy and watch your sales increase.

Love.
The second level of connection is love. Undoubtedly a powerful way to connect. However it is not easy to use the word "love" in your copy. That said, it can be very easy to imply in a picture. Think of a picture of a couple on an exotic sunny, white sandy beach, close together sipping their pina coladas. Need I say more. Look how many times this is used in professional advertising - it works.

Sex.
The third level of connection is sex. The most recognisable way to imply connection.

We are all aware of how much it is used in advertising. How can you implement it in your advertising? By using the same type of picture I mentioned above. Such images should be mildly suggestive and emotionally stimulating.

Where do you get a choice of such pictures from? Visit www.istockphoto.com. They have 70,000+ to choose from at minimal cost.

"Effortlessness".
The second indirect benefit is "Effortlessness".

We live in an armchair, push button society. Generally, people want something for nothing. The thought of expending energy to achieve goals is frequently alien in the extreme. Avoid any implication in your sales pitch that even the minimal amount of effort will be required by the prospect if they purchase your offer. The implied benefit must be that the prospect can get fabulously rich without even having to move a muscle or blink an eye!

FREE.
A third indirect benefit is the extremely powerful emotional word "FREE". Give something away free, sell it as a bargain, sell it at a discount price and you've cracked it! People delight at getting something under one of these circumstances whether they need it or not. Just look at eBay as an example. Their success is based on this principle.

Whatever you're attempting to sell somehow link it up with one or more of the words "FREE", "BARGAIN or "DISCOUNT". Do it! I assure you, you'll notice the difference.

Dreams.
The final emotional motivator is dreams. A major object of all marketeers is to fulfil people's dreams. If they have no dreams then create dreams for them by using the techniques outlined above. Above all indicate how your product or service can fulfil those dreams.

Your goal? To start utilizing these 6 essential emotional pillars today so you can reach for the stars tomorrow.