3 Powerful Ways for You to Use Emotional Intelligence in Copywriting

When you talk about copywriting, you’re talking about persuasive writing. It is easier to persuade when you use emotional intelligence.

If you think emotions and logic work freely from one another, think again. It turns out that our brains are incapable of making emotionless decisions. However, knowing that you can use this to your advantage.

Say someone’s in a bad mood, and it’s keeping them from making intelligent decisions. The best thing to do is to try to improve their emotional state, rather than using reason to win them over.

In his article titled “The Emotionally Intelligent Person’s Guide to Being Persuasive,” David Hoffeld says to inspire a smile, ask for opinions, and bring up something that feels good. These three things will help persuade.

And it’s not about manipulation. It’s about serving people to the best of your ability. Harry Lansley, Director of the Emotional Intelligence Academy says, “Gone are the days when manipulation works; another great benefit of the internet and our ability to fact-check information on the fly.”

To influence and persuade you must use compassion, generosity, and kindness. If you have bad intentions, then you will have bad results.

When I think about this, it reminds me of the time I joined a cult.

I was in a state of semi-awareness. I knew there was something more to life, I just didn’t know what it was or how to find it.

I came across an ad for this free event on Facebook. "Awakened Life Live" promised a spiritual awakening and more. There was only one problem. This event was 12 hours Saturday and 12 hours Sunday.

I had to decision to make.

I asked myself, “Did I want to give up my weekend for this? Will I have the patience to sit through 24 hours of Zoom Live in two days?”

I didn’t know it at the time. But this decision would be a turning point in my life.

I just looked at it as a possible opportunity to grow myself. I figured I would try it out. If something was fishy about it, I would just leave the Zoom meeting.

“Welcome to Awakened Life Live” I heard in a calm soothing voice.

In the first hour, I felt at ease. Jonathon England preached that God is love and love is everything. So, everything is in God and God is in everything.

He also taught us how to reprogram our minds. Wiping our natural hard drives clean from lifelong brainwashing and programming. Whether it comes from our parents, friends, teachers, preachers, or government, it’s all based on lies.

Jonathon had a strong power of persuasion. If he didn’t, I wouldn’t have listened to him talk for 24 hours in two days. He had charisma. He was generous, kind, insightful, and brutally honest. And he was human.

It was a life-altering experience. That Saturday I separated myself from all attachments. I let go of my own ego and limiting beliefs, and the next day I was reborn.

Ever since that weekend, I’ve been growing, evolving, and creating at exponential speed.

I’ve been studying and researching self-awareness, mindfulness, and EI. I’ve become an expert in copywriting through research, courses, coaching, and certifications. I’ve trained with some of the best copywriters in the country. And studied many of the top achievers in business, marketing, and mindset.

What I’ve learned is that it all comes down to one thing…

High EQ = A Successful Mindset

Having a successful mindset is the most important thing in business AND copywriting. Without a positive mindset, you will not have success.

According to author and EI expert Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage/influence our emotions and the emotions of others.

EI has been gaining steam since his book "Emotional Intelligence" in the mid-’90s. It has become a popular way to promote personal and professional development.

In copywriting, we use persuasion. To persuade someone, you must speak to and understand the emotions inside them. You must sell to the emotions first.

There are five types of Emotional Intelligence. For this article, I put them into three categories. Some of them seem to relate to each other more than others.

Internal Motivation

According to www.ohio.edu, Internal motivation means that your motivation to accomplish your goal comes from within you. It is determined by your own values and goals.

The tasks that you do because you want to do, that’s internal motivation. The tasks you do because others want you to, or reward you for, that is external motivation.

Ask yourself, what motivates me to write copy? Is it internal or external? If external, will that be enough to keep me going, even after I accomplish it? Can I take the external motivations and turn them inward?

These are questions you must answer to take your EQ (Emotional Quotient) and copywriting to the next level. You need to have some type of internal motivation driving you or you will run out of steam.

Start every day establishing your mindset. It could be daily aspirations you tell yourself aloud. It could be meditation or visualizing. Or like me, simply listening to the right playlist on your Spotify.

Self-awareness and Self-regulation

Self-awareness is the ability to focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts, or emotions do or don't align with your internal standards.

An example of self-awareness is your ability to distinguish your own beliefs from others. Did you come to that belief through your thoughts and emotions, or do you believe it because someone told you it’s true?

This can be crucial, especially for new copywriters. There are so many people out there trying to exploit your interest and scam you. Always do research and be honest with yourself before deciding.

Self-regulation is control or supervision from within instead of by an external authority. It has come to mean regulation by the self, not just of the self. For example, we actively regulate or control whether we exercise or not, eat a piece of pie, or have a positive attitude.

Self-regulation has more to do with taking action. Self-awareness is about being aware so you can take action.

As a copywriter, you must humble yourself. You must be open to criticism and judgment when it comes to your writing. The best copywriters are the ones who take negative feedback and use it to make their writing better. It takes self-awareness and self-regulation to see what needs to change and to change it.

Empathy and Social Awareness

I think most of you know about empathy. It is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Empathy is recognizing what someone feels and even experiencing those emotions yourself.

Say your friend has to put his dog down. He’s distraught and you can understand that. Heck, you might even cry yourself. That is empathy.

Social awareness is the ability to see someone’s perspective and empathize with them, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Using the same example if you can put yourself in your friend’s shoes. If you can imagine what they're going through, and empathize with them, that is social awareness.

The #1 rule of marketing is that people don’t want to be sold. You must sell to the emotions first. To do that, you need to empathize with others and utilize your social awareness skills.

Do some market research. Get to know your audience. Make up an Ideal Client Avatar, so you can picture who you’re writing to.

Recap

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our emotions and the emotions of others.

Find your internal motivation and turn your external motivations inward if possible. Start your morning with daily aspirations, meditation, or some "music meditation." It isn’t really meditation at all. It's just listening to a playlist that puts me in the mindset I want to be in.

Always get feedback. Negative feedback is your chance to turn a negative into a positive. Simply take that feedback and apply it to your work to make you a better copywriter.

And remember the number one rule. People don’t want to be sold, so put some empathy and social awareness into it. Do your research, know your prospect, and decide who your ideal client is.

Whatever you do though, make sure you utilize some EI and do it with a successful mindset.

For more on Emotional Intelligence and copywriting contact me on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected]