So far we’ve covered controversy and anger in our delve into attention, which, when done well, grabs our audience so hard it’s (almost) impossible to let go.
What’s next? Well, LOVE obviously (we used its counterpart, hate, for the anger section in part 2). And what makes people fall in love in 1 millisecond flat? Kittens and puppies of course.
If you ever read my piece on “purpose” – what it is, why it’s so simple, and why most people are searching pointlessly when they’re on their mission to find one (a purpose), you’ll know that nurture is 50% of it.
We LOVE to nurture stuff (except the psychos and narcissists, they nurture too, just in a different kind of way…)
Love makes the world go round, which is just another way of saying without love nothing much (of any value) happens, so it’s worth trying it out as an exercise in finding new angles for your copy.
Think of love and nurture as the same thing (nurture without love is a big fail from a long term point of view). When you start using love/nurture as the basis for your big idea, it changes the way you think about your audience.
We talk about empathy a lot in the copywriting industry (how else are you going to figure out what your audience may be worrying about and why), but when it comes to headlines (which after all, is where attention matters most), we don’t have time to empathise.
Instead we go direct for the jugular, hence the “kittens and puppies” approach. What’s going to press that love button so hard the audience just can’t resist?
That’s for you to decide, but whatever you do decide, know one thing. It’s not going to be easy. Like normal muscles, our idea muscle needs love too, so get your thinking cap on and start nurturing your better half.
Meanwhile, click below to continue to part 4.