People buy for emotional reasons.

We humans are an emotional lot.  As much as we like to think we're purely logical, the evidence shows otherwise.  If we were logical we would all meet at Walmart and order white shirts, blouses, black pants, and dark shoes by the case.  If we bought them by the  case we could save a ton of money, plus since the styles were all the same, we would save hours of time worrying about what to wear each day.

Yet, look around you right now.  Everyone is wearing different styles, colors, and types of clothing.  It's purely an emotional reason why you choose the shirt or blouse you did today.  Your instinct tells you we all like to look our best.  That's an emotional need.

So when we plan our marketing we need to be aware of appealing to the prospect's emotional hot buttons.

What are some of the strongest feelings and desires we humans have?  If you're Catholic you can probably name them quickly, because they are the seven deadly sins. Fear, Greed, Envy Vanity, Lust, Pride, and Laziness. 

Actually, it was emotion that won the biggest commission of my career...$54,000.  Let me tell you about it.

I was proposing a life insurance policy to a wealthy motel owner.  He already had a relationship with another broker whose credentials filled up his business card.  This broker had even been invited to the motel owner's vacation retreat in North Carolina.  Looking at my credentials it seemed obvious I didn't stand a chance against such an obvious "pro."  The only thing going for me was my soft -spoken demeanor and sincere effort to present an honest service.

Yet, something purely emotional happened which tipped the scales completely in my favor and destroyed the other broker's chance of ever doing business with them.

You see, when the broker visited the motel owner's vacation cabin retreat he left ashes in the ashtrays.  Seems like a small item, right?  After all, that's what ash trays are for.  Yet, despite the fact that the motel owner was also a smoker, when the broker did not clean up after himself  the motel owner's wife blew a casket.  She became livid over the broker's low regard for their property. What's important to note is that until this time the motel owner's wife had no visible interest in her husband's transaction.  Yet, those ashes in the ashtray cost the highly credentialed broker the case. From that moment on she insisted her husband have no dealing with him.  I won the case by default.

Emotion often doesn't respond to reasoning.  You can pile up the evidence for your product or service and in the end loose to the competitor.  If the responses in your marketing are low, maybe it's time to get emotional!