How to write thoughtful copy that can arouse users' "empathy"?

Heartfelt copywriting is copywriting that can arouse people's knowledge, emotions, intentions, and desires; heartfelt copywriting must arouse people's empathy.

What is empathy?

Empathize and put yourself in other people's shoes. Your advertising must make users feel involved and integrate your demands, opinions, and information into their lives, thereby triggering resonance and making them identify with and feel good about your product/ brand .

Many years ago, there was a three-principle rule for evaluating the quality of creativity: ROI. It’s not about return on investment , but relevance, originality, and impact, which are also what Bernbach proposed.

Of course, what ROI means by relevance is that creativity must be related to product benefits and brand concepts. But I prefer to understand relevance as creativity must be related to the user's product consumption scenario, product experience emotions, and product usage logic.

If your advertisement has nothing to do with me, why would I bother with you?

According to the brand dynamics pyramid model, the relationship between people and brands is divided into five levels: existence, relevance, performance, advantage, and binding.

A brand must first exist in my mind, and secondly, it must be related to my inner needs. Otherwise, where will you get the opportunity to show your advantages?

In an age of information explosion, attention is the most scarce resource. Faced with massive amounts of information, we have developed a self-protection mechanism to filter out all information that is irrelevant to us.

What do you want to ask me about? Food, clothing, housing, transportation, career-related, hobbies, and social news. The first part is individual life experience, and the second part is social news event.

Therefore, a good advertisement should either be transformed into an individual experience or into social news, so as to attract widespread attention. Of course, if you can do both at the same time, that would be a truly creative idea.

Let’s talk specifically about how to arouse empathy.

Three principles

Principle 1: Object-oriented

Sing the song that suits the mountain you are on. Before writing a copy, you must first know who you are talking to. Write about their stories and feelings, and write the way they speak.

Never say that your target audience is the general public, urban white-collar workers, and independent women aged 20-55. These are such abstract concepts. You should imagine your target audience as a specific, living person.

You want to attract his attention and introduce the product to him, so what would you say?

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, after Guan Yu surrendered to Cao, Cao Cao treated Guan Yu very well, but Guan Yu still wanted to return to Liu Bei's side.

This story is sung in the Peking Opera "Huarong Road":

I treated you with great kindness in Cao Ying.
The horse is gold, the horse is silver, the beauty in red robe.
I recommend you to be the Marquis of Shouting, a noble title.
Could it be that a real man forgets his old friends?

After all, Peking Opera was transformed by literati, and its audience is of a higher level, so the lyrics are about gold, silver, noble titles, and beautiful women in red robes. But if these words are sung to old men herding sheep and working in the fields in the countryside, they will not understand them.

So the same thing, when it comes to Henan Bangzi, becomes like this:

Cao Mengde rode his donkey up Bali Bridge.
I respectfully ask you to listen to this:
What was wrong with me treating you badly in Xuchang?
Every meal has four dishes and two steamed buns.
You think mung bean noodles with dumplings are cliché,
Your sister-in-law Cao is busy at the stove.
Spread the pancakes and mix with the peppercorn sesame oil.
I also made you some purslane buns.
Sesame leaf noodles are available at every meal.
I steamed another pot of elm money and poured the garlic juice over it...
I have a heart for you that the heavens cannot express.
If I have any bad ideas, I'm a dick!

Even though so many delicious foods are prepared every day, Guan Erye still refuses to stay. What a loyal and affectionate person Guan Erye must be. (This verse really makes me hungry)

Same story, same meaning, but the way of expression is so different, it’s simply because the objects are different.

The same idea is expressed in The Little Prince:

If you say to adults, "I saw a beautiful house with red brick walls, sunflowers climbing on the windows, and pigeons perching on the roof..." they will not be able to imagine what the house looks like. You have to tell them, "I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs." They will immediately shout, "What a beautiful house!"

Right?

Every sentence in DingTalk's copywriting records the stories and voices of entrepreneurs . Entrepreneurs can resonate with them, and people who have not started a business can also be infected by the emotions.

When I was at Publicis, I worked as a director on a Father’s Day ad, which was the best Father’s Day ad I had ever seen.

It was made for a men's clothing brand, and it uses the voice of a little daughter to say: I just realized that every step taken by my dad is not easy.

Although Durex ’s Father’s Day copy is clever and Chivas’s long Father’s Day copy is touching, I think this one can touch a father more. It is full of little fun, little happiness and little touching moments in life.

Many years ago, Ge You endorsed China Tour and produced a series of print and TVC copywriting, which I think are all classics.

Graphic copywriting:

I am Ge You. Like you, I also have a mobile phone with a China Unicom number.

I use China Unicom for a simple reason: good signal, affordable rates, and convenient to use. Also, many people around me use China Unicom and they all say it’s good. If you ask me how Shenzhouxing is, I will say: Shenzhouxing, I think it’s good!

TV copywriter:

Let’s talk about mobile phone cards. Let me be honest. I don’t pick the number. Whether the number is good or not is imaginary. I pick the card! China Mobile, right? Many people use it. It's just like going into a restaurant, right? On a street, I go into whichever house has the most people. I heard that there are nearly 200 million people on China Mobile. I... believe in the masses. Hello! China Mobile, I think it’s OK.

"I know a lot of people who use China Unicom. They say that it is cost-effective no matter how you calculate it. They say that it is cost-effective only if you save money and worry. They also say that if they think it is cost-effective, then it is really cost-effective. There is really a big truth in these small benefits. As for me, I still believe in the masses. Hey, China Unicom, I think it works."

The users of China Mobile are ordinary people. If you were asked to recommend a mobile phone card to your uncles or aunts at home, what would you say? Therefore, the entire copywriting style of China Mobile's mobile app is just casual chatting, which is very simple.

Object-orientation not only determines the way your copy is expressed, but also determines the style and tone of your copy, whether it is individualistic, literary and elegant, luxurious and pretentious, or simple and homely.

Different people say different things and say them in different ways.

Principle 2: Scenario-oriented

Place your product in the user's specific life scenario, imagine how they will use your product, how they will talk about your product, what kind of changes your product will bring to their lives, and what role your product plays in the user's life.

Then describe the things you imagined.

Huijiafanchang is a C2C meal ordering platform. Its copywriting is written like this:

Many brands have made Spring Festival advertisements. When we served Jinjiu, we wrote it like this:

What do you think is the point of people staying up late to grab train tickets, sitting on trains for days and nights, and traveling thousands of miles? Isn’t it just that we can sit together and have a reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve?

These two drafts were released consecutively, one showing an empty table and the other a full table. The contrast between the two scenes makes people want to fill it up.

I have summarized a formula for the thinking logic of scenario-based copywriting:

This is the candy packaging launch copy written by Li Jiaoshou for Nanfu. Let’s take a look at his thinking logic.

Of course, this copy is good, but I think it goes off topic.

When it comes to scenarios, we need to not only consider the user’s life scenarios, but sometimes we also need to consider the media environment in which the user is located, so as to create different communication effects.

Take a look at the bus stop advertisement for Sanquan Private Kitchen Dumplings:

It describes the various miserable situations of taking the bus, so it is necessary to eat something good.

This is the subway box advertisement we created for JAC electric vehicles in Beijing. Electric vehicles are aimed at people who have an urgent need for transportation, and its target audience is people who take the subway to work every day.

When you are squeezed in a subway car and can't move, with a huge belly pressing against you on the left and a smell of leek dumplings mixed with perfume coming from the right, you will involuntarily want to buy a car.

Object-oriented and scenario-oriented, this is the key to making users feel involved and empathize with the experience. By triggering the user's empathy, your copy will truly be heartfelt.

Two tips

Technique 1: Visualize

Can anyone memorize these 24 words? Please close your eyes and start reciting now.

Isn’t it easy? Even though you can see it everywhere, the amount of advertising is so huge. But each of these words is a very large and abstract concept.

Abstract things are always difficult to resonate with and remember.

In July 2016, there was an advertisement that went viral. I wonder if you still remember it:

(Video duration: 1′29″)

Its text says:

who I am?
What kind of person is he?
Maybe you’ve never thought about...
I am the last one to leave. I am the first one to start work. I am the one who thinks about myself the least. I am the one who sticks around until the end. I am the one who moves the fastest. I am the one who cares about everyone the most.

Why does this advertisement resonate with people and go viral? Because it is very concrete. It makes the abstract party seem within reach.

When writing copy, you must be meaningful and avoid using big words, such as taste, health, innovation, technology, and a better life...

The reason why these advertisements are boring is that they lack concrete expression, have no objects, no scenes, and are empty.

Good copywriting must create feelings, smells, tastes, touches, colors, pain, tears, and smiles.

Tip 2: Visualize

"Positioning Theory" cites a classic case. Belgium wanted to promote its tourism resources, but it suffered from low popularity. Americans did not know what fun there was in Belgium and had no concept of traveling to Belgium. When they go to Europe, they go to more well-known tourist countries around Belgium, such as the Netherlands.

Then, Belgium discovered an interesting fact from the Michelin Guide (which rates cities and restaurants):

The book's three-country section, "Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium", selected six three-star cities (the highest rating) that are "worth a special trip", five of which are in Belgium: Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels and Tourneuil. However, what is really surprising is that its northern neighbor, the tourist powerhouse Netherlands, only has one three-star city: Amsterdam.

So Belgium launched an advertisement like this: Beautiful Belgium, there are 5 Amsterdams. A simple contrast makes the beauty of Belgium vivid.

At the intersection of the National Ancient City in Nanning, Guangxi, there used to be a billboard like this:

What is on the other side of the billboard? It is the new Gucci in Dream Island Department Store. The amount of the down payment becomes more vivid.

As for the MINI picture, I don't need to explain, everyone knows what it means:

What is the image of Cadillac? Take a look at the group leader’s masterpiece:

The degeneration of males is the tragedy of this era, but fortunately there is Cadillac. The toughness, wildness and sharp edges of American cars are all overwhelming.

Floor area ratio is a very professional term in real estate, and many people may not understand it. It refers to the ratio of the total above-ground building area to the land area of ​​a community. The smaller the floor area ratio, of course the more comfortable it will be to live in.

In order to promote the selling point of 0.2 floor area ratio, Feng Xindong wrote: Only one-fifth of the land is allowed to grow houses.

16km/h is a snail's pace for drivers. km/h is a unit commonly used in automobiles . When you see km/h, you will think of the speed of the car. Compared with the car, the balance bike will be at a disadvantage.

So Xiaomi changed the comparison object: 4 times the walking speed.

From the above examples, we can see that in order to make the copy vivid and touching, you can associate, compare and draw analogies between what you are describing and things that are familiar to consumers, so as to make the copy vivid and lifelike.

In terms of copywriting, this is called rhetorical skills; in terms of strategy, this is called analogy positioning.

The peerless master who mastered this skill to perfection was an old lady who retired from society and made a living by setting up stalls:

How to write heartfelt copy? Do you understand the routine?

The author of this article @空手 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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