Copywriting 101: Logical Appeal vs Emotional Appeal

One of the heated debates is whether logical or emotional copy is more effective.

Just take a look at any ad and you’ll notice that the copy might either be logical or emotional.

But before we explore which copy is more effective, let’s differentiate between these 2 types.

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Logical Appeal

Just as the name suggests, this type of copy focuses on valid reasoning.

Hence, you must include facts, figures or specifications in the copy. All these rational reasons encourage your audience to buy the product or service. It also helps justify their purchase decision.

Source: KlientBoost

Here are some examples:

• 3-in-1 product/service that can do x, x & x
• Portable at only x ounce and x feet
• 100% designed, manufactured and tested in-house

This is where you point out irresistible factual reasons and appeal to your customers’ logical brains.

Such logical copy might seem cold but nevertheless, they’re hard facts.

Emotional Appeal

Emotional copy focuses on feelings.

Thus, the copy includes more intangible reasons (not supported with facts like logical copy). The point is to make your customers feel something. Whether it’s fear of missing out on this product or service or to pique their curiosity.

You can check out this list of emotions that you can appeal to. And here’s an interesting emotional copy by an outdoor apparel and gear brand:

Source: By Lindsay Kolowich via HubSpot

Simply put, you need to point out that single important trigger that pushes customers to press the buy button. This will require some testing to see which emotional trigger works better for your customers.

Emotional copy evokes warmth but might seem like fluff because it’s not backed up by facts.

So… Who Wins?

Most people argue that copy appealing to emotion performs better than logic.

This is because people don’t remember specifications, facts, figures or features. They only remember emotions.

Just think about an important event in the past. Do you remember the exact words that your friends or family said? The exact things that happened that day? Or do you remember that strong feeling you felt on that day?

Similar to how you vividly remember the feelings of that day, you also remember the feelings that an ad copy evokes in you.

However, I beg to differ…

Both Are Essentially Important

I feel that both logical and emotional appeals are equally important and should be included in your copy.

For example, you could combine both in your headline:

• Save Costs By 50% With [Product/Service]
  • ‘Save Costs’ evokes thrift while ‘50%’ is a statistical figure that speaks to the logical part of the brain

Or you could have a logical or emotional headline supported with an opposing sub-headline:

• Emotional Headline: Let [Robot Vacuum Cleaner] Clean Your House While You Work
• Logical Sub-Headline: Noiseless helper that works 3 hours, detects corners, sweeps & mops under chairs

Another alternative would be sticking to one appeal for above-the-fold copy then switching to the other appeal at the next section. For instance, you could use an emotional ATF copy then use a logical copy in the features section where you go into more details about the product’s specifications.

Source: By Joanna Wiebe via Copy Hackers

Logical & Emotional Copywriting Tips

Choose Your Facts Wisely & Prioritize Them

Obviously, you don’t want to bombard your customers with dry statistics and technical details. Neither should you be listing fact after fact to fill the page (it’ll just be filler copy that is unactionable).

Instead, you should be keeping your audience glued to the copy. Where each statement should be guiding your audience down that sales funnel towards the purchase.

Photo by Lukas on Pexels

Pick out only the necessary facts. Let’s say your robot vacuum cleaner is the lightest in the world, you definitely want to include facts like size and weight. But if your robot vacuum cleaner is quite heavy, you might want to emphasize other facts like its 3-in-1 function or its long battery life.

Next, you need to prioritize these facts by listing the important ones first. In the above example where your robot vacuum cleaner is extremely light, you might want to mention the weight first before talking about the size.

Be honest. Let’s say your robot vacuum cleaner isn’t light. You shouldn’t be lying about its size or weight. You can still list them at the specifications section but you should highlight its other more important features instead.

Emotional Copy Is About Evoking Emotions, Not Including Emotions

It is not a must to include emotions in your copy. You don’t have to write out the emotion itself to create an emotional copy.

For instance, “Make Your Life Easier With [Product/Service]” is more impactful than “Make Your Life Happier With [Product/Service]”. You don’t have to include the word, ‘happy’ to feel happy. Just hearing that something can make my life easier gives me joy already~

Photo by freeGraphicToday on Pixabay

Associate Emotions With An Experience

So how can we go about writing emotional copy without mentioning these emotions?

First, consider what emotions you want to make your audience feel. You can use the list from earlier too.

Next, think about whether you can associate this feeling with an experience. In “Let [Robot Vacuum Cleaner] Clean Your House While You Work”, I try to paint a picture in the audience’s mind. A picture of a possible future. Of how life will be with my product. Immediately, you can feel this sense of relief when the burden of household chores is lifted off your shoulders.

This experience doesn’t have to be the experience of using this product or service. You can associate this feeling with a totally different (or even unexpected) experience.

[Robot Vacuum Cleaner]: The Perfect Daughter-In-Law Who Do Chores. No Arguments Ever.

Okay, this isn’t an excellent example but I don’t think many people would associate a robot vacuum cleaner with a daughter-in-law (so there’s still a surprise element in the copy). Unlike that horrible experience of living together with your daughter-in-law (countless heated arguments and more), you get to enjoy peaceful days with my product.

Photo by whoalice-moore on Pixabay

You can also use sensory words to describe the experience. Sensory words make your readers see, hear, taste, smell or feel. These are words related to your 5 senses.

• Sight: dazzling, bright, faint, hazy, shiny
• Hearing: thump, crash, bellow, cackle, hiss
• Smell: acrid, musty, odorless, spicy, whiff
• Taste: sweet, bland, peppery, creamy, bitter
• Touch: slimy, coarse, hairy, moist, cold

Now It’s Your Turn

Remember to use a proofreading tool like Grammarly and ProWritingAid to check and correct your grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes. Or try attending copywriting classes like Copywriting For Crafters and Write Copy That Compels And Sells. There are online courses at Fiverr Learn and CreativeLive.

Does logical or emotional copy work better for you? Have you tried combining both together? What other tips would you like to share with fellow copywriters when crafting logical or emotional copy?