Make ’em sick, make ’em well
Anger and anxiety are the No. 1 attribute of messages that get shared, found Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman, two professors at the University of Pennsylvania.
They reviewed some 7,000 articles that appeared in The New York Times to determine what distinguished pieces that made the most-mailed list.
They found that anger is 34% more likely to go viral. That’s equivalent to spending an additional 2.9 hours as the lead story on NYTimes.com. And that’s nearly four times the average number of hours articles spend in that position.
That makes anger the No. 1 technique for getting your target audience to read your blog posts and pass them on.
Tap the anger advantage.
So how can you use that?
Use a marketing technique called “Make ’em sick, make ’em well.” That is, lead with the problem that’s making your target audience angry, follow up with your solution to their problem.
As ad man David Ogilvy counseled, “When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the flames.”
Communicators are often too eager to rush in with the product, service or idea. After all, that’s what we’re selling. But first, show your audience members how bad life can get without your product, service or idea.
Here’s how it works, from a financial services campaign:
Make ’em sick
Make ’em well
Lead with the problem.
Remember: Fire first, fire extinguisher second.
Move readers to act with persuasive writing
Your readers are bombarded with the data equivalent of 174 newspapers — ads included — every day, according to a study by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication.
In this environment, how do you grab readers’ attention and move them to act?
Learn how to write more engaging, persuasive messages at our persuasive-writing workshop.
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