Targeting an audience based on their feelings is nothing new. Marketing has long been a cross between business and psychology. To be a good marketer it’s important to understand about human psychology and understand the place feelings play in a person making a choice to buy. While sometimes logic plays into a customer’s choice to buy, many times it’s feelings that feel like logic.

Understanding the emotional triggers that can encourage buying will help you convert more leads into buyers. The feelings consumers have about any issue can be complicated but they are often based on just a few emotions such as fear, guilt and trust. People fear missing out and not belonging, and they feel guilty if they don’t contribute to helping others. Finally, consumers need to trust the people they are buying from.

Learning to market to your audience based on their feelings requires you to truly know who your audience is. You may need to take some time to study your audience more closely. If you already have a following you might even send out a survey to get a grasp on how your audience is feeling about various topics within your niche. It will help you learn what words and actions to use to elicit the feelings you want your audience to feel.

As humans we are wired to want to feel connected to others, but we are also wired to compete. The main emotion here is fear but it manifests itself in wanting to belong, and to do so we have to “keep up with the Joneses”. This elicits our competitive nature that dates back to our lizard brains.

Here are some trigger words you can incorporate into your marketing content that will help:

* Limited Time Offer – By creating a limited time offer you create a fear of missing out on something good. This can trigger the person who truly wants to belong to realize that they have to act now or lose out on belonging to the inner circle.

* Get Personal – Using the word “You” in your marketing copy will feel more personal to your audience, as if you’re talking directly to the person who is going to buy your product or service instead of someone unknown and general.

* Make Promises – You want your audience to trust you, and therefore it’s important to make promises to them about the product or service. For example, “If you’re not 100 percent satisfied, I’ll refund your money no questions asked.” This puts them in charge of whether or not they liked the product, and makes them feel like there is no risk.

It’s important to understand human nature as you write advertising copy. You want to develop trust, while eliciting their emotional response to your words so that they choose to do the right thing – which is to buy what you’re selling. Don’t worry; you can do all of this without lying, or exaggerating. There is nothing sinister about it. You have a good product or service and you don’t want even one person to miss out on it.