Use ChatGPT to Find Your Market's Core Emotional Drivers (and Write Killer Sales Copy)
When starting a new copy project, the first question I ask is, "What does my avatar feel?"
I want to know the buyer's core emotional drivers, as they relate to my product. I want to know things like:
- What are they afraid to admit out loud
- What are they unwilling to acknowledge about themselves
- What do they want, but feel incapable of achieving
Humans are fundamentally emotional.
Our thoughts are emotional, our ideas are emotional, our entire worldviews are built on a scaffold of emotional judgments (whether people know it or not).
And for certain direct response markets, like dating, health & wellness, weight loss, and business opportunity ("biz opp"), channeling dominant emotions is the only way to sell successfully.
You have to strike a chord immediately, or your offer is going to slip off their brain, like water off a duck's back.
So how do you identify your market's core emotions?
Pre-2023, you'd start by going deep in places like Reddit, forums, YouTube, and customer reviews. You'd watch videos, read first-person threads, and scan through hundreds of testimonials to piece together a kind of emotional gestalt that encapsulates the buyer's worldview.
For me, the process would take anywhere from 3-5 hours. I needed that much research time before I could say "Okay, I get this person. I know what makes them tick, and I can write to that in a potent way."
But this is 2023, and now we have AI.
With the help of ChatGPT, you can create a shockingly thorough buyer avatar in about 45 minutes... one that hones in on key emotions AND scenarios that show how those emotions shape their behavior.
To help illustrate, I'll show you the prompt series I've been using. (And first, I have to shout-out Mario Castelli, who first showed me first this kind of progression).
But rather than give the prompts verbatim, I'd rather tell you what they're trying to accomplish.
Why is that important? In the Age of AI, writers who can only copy-paste prompts they swiped from somewhere else bring no added value. They're going to get phased out.
You need to learn how to speak the AI's language, so you program it yourself to get what you need. That's how you thrive in the Age of AI.
I'll hop down off my soapbox now. Let's dive into the process.
Creating Your Avatar
Here's an avatar I recently created with ChatGPT.
Some context: My clients sells a premium vitamin gummy for kids, and the buyer is health-conscious moms between ages 25-40.
The "hook" that brings buyers to this particular brand is behavior issues. Their kids may have trouble sleeping, focusing in school, or yelling, for example.
For this brand, the root cause of these issues is poor nutrition (specifically "hidden hunger")... and the brand presents the gummy as the solution.
Okay, enough context. Let's dive into the prompt progression.
First, I'll share the goal of the prompt, then an overview of the output ChatGPT gave me.
Step 1: Avatar Overview
Input: Identify the basic demographics of the persona: Start by inputting the basic demographic information of the persona, such as age range, gender, occupation, and family status.
Output: Sarah is a 32-year-old mother of two children, a 6-year-old and a 10-year-old. She works part-time as a marketing analyst and is married to a software engineer. Sarah is stressed out and frustrated, because none of the standard parenting advice has helped improve her child's behavior.
Step 2: Psychographics
Input: Explore the psychographics of the persona: Dive deeper into the persona's beliefs, values, motivations, fears, and frustrations. Understand their pain points and challenges, and what they are looking for in a solution.
Output: Sarah is highly concerned about her children's health and wellbeing. She is constantly worried about her child's negative behavior, and she feels frustrated and helpless when it comes to addressing it. Sarah is highly motivated to find a solution that will help her child become healthier and better behaved.
Step 3: Primary Pain Points
Input: Identify the persona's main challenges: Based on the persona's psychographics, identify the main challenges they face, and what they are looking for in a solution.
Output: Sarah's main challenges include her child's negative behavior, which includes tantrums, irritability, emotional outbursts, and sleep problems. She is looking for a solution that will help her child become healthier, calmer, and better behaved.
Step 4: Failed Solutions
Input: Explore the persona's failed methods: Identify the methods the persona has tried in the past to address their challenges, and why they failed. Understand the specific frustrations they experienced with each method.
Output: Sarah has tried behavioral therapy, reward/punishment systems, changes to diet and routine, and medication to address her child's negative behavior. However, she has become frustrated with each method because she did not see a significant improvement in her child's behavior.
Step 5: Successful Results
Input: Identify the ideal outcomes: Based on the persona's challenges and motivations, identify the ideal outcomes they are looking for in a solution. What do they want to achieve? What results do they expect?
Output: Sarah is looking for a multivitamin that will address her child's Hidden Hunger and improve their behavior. She wants a solution that will make her child healthier, calmer, more focused, and better behaved.
Step 6: Identify Objections
Input: Identify what the persona does not want to do: Identify what the persona does not want to do in order to achieve their ideal outcomes. What are their deal-breakers? What actions or trade-offs are they not willing to make?
Output: Sarah does not want to have to spend hours in the kitchen cooking special meals or spend her entire paycheck on expensive, organic produce or supplements. She also does not want to deal with any negative impacts on her child's behavior or health from a supplement.
Step 7: Fairytale Ending
Input: Explore the potential impact of a successful solution: Based on the ideal outcomes, explore the potential impact of a successful solution on the persona's life. How would it change their life, their relationships, their self-esteem, and their confidence?
Output: Sarah imagines that a successful solution would have a profound impact on her life. She would feel relieved, proud, and confident that she was able to find a solution that helped her child and improved their quality of life. She would be able to interact with her child in a more positive and loving way and would be admired and respected by her family, friends, and coworkers.
Step 8: Consolidate
Input: Summarize the persona's key details and emotional drivers: Pull all of the information together to create a comprehensive summary of the persona, including their demographics, psychographics, main challenges, failed methods, ideal outcomes, what they do not want to do, and the potential impact of a successful solution.
Output: Sarah is a 32-year-old mother of two who is highly motivated to find a solution that will help her child become healthier and better behaved. She has tried various methods in the past to address her child's negative behavior, but they have all failed to produce significant results.
Sarah is looking for a multivitamin that will address her child's Hidden Hunger and improve their behavior. She does not want to have to spend a lot of time or money to achieve these results, and she does not want to deal with any negative impacts on her child's behavior or health from a supplement.
If she were able to find a solution, she imagines that it would have a profound impact on her life, improving her relationship with her child, her self-esteem, and the way others view her.
Final Thoughts
What I just shared is only a summary to spark some ideas. The actual output you'll get from ChatGPT is much more detailed. You can tell it to give you quotes from the avatar's family and friends, stories of emotionally-charged "scenes" in her life, and even her inner monologue.
Keep iterating and refining. With the right inputs, you'll have a rock-solid buyer avatar with the core emotional drivers of your market, ready to help you write A+ copy and win the sale.