Does Your Website Smell?

Now that’s an odd question, right?

We all know that websites don’t smell (at least not literally).

But if you’ll bear with me, I’d like to demonstrate the importance of emotion in your copy, and what types of emotional imagery your copy needs to conjure up.

To understand why emotion matters so much when selling online, all you have to do is observe almost any shopper in a physical store. Watch what the person does and the behavior the individual has.

On arriving inside the store, a person performs a lightening fast perception check. Within split seconds (so fast no one notices), the person’s brain processes all the data it can gather. Temperature. Lighting. Odors. Sounds. Movements. Space. Colors. When you think about it, the amount of information we take in is amazing.

Onwards. It’s time to shop.

So our shopper grabs a basket and heads off, navigating people and store layouts. It’s not long before something catches her eye—a bottle of shampoo, perhaps. The bottle is a neat color, it’s nicely shaped, and it looks appealing.

She slows; she stops. Sold? Not yet. But the shopper has had her senses stirred. It’s a beginning.

Our shopper picks the bottle up. She hefts it a little, flips it over and reads the text, then snaps the top and takes a quick sniff. Ah, Island Breezes. Very nice. It makes her think of the beach and a sunny day. There’s a song she likes playing overhead. Life’s good.

Now our shopper turns to her companion, a friend or maybe a family member. “Did you smell this?” She offers over the bottle, and her friend takes a sniff. They talk over some other shampoos they’ve used lately, their hair care problems, and the benefits offered by this new brand of shampoo.

Finally, the shopper makes a decision. Sold.

It’s the moment stores yell, “Bingo!” Using sales and marketing tactics, they’ve managed to create desire and possession. They’ve conveyed to the shopper that life changes will happen – if only she brings Island Breezes home.

She wants it. It’s hers. She owns that shampoo, and she hasn’t even paid money for it yet.

Imagine that shopping experience online. There are no smells, often no sounds, nothing to touch, and no friend to talk with. All there is to create a shopping experience is a flat screen, an image or two and some copy.

This is a bit of a problem.

People try to satisfy every sense they can while shopping. They analyze visual, auditory, tactile, and emotional data and more to make a purchase decision. The more senses people use, the better it is for sales.

Your copy needs to help a person see, touch, hear, feel, and even smell—if only in the mind. You can do that, too. Adding emotional imagery is easy through the power of words.

• Tell a story.
• Use Language that appeals to the senses.
• Work in fears, pain, conflict, desire and the promise of a better life.
• Draw the shopper in and enhance the ability to imagine positive changes that will (not could, will) occur—if only the shopper clicks to buy.

No emotion? The only click that happens is the one that lets shoppers leave your site.