The best lawyers and politicians know that to persuade others, there are three elements of persuasion – ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos refers to your character and believability. Pathos is the emotional aspect of your argument. Logos refers to the logic or reason of your statements. When you weave the three elements together well, you can persuade your audience to take action. Use the power of ethos, pathos, and logos to increase the effectiveness of your content marketing.
Why the Facts Are Important in Content Marketing
Fact-based marketing uses statistics or research to support its claims. A fact-based statement can be answered by “true” or “false.” These statements do not rely on personal opinions or hype. “The Ford GT has a top speed of 347 kph.” “Our parking lot has 45 spaces.” “There are 160 calories in an Oreo.” You can look up these facts to determine their veracity or not. These statements provide information to the reader and demonstrate your ethos. By providing provable facts in marketing, you demonstrate trustworthiness and honesty, as long as you are using truths, not falsehoods.
The Emotional Connection
Pathos is the element of your content that connects to the reader’s emotions. Empathy is the feeling that remains with your reader long after they’ve forgotten the substance of your content. Subaru uses dogs in their marketing campaign as a way of tugging at your heart. They’re hoping the audience will connect their love of dogs with the brand, so when you are ready to shop for a new car, you’ll think of Subaru.
Where’s the Balance Between Emotions and Facts?
For years, advertisers have relied on hype and claims, without leaving the customer with any real information. Modern consumers are tired of these clichés in marketing. That said, fact-based marketing can appear to be too dry and sterile. We could give you dozens of facts about the effectiveness of content marketing and SEO strategies, but it might not resonate with you emotionally. Neuromarketing shared insights from research that showed ads with an emotional connection did better than ads that only relied on facts.
Create Content to Engage Your Audience
Content marketing relies on persuasion to make your reader take the next step, whether that is to make a purchase, sign up for your email list or download your app. Marketing can no longer rely on entertaining articles that don’t provide real information to the consumer. To build an audience, your content marketing needs to be truthful and fact-based while also connecting with the reader.
MintCopy has a team of content writers who can use research and statistics to tell a compelling story for your business and industry. Contact us for more information on creating content that resonates with your audience while providing them with rational messaging that isn’t based on hype.
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Resources:
- https://www.prowesscorp.com/fact-based-marketing-just-the-facts-with-a-healthy-dose-of-customer-insight-sprinkled-in/
- https://www.plumbmarketing.com/blog/emotional-marketing-versus-fact-based-marketing/
- https://visme.co/blog/fact-checking-for-content-marketers/
- https://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/emotional-ads-work-best.htm