I got my first piece of hate mail

I got a troll this week. First one ever actually.

I’ve had hundreds of responses to my welcome email, you know, the one where I ask subscribers to reply with “clientless”?

(I do this to help with deliverability, encourage responsiveness and get numbers for testing. But response driven welcome emails also do a great job of pushing away can kickers and trolls).

And out of the 100s of responses I’ve gotten, I've bagged and tagged my first troll.

Woo!

Anyway, she replied to my welcome email with this:

"I might have been more interested, if you hadn't neglected to insert the word 'be' before 'ruined'..too bad, so sad - Not such great copywriting…"

“Too bad, so sad”. lol

I thought about firing back.

Then I thought: why?

Trolls don't want a conversation. They want a reaction. They want to feel like they matter, because outside their inbox, they don't. How pathetic do you have to be to hunt down a stranger's email address just to drop a drive-by grammar critique... and sign off with "too bad, so sad"?

Here's the thing, I've got better sh!t to do.

Right now I'm working on writing and publishing my first book, finishing my master's degree, growing this list to 15k+ subscribers within the next 12 months, and closing coaching calls in my spare free time.

Trolls don't have bandwidth for any of that. That's why they're trolls.

I fixed the typo in my welcome email. Then I moved on.

Trolls get ignored. That's the only language they understand.

But her sad little email DID remind me of the one thing that makes copy actually work.

Emotion.

Earlier in my career, when I was closing deals over the phone, my mentor drilled this into me: to always close with how the prospect would benefit emotionally. Not just the numbers. Not just the ROI. The feeling.

The free time that finally lets them be present with their family.

The rest that comes when financial pressure stops being the alarm clock.

The freedom to travel, to breathe, to stop grinding.

The logic has to be there, the proof, the numbers, the reason-why. But what moves customers from reading to buying is always emotional. The push. The pull. The feeling in the gut, the gnawing in the back of the mind.

And this probably isn't the first time you've heard that.

Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman found 95% of purchase decisions happen in the subconscious.

But almost nobody tells you HOW to actually tap into that subconscious.

That knowledge lived in the minds of masters like Clayton Makepeace, Gary Bencivenga, Gene Schwartz, etc.

I’d advise deep diving into their works to get a better idea of what I mean.

But to save you a bit of time and to give you a sneak peak as to what that looks like, I've gone out and done the research to find the 28 emotional triggers that work across sales letters, advertorials, welcome sequences, coaching calls, and any direct response copy. Each one is a lever. Your job is to find the one your reader is already feeling, and pull it.

Use these to improve your direct response or even just plain ole emails.

ANGER — Tap into what's already making them furious. Channel it toward your offer as the solution.

BELONGING — People buy to join a tribe. "People like you do this" is one of the most underrated closes in copy.

BETRAYAL — Call out who's been lying to them, hiding the truth, or rigging the game against them.

CURIOSITY — Open a loop they can't close without reading on. The brain physically can't ignore an unanswered question.

ENVY — Show them someone just like them who already has what they want. "If she can do it..." is a buying trigger.

FEAR — Show them exactly what happens if nothing changes. Make the cost of inaction vivid and real.

FORBIDDEN — Position your content as something they're not supposed to see. Exclusivity sells.

FREEDOM/LIBERATION — Sell the escape. From the boss, the debt, the diet, the routine. "Never again have to..." is a powerful frame.

FRUSTRATION — Meet them where they are. "Sick and tired of being sick and tired" is a buying state.

GREED — Make the reward so tangible, so specific, so irresistible they can't look away.

GUILT — Different from shame. Shame is who they are. Guilt is what they haven't done yet. Both move people, differently.

HAPPINESS & HEALTH — Paint the picture of a better, lighter, healthier version of their life.

HOPE — Give them a reason to believe things can actually be different this time.

LOVE/CARING — Speak to what they're protecting: their family, their future, their people.

NOSTALGIA — Take them back to simpler, better, before. Then sell them a way to get there again.

PASSION — Let your own excitement be contagious. Energy on the page is energy in the sale.

POWERLESSNESS — Acknowledge the helplessness first. Then hand them back control.

PRIDE — Let them feel smart for seeing what others miss. Being "in the know" is deeply motivating.

RELAXATION — Sell the exhale. The relief. The "finally, I don't have to worry about this anymore."

REVENGE — Don't get mad, get results. Give them a way to win instead of stewing.

SADNESS — Don't avoid it. Meet your reader in the hard moment. Then lead them out.

SCARCITY — Different from urgency. Urgency is about time. Scarcity is about supply. "Only 12 left" hits a different nerve than "sale ends Friday."

SECURITY — Make them feel safe choosing you. Risk reversal. Certainty. Calm confidence.

SHAME — The most underused trigger in the room. Handled with care, it moves mountains.

SURPRISE — Break the pattern. Zag when they expect a zig. Wake them up mid-scroll.

URGENCY — Give them a real reason to act NOW, not "someday when the time is right."

VALIDATION — They already suspect they're right. Confirm it. "You've been thinking this all along — and you were correct" is a trust accelerant.

VANITY — How will this make them look to others? Status, appearance, perception — it drives more buying than people admit.

You see most copywriters treat emotion like a seasoning. A sprinkle at the end of otherwise logical copy. Then they wonder why their conversions are not so great.

Emotion isn't the seasoning. It's the meal. The meat and potatoes. The central idea.

When you find the exact feeling your reader is already carrying, the frustration they can't shake, the hope they're almost too tired to feel, and put it into words, they don't feel sold to.

They feel seen. And people who feel seen, buy. They refer. They stay.

Get that right and everything else gets easier.

Until next time,

Fathi

P.S. Be sure to share your troll hunting stories with me. I get a kick out of the troll mindset.