This guide outlines why and how emotional marketing has become the most successful way to engage clients and audiencies, and ways to implement it in your business.
Perhaps in the 90 and the early 2000s, online marketing was flourishing, and it seems like absolutely nothing could stop it. An entire industry of motivational speakers and training specialists were born out of the sudden rise of pixelated attention-grabbing techniques. Yet, like any industry, too much of a good thing might just be the thing that kills. The world of business is continuously changing and finding new ways to bridge the gap between the demand and supply.
Just like any other fluid genre in business, marketing also evolved. Clickbait came which relied on the ‘gotcha’ kind of advertisement, more often than not proclaiming that a reward awaited anyone who clicked on the ad. It had a good run, but now, emotional marketing has grabbed the torch and is running with all the expectations of the marketing professionals talent.
Belay the photo exaggerations
When you’re making an advertisement of pictures that will feature on a slideshow, it can be tempting to try and exaggerate them to grab the attention of browsers. It’s understandable as the average attention span of online shoppers isn’t very big. Contrary to what you might think, but after years and years of seeing these obviously photoshopped pictures that defy reality and over promise, users are quite used to them. How you can replace the click-bait style with the emotional marketing tactic, is just to be honest. Rather than zooming in on a particular part of the picture, you’re using, how about a tweak to the depth of field. The subject that is in the center could be larger in general, and human subjects could be making eye contact.
Forging the bridge with emotional marketing
Okay, so if you’re going to try and grab the attention of online shoppers, in order to convert clicks to sales, you need emotional marketing that they can relate to. Try to aim for the summit of the mountain, by showing them just that. Together, with the client, in meetings, you should discuss, what kind of feedback they get for their products and services. Look for the human connection, with regards to how their customers’ lives have been changed or might be improved. What is the real-life application of such a business? Online marketing companies have some of the best SEO copywriters which can help conform the keywords most shoppers are searching for and put them in your text. So, together with the emotional marketing keywords in the feedback from customers, you can form sentences with these keywords in them, relating back to the emotions loyal customers feel.
Excitement from the source
Consumers react with a more positive tone to companies and brands when they’re treated with the utmost respect intellectually. Don’t treat them like a herd, because they’re all individuals who may buy the same products, but for different reasons. Show some excitement about an update you’re doing and will be releasing soon, on your social media accounts. Consumers can see, that you have passion and drive to improve what they will be spending money for.
Analysing emotional marketing
The research study “Social Transmission, Emotion, and the Virality of Online Content” by Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman of the Wharton Business School proves that the connection between viral content and emotions is no coincidence. Their result is that there is a strong connection between feelings – initially regardless of whether they are negative or positive – and virality. Still, there is a tendency for negative content to be less viral than positive:
Content that causes grief is less likely to be viral
On the other hand, if content makes us angry, the probability increases. The more angry we get about it , the higher the chances of viral spread
Content that impresses, surprise, is humorous and amazes the consumer has a higher chance of being shared (see: Funny animal content )
You know it yourself. If you find a contribution that amazes and makes you laugh, then our need to share it with others is stronger. This cat content, for example, makes us laugh, it amuses us and that’s why we particularly like to share it.
Of course, this is about probabilities. If a content consists more of negative emotions, but is unique and hits the nerve of the times, negative emotions can also trigger virality. For example, the song “Je suis Charlie” went viral after the terrible event.
The basic emotions for emotional marketing
Advocates of an evolutionary psychological approach, including Ekman, speak of seven basic emotions that are independent of culture: joy, anger, disgust, fear, contempt, sadness and surprise. A purely psychological or individual psychological approach describes the basic emotions:
Joy, interest – curiosity , surprise, disgust, anger, sadness, fear, shame, and guilt.
With emotional marketing, become a company that triggers emotions
Now you know that in the world of successful content marketing, feelings make all the difference. More and more companies are trying to use emotional marketing themselves: They rely on emotional marketing to increase their level of awareness, to charge their brand emotionally and thereby strengthen it. You should do that too!
Big brands like Red Bull, Nike, Coca Cola etc are particularly good at emotional marketing. Who does not know the the Coca Cola Christmas truck and the Red Bull slogan? The alpha and omega of emotional marketing: Address the needs of your consumers! Because if the user feels picked up, you meet his need with your content, he will always associate this positive experience with your brand and save it – the brand is emotionally charged.
Conclusion
Clickbait is being phased out, and it will look like a dinosaur compared to this much more human ways of emotional marketing. Far from being lifeless, showing an interest in the trends customers are following with effective keywords in the advertisements, can make you instantly relatable. Show a bit of flair and love for what you’re doing, while also not exaggerating anything, because it will be seen through.
