No, we are not making this up. Think back to your last 5 or 10 purchases, can you, with utmost honesty say that your heart did not play a role in decision making? How about this: what did you feel when you ordered your last few pairs of shoes? While some of us may still deny that our emotions play a big role in our purchases, it is an undeniable fact. And if you are a marketer or a business owner, we have great news: you can use emotions to increase sales and to close bigger deals.
Image Source: Pixabay
But, just before we look at how it all works: what is emotional marketing? It is not astrophysics. Emotional marketing refers to all the marketing and the advertising efforts that tap into what your audience feels for them to notice, share, remember, and then buy your products or services.
By tapping into one of the four main emotions – happiness, anger, fear, and sadness, emotional marketing finds a way to elicit a consumer’s response.
Even though we all have a wide range of emotions, some of which we cannot explain, those emotions fall into the four main categories of emotions. Understanding your audience, the industry you are in, and the products you are marketing will help you know the emotion to target.
As simple as this sounds, it is not easy because you have to dig deep down, reassess your marketing goals, then fine-tune your content, media, and graphics for the effectiveness of this strategy.
Think of the marketing strategy and your goals as the emotional family mediation centre and the spark needed for a successful purchase.
How Is This Possible?
It’s All About Making the Right First Impression
The success of your emotional marketing strategy relies on the first impression created. By considering the one thing that would make an excellent first impression for your company, you get to tap into that spark created and close a deal.
Note that first impressions last only for seconds and to hit that target, you have to make sure that your brand or marketed product goes out with a bang.
The Heart Is A Big Decision Maker
How many times have you been asked not to act on an impulse (in other words, your emotions)? While acting on an impulse has some negatives – like calling your ex, in marketing, it is great.
While fiddling with an idea, wondering if they should buy an item or not, tapping into their emotions gives your audience the final push to hit confirm the order.
Like you, your target audience may have weighed their options for months yet seeing some and pushes them to decide to buy instantly. And, you may not agree with this, but studies indicate that most purchases rely on emotions, not information.
Emotions Always Inspire People to Act
So, you watched a video that left teary-eyed and donated money, bought a gift for a friend, or shared the video – what inspired the action? Video? We think not. Your emotions were driven over the cliff, and you acted.
Happiness will inspire you to share (increased brand awareness), sadness prompts us to connect and empathize (you give more), fear or surprise will force you to cling to the comfortable (that’s brand loyalty right there), while passion and anger will make us stubborn (loyal followers and viral content).
Wondering How to Make All That Work?
- Understand your audience
- Make use of color
- Always tell a story
- Create a community or a movement
- Project your ideal image and what you are feeling currently
- Finally, inspire what feels impossible
