Cleaver marketers these days have learned how to tap into this emotion to build a connection with their audience and sell more products. So now we're here to help teach you the same strategies so you can use them going forward with your own marketing efforts.
What is emotional marketing?
Emotional marketing uses its messaging to create a connection with the intended audience in order to push them towards a desired goal.
Often it uses only a single emotion: fear, anger, joy, happiness, or any of the other strong base emotions.
Why should I use emotion in my marketing?
You might think you're getting on fine with your marketing efforts as it is. But there are three key reasons you should include emotional marketing.
1. The marketing is memorable
What is the clearest memory you can currently think of? Getting your first pet? Being teased in school? Finding your first love?
With all of these memories, it's as though time stops, and you can recall every little detail about it.
The one thing all of these memories have in common is the emotion behind them: happiness, shame, and love.
If you can capture emotion in your marketing, you can leave a lasting impact on your audience.
2. Your marketing becomes shareable
What happens when you feel a strong emotion? You want to share your experience with others you think will feel the same way. Whether it's a positive or negative emotion, you want to share the experience and see if others will feel the same way you do.
It might just be us, but we're always showing adverts to each other in the office with the message of, "Have you seen this? It's so good."
3. It influences purchasing decisions
According to a Harvard Professor, 95% of purchasing decisions are made in the subconscious. He argues that humans are driven by feelings, so if you want to influence a person into buying from you, you need to influence their feelings.
How can I use emotion in my marketing?
We've covered why you should be using emotion in your marketing; now, we'll cover the strategies you can use to incorporate emotion into your marketing.
1. Get to know your audience
This should be in place no matter what type of marketing you are doing. Ultimately, if you don't know your audience, how do you know what kind of marketing they will respond to?
When you're working with emotional marketing, you need to figure out which emotion your audience will respond the best to and how you can work it into your marketing.
2. Turn to colours
Have you ever considered how colour makes people feel and what emotions they can evoke?
Whether you're using red to evoke excitement, or orange to promote creativity, every colour has an emotion behind it.
If you want to find out more about how colours can make you feel emotion, check out our previous post: What does your colour scheme say about your business?
3. Tell me a story
The most emotive adverts are the ones that tell a story to the audience.
Take the John Lewis Christmas adverts. Every year there's a large hype about them and when they're going to be released, then every year, there are articles and stories written about it. Whether it's good or bad, how it compares to the one last year etc.
But what is the one thing every John Lewis advert has in common? It uses emotion to tell a story.
Whether it's a bear receiving an alarm clock so it doesn't sleep through Christmas, or an adoptive father learning to skateboard to bond with their new child, the one theme that runs through every one of them is that they use love and happiness to tell the story.
And every year, they get the entire nation talking about them.
4. Be in it together
Emotional marketing can be used to create an entire movement around a brand.
Leading new followers to be intrigued and want to join the crowd. This can also help to foster feelings of acceptance, excitement and camaraderie around the brand.
5. Be inspiring
What else do you feel when you're feeling inspired? Elated, joy, excitement?
Now imagine that your marketing could inspire others to feel that way too.
What would happen if your product could allow people to achieve their dreams?
When you're running archery taster sessions, you want people to go along and have fun, but what if your marketing could make them feel as though they could go on to do more? What if you inspire them to try out for the Olympics?
6. Be the best
If you want to be inspiring, the main way to do this is to be the best. Make people feel how you want them to feel after using your product.
If you want your users to feel sleek and sexy, then have sleek and sexy in your marketing. Think of any perfume or aftershave advert you've seen lately: beautiful people in beautiful places, living in luxury. You can have the same feeling of being in luxury if you wear the same scent as them.
But how does this all tie together?
Wrapping all of this up in a pretty bow isn't as easy as it sounds.
Firstly, you must remember that nearly everyone buys with emotion, not logic. Once you understand this, you have to get to know your audience and what will connect with their feelings.
The rest will then come down to trial and error. Start playing about with the messaging you're using and the imagery in your marketing. Try and weave in a story that you know your audience will connect with.
But most of all, have fun!
