What would you do if you were served macaroni without cheese? How about a sandwich with peanut butter but no jelly? A dish of fried fish without chips? Oops… I am getting off track.
Marketing without emotions is just as bad as the above-mentioned culinary faux pas. Emotions have an intense impact on our decisions. They create lasting impressions and make us follow the same pattern of action again in the future.
Fasten-up your emotional seatbelt and get ready for the ride!
What is emotional marketing?
Hubspot says, “Emotional marketing refers to marketing and advertising efforts that primarily use emotion to make your audience notice, remember, share, and buy.” So basically, emotional marketing is everything based on your customers’ desires and needs, as they are the ones you are trying to build an emotional connection with! It’s kind of like an ice cream commercial that makes me feel nostalgic so I get it, an advertisement of a jewelry store that reminds me to thank my mom by gifting her something precious from them or a billboard display of COVID which scares me so I buy a mask out of fear.
In this era, consumers have endless information at their fingertips and are focusing on their needs, feelings, and priorities when shopping. According to Harvard School Professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of our purchase decision making takes place in the subconscious mind. Emotions are really the ones driving the purchasing behaviors and decision making in general. So as a brand, as a business, it is necessary that you get in touch with your sensitive side to learn what customers really want. Make your customers interact with your campaign so that they remember your brand or product. Marketers are getting better at it day by day.
Now you must be wondering how to apply emotional marketing to your marketing campaign? The following are the key strategies to focus on.
Do your homework
Before you start planning your first emotional marketing campaign, perform some target audience research, and know what type of content they will respond to best. Researching your audience’s interest will help you feel confident and save your precious time. Simply, you can start by posting surveys and polls to your social media, online feedback forms, or by setting up one-on-one interviews with a group of people. Sheer ID said, “A consumer’s emotional response to an ad can have 2-3x greater influence on their intent to buy a product than the actual content of the ad.”
Colour psychology
Colours play a massive role in arousing emotions. Some colours are better at drawing the eye, highlighting key information, and compelling an action. We know that soccer teams choose jersey colours to excite their players as well as the audience, say Liverpool – The Reds!!! The same goes for brands, too! Starbucks’ green symbolizes balance, nature, and Coca Cola’s red represents joy, love, happiness. Here at seoplus+, our brand colour is blue, which symbolizes trust and loyalty.
Become a storyteller
Many of us grew up listening to Grandma’s adventurous, fun, happy ending bedtime stories, right? People love it when a good story is presented to them in a remarkable way. It could be any medium from social media to billboards. And it doesn’t have to be a film – it could be a picture or a poem. The main aim here is to make the viewer feel our story and inspire them to take action. Here is a fantastic example of Disney’s storytelling – “Disneyland, where magic gets real” capable enough to give you goosebumps!
FOMO
Let’s be honest. How many times do you end up buying something just because only a few are left? FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is a psychological trigger that humans can’t help responding to. This emotional marketing strategy is a great approach to make your visitors curious to take action. Whether it’s Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty products flying off the shelves or signing up for Monument Valley‘s discount code, we don’t want to miss anything.
Remember back in March 2019, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram shut down and weren’t allowing users to post anything. It gave users anxiety, panic, and shock. Social channels like Snapchat and Instagram let you post content like stories that expire, and one can’t afford to miss the chance to see it. It could be a contest, giveaway, discount offers, or a simple promotion of garage sale. We can get the opportunity to reach a huge audience base.
Use emotions as a secret ingredient to your marketing campaign but try to research properly to know your focused audience and what they want. Put the emotions in order with your marketing campaign and you’ll be golden. Any questions? Feel free to get in touch with us, and we’ll be there for you!
