Emotional marketing has been around for decades and is proven to have a positive lasting impact on your business. If people are entertained and feeling good about themselves, they are a lot more likely to share their experience with others. Using a so-called ‘feel-good’ marketing strategy can help generate a lot of positive attention for your business which will ultimately be reflected in increased revenues.
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Applying this strategy works by following a simple rule: Ensure that your customers and potential clients feel good every time they interact with your business. Whether it’s a simple ‘Thank you’ or giving them a compliment to show them how much you value and appreciate them, or whether you like to send out gifts, free samples, add on some extras or upgrade the service or product they purchased. There are many ways of creating positive emotions in people before, during and after they do business with you.
If done right, ‘feel good’ or emotional marketing will help your audience connect with your brand by personalizing it, thus establishing trust, loyalty and long-lasting relationships. It’s a great way to distinguish yourself from the competition and create your own brand or business identity. As long as you are being honest and authentic.
The science behind it
Rational decision-making isn’t as common as we think. Our emotions influence every single one of our choices. They can cloud our judgement and lead us to things such as impulsive buying or missing out on a great bargain because ‘it just didn’t feel right’. In fact, our emotions are so powerful that unhappy moods, cloudy days and even a World Cup loss can lead to a decline in stock market returns.
Scientists have identified four basic emotions that influence the way we make decisions. We are either happy, sad, afraid/surprised or angry/disgusted. According to studies, each of these emotions is linked to certain behaviours which most humans display subconsciously. Being aware of the strong link between feelings and actions can help create a marketing strategy that influences your audience in a way that is beneficial for your business.
Happiness
Joy is one of the most primal emotions and has the tendency to increase when shared. The best example is a baby responding to its mother’s smile with a smile of its own. Studies have found that positive emotions including happiness are the main driver for people sharing links, articles, pictures and more on social media. Appealing to the happy part of the brain by highlighting positive news and experiences in your marketing campaign will help spread the word about your business, products and services.
Sadness
Evoking feelings of sadness in people increases the likelihood of them developing a connection, becoming more trusting and generous and feeling empathy. An experiment involving viewers watching a short story about a boy with a serious illness showed that the participants were producing the stress hormone cortisol as well as oxytocin which is linked to connection and care and encourages empathetic feelings. As a result, people who produced the most oxytocin after watching the video were more likely to donate money to charity.
When it comes to website marketing, studies have also found that headlines using negative superlatives will more likely result in click-throughs than positive ones. Getting your audience to feel deep sadness, then promising them a solution to help them feel better will further increase your chances of people doing business with you.
Fear
Fear has shown to make it easier for people to bond, even with strangers. When experiencing fear, we need to share the moment with others to lighten our mood. For marketeers, the power of fear opens up unlimited possibilities. According to a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, fear will increase brand loyalty among customers who will desperately try to cling to something to feel safe and secure.
Anger
While anger can lead to a range of other emotions including aggression, it also enhances stubbornness in most people. A recent study discovered that people took on a much stronger stance on a topic after being exposed to rude comments including name-calling and other inappropriate language about it.
These findings have a strong message for those developing marketing strategies for businesses. People think before they act, and depending on which emotion they feel most strongly while interacting with your business or any advertising material will determine how they perceive it and which actions they will take.
Every time you share a blog post, article, video or picture on your web site or social media, you are not just sharing the actual object. Instead, you are conveying an emotional message bound to trigger a certain response in the viewer. If you would like some help with your digital marketing, contact the friendly team at Energise Web today.