No matter how much you prefer to think of yourself as a smart, logical person, human beings are prisoners to emotion.
It makes no difference how many pro/con lists you write or how many times you convince yourself that you'll "sleep on it." The fact is that you make the bulk of your decisions depending on how you are feeling at the time. Humans, according to psychologists, think second and feel first. When presented with sensory information, the emotional component of our brain may comprehend it in one-fifth the time that the cognitive part requires.
Emotional marketing tells a story that connects audiences with brands in a personal, and human way. As new media channels, devices, and platforms emerge, they ensure that people have plenty of access to brand stories. What’s more, there are now a host of ways for companies to convey their identity and vision, making emotional marketing much simpler.
Emotion is more than simply a useful tool to use in marketing; it has a very genuine, scientifically established influence on customer decision-making.
Getting to the heart of advertising: What is emotional marketing?
Before we start offering up ideas for your emotional marketing campaigns, let’s start with a quick insight into what this term really means. The role our feelings play in our decisions is something that today’s marketers can’t afford to ignore. In a fast-paced world, organisations need to make sure that they’re appealing to their buyer persona’s primal wants and needs.
In a study conducted at the University of Southern California, researchers found the people with impaired performance in the emotional region of their brains were able to think critically but unable to make decisions because they had no understanding of how they felt about their options.
While scientists sometimes boast about how intricate the human brain is, the fact is that most of our current emotions are derived from a small number of fundamental emotions. Our perceptions of happiness, sorrow, fear, and rage influence how we make some of our most difficult decisions. In the marketing world, for example:
Happiness = More shares
When it comes to understanding emotional appeal in marketing, scientists have found that positive emotions are more likely to convince us to share, retweet, and link our friends, than negative feelings. This means that marketers can improve their brand reach simply by highlighting positive news or using words that appeal to the “happy” part of the brain.
Sadness = More Clicks
While pleasure compels us to share our joys and sorrows with our friends and loved ones, melancholy has an unmistakable allure. According to research, words having negative connotations have a greater click-through rate. In fact, according to an Outbrain research, negative superlatives such as "worst" or "never" function 30 percent better than a headline without a superlative in grabbing attention. Furthermore, positive superlatives such as "best" were far less attractive. Negative terms elicited a 63 percent greater click-through rate than positive words.
What does it have to do with marketing? It implies that ultimately although marketers may hurl all the data, reasoning, and features they want at customers, their decisions will ultimately be driven by emotion.
Whether you’re launching a startup or running a successful business, emotional marketing is one of the easiest ways to make sure that your brand stands out. With emotion, you can build a real connection with your audience that goes beyond simply selling a product or service. After all, in such a crowded marketplace, it’s not enough to just have a great USP, you need your audience to buy into your brand’s ideology and values too. Whatever you’re selling, an emotional marketing strategy can help your advertising campaigns to have more impact.
It makes no difference how many pro/con lists you write or how many times you convince yourself that you'll "sleep on it." The fact is that you make the bulk of your decisions depending on how you are feeling at the time. Humans, according to psychologists, think second and feel first. When presented with sensory information, the emotional component of our brain may comprehend it in one-fifth the time that the cognitive part requires.
Emotional marketing tells a story that connects audiences with brands in a personal, and human way. As new media channels, devices, and platforms emerge, they ensure that people have plenty of access to brand stories. What’s more, there are now a host of ways for companies to convey their identity and vision, making emotional marketing much simpler.
Emotion is more than simply a useful tool to use in marketing; it has a very genuine, scientifically established influence on customer decision-making.
Getting to the heart of advertising: What is emotional marketing?
Before we start offering up ideas for your emotional marketing campaigns, let’s start with a quick insight into what this term really means. The role our feelings play in our decisions is something that today’s marketers can’t afford to ignore. In a fast-paced world, organisations need to make sure that they’re appealing to their buyer persona’s primal wants and needs.
In a study conducted at the University of Southern California, researchers found the people with impaired performance in the emotional region of their brains were able to think critically but unable to make decisions because they had no understanding of how they felt about their options.
While scientists sometimes boast about how intricate the human brain is, the fact is that most of our current emotions are derived from a small number of fundamental emotions. Our perceptions of happiness, sorrow, fear, and rage influence how we make some of our most difficult decisions. In the marketing world, for example:
Happiness = More shares
When it comes to understanding emotional appeal in marketing, scientists have found that positive emotions are more likely to convince us to share, retweet, and link our friends, than negative feelings. This means that marketers can improve their brand reach simply by highlighting positive news or using words that appeal to the “happy” part of the brain.
Sadness = More Clicks
While pleasure compels us to share our joys and sorrows with our friends and loved ones, melancholy has an unmistakable allure. According to research, words having negative connotations have a greater click-through rate. In fact, according to an Outbrain research, negative superlatives such as "worst" or "never" function 30 percent better than a headline without a superlative in grabbing attention. Furthermore, positive superlatives such as "best" were far less attractive. Negative terms elicited a 63 percent greater click-through rate than positive words.
What does it have to do with marketing? It implies that ultimately although marketers may hurl all the data, reasoning, and features they want at customers, their decisions will ultimately be driven by emotion.
Whether you’re launching a startup or running a successful business, emotional marketing is one of the easiest ways to make sure that your brand stands out. With emotion, you can build a real connection with your audience that goes beyond simply selling a product or service. After all, in such a crowded marketplace, it’s not enough to just have a great USP, you need your audience to buy into your brand’s ideology and values too. Whatever you’re selling, an emotional marketing strategy can help your advertising campaigns to have more impact.