6 Solid Tips About Emotional Selling in Digital Marketing

Emotional Selling: When talking about marketing, a business organization has to be very cautious as to which means are adopted by them.

Even though we consider ourselves logical and modern human beings, the majority of our decisions are made by the ancient, instinctive subconscious part of our brains and the question arises that whether emotions play any role in the marketing of a certain product for any business organization?

The answer to the same is absolute. They certainly do play a role in the marketing of a certain product for any business organization.

Psychologists have often stated that the first impressions form in less than a second for any potential customer. Let’s explore how emotional selling play into modern-day marketing and why?

Emotional Selling Tip #1:  Branding

Branding means “The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.” Emotional branding then is creating an emotional connection to one company that separates it from the rest, creating brand loyalty over time. So, what creates this sense of connection?

Apple may be the perfect example of a company that utilizes emotions to create a connection with consumers and brand loyalty over time.

Apple’s branding strategy uses simplicity, a clean design and most importantly, a desire to become part of a lifestyle movement.

Apple recognizes that people are social animals and want to be part of a revolution of sorts — part of the newest cutting-edge technology, part of something important so, instead of sending out sterile press releases, they created events to unveil new Apple products, fostering a sense of mystery and allowing Apple users to feel a part of something big and important.

They brand themselves as a platform to unleash your creativity, to be part of a technological revolution, and be respected by others who recognize that you are part of this cultural movement

Emotional Selling Tip #2: Advertising

Research on advertising shows that the emotional response to an ad influences consumers’ intention to buy much greater than the ad’s content itself. Gillette’s ad (“Perfect Isn’t Pretty”) exhibited various athlete’s personal and professional struggles that shaped their strong characters.

PG&E’s ad (“Thank You, Mom – Strong”) is a series of small stories from different athletes’ lives that show their respective mothers protecting them in a dangerous or traumatic situation, and how they overcame these situations to become the best athletes in the world.

These themes — personal struggle and protection from harm by those you love — are universal, and touch a deep emotional nerve with viewers.

Emotional Selling Tip #3: Storytelling

Narratives and storytelling engage consumers’ subconscious and create an emotional connection with the brand and the story.

A very popular 2016 Olympics ad that utilized storytelling to engage the viewer is Gatorade’s “The Boy Who Learned To Fly” — an animated short film about Usain Bolt’s life and his connection to his mother.

Watching the ad transports the viewer into Bolt’s childhood and subsequent transition to an Olympic athlete; we see Bolt running on clouds (flying) with lightning bolts coming from his shoes while he runs. The viewer connects emotionally with Usain, his mother, and in turn, Gatorade.

As the infographic shows below, emotionally-charged storytelling creates a rush of dopamine in the brain, which is linked to memory.

So it makes perfect sense then, that companies leverage storytelling to make an emotional and psychological impact to keep consumers remembering a story, and therefore their brand.

This shows emotional branding at its finest. Storytelling can also be leveraged in landing page design and many companies opt for storytelling on their landing pages to increase conversions.

Storytelling can also be leveraged in landing page design and many companies opt for storytelling on their landing pages to increase conversions.

In 2014, Airbnb created a campaign in New York City that used storytelling to create an emotional connection with potential customers.

The Airbnb story below highlights Carol, who uses Airbnb for supplemental income and going back to school. The 30-second YouTube video discusses how she’s been living in Lower Manhattan for 34 years, lost her job, but loves hosting people through Airbnb.

This type of story appeals to the universal desire to help others. By using Airbnb, we can have a place to stay, but also get to know new people and help people like Carol maintain her apartment and lifestyle:

Emotional Selling Tip #4: Marketing

Neuro-imagery scans show that when consumers evaluate brands, they use their emotions, based on personal feeling and experiences, rather than information about the brand, such as features and facts.

This means that whether you’re marketing a homepage, landing page, or a squeeze page, etc.; connecting emotionally to the viewer is the most important factor.

Since consumers tend to choose brands based on emotions rather than logic, the more emotional intelligence a brand has, the better they will do with conversions and ROI.

The Rio Olympics ads discussed previously touched an emotional nerve with consumers so much that consumers shared these videos at an extremely high rate, showing engagement, connection, and peak brand awareness.

This incredibly high level of engagement is the Holy Grail in marketing and happens when emotions are involved.

Emotional Selling Tip #5: Color Me Conversions

Colors are scientifically proven to alter a viewer’s emotional, physiological and behavioral states. Gender differences also apply. For example, women are more sensitive to bright colors than men.

And different colors evoke different reactions: black and purple are associated with “powerful/strong/masterful,” red is stimulating and blue is associated with “tender/comfortable.”

Now, think of the most famous brands associated with these colors: Facebook blue and Coca-Cola red. That’s no coincidence.

Many marketers take advantage of this color phenomenon by knowing their target audience while playing to the various emotions they want to invoke. Take a look at a section of Splitit’s homepage below.

The colors are a mix of black and purple, both associated with luxury and sophistication. The white space creates contrast, a well-known landing page design technique proven to assist with conversions.

The CTA button is a contrasting teal color, drawing maximum attention. In conjunction with this, a testimonial video utilizes the next emotional marketing tactic, social proof:

Emotional Selling Tip #6: Technology and Emotion

Technology will never fully replace the human touch, but today’s technology smartly uses data and automation to create an emotionally intelligent connection with customers.

The martech and ad tech industry have utilized AI and machine learning to mimic connections that humans would otherwise have with customers.

Certain software solutions, such as Optimove, emphasize an emotionally intelligent connection with the company’s’ current customer base.

Their marketing automation software focuses on retention and re-engagement, offering highly personalized content; the company practices the use of emotional connection (through data and automation) to appeal to existing customers’ tastes and preferences.

They use segmentation, past user behavior, and other data points as part of a smart algorithm to send personalized deals more likely to convert and keep customers loyal.

Autopilot is another marketing automation platform, that specializes in a rich, multi-channel customer journey.

Because of their use of segmentation and personalization, the interaction with customers builds an emotionally intelligent relationship with the respective company; the multi-channel approach, while integrating with many other providers helps companies connect and convert more.

You can create a good emotional selling campaign using the tips we discussed, but if you are stuck we suggest you seek professional help from Lander because they are the best in digital marketing strategy.

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