Emotional Marketing: Your Brand's Guide to Winning More Hearts

Have you ever spent on something and justified it with an "I deserve it?"

Maybe it's a new pair of shoes, a ticket to a concert, or a buffet reservation. Whether or not it's a good investment, you spend the money because it feels fulfilling and makes you happy.

A lot of times, we base our decision on our emotions first and logic second. There's nothing wrong with that—it's part of human nature. And it's a psychological tendency that we can leverage in marketing.

Emotion is a powerful tool that can win the heart of your audience, even the most reluctant. Using it right will help you generate more leads, retain customers, and boost sales.

In this article, we talk about Emotional Marketing and some strategies you can use to leverage it.

What is Emotional Marketing?

As the name suggests, Emotional Marketing appeals to your audience's decision-making by tapping into their emotions. It's also an effective way to build connections since you're presenting them with something they feel strongly about.

You may have noticed that marketers and advertisers frequently use it. Here's how we use it:

This is an educational post for knowledge entrepreneurs. We could have just stated our point in another way. But this kind of messaging works better in piquing our audience's interest, particularly their wariness to do wrong and a strong desire to improve.

Why it works

Remember—you don’t have an audience of robots; they are humans. Like you, their feelings, wants, and desires are essential factors that affect their behavior and actions.

In Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking, Leonard Mlodinow said that feeling and thinking are inextricably linked. Emotions like happiness, rage, and fear play an unconscious role in a person's decision-making and dictate how we perceive our memories and experiences. For example, underwater snorkeling won't be as enticing if you are afraid of drowning, no matter how beautiful the corals are.

In marketing, triggering the right emotions can help you connect to your audience and lead them to accept your offers. It's also a great way to turn heads and generate leads.

But how do you know what the right one is? That's where the buyer persona comes in. A deep understanding of your target market will help you understand what will work best based on their likes and dislikes.

Five primary emotions and how to use them

If you’ve watched Disney’s Inside Out, you’re probably familiar with the five primary emotions: joy, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust. You can focus on triggering one or a combination of these feelings to spring your audience into action.

Joy

Often, you want to make your audience happy or optimistic about your brand or product. You want them to feel good by boosting your presence or triggering a memory you know they love.

Coca-Cola is an excellent example of a brand that uses the power of joy.

From its tagline to graphics, Coca-Cola encourages its audience to reminisce their good memories with their loved ones.

Another way to leverage joy is by making your audience laugh.

Netflix uses puns and memes for advertising its shows. Inducing laughter is a great way to engage your audience and make them feel relaxed around your brand.

Sadness

Inside Out shows us that being sad ushers empathy. This emotion is not just about getting your audience down; you want them to connect enough with your message. And often, that’s by giving them hope through a solution you offer.

Here's an example from one of our clients:

From the graphics to the messaging, Pet Valley shows that it understands its audience's experience and is there to support them.

Fear

Using fear to sway your audience does not necessarily mean scaring them. It's about presenting them with possible consequences or missed opportunities.

One way is to tap into the FOMO phenomenon or the fear of missing out. This common tactic leverages the human side that hates being excluded. It makes a product or experience more desirable because it will not last forever.

This tactic could mean adding time limits one exclusive deals, countdowns, enticing reviews, or expressing a missed opportunity in your messaging.

Take Shein as an example:

Shein will notify you whenever there is a flash sale or an item in your cart that's nearly sold out. This messaging gives your audience an ultimatum: act now or lose your chance forever.

Anger

Anger or rage may seem too extreme. But just like sadness, its effectiveness lies in how you frame it.

You can leverage anger in your marketing by emphasizing what makes your audience mad, upset, annoyed, or irritated. Then, provide the solution to eradicate that problem.

Baygon effectively uses this emotion in this advertisement. Nobody likes mosquitos, more so the health hazards they carry. The idea of eliminating those bloodsuckers from your household makes you want to buy their pesticide spray immediately.

Disgust

Have you ever felt disgusted about something you want no part of? That's what disgust is all about. It's a hard-wired emotion that prevents us from doing something that will make us feel icky, like eating spoiled food or not taking a bath for weeks.

It's used similarly to anger: You present the audience with something that makes them uncomfortable, so they take action.

This vintage ad is an excellent example of how to leverage disgust. As social beings, the last thing we want is for everyone to stay away from us because we smell bad.

Doing it right

Now that you know how powerful emotions are when influencing your audience make sure you don’t go overboard. Here are some final takeaways:

• Stay ethical. Make sure your audience does not become emotionally damaged because of your content.

• Be authentic. Don’t be too strategic when using emotions. It’s easier to connect to your audience if you genuinely express your feelings, too.

• Know your audience. Emotional marketing will only be effective if you know your audience well. Do your research before trying out any of the tactics stated earlier.