The other day I was texting with some friends and we were discussing the tragedy surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At that point, just a few days ago, many analysts were expecting a rout by the Russians with them rolling over the country within a week. And it still may turn out that way given the immense Russian firepower advantage. But time and time again, what those analysts often fail to take into account is the role of motivation, especially emotion. Because of all things in a war, that may be the most telling factor in terms of results. Take one look at the photo from the New York Times (below) and you’ll see what I mean.
If you had an army, would you want to invade this country? These individuals are highly motivated whereas the Russian soldiers, by contrast, have very little motivation – many, I’m sure, question why they’re in the country at all. That’s why analytical approaches often miss the mark when it comes to behavior and outcomes.
Emotion and Business
What does this have to do with business? Well, everything: People are moved to action by emotion.[1] And it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about war or the purchase of a product or service. Consider this bit of research: Fast Company recently reported on an analysis by IPA dataBANK, which considered 1,400 case studies of successful advertising campaigns. The firm found that “campaigns with purely emotional content performed about twice as well (31% vs. 16%) as those with only rational content (and did a little better than those that mixed emotional and rational content).”
Yet, we find many businesses still take that rational, analytical approach – they sell the features of a product, but often fail to incorporate the reasons why people want a product or service in the first place.
Simply put, individuals don’t buy your product or service. They buy the emotion around your product or service. That is, how it makes them feel – how it makes their life easier, how it makes them smarter or more entertained, or makes them better-looking or even how it helps them show off. They’re not buying a set of features. They’re buying outcomes. As a result, any purchase is generally an emotional investment.
How to Incorporate Emotion into Your Marketing
Marketing, by definition “is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of influencing buyer behavior and/or to precipitate behavioral change.” Incorporating emotion is perhaps one of the best ways you can make behavior change happen. How do you do this? Here are a few common approaches:
- Use storytelling as part of your marketing. Storytelling and emotion go hand-in-hand. Though you can certainly have emotional content without a story, the latter is certainly the most popular way to convey anything emotional. That’s because we as people are trained to listen to stories from the time we’re very young, especially ones that convey human emotions. What’s a good story for your business? How about how your product or service affected someone’s life? Maybe it’s a story of how you came to be as a company and what lessons you learned along the way? Or, it could be simply you creating a fictional character who represents your company and developing a backstory that resonates with people. (Think of Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World, if you want to take a fun approach. Remember, humor is a form of emotion too!)
Whatever you decide on, the goal of any story is the same: Engaging the audience in a way that they emotionally feel involved with you or your brand.
- Refocus your marketing collateral on the outcomes of a product or service, not just the features. As we discussed above, people buy outcomes, not simply product features. For example, if you’re selling laser hair removal, good companies might market the outcome of a smooth, hairless body and the way you’ll feel more confident afterward. The primary focus isn’t on how advanced the laser technology is. Too often, though, we see companies that emphasize the product or service features on a piece of marketing collateral – whether that’s a web page, a flyer, or an email. It’s fine to have them there, but they should be used to support the outcome that people are buying, which is always emotional. So, if you’re buying a pair of shoes, for example, a seller might talk about what they’re made of, but only so much that it supports a broader point, such as the shoes will last a long time or they will keep their shape or quality. Why? Because the prime motivation isn’t necessarily what the shoes are made of, it’s how they look and how long they last.
- Present the authentic ‘you.’ People are emotionally drawn to authenticity, especially if you have a sense of decency or an approach that’s consistent with who you are. That’s why it doesn’t pay to “fake” being someone else, or as a business, purposely play up emotion that you don’t normally project. Authenticity will drive that emotional bond of trust, which is key when customers make that buying decision. If they trust you, they’ll choose you.
Conclusion
How you drive that emotional connection is up to you. Depending on your brand and your narrative, you might consider creating content that employs one of the following approaches:
- Humor / laughter
- Happiness or an uplifting message
- Sadness
- Surprise or fear
- Anger or passion
The key here, of course, is to just make it consistent with your brand. That doesn’t mean you only have to choose one approach. But make sure it projects the feeling that you want your brand to project on a consistent basis.
We hope this article has been helpful. At Marketing Nice Guys, our mission is to help you excel in digital marketing. If you need help with emotional content ideation or development (or any other digital marketing service), contact us for a free consultation.
[1] Indeed, it’s one of the six content approaches that we recommend businesses employ.
