The idea that you should leave your emotions at the door when you get to work has a dusty after-taste. It’s not only an old-fashioned concept, but it is also counterproductive in the marketing sector. When you think of marketing as the process of conveying a message to a target audience in such a way that it maximizes the chances of increasing conversions and revenues, you cannot separate the marketing strategy from the emotions of your audience.

Ultimately, as a purchase occurs, the decision is a combination of reasoned arguments such as responding to a real need and comparing prices, and emotional factors going from the way a specific brand makes you feel to responding to social pressures. The secret to building a marketing strategy that works relies on your ability to leverage an emotional pool into tangible and achievable actions that resonate with your target.

What’s an emotion?

If you focus on a scientific approach, emotion is the result of a stimulus in physical and psychological changes that affect the behavior. If you remember Inside Out by Pixar, you know that your main characters are direct emotions, as they respond to the feelings expressed by a little girl and act on her behavior.

However, while not everyone finds it easy to picture Anger, Fear, Sadness, Joy and Disgust having a meeting in your brain, it’s easier to find other ways to understand the impact of emotions on your decision-making and communication abilities by following an online master of social work. This should indeed give you the overview you need without going to the depth of a psychology expert. Understanding how to engage with emotions is also helpful when you’re trying to drive your audience to commit to a specific behavioral response, namely a conversion in marketing speech.

A web design that touches users

The easiest way to generate an emotional response from your audience is to create a subtle environment using appropriate visuals. In other words, while you need to pay close attention to your text content, your web design needs to be the catalyst that stimulates the expected behavior.

For instance, as technically perfect that your design has to be to remain accessible on all platforms and from all devices, it needs to share emotions over technical precisions. Firstly, avoiding cold and distant designs to bring the brand personality to the front is evidence. But you also need to focus on building a meaningful and memorable experience for the user.

People want emotional storytelling

Last, but not least, is about telling a story. Advertising is a short story you share with your target audience. Ultimately, the goal is for your audience to enjoy the story and want to re-act it by committing to purchase. Because most decisions are based on feelings – even though rational arguments have a role to play – using an emotional hook that helps people identify with your marketing communication can make the difference between a successful marketing campaign and a forgettable ad.

Emotions are the indispensable connections that bring people and businesses together. If you choose to ignore emotions, you will struggle with customer loyalty, brand perception and finally customer acquisition.