Behavioral economists have claimed that almost 90% of our decisions to purchase something are made subconsciously. In the digital age, as we scroll through image after image on social media, it might seem harder than ever to connect with an audience. But the bridge between emotions and digital marketing is an easier path to walk than you might think.
When people are looking at Instagram, they often feel nostalgic and excited. When people are reading divisive articles on Facebook, they get upset and inspired. When people are watching clips on Snapchat, they’re feeling happy and laughing.
There’s more room than you might think inside the digital sphere for emotion and digital marketing to intermingle. If you’re looking for ways to integrate emotions into your next digital marketing campaign, here are 5 approaches you should try.
Inspire Your Customers
Most customers need a reason to connect with your brand. By showing them how they could more deeply explore their interests or how your brand could enrich their lives, you’ll connect to their deepest desires.
Most people imagine living a more luxurious or exciting life than they have time to live with their daily responsibilities. Show them where your products could take them or a more exciting way for them to enjoy your products, and you’ll inspire emotions from them.
Travel companies rely on romantic waterfront destinations, beautiful people walking along the beach, or exciting nights by the water. Tech companies show ways that products can make daily struggles much simpler. Eco-industries show them ways that the world can be improved with their products and services.
Through photos and videos, embed your customers in a new and exciting world and inspire them to think differently about your products and their own lives.
Create a Story
Sometimes your product doesn’t need to be the center of the story. Perhaps two people meet after one offers the other a stick of your gum. Maybe they’re headed to the same gym and each is wearing a pair of your shorts.
Through a simple narrative, you can show interesting ways that your products can be folded into everyday life. Stories can help you get the most out a digital marketing plan.
When combining emotions and digital marketing, you need some content to hold a viewer’s attention. When your product can be the underlying glue to keep the story together, you’ll connect with viewers in new and memorable ways.
Look at some of the ways EraserFarm, a Tampa Advertising Agency, has been able to combine emotions and digital marketing.
Turn on the Nostalgia
If your brand or products like yours have been around for a while, tap into the history.
Every time the Olympics come around, they have commercials to arouse emotions in viewers using old clips or retired athletes. They engage the most historic and memorable moments in sports to get people to watch for something exciting to happen. Even if nothing particularly surprising happens, they will feel like they’re watching history.
For years, soft drink companies have used their signage from decades previous to remind drinkers of their personal histories with the drink. As long as most drinkers have been alive, the soft drinks have been around.
Even if you’re a newer company, you’re surely tapping into something connected to history. A new mobile device could tap into the history of calling friends and family over the phone. An email server company could draw a relationship to the history of letter writing when talking about how important their service is.
Think about local history if you’re a smaller brand. Make a connection to the history of your city or town and how it was built. See if there are ways you can be a part of a narrative built around its future and you’ll find that you’ll engage that nostalgia-loving part of clients’ brains.
Make Yourself Relatable
Use your digital marketing plan to show users how even an expensive, luxury, or niche service can relate to them. Show people from all walks of life enjoying your products.
You see this tactic used in big broad industries like corn or oil. Campaigns will show off the products that are created using corn or oil as their main ingredient. When you create fuel or plastics, you can insert yourself into pretty much any part of the world.
While you may not have such a broad approach, find poetic ways of connecting people. Show how your textiles can be used for different purposes or by different people. Give your clients a feel for how your products don’t set them apart from others but tie everyone together.
This can be a challenging approach, but if you think creatively enough, you can inspire some beautiful moments in your campaign by drawing the right parallels.
Don’t Be Afraid to Jolt Them
If there’s political turmoil that relates to your product, don’t be afraid to take a side. If you wake up to find that the president or another elected official is speaking out against your industry, there’s pretty much only one side you can afford to take.
Your customer base and potential clients will expect you to take a side in the conversation. Speak loud and confidently about how essential your products and services are. Don’t be afraid to ruffle a few feathers on a sensitive subject.
If your goal is ultimately respectful, honest, and engaging multiple voices, you can’t lose. Don’t be afraid to impress potential clients with your boldness and confidence. You might feel like you’re taking a risk and find yourself building a loyal customer base who admires your fearlessness.
Emotions And Digital Marketing Multiply Your Impact
If you want your digital marketing campaign to have an impact, you have to make a connection that hits people in the gut. Combining emotions and digital marketing will make a lasting a memorable impact on your base that will yield in spikes in your profits.
If you’re ready to take your digital marketing to the next level, read our article on digital marketing trends to make sure you stay ahead of the pack.