Technology is the demise of human interaction! We are becoming emotionless to what is around us, everyone is just looking at a screen!
Sound Familiar? I’m sure you have heard these types of statements before, if not even said them yourself. While there is no question that technology and digital marketing have changed the way humans interact, do business, consume information and make decisions – I would disagree that this change has taken away the element of human emotion. Because we have a vast world of information at our finger tips, you could argue that emotional responses are more wide-spread than ever before, especially in digital marketing. Just because you are using a device that has no emotion, does not mean the advertising you are looking at follows suit. Think about the commercials you remember the most – they remain fresh in your mind after a long period of time because they elicited an emotional response. Whether you were laughing uncontrollably or ended up crying at the end – the element of human emotion will always work. Here are some tips on where and why you should use emotion in your digital strategy.
Reaching Your Audience Through Social Media
Through your mobile device, social media has become one of the most consistent daily activities. Digital marketing experts know the power of social media and many brands – large and small – use emotional advertisements in social media to get their message across. The first question you should consider is:
Does my social media strategy differ from my other channels?
Perhaps it doesn’t, and that is fine – but the bigger point is, social media is the best channel to get more emotional with your advertising and test out user responses. Remember that within social media you have the ability to:
- Use copy, imagery and video all at the same time
- Create a campaign that users can easily share with others
- Gain direct followers to your social profiles
- Review likes and comments by users for feedback
If you read through the above list and said, “That’s obvious, everyone knows that,” then I hope your social budget is comparable to every other type of campaign you’re running. Some brands invest huge amounts of spend in search or display, leaving a sliver for social. Let’s take that same list above and see if we can do the same thing for a search campaign:
- I can only use copy
- I can not directly share a search campaign unless I screen shot it on my phone and send it to someone
- I can see Click-through-Rate from my search ads, but is a website visitor as valuable as a follower?
- I can see impressions, but do I know if those users liked what they saw? Told their friends?
After comparing them, it is clear that social media allows you to not only showcase emotions in your ads at a greater, more accepted rate – but you can also measure your target demographic’s reactions in many more ways. After all, it is called “social” media.
Benefits of Emotional Advertising
I could point out many benefits, but they all go back to one particular trait – loyalty. Brands who have loyal customers are almost never in jeopardy of missing their goals…why is that? Loyalty makes consumers do many things that they normally would not, such as:
- Try a new product or service from a brand they like
- Give a brand a second chance if they had a bad experience
- Spread the word about that product or service to others
- Showcase that product or service on their personal social accounts
Remember, using emotion in your advertising doesn’t always mean it has to be extreme where you leave people crying their eyes out. Using emotion in your advertising means you are trying to make that potential customer feel a certain way so they become proud or motivated to take the action you want. If you sell sunglasses, how do you make people feel like their fishing trip is not as cool without a pair of your shades? If you do legal consulting, how do you make people feel angry because the advice they may have previously gotten isn’t up to par with yours? If you have a non-profit, how do you get people to feel regretful that they spent $10 at Starbucks instead of helping those in need?
If you are able to answer those questions and infuse emotion into your strategy, the loyalty will follow!
