Studies have found that people make purchasing decisions based on emotions—not information.
Which means that it really doesn’t matter how great your brand is or how much information you put out there about it—if you aren’t appealing to the emotions of your potential buyers, then your brand might as well not exist.
What emotions, you may ask? Human beings experience four different basic emotions: happy, sad, afraid/surprised and angry/disgusted. You should strive to make your customers feel one of those four emotions when they interact with your brand.
And now I know you might be wondering: how exactly can I do that?
Well, today’s your lucky day! Here are four ways to evoke emotion in your audience.
1. Choose Your Colors Wisely
Different colors result in different emotional states. Warm colors, like red, orange and yellow, make people feel happy and energetic. Red tends to make people feel excited and often hungry (which is probably why many fast food restaurants use red as their primary color). Cool colors, like green, blue and purple, have a calming effect. Blue can induce trust (which helps explain why many banks use blue).
Think about how you want people to feel when they come into contact with your brand. And then choose brand colors that will help provoke those feelings.
2. Think About the Images You Use
Cheesy Shutterstock photos aren’t going to work here. If you really want to strike a cord with your audience, your photos should be personal and unique to your brand. They should show your brand personality and what you stand for.
A classic example here would be the About page of your website, where you could have photos of each of your team members striking a pose or showing a bit of their personality. Have some fun with it!
Side note: We believe that marketing and branding are about continual improvement. While this isn’t something that we ourselves do yet, it’s on our list to do.
3. Send the Right Messages
Your brand personality is defined by the way that you communicate with your audience. Are you upbeat and optimistic? Humorous and witty? Or more serious?
Unlike many call center employees, Zappos employees don’t follow a script. Instead, they speak to each and every customer as an individual. They are trained to be (or at least sound) friendly and happy; as a result, my guess is that their customers generally hang up the phones feeling happy too.
Like Zappos, determine your brand personality, whatever it may be. Then make sure that everyone on your team knows that personality inside and out, so that your brand can actually be that way—100%.
4. Create Your Brand Story
Having a brand narrative to share is crucial to connecting with your audience. Tell them who you are, how you got started and what your values are. Be genuine and honest. Don’t hold back—Now is the time to get real.
Make them laugh. Cry. Feel inspired.
Final Words
Remember that there is a difference between emotional branding and manipulation. I’m not encouraging you to do the latter.
Rather, think about what it is that really makes your audience tick. And then find a way to connect with them based on that.
At the end of the day, that’s what it’s really all about: building connections. Long-lasting ones at that.
