The Super Weapon of Marketing

According to recent research when selling B2B, strategies that appeal to emotions are 7x more effective at driving long-term sales, profits and revenue than rational messaging.  Yes, that’s right we don’t want to buy your stuff because it makes good logical sense.  Evidently we want to buy because you made us feel something.  What does this mean?  Well, we’re more likely to believe your facts if we’ve already decided that we like you.

Emotions are designed to regulate our responses.  We use emotion to interpret our world.  The more confusing and chaotic the world becomes, the greater role of our emotions.  Think about where we are today, is our world not chaotic and constantly changing?

How to think about this in your marketing.

It doesn’t mean you need to make us cry or bust out laughing.  It can be as subtle as making us just like your ad or feeling that your brand understands us (which is the most powerful feeling).

Emotionless marketing is not an option, it will not tolerate a vacuum.  If you don’t define the emotions associated with your brand then other feelings will flood in to fill the gap.  What is the emotion of your brand? 

There are 8 basic emotions – Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Surprise, Anticipation, Anger and Trust – check out  Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions. 

First determine which feeling you intend to inspire.  Does this match with what your customers need and what they want? Do they want to stand out from the crowd, well-being, freedom, a sense of belonging?  Once you understand this and then attach it to the emotion you’re ready to create that strategy.

The best strategy is with a story.  What story can you tell that is the perfect example?  Stories trigger emotions.  Combine that with words, images and colors that evoke emotions. 

While there is a lot that goes into the buying process, emotions are what actually drive the process.  Even if your audience logically finds your offer useful but they don’t feel anything, they won’t do anything about it.

So tackle your marketing materials with this question: How do they make people feel?  How do you want them to feel?

Now go build your Super Weapon!