Fear, happiness, frustration, joy — these are common emotions humans feel in their daily interactions. As humans, we are driven by our emotions. It’s safe to say emotions impact most of our decision-making processes. And marketers are leveraging human emotion to promote their products and services.
Emotional marketing pertains to using convincing messages to influence human behavior. It integrates emotions such as fear, happiness, or anger in exchange for a customer’s action. Every advertising campaign should only focus on one emotion to be more impactful.
Moreover, this tactic is an effective promotional ingredient that makes target audiences act. And the most notable element in emotional marketing? DESIGN. Know the benefits of emotional marketing, and learn how design enhances your emotional marketing strategy.
Benefits of Emotional Marketing
If you’re a marketer and haven’t thought about using emotional marketing in your strategy, you’re missing out. Although some think objectively, in some cases, using emotions can make humans think subjectively. And this makes emotional marketing a powerful advertising strategy. Here are the benefits of using emotional design and messaging in your advertising methods:
Makes your advertisements eye-catching
With all the things that happened in 2020, humans are now more attentive than ever. They adapt to the “new normal” brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. Consumers are shifting their purchasing behaviors online, and marketers can leverage from this.
Many brands are vying for attention, but only a few stand out. This makes your marketing graphics vital in capturing your target audience. Emotional design is more intriguing and enrapturing. It entails more stimulating design elements that hook your audience’s attention.
Makes excellent first impressions
Making an excellent first impression when presenting your marketing graphics is the end-all-be-all in advertising. Brands should be able to instill top-of-mind awareness in their marketing strategies by creating mind-boggling designs. This is why marketers should impress their audience in the first few seconds of interaction. And a design that evokes emotions does just that.
Inspires people to take action
Emotional marketing would also need persuasive and inspirational messaging to double the effect. Web copy or ad copy is crucial for your emotional design. Both graphic design and copy should work in tandem to create maximum impact.
As mentioned, emotional advertising focuses on one emotion per campaign. This helps marketers achieve what they want. For instance, if the design emanates happiness, it urges users to share. If it invokes sadness, users will empathize, support, and advocate as well. Finally, if the design instills fear, it can go viral for either the wrong or right reasons. However, make sure to use negative emotion properly to put your brand in a bad light.
Makes your brand memorable
When you make users gawk at your emotional marketing design the first time, it’ll surely make an impression. Users remember brands that go the extra mile in their advertising strategies.
If you look at World Wide Fund’s advertising designs, you’ll notice that most of their ads scream of emotions. For an organization that aims to save nature and animals, emotion is its powerful marketing weapon.
Gains brand advocates
According to studies, 71 percent of consumers prefer brands with the same values. The law of attraction says you attract what you are. So if you vouch for sustainability, you connect with like-minded individuals as well. Overall, this will gain you more brand advocates.
How Design Impacts Emotional Marketing Strategies
Emotional design refers to how users initially interact with the product that elicits either a negative or positive feeling. When marketers integrate design into their advertising graphics, it connects with how the brain processes the design.
That being said, the human brain and emotions are interconnected. For example, you see a design that angers you. This can elicit a feeling of contempt or rage. On the other hand, if a marketing design emanates happiness, this creates feelings of safety and lighthearted interactions that make you want more.
Moreover, a marketer’s goal should be to evoke positive emotions within their target audience. When you establish a positive user experience, your audience will patronize your brand. The process undergoes three stages:
- Visceral. The brain bases its reactions on emotion rather than thought or reason.
- Behavioral. After the initial interaction, users will then relate the design or product to how they feel. Does it meet their requirements? Does it solve their pain points? In this stage, users try to establish harmony with the design by assessing its function or purpose.
- Reflective. Users then reflect on how the design or product helped them. Did it give an overall seamless experience? Did it resolve the user’s issues? When brands ensure user satisfaction, this last stage will help them retain customers.
Emotional Marketing is Useless Without Design
Emotional marketing will never work without compelling design and thought-provoking copy. So how can marketers enhance their emotional marketing strategy through design? Here are five foolproof ways:
Focus on audience pain points
Visual communication can move mountains for your brand. However, the only way you can connect with your audience on a deeper level is to know who they are and what their pain points are. Focus on their issues to present your offer the best way possible. This will reflect on your marketing design outcome.
Use the right colors
Colors in marketing aren’t only there for visual purposes. They incite particular feelings based on psychology. Red stirs excitement or anger, while yellow instills joy and happiness like the sun. Black is best for representing authority, and green is used to symbolize freshness.
Using the right colors will undeniably help you elicit the feelings you want from your audience.
Use characters, typography, etc.
Some companies use characters or mascots to put an emotional attribute behind a brand. Using people or animals can add a personal touch as well. This enhances your strategy because users don’t like being constantly sold to. They want brands that they can connect with on a personal level.
The same goes for choosing the typography. The different font styles symbolize various branding details. Moreover, integrating diverse elements such as lines and curves can create harmony, movement, or balance. All these elements will contribute to the overall design that will make it more emotional.
Represent product or service benefits
Use emotion when showcasing your products or services on your marketing graphics. Think of the features and design by presenting the benefits. Your target audience is there for the product or service benefits. Make sure that you use custom design or illustrations for better storytelling that elicits positive feelings.
Designs Matter
The only way you can make your emotional marketing strategy work is by using captivating designs. Whether you DIY or hire professionals, don’t release half-baked designs that are futile. Grab user attention in the first interaction, and you’ll gain brand recognition over time.
