The average person likes to believe that they are firmly rational and can only make decisions based solely on calculation of cost and benefit, but psychologists have shown that we are in fact driven by our emotional disposition and what people call gut reaction.
This presents a unique challenge for small business owners like you who want to make a straightforward sell that doesn’t necessarily delve into a person’s emotions or “heart.” So if you are a website creator selling your work online, how do you make a solid plan moving forward, when the goal is to sell the heart?
An effective marketing plan has to take into account the psychological aspect of the audience and create a platform that combines and addresses several governing emotions in order to exert considerable influence.
Let’s explore the five emotions that always incite action from a marketing standpoint.
1. Genuine happiness makes us want to share
Psychologists have suggested that our first emotional action in life occurs when we respond to our mother’s smile with a smile of our own. Clearly, happiness and joy are instinctive and hardwired into all of us.
A study was conducted on a bunch of Buddhist Monks on the effect of meditation on their left pre-frontal cortex, and scans showed that the left pre-frontal lobe of their brains actually lit up as they entered into a state of blissful meditation.
When people see an image that pleases them, they automatically forward it to their friends and family to share that bit of energy and joy. This holds untold potential for marketers when creating content for advertising.
By associating those good feelings with a particular brand, it ultimately builds a stronger connection among the audience, and there’s plenty of science to back this up.
2. Trust
Trust is a little harder to pin down but it exists in virtually all successful conversions and business interactions. If trust appears to be questionable or missing, there is no chance of making a deal or winning over a prospective client.
Remember, long-lasting trust is built gradually, but you can start by embracing a genuine and direct tone when communicating with your audience and always maintain eye-level engagements with your target audiences.
Never make the mistake of promising something you can’t deliver, though, because when you do fail to make good of your promises, trust goes down the drain.
3. Sadness and empathy
It is interesting to see how the brain responds to feelings of sadness. Some researchers look at sadness as the other side of happiness because of the brain’s tendency to light up in the same regions when a person experiences happiness or sadness.
When we experience sadness, though, the brain also releases distinct neurochemicals, two of which have been studied extensively: cortisol, a stress hormone, and oxytocin, a hormone associated with connection and empathy.
Have you noticed the sheer number of adverts that contain puppies and babies — even for products that have little to do with either pets or children? Advertisers use images that trigger the release of oxytocin and similar neurochemicals so as to establish a platform for empathy and conviction.
Humans are social creatures and our ability to identify with other people is a crucial factor in how we make decisions even with our finances and how we respond to marketing tactics.
Non-profit organizations have mastered the art of empathy and often use sad pictures to trigger a massive response from a large audience. It can also play a role in marketing when used to appeal to a community-based audience or to promote a socially-conscious brand.
4. Excitement
This is a temporary feeling characterized by a surge in adrenaline and is also a powerful marketing tool.
How can you use excitement to generate sales? One way to trigger excitement is by hosting an event or offering a substantial reward for participation — the emphasis being that the reward will materialize in the immediate future.
The audience should feel as if they are only a step away from achieving something of value. Also a little competition could go a long way in fuelling that excitement.
5. Amusement
Laughter has a profound effect on our brains and stress levels. Multiple studies point to laughter as having a medicinal value to our bodies, and marketers identify it as a major driver of content sharing.
The principle is fairly straightforward: keep audiences thoroughly entertained and they will share your content massively and expand your network in a major way.
The drawback here is that people are notoriously fickle and recent studies indicate that the average person’s attention span is dwindling at an alarming rate.
Keeping people laughing now takes a lot more work and that may call for a lot of manpower and maddening creativity.
As a website creator or any small business owner, you need to know that there are certain ways to improve sales, and one of those is to use emotions in order to incite potential customers to take action, whether it is to buy something or to sign up for your newsletter.
By knowing these five emotions and implementing the best one on your landing page, you’ll soon see sales go up.
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Originally published at www.bookmark.com on November 7, 2016.
