Have you ever wondered about how to be more persuasive or influential? Certainly, an important question if you are in the marketing profession, isn’t it? It is certainly a secret to word of mouth marketing … emotion as the secret. Let me explain how.
Emotional word of mouth conversations is sparked when consumers are highly aroused. Have
you noticed that people choose emotionally and then justify logically?
Before
we continue, let me ask you a question.
What
works best for word of mouth marketing design in your business? We would love
to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? Be the one who starts a
conversation.
Then it stands a far better chance of being
talked about by more people.
The higher the degree of emotion created the more differentiation and the easier for your brand to project uniqueness and its word of mouth messages.
And telling stories are an excellent way to get
to emotion most easily. Let me share a few examples
Creating smiles
Fleur, a florist shop in Chicago, puts a bucket full of bright balloons by the door of their shop both inside and out, with a handwritten sign that says: “Take a balloon.” That’s all. No logos, no catch. It is just a small action to make people smile. Inside the store, it makes a pretty display, and outside the store, people are likely to ask where you got the balloon.
Creating smiles.
That’s
a simple, fun way to create some emotion and get a conversation started without
a marketing message. A bucket full of balloons is a bucket full of the word of mouth memories waiting to happen. It
doesn’t have to be branded or a part of a
larger campaign — in fact, the simpler you make it, the better.
Surprise people
Surely
you have seen the tear-jerker commercials for abused or abandoned puppies or
kittens. Not something you’ll often share with friends, is it?
North
Carolina’s Wake County SPCA tried a very different approach to this problem.
They made a lip-synching music video to ABBA’s song “Take a Chance on Me”, with
the entire shelter staff and most of the adoptable animals.
A
success? It was watched on YouTube over
3.4 million times the last time we looked. Just because others do the standard tear-jerking videos doesn’t mean they are
popular.
Surprise
your audience with original things that are fun and approachable like this SPCA
did. It may even surprise you.
Emotional influence
The
Zillow real estate company has built an entire marketing campaign on
influencing home buyers with emotional influence. Have you seen any of them? We
like them so much that we have searched for them on YouTube frequently.
“Homecoming”
is Zillow’s sixth TV spot, one of the latest in the company’s highly successful
national advertising campaign. You cannot beat these ads. There are no better means of influence or the power
of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion.
Experiences
that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because
the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the
experiences are important to remember.
The
homecoming commercial ending message says it all:
You are not just looking for a
house; you are looking for a place for your life to happen.
This commercial focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion. It is the secret of this commercial’s success. It creates strong persuasion in our opinion. A great example of using emotion for successful advertisement design.
Storytelling
Have you seen the remarkable branding video design from this South African business? The Bell’s TV commercial features a father whose intrepid spirit demonstrates just what it takes to be a true man of character.
The video was created to market and build the brand. It is a very simple story. It advocates learning to read no matter your age or status in society. To us, it creates pure magic with the story, the visuals, the music, and the emotion. It certainly finds and puts emotional triggers to work.
If you haven’t seen it, watch it now, it is only 2 minutes, and it will inspire you. It is certainly easier in our top 5 of all time.
Likewise, have you ever wondered why movies like Toy Story
are so compelling and successful? The best writers in the world speak to universal human themes—the things that drive every one
of us no matter what our worldview is.
Compelling storylines work because we see ourselves
reflected in the characters. Their story is our story. A great script looks us
right in the eye and says, “I see you.”
Contrast that feeling with the one you get when you’re speaking to someone at a
party, who is looking over his shoulder for the next most interesting person to
enter the room.
That’s exactly how you don’t want your customers and clients to
feel.
Great storytellers make us feel like they’re speaking
directly to us. And so it goes for great brand storytelling. The best brand
stories make you feel like the company understands and is speaking just to you.
The goal is to be more like Pixar and nothing like that guy at the party. You achieve that by remembering ‘the rule of one.’
Speak to one person at a time. Make that person feel like
she’s being looked in the eye.
That’s the foundation of a winning emotional story.
The bottom line
Emotion is the secret language of the brain… works on emotion if you want to improve your persuasion or influence.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight
gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
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