Everything you do online can incorporate emotional marketing techniques. It doesn’t matter if it’s text, images, audio or visual in the form of video. First, let’s talk a bit about the various types of emotions that you can elicit with your content.

Types of Emotion

* Visceral – When something impacts an audience member at the subconscious level, we say that the reaction is visceral. Your content, website design and so forth should evoke the feelings you want the visitor to feel without even thinking about it.

* Behavioral – Emotions and behavior go together hand in hand. When your audience member reads your content, listens to a video, or visits your website, the feelings they have should also elicit a behavioral response. For example, if a visitor comes to your website and feels frustrated with the navigation, their emotional feelings of frustration will elicit the response of leaving your website.

* Reflective – Once your audience member leaves your website, stops reading your eBook, or moves on past your content, it should stick with them enough to cause a response of some sort based on their feelings. They might answer the CTA, or share your information with others, or think about it for a while, but they won’t forget.

Aspects to Consider

Emotional marketing is a powerful tool that you can use in all your marketing efforts. It doesn’t matter if it’s a website, a sales page, a video or something else entirely - all aspects of it should be considered, such as:

* The Words – Know what words trigger emotion and action in your audience. Use words to focus on the benefits your product or service offers your audience. Remember that they want to know what’s in it for them, not what’s in it for you.

For example: Use trigger words like “Limited time offer…” or “Act now to completely change your life in the next 10 minutes…” You don’t want to lie, but you do want to give it to them straight and tell them exactly what their benefits are for acting now.

* The Images – Images of people tend to bring forth more emotion for people. Let the face of the person demonstrate the emotion that you want the audience to feel as they look at your website, watch the video or consume other content that you offer.

For example: If you’re writing about freedom and how your audience can experience freedom, try using a picture of something that demonstrates freedom to your audience. Use also a typical person that could be part of your audience, showing the emotional release they feel as they realize they have true freedom.

* The Colors – Some colors evoke different emotions based on culture, sex, and many other factors, so it’s extra important to understand exactly who your audience is. You want the colors you choose to elicit the right emotions in your audience.

For example: If you want your audience to feel as if they should be excited and passionate about something, choose known passion colors like red and orange. If you want them to feel happy and free, choose a color like yellow to emulate the color of sunshine which makes people joyful. Do check to ensure that the culture you’re marketing to does not have a different idea.

In order to accomplish that, you need to understand your audience completely so that you realize what their emotional needs are, plus what emotions trigger action for them. You can learn this by surveying your audience, getting to know them more, and asking for a lot of feedback as you create new products and services for them.

For more information about how to influence your audience with integrity, click here.