Using Emotions In Content Marketing
Hello readers! Today let’s talk about how emotions can help your company’s content marketing. Emotions are very powerful feelings we experience every second of everyday. We can either be happy, sad, anxious, scared, disgusted, surprised, the list goes on and on. We can easily become happy or sad in an instant. Emotions has the power to influence how we will feel about our day. Let’s take my yesterday for example, I had a long day of classes and once I got out of my last class I was ready to go straight to bed, but then the Dodgers WON the National League Championships and they are going to the World Series! Yay!
I was instantly ecstatic and my entire day just changed instantly! I was so happy that my family and I went to a sporting goods store to buy Dodger World Series gear. My happiness ultimately led me to go buy a product. So, do you need help trying to use emotion to get your consumers to buy your product? In the book, Contagious Why Things Catch On, written by Jonah Berger, he talks about different strategies that can help you connect with your consumers, but today I will only focus on two strategies:
1. Understanding High Arousal Emotions and Low Arousal Emotions
There are TONS of emotions anyone can experience and it’s important we categorize which emotions are positive or negative. We have positive emotions that are happy, excited, amusement, inspiring, etc. And there are negative emotions, such as, sadness, depressed, scared, angry, anxious, etc. So how does this play into the concept of high or low arousal emotions? I’ll tell ya! First off, arousal is when someone is in a state of activation or readiness for action (108). When we are aroused, psychologically speaking, we want to do something.
So, there are certain types of emotions that are categorized of being high arousal emotions and low arousal emotions. High arousal emotions include, excitement, awe, humor, anger, and anxiety. These emotions have a powerful effect on us and conveying these specific emotions will increase your chance of someone sharing your company’s content. Your company wants to stay away from low arousal emotions because these will not be as successful in terms of engagement/sharing. Low arousal emotions include, contentment and sadness. I was most surprised to learn that sadness is a low arousal emotion. Think about it, when you see a sad emotional commercial do you share this video with your friends and family? I don’t.
Why you ask? Because people don’t like to share content that makes them sad. They rather share content that makes them excited or funny because this will help build their social currency (helps them look good). In the video listed below is a commercial with a high positive arousal emotion, humor. The Mr. Clean brand was able to promote their product in a humorous way. By doing this, the company made shareable content. They ultimately were able to make a boring task, such as cleaning, into an exciting task. They understood who their audience was and this commercial became very successful.
Often times, companies create content that is too informative. If your content is purely informative and zero emotion, this could lose the consumers interest; they can’t relate to your brand. So how can you keep your consumers interested in your content? By focusing on the feelings. Explaining your product might not be enough to convince a potential consumer to buy your company’s product. If you bring the power of emotions into your content, by using high arousal emotions, then your company is sure to succeed; if done so correctly! According to Jonah Berger, emotions motivate people to take action (113). Even the most boring brands are able to find ways to entertain their consumers. Let’s look at an example from AT&T. Texting and driving has become a common behavior that people do and they don’t think twice about the real consequence of their actions. That was until AT&T made up various scenarios. In the video below we see an adult male driving the vehicle and he checks his phone for one second. ONE SECOND! In that one second, he ends up hitting a child. AT&T was able to create content that was both emotional and informative. AT&T used the emotion of fear to get their point across. Don’t text and drive, it’s not worth it.
All-in-all emotions are very powerful. Companies who understand which emotions to use will help increase engagement thus will help them gain more consumers. It’s also important to remember that content that is purely informational doesn’t have a lot of success; incorporate the right emotions into your content. If these strategies are done correctly, you will have a higher chance that your consumer will make a purchase. Emotions drive people to action.