I write about leveraging psychology for marketing organic growth and topic related to having a breakthrough mindset to be at the top of the game all the time.
We are bombarded with countless content on social media every day.
Content abundance = attention scarcity
You're not only competing attention with businesses but also with content creators and influencers.
To cut the clutter, you need a content that catches attention.
To be memorable, you need content that evokes emotions.
After years of studying emotional appeal marketing and experimenting with emotion-evoking content through social media, I figured these are the 4 emotions that work amazingly in driving engagement.
#1 Fear
Fear is one of the most widely used motivators in marketing.
By nature, fear is an emotion that is hard coded into our DNA to protect us from danger. It comes from:
Potential physical and mental pain
Potential loss
Now, if you're thinking this is evil - think again after reading the next point.
If fear-based marketing is done with the right intention, it's educational and simply selling a solution to consumers to protect themselves from future potential threats.
My personal experience on using fear appeal taught me:
FOMO, scarcity and loss-aversion are all damn-good copywriting techniques that boost engagement.
Never end the story without a call-to-action or a solution (usually is what your product offers).
#2 Hope
Hope is a positive emotion that springs from the heart but not the brain. It is not a wish but a belief that keeps us moving forward despite the darkness.
Martin Luther King once said:
Everything that is done in the world is done by hope
The truth is life is always challenging.
We all face different challenges every day. Whether you're aware of it or not, there's hope somewhere in you that pulls you forward to where you aspire to be.
Through my own experience, I noticed content that carries hope often results in high engagement.
In fact, I had seen those contents go viral quite a few times.
Hope-based content is commonly found in:
Sports industry
Beauty industry
Education industry
My personal experience on using hope-based appeal taught me:
Rag to rich story of famous figure works because it implies "every hero was once an ordinary man like you". It shows you the possibility of achieving your goal with their own journey - a proven fact. This creates hope.
The story is even more impactful if the protagonist of the story is someone the audience look up to
Ps: Liking is one of the 6 principles of persuasion
Positive and motivational content works because it supports the belief and self-image of audience.
I often see comments and messages like these below the post:
I can relate. Totally. My idol. The GOAT. An inspiration to everyone.
Consumers evaluate brands by their personality characteristics just like how they do in other people. Positivity grows social currency which contributes to the growth of a brand likeability and influence.
#4 Sadness
This emotion shares the same fundamental reasons as fear appeal, except the audience in this story are usually a bystander instead of a victim.
Loss, pain, failure, separation is some of the reasons for sadness.
This appeal paints a picture of a negative situation with image or words to create a tug-at-the-heartstrings effect. It causes compassion and emotional immersion which leads people to action.
End this story with a call to action and your audience will leave the room feeling they can do something to end someone's pain.
Sad appeal is commonly found in:
Non-profit organizations ads
Corporate social responsibilities campaign
My personal experience on using sad appeal taught me:
Empathy is the goal, not sympathy. To put your target audience into action mode, you have to relate the story to the reality of the targeting audience. This will help to reduce the gap between awareness and participation.
#3 Anger
Anger is another negative sentiment.
An emotion that arose when one senses threat, attack, injustice, and mistreatment.
It is believed to be the strongest emotions among all as the tension it holds impels most response.
The secret behind an anger-based content is building the story based on those 4 provocative elements and guides your audience to think "if this happens to you, what would you do? Do you think this is right?"
Commonly Found In:
Political campaign
Social movement
Corporate social responsibility
Non-profit organizations
Social movement
I haven't had the chance to try this particular strategy myself, but I've seen a lot of successful cases.
Now, you know the power of emotions in marketing. You might want to start studying and figure out which suits your brand the most.
Before you go, this should help!
4 things to keep in mind when creating an emotional appeal content
For nurturing, end your story with a question. Make your audience think deeper about a subject.
For conversion, you should never leave a story hanging. A clear call to action is needed if the intention of the content is to move people from thinking to action-taking.
Never go overboard with negative sentiments. This will backfire and damage your brand reputation .
Image and copy - aka words go hand in hand. My teammates and I spend a lot of time finding the right creative angle to craft a story that illustrates the problem the brand is solving and affixing the solution to the emotion. The final concept then applies to both copywriting and visual designing.
What's your experience using emotional appeals? Comment and share with me. I'd love to know!