Emotional Branding: What It Is and How to Use It Effectively
People love high-quality products and services. And they appreciate brands that listen to feedback.
But most importantly, people love real connections with businesses. They want to feel like they’re dealing with other people, not a faceless company.
Real connections build trust, credibility, and increase brand awareness.
The challenge for businesses lies in how they can create real connections.
The answer? Emotional branding.
What is emotional branding?
Emotional branding is when brands appeal to consumers' emotions, needs, and aspirations when marketing products and services.
Emotional messaging in branding and marketing will help make your business more relatable, build credibility, and help you stand out from the competition.
Here are six tips on how to use emotional branding for your business:
1. Know what triggers your audience emotionally
Most businesses sell products and services to a broad target audience. But, it’s tricky to form connections with a diverse audience. So, focus on what excites and motivates your customers and prospects and incorporate it into your marketing strategy and branding.
If you’re starting a business and don’t yet know what triggers your audience emotionally, study your competitors on social media and do market research. There are many ways to get actionable feedback from your audience, and you must learn what messages resonate best with your customers and prospects.
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You also should put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask these questions:
- What do I want to get from this business?
- What goal can I achieve when I purchase their products and services?
- How can the business help add value to my life?
- Does this business support any social causes that I support?
- How can this business address my concerns better?
Thinking like your customers helps you see things a typical business owner wouldn’t notice. It’s essential to bridge gaps by knowing what stirs your audience emotionally.
When developing creative marketing strategies and building your brand strategy, use the insights you gather from customers and prospects.
2. Share genuine stories
People love inspiring and relatable stories. And what better way to connect than by talking about shared experiences?
Stories help people to bond emotionally. But, it’s not enough to share any emotional story. You should look for three essential points when choosing which stories to tell:
- Vulnerability. People want real stories. Real stories are imperfect. Share your brand’s humble beginnings or your struggles as a business owner. Ask your employees to share their struggles. People can relate to life’s challenges.
- Relatability. You can share sad stories, but should you? If the stories are connected to your business, sad stories can work well. So, make sure your stories resonate with your brand.
- Legitimate. People dislike made-up stories, mainly because such stories make businesses inauthentic. So, share real stories of people who use your products or services. Share their feedback, as we do on the crowdspring reviews page. Such feedback shows how your business can add value to people’s lives and builds brand equity.
But remember that the stories you share must be connected to your business.
3. Focus on a personalized customer experience
People hate generic messaging. If you want to get someone’s attention, invest in a personalized customer experience to establish stronger connections with your target audience.
Start by gathering data on your existing and potential customers: their favorite products, past purchases, and other demographic data such as gender, age, etc. Use this information to customize how you communicate with them.
People love to own things that they have personalized. If appropriate, allow people to personalize your products and services. This helps differentiate from the competition by adding a personal touch to their purchases. For example, when you buy most Apple products, Apple allows you to inscribe your name or a favorite phrase on the product.
Your goal is to demonstrate how much you appreciate your customers. Customers love feeling that they’re being catered to personally. So, look for ways to provide a better customer experience throughout all touchpoints between customers and your company.
For example, tinyprints by Shutterfly allows people to laminate photos on canvases, calendars, photo books, and even personal items. Snapchat’s Bitmoji allows people to create custom animated characters on the app to make messaging more fun and personalized.
4. Create your brand personality
Personality is everything in business. It’s an excellent way to stand out and create connections with people.
Start by identifying which brand personality fits your business: exciting, competent, sophisticated, rough, etc. Knowing your brand personality will help you strategize how you will market and communicate your brand to your audience.
Next, you must nurture this personality. Make sure that everything aligns with your brand personality: tone of voice in communication, marketing, and visuals such as graphic design, your company logo, fonts, and colors.
The goal is to make your brand appear human with a personality. Be consistent and avoid confusing people by using another voice when communicating or suddenly switching brand personalities when conducting campaigns.
For example, Jeep cars are built for road trips and trekking. So, the brand focuses on its rough and rugged brand personality. You can see this on their website, product designs, and even brand colors.
5. Never forget after-sales customer service
Business transactions don’t just end after a sale. Never forget post-sale customer service. Being attentive after a sale shows that you care about your customers after they have purchased your products or services.
Continue communicating with your customers after making a sale. Tell them that customer support is always ready to help or address concerns.
After-sales customer service creates a bond and trust with customers. This can help foster customer loyalty in the long run.
But remember that showing care to customers isn’t limited to answering questions. You can do more to show you care and increase brand awareness.
For example, Rackspace’s customer support wowed many when they sent pizza during a troubleshooting phone call with a customer during a marathon. The brand caught the attention of many people and increased brand credibility and awareness.
6. Be quick in responding to critical issues
In business, timing is everything – from customer inquiries to speaking up for important causes and even putting out fires quickly.
It’s natural to make mistakes, especially as a new business. But it’s your responsibility as a brand to prioritize your audience and be sensitive to their concerns.
For instance, when rolling out a marketing campaign, be careful with brand messaging. And if people offer negative feedback, always listen and take immediate actions to correct any mistakes. Being responsive shows that you heard your customers’ concerns and have made an effort to do better as a brand.
For example, Pepsi’s misguided 2017 ad campaign starring a famous female celebrity united the internet. People aired out their frustrations and sentiments about the ad. Pepsi heard the people’s cry and pulled the ad and campaign.
Emotional branding can create loyal, life-long customers who zealously advocate for your brand.
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