hacks for creating emotional marketing that converts.

B2B marketing has a big myth: It’s not emotionally driven. This fallacy has been a major problem in content marketing for more than a decade. B2B marketing is often a case of trying to reason and rationalize their way through connecting with customers. But they forget that each customer is human. You still have to convince people to buy, even if they are corporations.

You have few chances to create connections in a media landscape cluttered with content. What is a sure-fire way to stand out? Add more emotion to your marketing.

Joe Chernov, the Chief Marketing Officer of Pendo.io stopped by the Best Story Wins Podcast to discuss the biggest changes that have occurred in B2B. During our conversation, Joe dropped one the best knowledge bombs in recent memory.

A CMO is not responsible for marketing to people anymore. It’s about marketing through people.” –Joe Chernov. Chief Marketing Officer, Pendo.io

Marketers have traditionally bombarded their audiences with intellectual messages instead of cultivating meaningful emotions connections. This not only alienates their audience, but can also burden them with an overwhelming amount of content they must 1) navigate and 2) sync.

Chernov: “I honestly think of thinking as a burden.” “And people want to get rid of the burden of thinking.” How can you create a brand message that allows people to feel and not think?

Chernov says that we ultimately make buying decisions based on emotion, then rationally justify them. Emotion is powerful, because it bypasses our brain and speaks directly to the heart. It makes people fall in love with your brand instantly.

If I can make people feel certain emotions, help someone identify with something they are proud to identify, then rational stuff becomes easy.

Joe Chernov, Pendo.io’s Chief Marketing Officer

Chernov says that creating emotional entry points for your brand, whether through a funny video or headline, is the key to a better marketing strategy. How do you achieve that?

Create more emotional marketing

There are many ways to adapt and produce content that will cultivate these feelings. Don’t worry if you lack the energy to brainstorm. We’ve got some great content ideas to tap into the most powerful emotions of your audience: fear, joy and humor.

1) Joy

Research shows that customers will be more loyal to your brand if you consistently evoke positive feelings. There are several ways to achieve this throughout the entire buyer journey.

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  Share customer success stories
  
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  Celebrate your brand’s milestones or achievements.
  
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  Make fun things, like interactives or quizzes, that are a little levity.
  
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  Create visuals that are eye-catching (think of bold colors, illustrations with playful themes, etc.).
  
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  Tap into nostalgia.
  
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  Share positive, motivating, and uplifting content.
  

Discover how to transform customer success stories into a compelling narrative.

As an example, one of our most popular videos was the Child of the ’90s we produced to reintroduce Internet Explorer for millennials. We tapped into the early wave nostalgia for the ’90s to remind users of the fondness they had for the brand, and brought that joy into modern life.

2) Fear

Fear is a powerful emotion that can grab your audience’s attention.

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  Showcase the consequences or risks of not using your service/product.
  
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  Create urgency with limited-time deals or limited-edition products.
  
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  Play on their FOMO.
  

Tip: In order to know your audience’s greatest fears, you must first understand their pain points. To document your audience’s wants, needs and fears, see our guide on creating ideal customer profiles and marketing personas.

Example: To recruit the next generation developers at Dropbox, we created a campaign that highlighted the innovative ways in which their engineers were building the future. We also highlighted all the cool stuff prospective employees would miss out on if they didn’t join the team.

3) Relief

Fear is a powerful motivation, but if you can provide relief from that fear or a reprieve to it, your audience will be instantly attracted to you. Create content that eliminates obstacles, solves problems or simplifies things.

• Create templates and tools to make things easier for people.
• Transparency is key. Be honest about your background and qualifications. It will reassure your audience that you are a true expert who has their best interest at heart.
• Share useful hacks and tips that will make your life easier.
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  Display before/afters to demonstrate your problem solving abilities.
  

You can also avoid the same mistakes by converting your lessons into useful tips or mistakes that you have learned.

For example: We’ve shared content on everything from Mistakes we’ve Made in Content Marketing to Lessons we’ve Learned in Business. (BTW, by sharing content about your mistakes, you show transparency and foster trust with your customers.

4) Surprise

The monotony of the day can bore people. A surprise can provide a positive association with your brand.

• Do something that is edgy and stands out. Find out how Liquid death has created a brand which shocks and delights. )
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  Unexpectedly reveal or announce something.
  
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  Work with brands and influencers you would never expect.
  
• Send them a surprise gift. You can give them free guides, toolkits or physical gifts.
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  Create personalized experiences. It’s a great idea to connect with people and reach out through the crowd.
  

AI can help you to work more efficiently. Check out our tips for creating more personalized AI experiences.

Ex: We created a campaign with Unbabel, a language operations platform. It was surprisingly funny and NSFW. The campaign encouraged users to “STFU”, or Start Fearlessly Translation with Unbabel. This was a new approach to the industry that was both innovative and eye-catching.

5) Humor

Humor can be a joyous emotion. It is also an excellent way to show that you are familiar with your audience’s tastes and challenges.

• Make funny videos to mock common issues.
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  Create relatable memes and inside jokes.
  
• Showcase the behind-the scenes fun at your company in order to show off your brand personality. Here are seven social media ways to achieve this.
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  Encourage your customers to participate in the fun by holding caption contests or submitting photos, etc.
  

Tip: User generated content is an excellent way to get your audience to engage with your brand. Here are eleven ways to encourage more UGC.

For example, we know that marketers often sound pretentious if they use pointless jargon or industry slang. We created the marketing gibberish generator in order to help our audience make up their own jargon and slang during their next meeting.

Emotional marketing isn’t just a one-time thing

Look for ways to add emotion to your content as you build out and expand your strategy.

• To capture the attention of your readers, use emotional hooks.
• Find out more ways to Humanize your brand
• Build trust with every customer touchpoint.

It’s important, however, to start with emotion and then follow up with logic when you are closer to the closing of the deal. See our tips on how to create a journey which balances logic and emotion for the best results. We’re happy to assist you at any point in the journey if you require a partner who can help you strategize. You can also check out our FAQs and contact us.

The article 5 Hacks for Emotional Marketing that Converts first appeared on column five.

Author: Katy French