When it comes to marketing and sales, one is the most powerful thing to drive people in – Empathy – leading marketing consultant agency insights show.
The more you empathize with people, the more they feel understood, and you gain trust.
So far, this is the base of persuasive communication, whether it’s digital or verbal.
But what do emotions have to do with it?
Emotions play the strongest part in the empathic game. And I am sure that you probably heard this before.
One thing is to know the problems that a person is experiencing, another is to actually know how they feel when facing those problems. It’s way different.
In such an overcrowded digital world, traditional communication is not working very well anymore.
That’s because today, most businesses and marketers often know their target audience’s age, sex, and geolocation, and sometimes their problems and behaviour.
Still, they are missing the reason why they behave the way they do.
It’s like this that the following steps of the digital marketing communication get based on assumptions and previous experiences.
Some are now focusing on measurables and experimentation, but they are still far away from uncovering what actually motives their customers to behave the way they do.
Still, they don’t know what motives their target audience to take an action and make a purchase at that particular moment.
But what if there was a way to get to know this?
What if you could identify what resonates with and motivates your target customers on an emotional level, and design your marketing experiences to convert more around that data?
In this article, I am going to walk you through how emotions influence your ideal customers’ purchase decision-making and how our leading marketing consultant agency uses this data to create high-converting digital marketing experiences.
How people make decisions
The very first thing to do is to take a closer look at the most recent researches on how people actually make decisions.
Scientists used to think that our decisions were driven by reason, while emotions only interrupted this cognitive process.
But, in the 1990s, new studies and researches in psychology, anthropology, and neurology were showing proofs contrary to this assumption.
By then, scientists were realising that emotion and reason are integrated systems in the human brain and that emotions can induce a subject to take any action before they are even able to cognitively process it.
This evidence got supported by more recent studies and made even more evident that emotions are the main influence in human decision-making process.
And even if now this is clear and proved in the scientific world, still many businesses and marketers are not capitalizing on this insight continuing to base their communication and strategies on assumptions.
Ok, but what does this actually mean to you?
Let’s think about this scenario:
Imagine that you have a second house at the beach where you go a couple of times a month if you can. It means a lot to you because you live in the city and the beach house is the perfect place where you can disconnect from the chaos of the city. You made your second property the best place for you to relax and enjoy.
And of course, the last thing you want is for someone to enter the area, disturb you, or even ruin what you have done so far.
You then decide to hang a sign on the front gate to keep unwelcome guests out, and you are now deciding between the two options below:
Which option would you choose?
Which one do you think will be more effective?
I’ll say that you are probably thinking of the red sign with the Video Surveillance – as most people do.
But what actually makes this option more effective than the other?
Why are the colour red and the camera so effective?
Going back to the two options above, the first sign is basically just informational communication. It says “Caution – Keep Out” and relies on the good norm of society to not trespass someone else’s property.
The second option instead, relies on more emotional communication. Why?
For many people, the threat of being recorded on camera and being prosecuted is something that they are averse to face. Also, the colour red is more vigorous to trigger majorly this fear-averse emotional response than the yellow in the first option.
Communication (the sign) stimulates an emotion (fear), which leads to an action, or, in this case, a lack of it (not trespassing).
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Emotions and Purchase Decision Making – Marketing Consultant Company Insights
Great, so far, so good.
But how does all of this affect your customers’ purchase decision-making?
Let’s try to think about this:
Imagine that you need to buy a new laptop. The one you have is basically new and has already had a few problems during this time. The customers’ service doesn’t help very much and says it’s a model issue as they keep receiving complaints from others owning the same one. You know that it’s been going on for a while and you just need to buy a new one.
However, this time you don’t want to run into the same issue, so you start researching different models and brands. You check the reviews and ask for recommendations.
And after careful consultation, you make your decision.
Now, is this example referring to an emotional or a rational decision-making process?
Even though it was an extended decision-making process, which might seem more rational, here again, you are actually mainly moved by your emotions.
Your choice is directly influenced by your previous experience and the fear to encounter another “crappy” laptop.
Your aversion to facing a similar situation again leads you, not only to decide the brand and model to buy but also to actually spend so much time comparing different options.
Your ideal clients are influenced by their emotions in the same way.
Rational vs Emotional thinking
Every person has two ways to react to stimulation: Rational or Emotional.
The rational is the conscious one, while the emotional happens at an unconscious level.
Why am I saying this?
Just to make you see how effectively the emotional process is predominant over the rational.
The human brain and body, as efficient machines as they are, work in energy-save mode. It basically goes like this “Why should I consume much energy when there is a much effortless way I can select?”
So it happens that the rational process requires a large amount of energy to be activated, on the contrary to the emotional one that requires just a minimum amount.
This means that everyone’s brain processes almost all signals from your environment unconsciously, through unconscious (emotional) processes.
This is why we are all much better respondents to Emotional Communication and Empathy.
Limbic System
The limbic system is the part of the brain that controls the Emotional Process.
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. – Anais Nin, Author.
When a customer decides to purchase from you, they have often decided your products or services are right for them at that specific moment, even before they were consciously aware of it.
It’s up to you to create in your target audience that feeling of “yes, this is what I was looking for”, and to provide them the benefits they need to justify their decision after they purchase.
Marketing Consultant Agency – Create the perfect Digital Marketing Experience for your customer
Now, the issue most businesses and marketers have at this point is that it is very difficult to:
- Identify what your target audience’s core emotional drivers are,
- Showcase your findings as a dataset, and
- Implement those motivators into your customer digital experiences
But it isn’t impossible.
At first, you need to understand the three different emotional components within the emotional system and how these influence consumers’ decision-making – like our marketing consultant agency does for each one of our clients.
The Dominance System, which is motivated by power and status, and it’s averse to rage and powerlessness.
The Stimulance System, which is motivated by new things and adventures, and it’s averse to boredom.
The Balance System, which is motivated by security and stability, and it’s averse to risks.
All of us have the three emotional components in different proportions, as we are all different and with different past experiences. And depending on the situation we face their proportion changes within the same individual.
So, there are situations where the Dominance System is the most receptive and others where the most receptive is the Balance one.
Great, so now how is possible to actually understand and stimulate these emotional systems?
Let’s introduce the Limbic Map
The Limbic Map is one of the best approaches for emotional understanding developed through years of scientific studies and researches.
It got developed by the German research group, Gruppe Nymphenburg, based on the latest findings in psychology, neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, and other scientific disciplines.
The Limbic Map shows the different emotional systems present in your client’s head, and how they interact and influence their decision-making process through values and motives.
Serendipity Marketing’s unique methodology – the Ultimate Triumph System – is designed to uncover any business target audience driving emotions in relation to the purchasing decision of their products or services, and to use techniques to stimulate those emotions through each phase of the digital funnel. This makes us a pioneering marketing consultant agency empowering marketing with psychology science.
Let’s imagine this:
You are looking to buy a pair of new shoes and you like a few models of different brands.
First of all, what makes you interested in those models excluding others?
At our marketing consultant agency, we call this First Impact, and it’s the sense that your ideal customers need to feel interested in a product or service.
Is it because they are made of great material? – sense of power – Dominance
Is it because they are limited edition? – sense of unicity – Stimulance
Or is it because someone else that you trust recommended them to you? – sense of security – Balance
After the First Impact, the situation changes.
You are already interested in some models, and you are now looking at selecting the best one for you.
As the situation changes, the Emotional Systems proportion changes as well.
So, now what makes you select the one that for you is the perfect pair of shoes at this moment of time?
This is what we call Nurturing Impact and it’s the sense that your ideal customers need to feel they want to get a specific product or service.
Is it because they are discounted? – sense of a great deal – Dominance
Is it because there are only a couple left in stock? – sense of scarcity – Stimulance
Or is it because they are the most popular and have tons of great reviews? – sense of security – Balance
Last but not least, wanting to get a product or service doesn’t mean closing the sale.
So, once again, the situation changes and the Emotional Systems proportion changes as well.
At this point, what makes you buy the shoes right away?
This is what our marketing consultant agency calls Closing Impact and it’s the sense that your ideal customers need to feel they want to get a specific product or service.
How our Marketing Consultant Firm manages to uncover and stimulate emotions
The Ultimate Triumph System (UTS) – our marketing consultant agency unique Methodology – consists of two parts:
- Analysis Tools to uncover the audience’s driving emotions towards a specific product or service or brand through each phase of the Digital Funnel.
- Techniques and Strategies to leverage those specific emotions through each phase of the Digital Funnel and create perfect digital marketing experiences for them.
The UTS Methodology aims to:
Give businesses and marketers key access to what actually motivates and drives their audience’s decisions.
Empower their Digital Marketing, making it the perfect experience for their audience.
Create solutions able to please the audience and generate higher profit for the businesses.
