Marketing Strategy
How to Emotionally Hook Customers
Written by Ashwin Satyanarayana for Gaebler Ventures
Consumers buy through emotions and not through logic. Marketing your business successfully is based on understanding the emotional triggers that make the customer reach out for wallets and put the cash on the table. Here are five such emotional triggers you can use.
We know that customers buy on emotions and not on logic. While marketing messages are the primary tool you use to communicate with your potential customers, how are these words playing with your customers' emotions?
Is your copywriting accomplishing the two goals of making customers feel and then act? Assuming you know whom you are communicating with, you will now need a way to connect with them. Here are five emotional triggers you can use to hook your customers:
Instant gratification - If I do this, I will get it right now
We are now spoilt, unlike our ancestors who were loaded with patience. We need everything yesterday and that reflects as a major aspect in consumer behavior today. If you have messages aimed towards your target market which has an element through which you communicate about the instant gratification made possible by buying your products, it would sell. Think Now, Today, Time is running out, click and transform your life, within 24 hours and a lot more.
Invoking fear -- What could happen to me if I don't buy?
It's funny but fear is a great motivator. Many people are moved by the powerful force this emotion is, really. Can you use your messages to induce an element of fear among your customers? Very effectively, indeed! We already have plenty of brands that use this technique and induce fear to sell. Have you heard of messages like "Too little insurance Leaves Nothing for Your Loved Ones", "Don't let your clothes ruin your deals; try power dressing".
Trust - if you are selling it, it must be damn good
Some brands really go out of their way to invoke trust among their customers and their target market because brands sell. A brand is a promise that a company keeps consistently and with focus on quality. Over time that leads to trust. Trust is something that makes people buy stuff even if they don't really need it. Your messages should invoke trust. Don't communicate without this in your mind; because nothing else works without this.
Belonging -- I am here, just here; If I buy that, I will be there with them
Human beings that we are, there is really no stopping a human from seeking a better life. No matter what we own already, we would need something bigger, better, faster, more stylish or that which a select group of people use or own. This is where the premium brands operate and it is this human need to "be someone" that makes this emotion sell. Do your messages use this fact? Are you hooking them up to help them reach where they want to be?
Envy - Did you just see what I have here?
Slightly working from the flanks - with respect to the previous point made above - yet another powerful motion is jealously or competition which makes people buy things. Your neighbors got themselves a brand new, much larger house? You might just want one too. Envy, jealously and "keeping up with the joneses" is another hot seller emotion. Go on; tempt your customers to buy your products and services by showing them who else got it already.
Ash has an undergraduate degree in engineering and an MBA from Ohio University. Today he is a corporate trainer, business coach and a freelance writer.
Share this article
Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs
Conversation Board
We greatly appreciate any advice you can provide on this topic. Please contribute your insights on this topic so others can benefit.