Our transition to an increasingly online world has made emotional marketing more important than ever. Interactions take place on screen instead of face to face. We text, rather than talk. This makes meaningful connections even harder, especially between brands and consumers. A study conducted by PwC found that 59% of all consumers believe enterprises lack a human touch in their customer experience.
It’s obvious businesses need to build stronger, more human connections with their customers — and emotional marketing is the perfect solution. Emotions are what make us human. By using them in your business communications, you create stronger engagement and more memorable campaigns.
But how do you trigger these powerful emotions? The answer is easy — with video. It’s a multisensory experience that more easily connects with our feelings. Think of passionate dialogue, funny facial expressions and heart-racing action scenes. They all work together to create a story that resonates with your consumers.
Feeling excited? We’ll show you how you can use video to make the most of your emotional marketing campaigns with video below.
What Is Emotional Marketing?
The end-goal of emotional marketing is to make the consumer feel a certain way, causing them to complete a desired conversion. It speaks to a wide range of feelings beyond happy, sad and angry. Emotional marketing can make us feel hopeful. It can make us empathetic. It can even make us feel nostalgic.
This strategy became especially important during COVID-19.
This video was created by Finnish supermarket chain Prisma. The giant-sized teddy bears elicit a bunch of feel-good emotions — joy from the sight of several fluffy companions sitting nonchalantly next to passengers, humor from the passengers’ reactions and more. It’s a welcome distraction to feelings of uncertainty and fear.
The upshot? Research shows we share positive content more than any other content on social media. And an increase in shareability is just one of the business values that comes along with emotional marketing — especially when combined with video.
Why Video Plays an Important Role
As you saw above, emotional marketing is even more powerful when delivered via video. But is there a way to guarantee your story will tap into your viewer’s emotions — no matter how large your audience is? Personalizing your video makes it possible.
Personalization and emotional marketing go hand in hand. Emotions, at their core, are personal. We find humor in different things. We get angry over certain topics. Combining video and personalization, then, is one of the best ways to emotionally market your content.
Read on to discover a few more ways video can bolster your emotional marketing campaigns.
Inspire Pride To Drive Shareability
What happens when we reach a certain goal? What about when we finally get the hang of a new skill? We feel prideful. It encourages us to achieve more and dream bigger. And it also drives your customers to share your content with others.
Take a look at the gaming industry. Players spend hours competing against teammates for coveted bragging rights. They work their way to the top of scoreboards to feel proud of how far they’ve come.
And you can tap into this with brand communications that highlight these moments. Just take a look at how Ubisoft touched on every viewer’s proudest moments with their personalized year-in-review campaign.
Players watched their personal highlights, providing insight into all they achieved over the year. And to make the message even more meaningful, viewers were shown the highlights that mattered most to them.
Their most invested fans watched their biggest wins, where they ranked compared to others on a global scale and more. On the other hand, casual gamers were shown a more lighthearted set of highlights — the friends they made and their favorite character, for example.
Across campaigns, Ubisoft has noticed that personalization integrated into a video creates deeper connections.
“This campaign definitely accomplished its goal of fostering a sense of community for our players … Idomoo’s technology has enabled us to empower and engage the Ubisoft gaming community, and their reaction has been amazing.”
– Marianne Loraud, Ubisoft
Because gamers were shown their best moments, they wanted to share the moments they were proud of with others. Beyond the campaign reaching impressive social metrics, it also increased player reactivation, a true testament to the power of emotions.
Show Your Customers How They’ve Made an Impact
With access to the news easier than ever, customers are increasingly aware of the issues going on around them. And customers want to buy from brands who also care. It gives them comfort to know that their purchase supports a business with a good cause in mind.
So when your customers themselves make a decision benefitting the world around them, make sure to put a spotlight on it. For instance, Plan International Canada sent out the following Personalized Video to past donors.
It didn’t just thank them for donating. It showed them the donations they had personally made and their actual impact.
And there’s a science behind the powerful emotions that come with knowing you’re a part of a greater good. Science shows giving to others releases endorphins in our brain. So a campaign that unlocks all of those feel-good hormones is likely to drive a stronger, longer-lasting relationship between you and your buyer.
Encourage Your Buyers To Dream Big
As we touched on before, you can help celebrate your customer’s biggest moments. But why not encourage them to be even greater?
It’s all about knowing what your customers want and showing how you can help. What big goals do they have? What excites them? For University of South Dakota, prospective students don’t just want somewhere they can study — they want an experience full of memorable moments.
So the university created a campaign inviting customers to explore their dreams. “The best years of your life are waiting…” the video begins. The prompt lets viewers imagine a school year that excites and inspires them.
The memorable campaign was a part of a marketing toolkit Coldwell Banker comprised for real estate agents to use. And agents could even add a personal touch of their own. They were given the option to include their contact information at the end of the video, making it even easier to help customers turn their dream into a reality.
Emotional Marketing With Video for a Happier Bottom Line
You now know how to leverage emotional marketing to encourage your consumers to click, sign-up and stay with your brand. And it’s even more impactful when you create a story through video that resonates with every viewer.
For a truly personal touch, make your video… personal. Add customer data. Let your viewer update their own video. The world’s biggest brands are already using Personalized Video to inspire and connect with millions around the globe.
Eager to try it for yourself? Speak to one of our video experts to get started.
