Servage Magazine

Internet marketing is entering a rapidly advancing stage with the onset of handheld devices, where the Internet is now ubiquitous and reaching vast audiences in unpredictable use cases.

Ever growing online identities of businesses make Internet marketing challenging, yet interesting for those who attain success. Every aspect of today’s Internet marketing is end-user centric. Whether it is UX, design, or programming, web designers must also adapt to the user-centric paradigm. We need to study the behaviors of users carefully, in order to learn the techniques which grab their immediate attention and hit conversions.

Therefore, we must understand the factors which influence their buying decisions. A short while ago, we placed emphasis on impressive graphics, the wow factor, and technical superiority. Unfortunately, today most websites and e-stores have these tricks covered. So now we ask the strategic question, what’s next?

Explore the Emotions—A Contemporary Strategy

That’s right. Now is the time to consider Internet marketing strategies through a scientific approach. After prolonged and profound study of Internet users’ behavior, researchers have determined that we make our online decisions with more than the rational parts of our brain. According to deep scanning of the brain, our subconscious influences our decisions much more than we previously realized.

Neurologists, as well as psychologists, have shown that we first make decisions with emotions and then rationalize them with logic. Therefore, I look to advise all Internet marketers and web designers, reading this article, of the influence that emotions have on your target audience. Explore these emotions in positive ways, in an effort to tactfully draw them towards your final goal.

How to Explore Emotions via Internet Marketing

Until today, we generally relied on brand hype as a key marketing strategy, both in real life and online. Today however, banking solely on old brand promotion is simply not enough to achieve success. We have to attach a sense of emotion with our brands. Put another way, align your brand with a particular feeling, so your target audience experiences an emotional attachment with your business.

There are many ways to attach emotions with your brand. Some examples:

• create emotional stories, and highlight the stories in your marketing
• use emotional storyboards in your web designing, and attach them with your brands carefully and seamlessly.
• highlight the emotional points that appeal most to your target audience in your marketing campaigns, or in your web content strategies.

Say you want to sell traditional product. The objective then is to connect it with contemporary needs via an emotional strategy. Show your audience how your product is still useful today because it is able to change with time, and position this story alongside a depiction showing how a target audience member has also changed over the same period of time.

Pushing emotional triggers is another effective weapon in our arsenal. These triggers also tap into our innate desire for control. And we humans love a sense of control over everything we approach. Other emotional triggers include: feeling excitement upon a new discovery, honoring family values, influence of hormones a la sex, love, romance, etc.

If we successfully identify what sorts of emotions influence our target audience’s buying decisions, then we can attach them with our brands, businesses, and products. Next time you survey your audience, don’t ask them simple questions about what they think of your product. Instead, ask them about their feelings with it, and don’t be afraid to explore that with an added question or two.

References & More Reading
Why You Should Get Excited About Emotional Branding
How to build irresistible websites by designing for emotion