How to use Emotional Content to Increase Visitor Response

Did you know that many folks make "buying decisions" when they
are moved emotionally? Other traditional medias have made the
most of these principles and taken advantage of them for many
years, whether it be a TV commercial or an ad in a magazine.
People are emotional beings and people make decisions (either
good or bad) when they are emotional. If something causes a
customer to become upset, they become angry and try and solve it.
If they become upset enough...they'll make a decision to perhaps
discontinue your service and hire another service. On a positive
side, the TV media bombards us with commercials that try to make
an advertisers product seem fun or cute. The "emotional content"
tactic is in nearly every advertising and communication media
from print to radio to TV and yes, even the web. Emotional
content is used to sell everything from fast food to children's
toys.

What every Toy Marketer knows:

Toy marketers have known for years that the focus in a toy
commercial is not so much on their new product, as much as it is
on the facial expressions of the child. They're showing the
absolute joy and delight of playing with that toy. Often images
in the mind of the child who is viewing the commercial might
evoke a sense wonder, adventure and excitement. Sometimes, a toy
marketer may aim much deeper psychologically by showing the child
in their commercial, enjoying their toy with either Mom or Dad
sitting on the floor playing with him or her. The child viewing
the program may even desire that toy more simply because they
think that "if they only they had this toy", their Mom or Dad
might take more time to sit down and play with them too!

Emotional Content in Traditional Marketing:

In the example above, a TV commercial does not focus on the
parent...they are selling to the child. However, selling a toy on
the web, in an online toy store, is different in the aspect that
you are actually selling to the parent (a child does not have a
visa card to place an order). The benefits of a toy that appeal
to the parent will be things like, it's safety features, the fact
that it "educational". However, focus on appealing to the child
might zoom to the top again in a children's entertainment site.
If you want to sell a toy, you must make it desirable to have on
the child's level. Most of us who have kids, know the impact and
the drive that a child can have towards getting something from a
parent. When a child "wants" something, that child will
persistently find a way to go after that item until usually, the
parent often gives in and buys it.

What about the silly characters brought to life in a fast food
commercial and various the toy giveaway promotions? Certain fast
food restaurant marketers know that children have the power to
drag their parents to the local fast food place based on the fact
that they can get this neat toy. All of this starts by a
commercial in which that tiny little toy is made to appeal to the
child's emotions. Is this not true also with certain breakfast
food cereals and the "free prize" or "game" you get in every box?
Of course as we grow from children to adults, we are not
influenced by emotional media elements anymore....or are we.
Let's look now at a few actual examples from my experiences on
the web.

On The Web, Emotional Content Influences Peoples "Buying
Decision." Actually, with the web being a multimedia experience,
we have lots of opportunity to work with emotional content. After
all, your visitors are just human beings too? We're really no
different online than offline. We have an important emotional
side of us that can be appealed to. Here's what I have learned
from my client successes.

--If you are trying to sell a baby crib, but nobody is buying
it,...put a cute little baby in the crib and PEOPLE WILL BUY IT!

--If you are relying on graphics, photos, animated gifs or any
type of images, you want a combination of quality with
uniqueness. Will your image make your audience smile or will it
make your audience cry? Where might it be appropriate to make
your audience cry? Actually, all it takes it the right scenario.

Example: I know of several businesses who are utilizing messages
based on the events which occurred September 11 in the US. (The
Sept. 11th tragedy in the US). In these examples, the websites
selling products are appealing to the visitors sense of
patriotism or they may deliver messages of hope and inspiration.
As important as these points are, they are also making good
sales. In the case of the Sept. 11 example, some sites are
selling but also contributing a portion to the cause.

--This leads to another thought....be very mindful of current
events and current interest topics that you hear about on the
media. Sometimes the most obvious strategies can be staring us
right in the face. Be mindful of all media topics and in many
cases you can bring about some good out of what would otherwise
be missed.

--Whatever you are selling for retail online...."Lifestyle
graphics" work best!

Example: If your selling a piece of furniture for the living
room....display a picture of the furniture being used in
someone's living room. The visitor may say to themselves...."look
at this comfy looking couch". "This guy looks like he is really
enjoying himself". (The image might be of a person sitting
comfortably on the couch, in their living room....feet up and
arms relaxed).

TIP: Lifestyle photos like this are much more influencing that
just a product displayed in a showroom.

--Create pages that are not "hard sell". Instead, focus on the
product benefits in way that it appeals to the emotions. (Keep in
mind that many people will buy spontaneously, but they do not
want to "be sold" something). Most people come to a web page in
search of information. The "loud" or "hard sell" approach does
not work on the web.

--If you are promoting something with emotional appeal which is
already established through other medias, then also use it in
your web page and tie it in.

For example, what do you think of when I say the 3 words...Zoom
Zoom Zoom.

--Remember the web has the potential to be a powerful multimedia
experience. Is there a place for the use of music to contribute
to the right atmosphere? Moving your audience just takes a little
thought. Let your mind think outside of what is already being
done. I am not talking about traditional stuff here, like putting
a flash commercial on your site. Extend your creativity and be
original. li>Does your product or service offer a solution to
people’s problems? Is there a way that it can be promoted with an
emotional angle to it for greater impact?

--I learned that the use of Humour at times is very important. It
can be in the form of text, graphics, audio, and video but just
make sure it is good humour. People want to feel good on your
client's web page. Good humour will influence emotion and "great
humour" can funnel volumes of traffic into your site just by word
of mouth.

Can you recall seeing humour used on a web page that made you
laugh out loud? If so, just think back and see if you don't
recall telling a friend to "check it out"! Then there may be
sites where it might be hard to use humour (A funeral Parlour or
perhaps a Divorce Lawyer). On the other hand, with a little
creativity, who is to say it could not be done....with greatest
of tact of course.

--A good example of the power of emotional content can be seen in
instance where something about a site is so moving that it makes
the viewer want to tell everyone they know!

Example: Interview with God (Very emotional feel good stuff)

Example: Alien Song (a simple 30 second animation that is
guaranteed to have you telling your friends to check it out).

So what other ideas might you consider using to make emotional
impact with your audience?

Is it possible to take old ideas and put a new spin on them?

What I mean by this is taking some older ideas and refresh them.
There is nothing wrong with older concepts if they work, but
sometimes all they need is re-thinking. One of the first things I
ever experimented with was the idea of having a little fun with
the old "printable coupon" idea. You know the old "discount
coupon" which can be put on a Web page so the visitor can print
it and bring it in to get a discount? At the time, I thought,
what else could we do besides give folks a discount coupon to
print off? It needs to be fun and have a little emotional appeal
and still deliver value.

I created what I called the "SAY THE MAGIC WORD" campaign for a
client.

Instead of printing coupons from my client's web site (a local
Garage), I introduced the following promotion, which became
somewhat popular with the client's customers.

When you visit the site, the visitor would scroll down the page
and click on the image of a speaker. Suddenly you would hear a
voice say "The Magic Word Is...." and it would give you a "word".
Now this was not just any word, this was quite a magic word
because when you take your car into the garage for a tune up,
give your keys to the service manager and "say the Magic Word"
you learned from the web site, they would cut your bill by 15%!
Better yet, keep changing the magic word and you kept your
audience coming back to the site.

People had fun with it...everyone told their friends about it, it
delivered value. Honestly though, it was just a new spin on an
old idea, but both the client and customer loved the concept.

I challenge you to put on your thinking cap.

You see as you introduce things like "humour" or other emotional
content into use....you can also widen your scope of SEO
promotion. Have you checked the top KEI values around subjects of
comedy and humour? Hmmm...Well I guess that's an idea to be
examined then isn't it?

Explore your clients business, explore what's going on in the
world, but always remember the powerful impact that emotional
content can deliver, if tastefully done.