I am an emotional person. It is who I am and I used to hate that about myself. Honestly, there are some days that I still do absolutely hate this about myself. Over the last few weeks, my husband and I have had more conversations about getting the emotion out of the way when it came to a certain situation. This, I am not good at.

I believe that emotion is a key part of connecting with people. Whether it is connecting to your audience, to complete strangers, or even to your family. We all have emotions that we deal with on a daily basis but how can we use those emotions in our content marketing in a way that makes sense to our audience? 

We are in a digital age, where we as consumers, are being bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information. This has made it increasingly important for businesses to stand out from the crowd, to showcase who they are in a unique way. One way to do this is to use the power of emotion in your content marketing.

Emotions have the ability to create a strong connection with your audience, influencing their perceptions, decisions, and even the way that they behave. Today we are going to explore emotion in content marketing and how it can be harnessed to drive engagement and achieve your marketing and business goals.

UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF EMOTION IN CONTENT

We are human and that means to live in the world, we are going to experience emotions which play a significant role in shaping our thoughts and our actions. When it comes to content marketing, emotions have the power to capture the attention of your audience and create a lasting impact on them.

By tapping into the emotions that we all feel, we can create a deeper connection with our target market and allow our marketing and our business to stand out from the competitors and build a loyal customer base. 

To use emotion in your content marketing effectively, it is crucial to understand the emotional triggers that resonate with your audience. These triggers are going to vary from audience to audience and will depend on factors such as demographics and the nature of the products and/or services that you offer. 

A few of the common triggers include fear, surprise, anticipation, time, guilt, belonging, and value. The list could go on and on of emotional triggers that you can use in your content marketing. But what is the importance of having an emotional connection with your audience?

IMPORTANCE OF EMOTIONAL CONNECTION WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

Emotional connection can be a powerful tool for building trust with your audience. When people feel a strong emotional bond with a brand, they are more likely to trust that brand, become repeat customers, and become an advocate for that brand. 

Bringing an emotional connection into your content marketing means that you are showing your audience that you know how they are feeling, you know what they are going through, and that you have been there and want to show them what worked for you. 

You are an expert in your niche (even on the days you don’t feel like you are) and this piece of your marketing content is crucial to show them why and how you are that expert. 

This all means that you are going to establish authenticity as a brand, build credibility, and trust with current and new clients. Now more than ever, people want to feel connected to the businesses that they are purchasing from. In the simplest terms, you are creating a meaningful connection that goes beyond transactional interactions. 

THE ROLE OF EMOTION IN CONTENT MARKETING: 7 STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE YOUR MARKETING

Now that you know the importance of having an emotional connection with your audience, it is now time for tips to help you with what emotions you should be using in your content marketing. 

1: Know your audience

Who are you trying to reach when it comes to your content marketing? To effectively incorporate emotions into your content marketing strategy, you need to have a deep understanding of your target audience. How do you do this?

Through market research, analyze your customer data, and develop a buyer persona to help you gain insights into their emotions, motivations, and the pain points of your potential customers. This is going to help you identify the specific emotions that resonate with your audience and will help you to create the content they want. Read 5 Ways To Understand Your Blogging Audience.

2: Create an emotional map 

What is an emotional map? This is all about identifying and creating the emotional journey that your customers go through when interacting with your brand. This is going to help you pinpoint the moments when emotions are most influential and the content that aligns with these emotional touchpoints. By mapping this out, you are going to create a more holistic content strategy that guides your audience toward their desired actions. 

3: Use storytelling in your content

Storytelling is a way for you to add a piece of yourself into all of the content that you create. We are drawn to stories that create relatable characters and take us on a journey. This is the easiest way to create content that is going to engage your audience on an emotional level. You want to use narratives that connect with them through their aspirations, challenges, and desires. You want your stories to inspire, entertain, and educate while connecting with you and your brand. Read my blog post, Simple Storytelling Tips for more tips.

4: Use different visual elements throughout your content

Visual elements can evoke powerful emotional responses from your audience. By using images, videos, and graphics that align with your brand’s tone and message, you can convey emotions more effectively than using words alone. 

Remember to use colours, images, and different design elements to create a visual language that connects you with your audience’s emotions.  Want to turn your blog into an infographic? Here is a blog post for that.

5: Personalization

This piece is going to go hand in hand with storytelling. Personalization is a way that you can tailor your content to address your audience’s needs, preferences, and experiences while delivering personalized recommendations and messaging. Adding personalization to your content marketing is going to make your audience feel seen, heard, understood, and valued. This will then create a sense of connection and can evoke emotions like appreciation, satisfaction, and loyalty. All the emotions that a great brand wants to have with its audience. You can view my mental health blog where I create content that is personal and truly connects with my audience. My most read blog post is, Haunted.

6: Analyze your metrics

Every business should be doing this often. I recommend to my blogging audience that they keep track of their numbers once a month. That way you can see how your content is doing but at the same time, you don’t become obsessed with the numbers. 

A few of the metrics that you should be keeping track of are…

• Bounce rate
• Social shares
• Comments
• Conversation rates
• Open rate/Click rate
• Followers
• Email subscribers

By knowing these numbers and keeping track of them, you are going to see the content that is working the best for your audience and content that may not be doing as well as you thought it would. Numbers are important to keep track of. 

7: Collect feedback

Collecting feedback can sometimes feel scary and overwhelming but there are many ways that you can collect this feedback without feeling like that is what you are doing. Why is this important?

Collecting feedback from your audience is a way to understand the emotional impact of your content. You can do this through…

• Surveys
• Polls
• Comments left on your content
• Asking questions about the emotions that they experienced while engaging with your content

This feedback is going to provide valuable insight to help you refine your emotional marketing strategies and will help you to improve your future content.

As technology continues to advance, emotional marketing will become an even more important part of every successful brand’s strategy.  Emotional marketing has emerged as a powerful strategy for capturing the attention of your audience. 

By understanding the role of emotion in content marketing and implementing strategies that are going to help you create an emotional connection with your audience, you can stand out from the crowd, build trust, and drive engagement on every platform that you use. 

This type of content is going to make a longer impression, build loyalty, and ultimately drive conversions. Remember that effective emotional marketing requires an understanding of your audience, knowing the emotions that resonate with them, and implementing storytelling into all of your marketing content.

Are you looking for help with creating the content for your business? I have room for two more women-owned small businesses through the summer months. I can help take content creation off of your plate and give you your time back. Please reach out today to talk about the different packages that I have available or to build your own package.