How Your Small Business Can Use Emotions to Improve Marketing

Imagine scrolling through your feed when you stumble upon an ad. Within seconds, it grabs your attention, makes you smile, laugh, or perhaps it pulls at your heartstrings. By the time it’s over, you’re not just aware of the brand, you feel a connection towards it. That’s the magic of emotional marketing. It isn’t just a clever marketing tactic; it’s an experience. And when done right, it can transform your casual viewers into loyal fans. Let’s dive into how you can harness this powerful tool.

What is Emotional Marketing?

It’s all about tapping into feelings to create an instant connection between a brand and its audience. Emotional marketing isn’t just about what the brand says, but how it makes you feel. And guess what? People don’t always remember the exact words in an ad, but they'll always remember how it made them feel.

Think about the last time you shared an ad or a post. Did you share it just because you liked the brands logo? Probably not. But what about that one ad that made you cry? Or the hilarious reel you just had to share? That’s emotional marketing working its magic.

Why Does It Work So Well?

Because feelings are deeply personal, they have a powerful impact on our decisions. When something makes you laugh, cry, or get goosebumps, it leaves an impression. That emotional response becomes a memory, and that memory forms a bridge between you and the brand. This connection is what builds loyalty. Just like you keep returning to your favourite comfort food because it makes you feel good.

Emotions are a secret weapon in marketing. Whether it’s excitement about a new product, nostalgia for the good old days, or a little bit of FOMO (fear of missing out), emotions influence decisions far more than we realise. We like to think we’re rational, but feelings often run the show.

This is why emotional marketing is so effective: people remember how a brand makes them feel, not the bullet points on a brochure. Emotions create lasting memories, memories build strong connections, and connections breed unwavering loyalty.

Is Emotional Marketing Ethical?

You may feel that emotional marketing crosses the line in terms of ethics. The line between influencing and manipulating can indeed be blurred, especially when emotions like fear or guilt are exploited. For-profit brands targeting vulnerable groups or using sensitive topics for financial gain cross is deeply unethical.

The good news? You don’t need to manipulate to succeed. Brands that evoke positive emotions like happiness, inspiration, or connection, build trust and long-term loyalty. Stick to authenticity and positivity, and your emotional marketing will remain both effective and ethical.

How To Create An Emotional Marketing Strategy

So you've decided emotional marketing is right for your business! Wise move. There are just a few key decisions you must make in order to implement this strategy.

1. Choose an Emotion

When making decisions about your marketing piece or campaign, choose the emotion you want to evoke first. You must choose an emotion that is both relevant to your business goals and caters towards the customers needs. Typically for-profit brands aim for a positive emotion, however, you will find that non-profit organisations usually aim to shock their audience or instill feelings of sadness to encourage consumers to donate to a cause or support their mission. Again, it is highly contextual. If you are trying to make a sale, happiness, joy or even curiosity would be appropriate emotions.

2. Choose a Marketing Technique

Once you have chosen a suitable emotion for your marketing piece, you must select marketing techniques that will help you evoke this emotion. Here are some effective marketing techniques.

Storytelling

This is an effective way of evoking an emotion as it can take your customers on a journey. If you are a new business, the best story you can start with is your own! Every business has a unique story for how it began and why it exists, so this is a great place to start! If you want your audience to feel inspired, tell your audience about how your mission came about and the challenges you’ve faced. Or perhaps you want to make them feel warm inside, so tell them how your passion developed.

Video Marketing

This technique is also very effective as it uses more than one sensory cue. It is an opportunity to evoke an emotion through both sound and visuals, enhancing the emotional effect of the message and helping it to become memorable. A memorable message is more likely to be shared by your customers with friends and family.

Showcase Reviews

Once your customer has used your product or service, it is important to encourage them to leave a review, so they can be displayed on your site or social media profiles (do not include personal information!) Positive comments can help to validate new customers feelings when they see that others were also happy with your product.

Build a Community

This is a very powerful technique in terms of evoking emotions. Enabling customers to come together and be a part of something has proven to be highly successful, as people enjoy connecting with others just like them. Here, you can provide customers with so much more than just a product!

Be authentic

Finally, every brand should opt to be its authentic self. By making everything about your brand authentic, it makes it real. There is nothing more heart-warming and admirable than a true and genuine brand. Authenticity also allows a brand to showcase what is unique about them, which can inspire customers and help them to remember the brand!

3. Implement Your Strategy

With your emotion and techniques in place, it’s time to launch. Ensure consistency across all touch points, from ads and social media to emails and packaging. Every interaction should reinforce the emotional connection.

Emotional Marketing Techniques

Here’s a deeper dive into the techniques that can make your emotional marketing strategy soar:

Use Humor - A clever meme or funny ad can make your audience laugh and associate your brand with positivity.

Create Nostalgia - Bring back fond memories with retro visuals or references to simpler times.

Inspire - Share stories of triumph or innovation that motivate your audience.

Foster Belonging - Highlight shared values or interests to make your audience feel part of a tribe.

In Conclusion

Emotional marketing is more than a trend; it’s a bridge that connects brands with their audiences on a deeper level. It’s not about selling products but about creating experiences that leave a lasting impact.

So, think about the emotions you want to evoke, and design your strategy around them. Whether it’s a laugh, a tear, or a sense of wonder, those moments are what your audience will remember, and why they’ll come back for more.