Before we jump into the meat of the post - take a look at this recent video from outdoor apparel producer North Face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tll-4WONtg0

What did this video make you feel? Awe, inspiration, joy, brotherhood, and perhaps even a bit of guilt and sadness for leading a lifestyle that neglects the experiences and benefits of the great outdoors?

By themselves, these are all powerful feelings that can make an impact, but when combined the final product is a customer emotion-driving machine.

Emotion in marketing could be considered one of, if not the most powerful tools at your disposal. Without emotion strategically infused in your digital media productions, you will inevitably limit the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Check this out: Human Emotion & Value Innovation

How to Use Emotion in Marketing Effectively

While it is a great start to understand that emotion is a powerful marketing tool, we need to dig deeper into what specific emotional elements are effective.

Source: blog.phantamedia.com

Jonah Berger's Contagious is a really great place to start when analyzing these facets. In his book he strived to answer, "why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?"

Through his research on the topic, he found that positive emotions spur users to action more than negative, but that negative emotions still had a significant effect on them.

Perhaps the single best takeaway from his research though is the importance of not only looking at positive vs. negative, but actually distinguishing specific emotions by the level of arousal and activation that they invoke.

For instance, sadness creates a more passive air than anger, and therefore a content consumer would be more likely to take action or share. On the positive emotion side, creating emotions of happiness and contentment are not effective enough because they don't inspire action in content consumers. Positive emotion needs to go a step further to the realm of excitement and inspiration (a la North Face) in order to maximize sharing and influence.

The Bottom Line

Source: urbaninteractives.nl

It is certainly no secret for many of you that emotion is a powerful marketing tool - but it is an important reminder that you should always consider how every digital marketing piece you produce is affecting your target audience's emotions.

How your content will evoke emotion should be an integral piece of your pre-planning strategic phases and goal formation. If you can master the art of emotion in marketing content - you will be leagues ahead of the competition.

What other examples of great use of emotion have you seen in marketing? Are their instances where a company fell short by misusing emotion? Let us know in the comments below!