Emotion sells. We know this, it’s why some of the most successful marketing campaigns have been those that tug on our heartstrings, make us laugh wildly or cry silently. Think of the warm feelings of nostalgia that swept over you last Christmas when John Lewis invited dear Monty the penguin into our homes. That being said, you have to walk a fine line between evocative and cringe-worthy.

Most people engage with emails and products because of how they feel about a product or brand, not necessarily because it’s the best, or the cheapest, but because they have an emotional connection with it. Think about great-aunt Gladys who shops at the local greengrocers every week. She could get a better deal on her veggies from the local superstore, but each week you’ll find her at the local shop. Why? Because she knows the staff there, she trusts their products, she’s been going there every week for the past thirty years. To put it bluntly, she feels good about shopping there, regardless of what else is on offer down the road.

So how exactly do you translate this into email marketing? Evoking deep childhood memories or making your customers feel like a friend has just emailed with their latest news?

Learn from your history

We don’t mean digging out the company archives here, but we do mean that you should look at the analytics and data from your past campaigns to help you hone into your target market.

Identify your most successful campaigns, and analyse them to identify why these were particularly successful. We can almost guarantee that the degree of success will be related to your customers’ emotional state, needs and aspirations at that time. Or perhaps there was a particularly evocative image or a phrase that made them look up and take notice.

Your data will identify where your past campaign successes were, and, much like the mighty conquerors of yore, will help you determine your likely path to future glory and success.

Keep it clean

Regularly clean your database. That’s it. Well, not quite, if you don’t have a CRM system that’s taking care of this for you, you’ll have to keep a close eye on it yourself.

Your time is precious, so we’d suggest using a CRM system as these can, for example, remove emails from a list after a defined number of failed delivery attempts. Life without CRM can be stressful and time-consuming, which is one emotion you definitely want to avoid when creating an email campaign!

The power of emotion

Most readers scan over the headline of emails before making a split-second decision. To read, or not to read?

By using the right emotional trigger, words not only encourage recipients to click on your email, but they also take a simple message to an entirely different level. Ever heard of an “Emotional Marketing Value”? It’s a value based on the emotional language used in a headline and was developed by the Advanced Marketing Institute. To summarise what the AMI have found- positive, happy emotions encourage more shares. Don’t neglect your headline, include some positive trigger-words to encourage opens.

Happy clients mean more clients

Have you ever considered that your happy clients are, in themselves, a useful marketing asset? By this, we don’t just mean that they’ll be singing your praises all over town, but they could be a valuable addition to your next email campaign.

Including a short, glowing testimonial from Brian in Birmingham could be enough to encourage Lisa from London to make a purchase. People like to follow a crowd and if you can demonstrate that others are buying (and benefiting) from your product, you’ll soon see the sales start flooding in.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional information about others can guide our own thinking and behaviour, and this can be true for sales as well. Understanding how your customers respond to the content of your email, including copy, images, and design, can ensure that your campaigns hit home.

Understanding your audience and what triggers their emotions can in turn increase your sales and customer service. Market intelligence is your gold dust. Reap the rewards of these nuggets by analysing your data and turning this into creative campaigns that hit home to your customer’s hearts and keep them coming back for more.

 

Want to learn more about sending emails that your recipients can’t resist? Download our guide!