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Emotion Plays a Leading Role in Building the Right Digital Marketing Strategies

August 30, 2021

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As people around the world are heading towards the second anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, habits and strategies are still changing for governments, industries, and companies everywhere. Most people are still worried that new COVID-19 variants might cause extra crises, while others are still struggling to adapt to the new normal. Life itself seems different now, with work, personal life, schooling, and social life severely altered by the pandemic. Globally, businesses face the same challenges as they try to adapt their strategies to the new normal. However, with both consumer behavior and ideologies severely altered, this is by no means an easy task.

Marketers everywhere are also struggling to find the best way to reach consumers during these difficult times. Digital marketing, in particular, is facing new challenges, partly because hybrid work and working remotely bring new opportunities, but also many new problems. Digital marketing has always placed emphasis on aligning brands with customers’ needs, something that is much harder to do when everyone is struggling to find meaning in this time of shifting norms. However, using emotion in building the right digital marketing strategies may help brands across the globe survive the crisis and ultimately grow and evolve during the pandemic.

Why Emotion Matters 

It comes as no surprise that emotion plays an important role in communication as a whole. In fact, we have known that people rely on emotion to communicate their ideas and persuade others since the Age of Antiquity, when Aristotle crafted the definition of pathos. According to Aristotle, putting the audience in the right state of mind by appealing to emotions, or pathos, is one way of influencing that same audience. Emotional awareness and use of emotion are extremely beneficial when communicating with others. They may be just as useful when it comes to building a good marketing strategy. 

When people are emotionally aware and appeal effectively to others’ emotions, they communicate better. The same can be said of brands. Marketers already know they should be aware of customers’ emotions, and they also know they should build a digital marketing strategy that appeals to these emotions. Emotional marketing is just that—the use of convincing messages that tap into people’s emotions. Strong emotions like fear, anger, and joy can actually influence decision-making in favor of a certain product or brand.

From Emotional Marketing to Empathy-based Marketing

Emotional marketing can be used to build a good digital marketing strategy, but is it enough to help a brand or product survive the COVID-19 pandemic, with no mention of growing and evolving in the future? While persuasion is extremely important for marketers worldwide, some take the use of emotion a step further, with better results. Empathy-based marketing is that very step: it encourages marketers and brands to focus on the needs and feelings of their customers, understand their experience, and ultimately improve it. As empathy links emotion to authenticity, it may prove to be the key to digital success for brands across the world, especially during the pandemic.

Empathy-based marketing means looking at a brand or product through the eyes of its customers, while also thinking about customers’ needs and wants. However difficult that may seem during this time of COVID-19, one study shows that it is not only possible, but useful as well. According to research, the healthcare crisis changed the needs of people across the world. Many feel the need to connect or reconnect to places, people, and the past. Locally made products tend to be preferred, as are the products and brands created by artisans or identifiable groups of people. Customers also seem to favor brands they can link to their past, traditional products, or historical brands.

Being emotionally rooted seems more important than ever for people still coming to terms with the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing crisis. Brands and marketers could use an empathy-based marketing strategy to provide people with a feeling of being grounded and staying true to brand principles and values. Furthermore, empathy may prove to be the key to more than just building the right digital marketing strategy. It can also influence product designs, distribution channels, and marketing communications in general. Ultimately, it can help build a better future for both brands and customers.