{"id":45577,"date":"2021-08-02T11:18:53","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T04:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/act.com\/the-importance-of-making-emotional-connections-with-customers\/"},"modified":"2023-03-21T10:49:43","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T17:49:43","slug":"the-importance-of-making-emotional-connections-with-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/products.act.com\/en-gb\/the-importance-of-making-emotional-connections-with-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"The importance of making emotional connections with customers"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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Marketers talk a lot about \u201cmaking connections\u201d with customers, but what does that really look like in practice? It usually starts with understanding your target market or audience \u2014 their demographics, pain points, and needs. You might then create buyer personas<\/a> as a way to understand a typical buyer as a real person. While these are all important aspects of a marketing strategy, building loyal customer relationships is about more than selling the right products and services. It requires a deeper understanding of emotional motivators, so you can communicate with customers in more powerful and effective ways.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Psychologists have studied the role our emotional brain plays in decision-making for years, and marketers have looked closely at these findings to better understand how and why consumers decide to purchase. In a nutshell, they\u2019ve found that emotions play a much larger role in our purchasing decisions than facts, figures, and features. Even when purchasing something as basic as a toaster, customers want to<\/a> feel like they\u2019ve made the right decision<\/a>, even if price was the ultimate deciding factor.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Emotions play a bigger role in purchases than we may think<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Buying a toaster is probably not a big emotional event for most people. But emotions likely have a much greater influence on our purchasing decisions than we think \u2014 which is exactly why smart marketers try to appeal to that part of our brain for even the most basic everyday purchases.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For example, think about how an outdoor gear company sells backpacks or tents. While many outdoor enthusiasts conduct exhaustive comparisons of technical specs before deciding which product to buy, this sort of rational, fact-based approach to buying is not the driving force behind most purchasing decisions. We may not like to admit it, but most of us will choose to buy something like a tent or backpack based on how it makes us feel, not think. Knowing this, the gear company will likely focus on connecting their products with emotions such as relaxation, spending quality time with family and friends, the quietude of nature or the excitement of adventure.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

How past memories guide current decisions<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This emotionally focused approach to marketing is supported by psychological studies in books such as Descartes’ Error<\/a> by Antonio Damasio. In his research<\/a>, he found that emotion is a key factor in nearly all decisions. He specifically looked at the differences between the \u201cthinking\u201d and \u201cemotional\u201d areas of the brain. His conclusions found that while people can rationally process information about various options, they will struggle to make a firm decision if they don\u2019t have a clear sense of how they feel about one choice or the other.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In other words, emotions strongly guide our decisions. This human tendency likely comes from the powerful memories of previous experiences, either good or bad. When faced with a choice, emotions that we experienced from similar events in the past heavily influence our preferences (or aversions) and factor heavily into current decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In the example of the camping gear, the buyer may have fond childhood memories of backyard slumber parties in a large tent with siblings or friends. This warm memory may influence her choice of tents, or even her decision to search for one in the first place, as a way to create a similar experience for her own children.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In emotional marketing, emphasising \u201cwhy\u201d is far more important than \u201cwhat\u201d and \u201chow\u201d\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Most of us like to think of ourselves as smart, rational beings driven by fact-based evidence \u2014 things like what and how. However, while facts and logic speak to the rational part of the brain, studies<\/a> have found that purchases based exclusively on external features and benefits often leave customers with \u201cbuyer\u2019s remorse\u201d \u2014 the intense feeling of regret after a purchase. This is because there\u2019s almost always a bigger, better, or cheaper version of a product out there. With so many choices and variables to consider, it\u2019s easy for a buyer to feel they\u2019ve made a poor decision.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

However, when companies communicate why a customer should buy, they are speaking directly to the emotional part of the brain that controls decision-making. For example, the camping gear company might advertise the emotional, “why” aspect of the tent as well as its technical features and benefits with imagery like this:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n