We have outlined the importance of the trader’s emotional feelings towards the customer. Now we will focus on putting it into practice. So how to work with emotional intelligence directly on the e-shop and within marketing campaigns? We bring you several interesting and previously known, although still neglected, tips and inspiration.
1. The first click must arouse emotions
Can your site attract the attention of a completely new visitor? A prerequisite for him to stay on them and start browsing the goods is a pleasant atmosphere. How would you like to shop in a brick-and-mortar store that’s so big and cluttered it’s like a maze? Or is there no one in it at all and only the salesman is looking you in the eye? Most buyers prefer company, or like the feeling of having someone nearby. The « warmth of home » can be brought to the website in many ways. First of all, focus on the visual form. The graphic processing of the pages is the first thing that catches everyone’s attention. The harmony of shapes, color unity, or the harmony and compactness of the whole are very important. However, that doesn’t mean you necessarily have to hold back. Originality also sells. Remember that your site should have something that immediately sets it apart from the rest of the online crowd. You can bet on sophisticated introductory photos, cute animations and a graphic representation of the story associated with your project. Yes, each page may be slightly different from the other. Just the opening photo can significantly affect the conversion rate of the site. Images are proven to be the first to attract attention. A visitor who enters your website will therefore first look at the photo and only then notice the surrounding text information. And watch out! Don’t forget about emotions here too – because every photo radiates and significantly affects them. Color photographs full of smiling people will awaken joyful feelings in your customers, while black and white or with golden undertones will enhance the impression of luxury, elegance and uniqueness, but sometimes also sadness and arrogance.
When choosing colors, and not only as part of the main design of the site, first examine how these colors work from a psychological point of view. Some colors are subconsciously coded as dangerous and alert. Okay, what do you think of in connection with red? Traffic lights, prohibition signs, alarm light, brake lights, torero’s red mullet…
2. Text that lives
Your second means of communication that catches the eye immediately after opening the page. Spoken word is not yet used as a standard in e-shops and remains a vision of the future, although according to our estimates and with regard to the boom in videos and new playing ads, the revolution will come soon. The central role is still played by the written text, which speaks to the customer and directs him to the next steps within the page. Even the text, even if it seems too general, can affect the visitor emotionally. Of course, the language must be in line with the targeting of a specific group of people that you have already set out in the communication plan. How to evoke emotions through text? Work with stimulating elements such as questions, melodic words, rhymes, numbers, catchy slogans and slogans. If the focus of your site is serious and you cannot afford gimmicks or puns, build the text precisely with an appeal to expertise. It also leaves a positive impression if you can combine technical terms with the written text in such a way that even ordinary people can understand the content.
Through the text, a person can be moved, delighted, demotivated and enthusiastic. Some words and phrases that are described as « strong » also have the magical ability to captivate. Include them in your texts as well.
3.) Build a deeper relationship through the brand
Many people don’t buy a product for its own sake, but because they want to be part of a certain community. By emphasizing your brand or name, you will gradually start to be remembered by clients. In combination with other elements of emotion-oriented marketing, you can in a relatively short time acquire a group of people for whom buying your product will be part of their lifestyle rather than a matter of chance or sudden necessity. Yes, even a certain business brand/name can be a lifestyle. From there, it’s just a step to making the lifestyle widely accepted.
We remind you once again: People don’t like to be alone. They love to be around individuals who sympathize with their views. If you haven’t dealt with branding before, start small – join discussion forums, answer questions, respond in comments. Don’t forget to mention your name and link and always appear under your true face, avoid lies and aggressiveness. Focus on building your own, expanding content – make your site not only a place for selling and buying, but also a pleasant place to relax. By the way, how long can you build a fan club?
4.) Work with topics that evoke emotion
You can’t do without campaigns. You have to actively promote your project – either by simply changing the advertising graphics on the landing page or by sending carefully thought-out newsletters linked to advertising on social networks and advertising networks.
Choosing a good topic is the basis of a successful campaign . Motifs from everyday life work perfectly – common phenomena in which people « find » themselves and can identify with them. It is great to connect the product being sold with certain experiences and stories. Good humor and optimism have the best effect on marketability. After all, joy is also associated with shopping, and everyone who buys a new thing buys it with the expectation of only the best . Therefore, express enthusiasm, motivation, hope, and positive mood in your campaigns. On the contrary, avoid overly controversial topics and provocations. Remain correct, do not present radical opinions, appear neutral and interested in the customer. Always make sure that textual and visual accompaniment is consistent with the topic.
You can connect your online project with a beneficial activity. Send funds to those in need, start improving public greenery, support educational institutions, support events fighting for a healthier and more conscious lifestyle. Don’t forget to not only inform your customers, but also involve them in the action. How about trying to organize your own project and send out invitations?
5.) Get right inside them
Play as a real psychologist and use emotional intelligence to the full, just like classic psychology does. In doing so, base yourself on the evaluation of campaigns that have already taken place and on the reactions that the customers themselves have given you. Feedback is very important , as it can help you improve the quality of your services and precisely target your next marketing steps. You can infer from each completed campaign how it affected the customers – A/B testing is particularly advantageous in this case, when you deploy two versions and examine which one had the greatest response. Was it the more moderate one, or on the contrary more daring? Did you like the ad with the large photo, or did the catchy text catch your attention? You can repeat successful campaigns, or work with their elements that had the greatest impact on clicks or conversions. For evaluation, work with Google Analytics, other online counters, with statistics on social sites, but at the same time focus on new metrics that are very important for emotional marketing: personal customer reactions including comments, customer ratings, number of views, number of shares, number of downloads and more.
To better understand your customers’ thinking, let them talk. Discuss with them – enable them not only in a private way through public contact in the form of e-mail, phone number and chat window, but also by creating a new discussion space on social pages.
Think about how you can surprise your customers even more and how you can not only make shopping easier for them, but also improve their mood . Create a form and ask what they miss and what they like about you. Do not throw their opinions and advice straight into the trash, but on the contrary, try to accommodate them as much as possible.
Be smart and work with variable content. Maybe videos have worked for you, but how about multiplying their effect with infographics, competitions, suitable visual material?
Stay active! That you want to take at least 2 months of vacation from everything? It doesn’t exist! You need to be close at hand and in sight. Call every other day, for example, pay attention to regularity and updating.
6.) Tailor content to people
Proper, logical website layout is just as important as perfectly targeted content. We have already encouraged you to create personas, i.e. several fictitious persons who replace your customers so that you can always see who you are selling to. Creation is one thing, but putting it into practice is another. Try to print out your personas and when creating content, think about how you would please each of them as much as possible. Think about yourself too – what specifically made you happy about a recent purchase, for example? And what would your loved ones appreciate? Interesting and beneficial ideas arise precisely at the moment when we want to make life easier for the people we love.
So you don’t understand why automation is the current trend ? Are you afraid to use it because of concerns about « mechanicalness »? On the contrary! Fears aside, automation has come a long way. You can prepare content for specific groups of people according to selected criteria. Automated emailing is excellent , which nowadays can be very precisely targeted while maintaining a personal touch. Your customer receives emails tailored to them, both in real time and in their ongoing conversion cycle. Win with their appearance, use not only eye-catching and friendly text, but also appropriate graphics.
People trust people above all. Make it easy to post comments on your site, work with commodity sites that collect customer reviews. Don’t be afraid to work with influencers either. In today’s online marketing, influencers, i.e. those who test products or services provided by you, are considered a very good investment in corporate promotion. However, you can also create reviews yourself – objective and critical, of course. Headless boasting will look artificial, awkward, and make you look like a worse copy of Horst Fuchs. Also try to take a realistic photo of the product being sold and distance yourself from the professional photos of the manufacturer, which are significantly modified to make the product look its best. Filming review videos is also an excellent choice.
7.) Communicate with the customer even in the offline sector
We don’t mean phone calls and sending SMS messages, but a much more original and essentially non-obtrusive way to let the customer know that you are not indifferent. Pay attention to the packaging of the shipment itself, not only from a security point of view, but also from a visual point of view. Does the competition pack in ordinary packages? Try to distinguish your shipments with imaginative design, execution, used packaging material. Cleanliness, precision, no creases, visible information about the addressee and the sender – all this indicates that you care about each order. Of course, in the case of transport by an external courier service, you cannot influence the progress of the transport, which every reasonable customer knows. But also win with the packaging in case of personal collection. You can’t leave a worse impression than if you leave the goods at a brick-and-mortar branch unwrapped or casually thrown into a paper bag that doesn’t even have an adequate load capacity.
How to further impress the customer? Add something extra to the package. People love gifts and are delighted by the slightest free attention. However, the gift should relate to the nature of the order or relate to your store or brand. Various samples of other products are popular. However, not every seller offers goods that can be included in packages as a sample. Candies in packaging with a company logo can also be an interesting solution . Probably the most universal, least expensive and most personal way to show that you appreciate the customer is to include a letter. Thank your customer, wish him to be happy with the goods sent for many years , express the desire for further « cooperation ». When writing, stick to the communication tone with which your website also works. At the very end, you can include a few tips on how to take care of the product, what can be done with it. A discount voucher for your next purchase won’t hurt either.
8.) And what will happen next?
Did the visitor make their first purchase, sign up for a newsletter, follow you on social media, or make another type of conversion that you were aiming for? Well done, but your work doesn’t end there. Embody your customer’s current feelings. Let’s say he ordered the package, but what should he expect now? Continue to work with his emotions. Providing information about what is happening with his order should go without saying. Send him e-mails with the progress of its processing and take him calmly through the entire process – from the very thank you for the order to the work of the warehouse workers to the sleepy ride through the carrier.
When the package is finally in place, don’t forget to remind yourself – after all, who else can give you such important feedback than the customer himself? Remember that satisfied clients speak up much less than dissatisfied ones who feel the need to post their negative experience publicly. Therefore, the right invitation to submit a review is more than important. How to increase the chance of getting quality feedback? Add a few lines to the content of the automated e-mail about how important it is to you as part of the further improvement of services and add that such an evaluation will not take more than a minute. People don’t like to write unnecessarily and they don’t want to waste time on something that basically won’t bring them any profit. So always say thank you.
Negative reviews? Face her. Don’t delete it and don’t ignore it. Give the dissatisfied customer an explanation, assure him of the uniqueness of the given problem, and perhaps even please him in return with kind attention in the form of a discount or other benefit. However, it is better to prevent bad evaluations. Just one negative review significantly lowers your standing in the eyes of customers. Do you know that there were problems during the processing of the order? Address them immediately and inform your client immediately. Suggest a workaround, provide specific information, and don’t forget to apologize. Generosity pays off, try surprising an angry customer with an apology bouquet sent unexpectedly to her address. All transgressions will be forgiven at once.
Just forget it. This notorious version will not interest anyone, will not please anyone. Try again and show that you know who you owe for the « bread and butter » contribution. What is the goal? A wide smile on the customer’s lips and also high expectations. Believe that there is nothing better than properly « delighting » the customer.
9.) Maintain the relationship with the customer
Don’t let him forget you, work with the fact that he already knows how you deal with and take care of your clients. It is ideal to show that his previous conversion was definitely not the most important for you. Show interest in further communication and build a long-term friendly relationship. Work with the information you know about the customer. An excellent way is to send additional e-mails that encourage repeat purchases in the form of reminders. Has the customer run out of the peanut butter they ordered a month ago? We think it’s a good time to send a peanut offer email.
Keep an eye on what the customer has bought and after a while try to remind him if he would like to replenish the missing stock, replace a part, perform a service check…
A few lines at the end
Thanks to emotional intelligence and its involvement in the business strategy, the success of an online project can be significantly supported. At the same time, it is not a matter of mindlessly squeezing customers for the highest possible profit. On the contrary. We are talking about transforming all spheres of business so that not only the entrepreneur and the company/brand benefit from them, but above all the clients.
