When you've landed on a particular page or visited a website, sometimes there are things that trigger your emotions and make you want to get the offer being presented. The combination of images and words may have a certain effect on you and thus lead you to make the purchase. This is because of emotional selling. This is also why you too must learn to master the skill of emotional selling to get the biggest return on your investment.
What is Emotional Selling?
Every person has a problem that needs to be solved. If your product or service is presented in such a way that convinces someone that it can solve their problems, then you've got yourself a customer.
Emotional selling is all about appealing to one’s emotions so that you can provide a solution to their current problem or answer their need or yearning through what you're offering.
How Can You Make the Most of It?
When you truly understand the psychology of selling, you will have an edge over your competitors. Understanding emotional selling is not enough - you can only apply it if you know your consumers really well. Continuously study your market to discover your prospective customers' situations, needs, and problems.
Here are the specific ways you can utilize the power of emotional selling online:
- Be Credible and Trustworthy
There are many ways in which you can increase your credibility and trustworthiness in the eyes of your target audience. You can partner with highly esteemed brands, try to get celebrities who use your products to endorse your business, show testimonials, and constantly provide relevant and valuable information in your niche.
As many marketers suggest, you have to build rapport and actually develop and maintain a good relationship with your audience. This way, you can gain their trust and show that you're not just after the sales. When you actually present an offer later on, you will have established credibility.
- Be Clear with the Benefits
A lot of businesses online make the mistake of focusing on price and features rather than on the benefits. For instance, if you are selling a supplement that helps increase your attention span, it would be great to emphasize how it can change your life rather than dwell on the product’s pricing alone. If you are offering cleaning products, it's best to show a photo of healthy and active kids enjoying a clean house rather than simply using product images to drive a sale.
Indeed benefits appeal more to people’s emotions. If you can show both the short-term and long-term benefits, this will help people decide to purchase your products.
No matter how much your product or service costs, what's important is to boost the value that will be received by the consumer. The value must outweigh the cost. You can do this by pointing out the wonderful benefits and uses, trying free samples or giveaways, and showing how excellent your product is compared to other possible solutions.
Let's say you are promoting your organic supplements as a great way to stay fit and healthy. A tie in to exercise and healthy living can go a lot further than simply discussing nutrition. You have to be able to emphasis the product’s benefits as part of the overall solution to the problem of an unhealthy lifestyle. You have to stress the fact that it can help you develop a better lifestyle that will help keep you healthy. In addition, you could possibly offer a free gym bag and towel along with a minimum purchase. By using effective promotions, the prospective customers may feel that the package value is far greater than the cost of the product itself.
Because human beings are emotional by nature (even if some will not admit it), you will certainly be able to boost your sales higher if you appeal to emotion instead of using logic. It's always important to consider how a potential buyer feels while going through your website, reading your blog posts, or watching your videos. Furthermore, it is important to show how they will feel when they use your product or service and afterwards.
This is the major essence of emotional selling. When you're well-versed with the psychology of selling, then you can effectively mold your approach and fuse together images and words to reach out to your audience and make them want to buy
For instance, take note how Progressive Insurance has engrained “Flo” into our minds through her portrayal of an insurance agent who physically protects your home and vehicles from damage. Progressive isn’t simply selling insurance, they are selling the property protection of Flo. Through emotional marketing, they are able to make their audience feel like they wouldn't want to suffer the consequences of not having sufficient coverage.
Even though you know the problem that your target market has and you are aiming to solve that problem with your product or service, it is still best to identify it before developing your solution. When you do this, you can help to paint the picture vividly in the consumer's mind. This way, your offer will clearly be seen as a solution, and not just a commodity.
Let's say you intend to sell a particular toy for toddlers. Toys don't necessarily solve a problem, so you must be able to connect with a child’s parents in order to sell your toy. If you can make your product solve a problem, there is a better opportunity for sale. For example, "Say goodbye to your child's mood swings…" then you are actually defining the problem. And if you say "Catch your child's attention with our product’s fascinating sounds and keep him bubbling with energy and laughter even when he seems cranky…" then you are already describing how the toy will help uplift the toddler's mood and thus solve the problem you mentioned earlier. Simply showing an image of the product is just not good enough.
There are many ways that you can creatively make use of emotional selling in your online promotions and advertisements. Keep the above-mentioned tips in mind and you'll go a long way with your marketing prowess while increasing your conversion rate and overall sales.
