You can talk about your prices, your offers, and your bonuses all day, but there’s no guarantee your ideal clients will buy. If you want to truly connect with them, you have to tap in to the most powerful tool we have: emotional marketing.

Emotional marketing – using feeling to connect with and convert clients – is the number one way to get your audience to notice and remember you. And as an artist and storyteller, you’ve already got the tools! Now, let’s learn how to implement it in your own business to attract, convert, and build trust with your audience.

What Is Emotional Marketing?

At the end of the day, most of us make major purchasing decisions based on emotion, not logic. That’s why you just couldn’t walk away from that shiny new piece of equipment at the camera store. It’s why your neighbor drives a fancy sportscar, even if the booster seat barely fits in the back. Plus, it’s why we sometimes invest in things that enrich us and sometimes waste money on things that don’t.

Sure, some buyers want to know all the nitty gritty details about their purchase: how much it costs, what they’ll get, how long they’ll have access to the product. But beyond all that, most of us make the final decision based on how the purchase will make us feel and what it will add to our lives. Simple as that.

When you learn to use emotion in your own marketing, you’ll find that you’re able to connect much more deeply with your audience. That connection inspires trust, and trust leads to a sale.

What Emotional Marketing Isn’t

The idea of using emotion in marketing isn’t new, but unfortunately, old-school marketing often takes advantage of our emotions.

Consider the beauty industry. They show us before-and-after images, present only flawless faces, and convince us to strive for unreachable standards. These tactics play on our emotions for sure, but those emotions are often shame and self-loathing. The beauty industry wants us to feel negatively about ourselves so we will buy their product in order to change ourselves.

Ethical emotional marketing doesn’t take advantage of negative emotions. Instead, it inspires trust, empathy, and connection.

Consider the SIMI framework for trauma-informed marketing. As a marketer (or a photographer marketing your own business), you’ll come across four roadblocks to connection:

  • Stress. Today’s adults are more stressed out than they’ve ever been. Don’t let your marketing add to that stress. When you use tactics that create a sense of missing out or being less-than, you play on your audience’s natural stress response. That’s doesn’t create trust.
  • Illiteracy. Nearly half of the adults in the United States read below a seventh-grade level. When you market with elevated language, you make it harder for your audience to understand and connect with you. Keep it simple and easy to comprehend.
  • Mistrust. In order to convince someone to make a purchase, you need to establish trust. If you’re constantly hiding information, being unclear with your offer, or promising unrealistic results, your audience will learn you can’t be trusted.
  • Inequity. Chances are, your audience comes from all walks of life. They have access to different resources, are in different financial brackets, and have different outlooks on life. Be fair in your marketing, and recognize that not everyone will connect with your story. That’s okay.

With emotional marketing, the goal is to empower and empathize with your audience, not to belittle them. Don’t let yourself get sucked into old-school, clickbaity tactics in the pursuit of success. Stay true to you.

How to Sell With Emotional Marketing

Anyone can log in to Instagram and start talking about their feelings, but how can you use that process to inspire sales? Try these tactics!

Utilize Storytelling

Storytelling is one of your greatest assets as a marketer. Humans love stories. We’ve been telling them for thousands of years! They help us understand our world, connect more deeply with those around us, and explore new ideas. Plus, they’re addicting. We have a hard time turning away from a good story, especially one that relates to our own lives.

Try telling your own story to your audience. Talk about where you started, your transformation, and the roadblocks you hit along the way. I guarantee at least one person in your audience will relate with your humble beginnings, and that will allow them to see themselves in your journey. You’ll get to walk them through their potential story and sell them on the amazing transformation you can provide.

Spark Curiosity

Think about the last marketing email you opened. How did the subject line make you feel?

Personally, I rarely open marketing emails. The ones I do open usually have subject lines that make me curious. What’s inside? What are they trying to sell me? What’s this offer they’re teasing? When you can spark that kind of playful curiosity with your own marketing, you’ll see higher engagement and more interest in your offer.

Educate & Inspire

While much of old-school marketing belittles the buyer, emotional marketing empowers them. You want to give your audience tools for success and show them exactly what’s possible for them. Make them feel good. Make them feel capable. Then, show them what’s possible when they work with you.

Finding Your Style of Emotional Marketing

Your business is unique, and your marketing should be, too! If you want to learn to use emotional marketing in a way that feels aligned with your values and gets your audience eager to buy, come join me on instagram. I love chatting on the the process of building a sustainable, passion-driven business that makes you money and allows you to live the life of your dreams, all without sacrificing who you are.

If you are ready to take an empowering journey of reclaiming your power, I invite you to explore 1:1 mentoring;

Learn More about 1:1 mentoring