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If you’re at all familiar with Dale Carnegie’s writings and lectures, you’ll know that there are fundamental steps to winning over a person's loyalties. Listening to them, smiling at them, and talking about their interests are just three of the many ways that you can make someone feel important. And when someone feels important, they’re more likely to be interested in what you have to say (or sell).
For Internet-based businesses, you can’t look a customer in the eye and ask about their day, but you can connect customers to your brand by appealing to what’s important to them. Here are five emotions you can play on, plus examples of companies that have seen success doing so:
Nostalgia plays on our range of emotions because it “increases positive mood, perceptions of meaning, and a sense of connectedness to others,” says Dr. Clay Routledge, a Professor of Psychology at North Dakota State University. Some Internet-based companies have taken advantage of this powerful tool by associating their brand with our willingness to look to the past.
Starting in 2012, Facebook created a feature called “Year in Review,” which creates a digital scrapbook of the 20 most popular life events in your profile, including your most liked posts, photos, or shared stories. It’s a cool way to make you look back on your year and revisit the profiles of friends you’ve made in the last year.
Instant Checkmate provides background checks for subscribers looking up public records of people they search. Since their service is applicable to just about anyone, they’ve also set up a blog and multiple social media pages that would appeal to any age or interest. Ranging from the informative to the straight-up ridiculous, their content plays around with the wacky and entertaining aspects of crime-related news.
What began as a small venture in 2006, grew to a program that donates shoes in 60 countries. As part of their “One for One” effort, Tom’s Shoes donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for each pair a customer buys. The premise is that something as fundamental as a pair of shoes will help protect kids from infection and harsh terrain when they’re walking to and from school. By contributing to a cause greater than themselves, customers feel like their money has increased value.
At last year’s Super Bowl, Ram Trucks debuted an extended commercial honoring United States farmers. While showing still shots of farm life and portraits of men and women working on farms, the ad plays a dramatic, decades-old speech delivered by Paul Harvey to the Future Farmers of America Convention. It’s a beautiful and dramatic montage of the life of the American farmer. Playing on our strong affinity for the self-made man, the image of a Ram Truck in the last frame is seamlessly integrated with the ad’s concluding phrase: “To the farmer in all of us.”
Who doesn’t want a little added fun in their lives? Southwest Airlines takes the stress out of flying by having no baggage fees, an easy check-in process, and free on-flight amenities. But what really separates them from the competition is that everything’s done with big smiles and off-color jokes. By making customers feel at ease, Southwest is an example of how liveliness and fun can transform a potentially stressful experience into one that people actually look forward to.
Heidi Redlitz is a San Diego-based writer for Instant Checkmate, one of the top people search engines in the world. Heidi likes to write in-depth features related to customer service, social media, and crime and safety issues in the real world and in cyberspace.
Understanding and implementing modern marketing techniques can make a big impact on your marketing team’s productivity and effectiveness. Download this e-book for tips on how to get started.
