Return-on-emotion: how emotional connections drive greater results

What percentage of buying decisions are driven by emotion? Quantifying emotion is at best an inexact science, but research shows it’s a significant contributor to customer loyalty — I’ve seen reports that up to 95 percent of purchases are driven by emotion, not logic.

I’ve talked about the importance of relevance — the desire for customers to engage with brands that truly “get” them, by meeting their needs in a particular moment — as a key to driving those emotional connections between marketers and brands.

Both of these concepts came into play earlier this summer when I attended “Architect the Future,” the Mobile Marketing Association’s CEO & CMO Summit. Attending “Brands That Move People,” a session on the importance of emotional bonds between customers and brands led by Greg Lyons, Pepsico’s CMO. I took away three conclusions from the session:

1. Emotional Connections Drive Business Results. Let’s call it a “return-on-emotion.” Creating an emotional connection with your customer goes a long way towards building a stronger brand, which in turn increases ROI. Consumers who are emotionally connected to a brand are worth two times more to a business than the average highly-satisfied customer because emotional campaigns are more profitable. Nielsen released a study which revealed that ads with an above average emotional response from consumers caused a 23% increase in sales compared to regular advertisements.
2. Authenticity Matters. In an era of fake news and heightened skepticism, trust is at a premium. One study found 86% of consumers said authenticity is important when they decide what brands they will support. It’s important to create a customer relationship that has both depth and range – today’s customer will see straight through any one dimensional attempts to make a connection.
3. Stronger Connections Lead to Stronger Results. The return on marketing spend is relative to the strength of the relationship it builds — the closer your customer feels to you, the more connected they are to you and your brand, the more likely they are to spend. Fully-connected customers are 52 percent more valuable than those who are just highly satisfied.

Lyons isn’t alone in these thoughts, Peter Field noted at the 2017 BAM Congress that when compared to a more rational approach, emotional campaigns performed 70% better. What’s clear from Field’s research is that the media used to build the emotional bond is key — emotive audio-visual media that hits the right note every time:

• Online video
• PR
• Radio
• TV
• Magazines
• Cinema
• Sponsorship
• OOH or outdoor media

Let’s look at the potential for online video as a medium to connect and bond with your customers. Introducing this into your mobile communication strategy gives you the opportunity to deliver content rich messages that provoke a greater emotional response, helping you capitalize on all the advantages that forming a closer bond with your customer can bring.

Video messaging opens the doors to trigger emotions in ways that the 160 characters available in an SMS just can’t manage — while offering the same benefits when it comes to reach, read rates, conversion rates and scalability. Harnessing the power of both motion and audio empowers you with the ability to show rather than tell.

Personalised Video: Connecting with Relevance — at Scale

Personalising videos takes the engagement and emotional connection that messaging offers to new heights, delivering 5 to 8 times the ROI on marketing spend, and lifting sales by 10% according to McKinsey & Company. It’s a very powerful combination to reach and emotionally bond with your audience right now, with highly-relevant video content.

With our mobile engagement agency Sinch Engage, we can introduce powerful emotions into mobile messages, and help you start making connections that count, via the magic of video messaging.

Find out more about Personalised Messaging by checking out our recent webinar with MEF – Strengthening customer relationships through mobile engagement, our latest eBook – Messaging and personalisation – transitioning from loyalty to relevance, or take a look at the Personalisation product pages on the Sinch website.