Understanding Emotional Triggers in Marketing
Understanding emotional triggers is quite a bit a bit of an oddity in marketing. Often, people assume psychological nudges are like magic spells - you wave your confidence wand and *poof*, your sales increase. Thereās a whole tradition of treating triggers as ātechniquesā rather than feelings that need tending. In my experience, though, the reality has always been messier.
Iāll admit - Iāve tried to learn ātricksā and āmethodsā for manipulating people into clicking faster. Everyone has at some point. But then I started understanding consumer psychology because I was genuinely curious why people made the choices they did.
The trickle of sales might have increased, but there was an undercurrent of something else. There was a difference between expressing myself to talk about a brandās value and pushing an idea so hard that the truth crumbled to dust in front of my eyes. After years of copywriting for various industries, Iāve realised that you donāt need to trigger fear or guilt to make more money than you did yesterday.
Itās not a numbers game where you simply slot in sad stories or happy news or love quotes and watch the results shoot up. To nudge someone into taking action is all about storytelling. Itās about being open and honest with your (potential) buyers about who you are as a business - and who they can be if they buy from you. People are more emotionally aware than we expect.
There isnāt any value in only appealing to a negative emotion like FOMO anymore because people see right through it now. Change makers everywhere have been reframing FOMO as JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out) for the last two years - so you can imagine how icky these old routines are starting to become. If itās trust youāre looking for, then trust is what you need to invest in. Donāt lie to push more conversions; instead, understand your customersā stories in relation to yours and build a relationship that creates lasting impact on both sides.
Sort of.
The Power of Storytelling in Persuasion
The way I see it, the weirdest thing about storytelling is that itās often misunderstood as a way to impress people. We look at stories as tools for embellishment, when in reality, stories are tools of honesty and connection. When you attempt to dress up the truth, people sense it immediately and arenāt very impressed with your words either. But there is a magic to storytelling - one that can create connections strong enough to last for years.
When told right, stories evoke empathy and help people place themselves within a narrative - which in turn compels them to take action. Sometimes this action looks like buying your product or getting behind your business - other times, it looks like creating a bond that lasts decades. Storytelling is that powerful.
Creating compelling narratives though, is not as simple as putting together coherent sentences. In fact, sometimes your sentences donāt even have to be that coherent. You do have to use the correct aspects of the human experience though - maybe desire or loyalty or empathy or something else just as convincing - something you can bank on. Even if we do manage to incorporate these elements into our story though, we can reportedly never guarantee the outcome.
We can slightly only do whatās in our control and wait for people to find you at the right time of their lives with the right mindset and emotional bandwidth. So just create from the heart and watch some magic unfold, because things always have a way of coming around when told right - even if they donāt land at first.
Creating Urgency: Fear of Missing Out
Everyoneās heard that dangling a carrot in front of someone makes them run faster, but most forget the carrot canāt be a dried-out leftover from the back of the fridge. The promise of an enticing deal or rare event only works if people believe itās credible and worth their effort to snatch up. Sort of.
Many get swept up in slapping big red āflash saleā tags across every ad or claiming ālimited stock. ā with everything they flog, but thereās a fine line between making someone hurry and making them roll their eyes.
Whatās often missed is that urgency done badly burns trust. Many brands seem to ignore this. Fear of missing out (FOMO) as a driver does work - in fact, it can deliver a huge bump in conversion rates and brand recall when you build exclusivity into products - but consumers are anything but stupid.
This is where some marketers go too far with creating artificial pressure with false timers, or pretending there are only two pairs left (there arenāt). Most people can tell the difference between scarcity and bullsh*t. Telling everyone they have to buy now for weeks at a time is self-defeating. If your promotions never end or always pop up āonly 1 left.
ā at checkout, what do you expect. Even with all that said, urgency has nuance. More or less.
Creating it without coming off as manipulative isā¦a bit of an art form if Iām honest. You want to foster FOMO by putting real deadlines on your sales or using actual inventory numbers to showcase scarcity so your customers feel the pinch - because there isnāt much supply, not because youāre trying to scare them into buying rubbish they donāt need. Sometimes fear gets such a bad rap as an emotion for conversions because people see it as underhanded or nasty when pushed onto others, but the reason FOMO works so well is because it gives people exactly what theyāre after: pleasure and reward for being part of something limited; something exclusive and desirable that others might not be able to have access to tomorrow (or maybe even five minutes from now).
Building Trust Through Relatable Narratives
People like to believe trust is earned through hard facts, stats, and testimonials. I have seen this for myself - marketers and business owners often believe customers care only about numbers or outcomes. In reality, people connect to emotions - we remember experiences, stories, and personal accounts.
Stories have been the heart of human communication for centuries. It is stories that build connection, empathy, understanding, and eventually trust. The way I see it, an authentic brand is one that shows its true self to the world - not some version designed to please.
The most trusted brands are consistent in what they say and do. They build trust through strong narratives and relatability. Itās a simple premise - if you can see yourself in someoneās story or experience, youāre likely to believe it. More or less.
In the world of marketing, relatability is built through strong narratives. These are almost never well-crafted stories that communicate a message or lesson - with clear context. I have found these narratives usually include a specific character (based on the target audience) with a unique perspective (like the brandās identity or ideology).
This person is usually shown as having a relatable problem and then a solution (through your product or service). The way I see it, i think relatable storytelling is complex - there are many ways to build trust with your audience but people generally prefer real stories over obviously manufactured ones. So what do we know so far. People like people - not businesses.
And people trust stories more than claims or assertions. The best way to get your audienceās attention and create emotional connections is by sharing stories that are relatable in context and experience but unique in perspective.
Leveraging Nostalgia to Drive Engagement
Looks Like everyone seems to think nostalgia is a cute trick - a well-placed cassette tape in a flat-lay, an old-school filter, or cartoonish graphics of something we loved from a simpler time. It can be. But if you stop there, thatās all it is.
A hollow attempt at connection. Sort of. Nostalgia triggers the idea of belonging, it taps into our identity and sense of self.
There is kind of no formula to working with nostalgia either. As itās so closely tied to identity, childhood, shared popular culture and more, there are seldom two outcomes that are equally possible. It might create the foundation for a relationship with your customer or be seen as manipulative and conniving if there isnāt the right intention or context to it.
Nostalgia can also create FOMO. Sort of. That feeling of missing out on having experienced something that someone else has experienced and has felt emotion towards. If youāre able to help them live in that moment or understand how others have experienced the nostalgia for something they know nothing about, youāve unlocked another level of connection.
Nostalgia is the backbone of ādadā jokes and pop culture references. As brands these serve as ways for brands to connect with customers (and future customers). More or less.
Being able to use nostalgia as a way to demonstrate shared values and identity, drives engagement because you are not introducing yourself as someone new in their lives but bringing back memories from moments past and maybe even reminding them who they used to be (or wanted to be).
Crafting Compelling Calls to Action with Emotion
Thereās a common misstep in digital marketing thatās about as subtle as a punch to the nose - calls to action with all the emotional resonance of a used teabag. I see it all the time. Comes Across As marketing and sales people will try to talk you into putting a sale on your product, but we all know those things never quite land the way theyāre meant to. People respond better to messages that make them feel something.
And thatās true even in your Calls to Action (CTAs). To get customers to act, you need your calls-to-action to tug at their heartstrings by helping them understand why they need what youāre offering. But donāt oversell it - no one likes being sold to.
Now hereās where things can get tricky - CTAs are highly personal. What works for one brand may not necessarily work for you, and that can feel a little overwhelming when youāre trying out different things to hook your audience. Make sure you experiment with different value-driven CTAs across platforms until you find something that works for you. By understanding human behaviour, psychological triggers, and emotional branding, you can tailor CTAs that offer value while making people feel understood and appreciated at the same time - leading them right into your welcoming embrace.