Everyday we get tonnes of information – some of it is important and relevant for us, some are not. And we don’t have a lot of time to pay attention to all of it. So not surprisingly that our brain has learned to filter these tonnes of information and analyze only the most important one. Researchers have found that the average attention span for a new idea, we page or piece of content, is now approximately 8 seconds! We spend even less, only 7 seconds, to look at an outdoor billboard. Well, what does it all mean for you as a marketer? It means that you should apply “2 second rule” for all the messages you are addressing to your audience, in other words, it should take just 2 seconds to get your message across as someone visits your website or social media outpost for the first time.
But how to create a content which message will be clear in only 2 seconds? For that we should first talk about some basics of rational and emotional content, stages of buying process and 16 marketing hot buttons. Sounds complicated? Actually it is not. Let’s start!
Rational vs Emotional Content
Before creating any piece of content, you need to understand its purpose and the shopping psychology of your customers.
The content marketing matrix above gives you an idea about the level of emotional and rational content in each content type, from data sheets & price guides to branded videos. This is the first guideline for you what type of content – rational or emotional – you should use in this or that situation.
Emotion vs Logic At Different Stages of Buying Process
But that is not everything. While creating a right marketing content, you should also be guided by the shopping psychology of your customers, i.e. you should take into consideration at which stage of the buying process your customer acts more emotionally, and when more rationally.
|
Buying stage |
Emotion |
Logic |
Content |
Content form examples |
|
Awareness |
Highest |
Lowest |
Use short, emotional content to get my attention. |
Short and easy-to-consume, high image content: – headlines – short-form videos – tweets |
|
Interest |
Still high but decreasing |
Low but increasing |
I’m starting to look for reasons to justify my interest. |
– longer-form and short-form video – blogs – webinars – case studies – online articles |
|
Evaluation |
Plays back-up role to logic |
High The longer prospects spend in this stage, the greater the need |
Provide enough depth of information, or you’ll lose credibility. I need solid reasons to justify my initial emotional response. |
– whitepapers – e-books – competitions – case studies – online communities – website – online forums – newsletters – published articles – speaking engagements – testimonials – awards |
|
Purchase |
High |
Varies |
People’s fears about making a wrong decision often reappear at the point of taking action and handing over money. Reinforce the feelings you used to gain their attention in the Awareness stage. |
Make sure to make the actual purchase process easy! |
|
Loyalty |
High |
Used to be low but now on the increase |
Keep me engaged, feeling good about the product or service, and feeling good about myself for choosing it. |
– case studies – customer support – videos – referral or reward programs – celebrations / events / specials – customer surveys |
Source: Marketing Prof
No Content Without the Design
Now you have two starting points for creating a really selling content for your marketing campaign. But what is the content without a proper design? Even if it is matching all our previous guidelines, it won’t be effective enough. For that you need to add a proper design, emotional or rational, depending on the type of the content and buying process stage. Have you heard that “A picture is worth a thousand words”? So apply it to multiple the positive effect of your content!
Emotions Rule Nowadays
IPA reports the increasing role of emotions in advertising. Remember at the beginning we stated that it should take us just 2 seconds to convey the message to our audience? So obviously it is not enough time for conveying some very rational message that takes a lot of time for being analyzed. In contrary, it really takes you 1-2 seconds to understand some emotional message that is conveyed by a short headline or simply by a great design.
- Emotional ads are 94% more effective than rational or informative ads.
- Creatively awarded campaigns are much more likely to be ‘emotional’ than ‘rational’ (44% vs. 19%).
- The greater the level of creativity the greater the level of effectiveness: Creative campaigns are 12 times more efficient at delivering business success.
16 Marketing Hot Buttons
But how to add emotion in your content and design? There are 16 Marketing Hot Buttons that will help you with that. Here they are:
1. The Desire for Control
2. I’m Better than You
3. The Excitement of Discovery
4. Revaluing
5. Family Values
6. The Desire to Belong
7. Fun is its own Reward
8. Poverty of Time
9. The Desire to Get the Best
10. Self Achievement
11. Love and Romance
12. The Nurturing Response
13. Reinventing Oneself
14. Make Me Smarter
15. Power, Dominance and Influence
16. Wish Fulfillment
So adding humor, romance or power will make your ad more emotional, thus more noticeable and effective. Understand which of the 16 “hot buttons” suits your message the most and apply it! That’s it.
So now based on our guidelines you should know:
– when to appeal to the rational content and when to emotional,
– why emotional content is ruling these days,
– how to create a truly emotional content, including design.
So good luck and we are always glad to hear about your experience in creating a great selling marketing content in the comments.
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