A 5 Step Guide to Crafting Emotions
In our last article, we said: “if your content doesn't create an emotion, it's bad content”. Based on your response, it very much seemed that many of you agreed.
But that leads to the inevitable, crucial next question: “So, how do I actually create emotions in my content?”
It’s one thing to notice and see an emotionally powerful ad or a moving story, but it’s another thing entirely to create it. The good news is that creating emotional content isn't some wizardry. It can actually be broken down into a practical, repeatable process.
As a starting point, here are five steps to help you get started crafting more emotionally driven content that makes your audience feel something.
Step 1: Beyond Demographics - Emotional Audience Mapping
You can't create emotion without truly understanding the underlying emotional drivers that dictate our behaviour. To truly connect with your audience, you need to understand their world on a much deeper level than "Full time employed millennial and Gen Z, 25-45, lives in an urban space." The goal is to identify their emotional triggers, that lead to an emotional response that provokes behaviour, like for example purchasing.
A frame work to help you get started is an Empathy Map. It can help you see the world through your audiences eyes. What problems does your brand solve? And ask yourself:
What do they SAY? What are the exact words you hear/see/read from them? This can be online, on social media, in calls, day to day conversation?
For example: "When on earth am I supposed to do all that?"What do they THINK? What's going on in their heads is the difficult bit to figure out. It’s where social science helps to extrapolate from what is being said, to what this represents in terms of thoughts. Are they not saying out loud and what does it represent beneath the surface?
For example: "I'm worried I’m falling behind everyone else. Am I doing enough with my time?"What do they DO? From extrapolation to concrete observation and understanding their concrete actions and behaviours. What does their world look like? Works late, scrolls through social media, mundane day to day,
What do they FEEL? Now we found the big one! What are their emotions related to these challenges? Are they overwhelmed, anxious, frustrated, hopeful, ambitious, checked out, exhausted, etc?
These serve as a starting point to help you build the reality of your audience, and focuses your understanding from abstract data to human experience.
Step 2: Your Primary Message - Choose Your Core Emotion
You can't make your audience feel everything, all at once. It will result in confusion, uncertainty, and a muddled unclear message. In a worst case, it will end up working against you.
For each piece of content, choose one primary emotion you want to evoke. This choice should be a strategic one, tied directly to your overall strategy’s goals, and overarching vision and message.
For example:
Goal: Build trust and credibility -> Security, Relief, Reassurance, or Confidence.
Goal: Drive sign-ups for a new tool -> Excitement, Curiosity, or Urgency (FOMO).
Goal: Foster brand loyalty and community -> Inspiration, Joy, Looked after and cared for, or a sense of Belonging.
Choosing your emotion should be informed by step 1, where you identify the core emotions of your audience. By committing to a single emotional focus, you provide a clear message that directly targets one of the core lived experiences.
Step 3: Find Your Story – The Anchor of Emotion
Facts and features only go so far with our logical brain, but stories are what keeps them in our minds. Storytelling is the most reliable way to generate emotion. You don't need a Hollywood-level epic; you just need a simple narrative, one that hits the emotional reality you’ve identified in step 1. A simplified version is: Problem -> Agitate -> Solve.
Problem: Start by setting the scene with the problem, the issue that is causing the core emotion. Pick up your audience in the reality they live in and relate to. For example: "At least 40h working the job, grocery shopping, laundry, social life, time unwind, sleep, and a healthy life style? Where are we to find the time for all that?"
Agitate: Don't just go ahead and offer the solution, which is a common mishap of what is happening in a lot of marketing today. Instead, gently narrow in on that core feeling that the problem creates. Describe the consequences and frustrations of that problem. This is where we build emotion. "Scrolling through social media, seeing all the others seemingly finding time to travel, explore, an look their absolute best, while barely mustering up the energy to make it off the sofa this evening.”
Solve: Now we’re getting to introduce our solution: the product, service, or idea as the saviour of the story. The clear and welcome solution to the agitated problem. "If at least we could find a way to eating healthy and gain that energy back through healthy food options! You are what you eat after all.”
This simple narrative arc takes your reader on a much more emotional journey from picking them up in their reality, and offering relief to their frustrations.
Step 4: Tone Makes the Music – Your Tone of Voice
Choosing the right words is a complicated endeavour. On the one hand you’re looking to find words that build emotion, but at the same time you want to avoid falling into overly marketing-y speak, where it feels arbitrary and corporate. But by swapping out just a few bland, corporate words for language that builds emotion, can dramatically change the feeling of your content.
Consider the difference:
Bland: "Our software solution improves workflow efficiency for marketing teams.", “We are the No1 partner for build brands” (Logical, factual, but rather forgettable)
After: "Cut chaotic busywork and free yourself to focus on what matters.", “Build your brand beyond the campaign” (Emotional, focused on the benefit, and triggers imagination and emotion.)
Defining your brand’s tone, and decide on how you want to communicate, what to avoid, and build a "word bank" for your chosen emotion. Don’t forget the use to emojis, to help you communicate emotions beyond text.
Keep in mind that different emoji’s might not be suitable given they carry different conotations and innuendos that you might not want to be associated with.
Step 5: People Don’t Read - Amplify with Visuals & Sound
People rarely read, especially online. If you can’t catch attention with a visual, you won’t even make it to the well thought out text. Additionally, one of the fastest way to create emotions is through sensory stimulation (eyes and ears). Your visuals and sound design shouldn't be an afterthought, they are a critical part of your emotional communication.
Images: Choose something that not only catches the eye, but also conveys an emotion. Characters in a visual, especially with facial expressions, are a great way to give your visual piece a route to the emotional side of the brain.
Sound: In video content, music carries the emotion. The right soundtrack can tell the audience whether to feel inspired, tense, happy, or sad before a single word is spoken. Especially in video content, the sound and music design can be even more important to carry the right emotion.
Creating content that connects is a deliberate process of understanding, choosing, storytelling, and refining. But it requires a lot of consideration and insights before even getting started on your content. Don’t make content for yourself, but make content for your audience.
Maybe try it for yourself. The next time you’re looking to publish something: map the feelings, pick one core emotion, tell one simple story, choose your words carefully, and find one powerful image.
You can even map yourself, and your content, on the wheel of emotions (originally created by Robert Plutchik) below:
This looks quite overwhelming, I know. But worry not! We’ll talk about the wheel in more depth in our next article! So stay tuned!
If you want to learn more about how to use emotions to build brands, community, and content, let’s chat! Contact us!
