If Your Content Doesn't Create Emotion, Then It's Bad Content
If you find yourself wondering: "why is my content not working?" or "how can I make better content?", the answer might be simpler, yet rather more complex, than you think: If your content doesn't create emotion, then it's bad content.
Whether it's a blog post, social media update, video, email, or even a product description – if it doesn't create some kind of emotion, it's failing to connect, and frankly will just be forgotten about and scrolled past.
Typically, we focus on the logical, the factual, the feature driven. We've been told that "People collect information and make a rational purchase decision, based on available information."
While information is a crucial part of a successful content strategy, it is not what drives our decision-making. Emotions drive our decisions and our behaviour.
The “rational animal”, us humans, is a myth. We feel first, then we justify with logic. If your content only appeals to the latter, you're missing the fundamental decision maker.
Why emotion matters
Emotions Drives Action: It can be imagining a joyful future while using the product, the Fear Of Missing Out on a great deal, the relief of finding a solution to an annoying problem, or the inspiration of joining a cause. Emotions drive our actions. A purely factual list hardly sparks the same reaction as content that taps into the core human existence: feelings. This is critical if you want better content that actually works.
Let’s go with an example here: car brands. All cars fundamentally do the same thing: they take you from A to B, 4 wheels, typically come with doors and a windscreen. So what do you feel when I say: Audi, Kia, Toyota, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, etc. And despite all the facts you know, I bet you’d prefer owning one of these over the others for some emotional reason.Emotions Builds Connection: Brands that make us feel something, ideally something positive (eg: understood, entertained, valued, inspired, seen, etc) are the brands we connect with. This deeply seeded emotion builds a level of loyalty far beyond what transactional relationships can achieve. We don't just buy them, we believe in them.
Which of the above cars would you never want to own, and why is that?Emotions Creates Memory : Think about your own life. What events, stories, or situations do you remember most? Chances are, they're the ones that made you laugh, cry, hurt, embarrassed, joyful, save, serene, etc. Emotionally charged experiences create a much stronger memory in our brains. Our brain classes such experiences as more important, and stores it with greater effort. If your content is emotionally flat, it's frankly forgettable. It just drowns in the sea of content out there.
Emotions Stands Out: We are bombarded with countless messages and stimuli daily. Today even more so. Scrolling through various platforms past engagement farmers, bots, special offers and deals, what makes you pause on a piece of content when you swipe through you TikTok (other content platforms are available) feed? And now ask yourself: “What is the emotional hook that makes people pause on your content?” It’s the most effective element for someone to pause to engage with your content. Directly impacting your content's effectiveness.
The two most powerful emotions driving our behaviour are love and fear. While our content won't always (and sometimes even shouldn't) aim for these most deeply rooted extremes, recognizing their fundamental power helps us see how all emotions matter. Fear and love are core drivers often manifest in more nuanced ways. Which can be helpful for our brand. Soothing a deeply rooted fear, or rekindling fondness of a loved one. Often interlinked, and most powerful.
Take it from one of the more successful TV campaigns, that very clearly targets fear and love. I won’t spoilt it, but tell me if you felt something:
What kind of emotions are we talking about?
With that foundational understanding of emotional power, it's not just about making people ecstatically happy (though great if you can!). For creating more engaging content we have a whole range of emotions we can tap into. They often are traced back to a deeper rooted fear or love, but are a little more nuanced. Here are some examples of how to use emotions and what they’re ultimately target:
Joy/Delight: Related to love of experience, satisfaction
Hope/Inspiration: Love for a future possibility, overcoming fear of stagnation
Curiosity/Intrigue: A form of desire/wanting to know more, dispelling the fear or danger of the unknown (Most powerful for teaser campaigns)
Urgency/FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out): Directly targets the fear of loss or missing a great chance
Trust/Security: Fear of uncertainty or risk, fosters a love or appreciation for reliability
Empathy/Understanding: Building connection, love and care for the audience's situation
Relief: Soothing a fear or discomfort
The key is to align the emotion with your brand, your message, and the desired action. If these are misapplied it can loose it’s power, or even cast doubt and mistrust. I like to start with the emotion first before considering any sort of content at all. The question I like to ask and work is: “What emotion am I looking to create?”
"But my business is B2B! My product is technical! I don’t need emotions!"
Even in B2B, even with highly technical products, I can promise you that 100% of the final decision makers are humans. These humans have ambitions, fears, frustrations, and aspirations; wait for it: emotions. For example:
The relief of a software that finally is easy to use and adopt.
The confidence and trust that comes from working with the right consultant that understands me and listens.
The fear of being left behind because of this “new thing” I’ve no idea about.
These are all potent emotions. Your content doesn't need to make a potential partner weep, but it does need to make them feel understood, hopeful, secure, etc.
How to know which emotion to target?
If you're looking to make better content, here are practical steps:
Truly understand your audience: What are their pain points? Their dreams? Their everyday frustrations? Their aspirations? The more you know, the more accurately you can tap into the emotional side of understanding your audience. I cannot stress enough how fundamentally important it is to really, truly understand the emotional drivers that dictate your audience’s behaviours.
Tell stories: We love a good story, and they stick. We have told stories throughout the ages. It’s how we learn, connect, carry forward that what was. We are wired to follow stories and pay attention. Especially those that evoke emotion; make us feel something.
Language & Imagery: "Efficient" is boring. "Want to leave the office on time for once? Especially on a Friday?" is evocative. Even if we might be talking about a team management software here, but we are talking about something else entirely.
Show, don't just tell: It’s all fine and good to talk about all the amazing possibilities you might be able to create. But showing them, letting the audience be able to portray themselves into building, using, and creating them is a much more potent approach.
Be authentic & empathetic: Marketing speak is numbing and falls flat. Speak like a human, acknowledge your audience's perspective, and be genuine. Authenticity is crucial ever more important, as our online world is ever evolving. I take an authentic person talking about something they have a passion for any day of the week over someone who engagement farm.
Focus on the "After": How will your audience feel after seeing your content? And more importantly, after using your product or service? Focus your content on that desired emotional outcome, not the process of getting there.
A key reason why your content isn't working
To circle back to the questions of "why is my content not working?" or "how can I make better content?", if you have no emotions, or it’s just neutral. It’s frankly a wasted investment. It won’t get shared, it won’t convert, and it certainly doesn't build a brand that people care about. It becomes part of the digital background noise.
So, audit your content. Ask yourself with brutal honesty:
What emotion, if any, does this create?
Would this make me feel anything?
Is what the feeling this creates, if any, the emotion I’m looking to create?
If you're struggling to answer, or answer them in a “I would like it to do X” instead of what it actually does, it might be time for a rethink.
