5 Tips to Get Emotional During the Holidays, Drive Sales

Drive sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday by understanding consumers’ emotions and motivations during the apex of the shopping year, courtesy of a company that studies exactly that.

Yesterday, Persado — which analyzes “the language and emotions that resonate with consumers to increase engagement and build powerful relationships” — provided five tips to help marketers do so.

Credit: Persado

First, let’s start with the concept that the holiday season is filled with memories for many Americans. Here’s what we wrote about emotion and memory in one of our articles in June:

“Memory generates emotion, which translates to positive brand associations, finds [an] fMRI study. The tactile becomes internalized and personal and aids in motivation … that motivation spurred engagement that, specifically measured, resulted in 65 percent of Millennials buying from a catalog and 63 percent purchasing because of a mail piece.”

As for which emotions marketers may want to target, there’s our evergreen list from 2006 of “40 Key Emotional Drivers.”

Credit: Persado

But here’s what Persado has to say:

• Use Emotions to Drive Action: According to Persado, emotional language on average contributes 60 percent to the performance of a message, as compared to other message elements, such as descriptive language, calls to action, formatting and positioning. Marketers should keep in mind that the most effective emotions on Black Friday are different from the ones most likely to drive action on Cyber Monday.
• Emojis Are Your Friend: Don’t be afraid to use emojis, but use them sparingly (when in doubt, limit it to one per subject line). Avoid using clichéd emojis that imply time limitations like ⌛ … and ⌚as they aren’t strong performers for Black Friday/Cyber Monday.
• BIG Discounts Win: If you plan to call out how much people will save, you better make it big. Savings greater than 50 percent are worth mentioning in your subject line, but if you can offer a promo code rather than a general site-wide discount, engagement rates could spike even higher.
• Don’t Supersize It: Oversize adjectives (huge savings, save big, major deals, massive offers) don’t drive attention during crowded events like Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Instead, try incorporating enthusiastic ways of describing discounts (amazing, awesome, incredible).
• Don’t Limit Your Sales: Consumers are less likely to open or click when presented with messages like “limited-time offers” or “while supplies last.” It feeds the assumption that they’ve already missed out on the deal.

What do you think, marketers?

Please respond in the comments section below.