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#ContentWritingChat Recap: Incorporating Psychology Into Your Content Marketing with Elise Dopson

by | Sep 6, 2019 | ContentWritingChat

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Incorporating Psychology Into Your Content Marketing with Elise Dopson

When you’re crafting your content marketing strategy, does psychology ever come into play?

If not, it really should!

In this #ContentWritingChat, we discussed why emotion should be incorporated into your content, which emotions make people buy a product or service, and how you can successfully target emotions in the content you create.

Want to learn more? Let’s dive into the recap!

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Incorporating Psychology Into Your Content Marketing with Elise Dopson

Our guest host for this month’s chat was Elise Dopson. She’s a B2B content marketing expert. And you can usually find her crafting blog posts on sales and marketing for various B2B SaaS companies around the globe. Elise shared some incredible tips, so let’s get to the questions!

Q1: Do you think about psychology when planning your content? Why or why not?

To kick things off, it only made sense to gauge where our community was at when it comes to incorporating psychology into your content marketing efforts. The answers were all across the board, so here’s what a few people had to say:

Ray says this is something he absolutely does. He feels it’s important to always know the state of mind your audience is in when you’re planning and creating the content they’ll consume.

Tamara agrees. She thinks psychology can help you better understand the thought processes of your target audience, plus how they might react to certain things.

For Gene, it’s something that’s always in the back of his mind because it plays such a big role in leadership, as well as marketing.

Not everyone in the chat had jumped on board with this idea just yet. But that’s totally okay! Doing these chats is a great way to teach people new techniques that they might want to incorporate moving forward.

Q2: Why should a content marketer include emotion in their content?

So, why would you want to start incorporating emotion into your content? Well, let’s talk about the benefits it can provide to show you why this might be worthwhile for you!

As Elise said, you’re writing for humans at the end of the day. And well, humans feel things! By incorporating psychology into your content marketing, you can spark those feelings.

To put it simply, you cannot expect to build relationships with your target audience if you aren’t adding their emotions into the equation.

Emotion plays a role in drawing your audience into your content and can keep them engaged. Plus, emotions can drive them to take action (like convert on your opt-in or purchase something.)

Shelly agrees, as she knows evoking emotions in a reader is key to getting them to take that next step with you and your brand.

Emotion is going to make your audience feel something powerful. As Bill pointed out, that could be humor, fear, fear of loss, inspiration, aspiration, connection, and being understood.

It’s also a way to make your content more relatable, which will help readers connect to it on a deeper level.

Ultimately, it’s emotions that will get people reading in the first place. And it’s emotions that will draw them in and keep them reading as well.

And as John said, a lack of feeling in your content might just leave your audience thinking you’re a bot. No one wants that!

Q3: How do you find out which emotions/feelings make your audience tick?

Let’s be honest here. We’re not mind readers! We need to be smart about understanding out audiences and these are some tips to help you do just that:

Elise’s advice is to do some research. You can conduct a survey and use it as an opportunity to better understand what does and doesn’t resonate with your target audience.

You can also take some cues from Rachel and conduct polls. Polls are great for sharing on Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram Stories. It just depends where your audience is most active. Determine what you’d like to know and start polling!

Gaby’s suggestions include: listening to your audience, conducting focus groups, doing A/B tests, and more to figure out what truly makes them tick.

You can also view data from past campaigns and even observe content from your competitors as well.

Make sure you spend time actually talking to your audience. It’s the best way to truly connect with them and to understand their personalities.

It’s also crucial to listen to what your audience has to say. Pay attention to what they’re writing about you on social media. Plus, you want to monitor which content they typically engage with the most.

Q4: Which emotion(s) make you buy a product or service?

We all have different driving factors behind what makes us purchase something. So, what makes you hit the “buy” button? Here are some things that trigger our community:

Elise has previously felt a major fear of missing out (FOMO) when seeing other people rave about a product. This is definitely a common motivator to make a purchase.

Even Tamara has felt the FOMO before!

A solution to a problem you’re struggling with is definitely reason to buy!

John is more likely to purchase something if he feels the seller has his best interests in mind. When purchasing, you want to know the product understands your pain points and will address them effectively.

For Bill, he doesn’t give into fear-based tactics. He would rather purchase something based on aspirational emotions, such as how he sees himself.

Gene feels the same as Bill. He’s not one to give into scare tactics, as it can sometimes come off as manipulative if you aren’t careful. For Gene, it’s more about trust and helpfulness.

Sometimes it could be deeper feelings, such as anxiety, that encourage you to buy.

Even a feeling of relief could be the driving force behind your next purchase!

Q5: What techniques can you use to target emotions with your content?

Now that you’re sold on the power of emotions, you probably want to start incorporating psychology into your content marketing. But how do you do that? Check out these tips:

Knowing the paint points of your audience really helps. Then, you’re able to follow Elise’s advice of sympathizing with them through your content. It shows you understand and makes them feel like you care.

Ray suggests where and when people are connecting with your content, as well as why and how they’re consuming it. Then, produce content, analyze it, and keep following these steps.

This “Hero’s Journey” technique that Eric shared is definitely worth trying out with your audience.

Bill knows you want to paint a picture for your audience. Show them what their life could be like with your product or service so they can see the value and how it’ll change things for them.

Imagery and social proof always make a difference!

You can also incorporate emotional storytelling, color psychology, and more.

And ultimately, just make sure you’re being authentic with people. If you’re being fake, they’ll see right through you and they’ll be turned off.

Q6: When was the last time you felt FOMO for a product/service all of your friends had, but you didn’t? What was it? And did you buy it?

Our community has felt FOMO too! Here are some things they wanted to buy so they didn’t feel left out among their friends:

Mara remembers the feeling of having a Blackberry while her friends and cousins had moved over to the iPhone. She ultimately made the switch as well.

When everyone on social media is raving about a chicken sandwich, sometimes it’s hard to avoid giving in and trying it for yourself.

For Gaby, it was a pair of boots. And she’s surely rocking them now that they’re part of her wardrobe!

And sometimes, FOMO makes you purchase some expensive things like a new laptop.

Sarah remains strong, however, and doesn’t give into FOMO!

Q7: How do you instantly grab a reader’s attention and convince them to read your content?

And to conclude the chat, we asked everyone to share some tips on how to grab a reader’s attention and keep them reading all the way through to the end of your content. These are some of the great tips that were shared:

It starts with understanding the needs of your audience. Put yourself in their shoes and consider what they want to read from you. Then, deliver it.

A great headline always wins!

You also want to be clear about the problem you’re solving for your reader. And of course, make sure you’re actively promoting it. Don’t wait for traffic to show up.

Want to join the next #ContentWritingChat? Mark your calendars because it happens on the first Tuesday of every month! Follow @ExpWriters and @writingchat for the latest.

Tags: content marketing | psychology