The simple reason feelings beat facts for your marketing messages

We hear so often that building brands is all about storytelling, and the pundits that tell you this are absolutely right. The most powerful brands focus their marketing messages on evoking emotions.

But ever asked yourself why that is?

Well, it’s all down to the science of neuro-marketing and the way that our brains work. Quite frankly, our brains aren’t as advanced as we think they are. When your customers hear, see, or read your functional messaging (what your product/service does) you engage the rational part of your customers’ brain. Almost by definition, this is the part of the brain that weighs up all the pros and cons, and this means, objections.

However, if you appeal to customers on an emotional basis you call on them to use the part of the brain called the amygdala. This is the section in charge of what we may otherwise call our gut reactions. The great thing for about this part of the brain is that it works about five times faster than the rational part of the brain and guides our decision-making based on ‘what feels right’. Like first impressions these more emotional decisions are longer lasting, and when positive, are more likely to lead to customer loyalty.

I often hear that business-to-business marketing is different because it is less emotional and more rational. However, why should we assume that the brain of the B2B buyer is more advanced than yours or mine? Fortunately for us marketers, the brains of humans all work in basically the same way and therefore the same theory still holds true. We all have these emotional biases and it is simply not possible to avoid them.

Believe me? Think about some of the biggest brands: Apple, Coca Cola, Facebook. Think about their messaging. Are they emotional or rational? If emotional messaging works for them, then doesn’t the same hold true for you?