Think about all the advertisements you’ve ever seen. Do they share any common ingredients? Successful ads focus on a specific niche, revolving around an emotion. Sales are extremely emotional transactions. I know when I have to pull my wallet out to buy anything, I cry.

What kinds of emotions work in advertising?

Here’s where your creative juices need to start flowing. The range of positive and negative emotions is endless, but I’ve included a few to consider.

On the positive side:

Comfort
Excited
Glamorous
Inspired
Superior
Interested
Thrilled

On the negative side:

Annoyed
Exasperated
Frustrated
Anxiety
Impatient
Apprehensive
Concerned
Pressured
Stress
Disappointed

See which emotions your competitors are playing to

As you browse the Internet, start looking for indicators of emotions that your competitors are using to target prospects. What emotion would NO CONTRACTS OR HIDDEN FEES target? What about 100% UPTIME GUARANTEE? Or UNLIMITED FEATURES = UNLIMITED PROBLEMS?

I see ads all the time touting Internet speed, broadband versus DSL. The emotion targeted there is frustration – over sloooooooooooooooooow downloads.

Advertisements, proposals and quotes devoid of emotion rarely perform as well as those that do. Even CFO’s have SOME sense of emotion.

I see tons of emo's played all over the net but it seems most people are always pushing for the quick and easy and sometimes over glammed deal going on. Those who do not research proper and those who think a quick sell is a lifetime customer.

I completely agree with you Sales are extremely emotional transactions so try to be positive and honest during entire sale process.

That was some insightful information however, I think it's also important to emphasize on not overdoing certain elements of emotion in the sales pitch or ads. As often, if you focus too much on them, the person might feel skeptical as it might seem that you're promising too much or trying too hard to sell them something which might lead to some doubting.

Point well taken. In marketing, getting from Point "Interest" to Point "Buy" has to be quick, easy and compelling. And you have to ASK for the sale.

very good point!

those emotions are going to vary with the value of the sale as well. If the value is low like a domain name or a shared hosting account probably the mood are more like excited / inspired etc

if a it's a an high value sale, then confortable / secure become more relevant

Great observation. I remember servicing an Engraving company, and they told me business boomed, even during recessions. Vanity is a huge selling emotion.

If you're selling a high end item, you better offer solutions that solve some pain. Asking questions is how you find their hot buttons and identify that pain.

The most prevalent emotions I see web hosts targeting are comfort/security and superiority and, quite honestly, it has become rather stale. Now you have a market filled with 10,000 companies who take daily/weekly/18 times daily back ups and have servers that are better than everyone else's.

I think that is why we saw the "unlimited" providers achieve such a boom in business is because they put that stuff on the back burner and found something else that was just-as, if not more, appealing to the masses. Now that's been copied a million times over so we're waiting for the next big marketing trend.

I don't think the question for hosts is "What emotion should I appeal to?" it is "How should I appeal to it?" While a select few can earn success based on reputation, where does that leave the rest of the flock? Stagnant it seems, lately anyway.

Dave

What appeal a first-time buyer is often different that not just limited to a product or service and how it's going to meet their expectation so the factor mentioned above the "positive side" is important and you should know the buying behavior to plan your selling strategy.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: while it might not be an "emotion" I think humor and cleverness go a long way. If something makes me laugh I am much more likely to want to buy it, also I'm entertained by the ad, which makes me actually look at it, think about it and remember it. In short, humor alongside security, savings, reliability, I think, make a compelling web hosting advertisement.

You're absolutely right. Humor works when it's rememberable.

Good one