Emotionally Connecting with Your Customers will Motivate Action

List one way a business can emotionally connect with customers to motivate action? 

 To help you emotionally connect with customers in order to motivate action, we asked marketing experts and successful small business owners this question for their best insights. From limiting the automation of customer interactions to creating a community, there are several tips that may help you create emotional connections with your customers. 

 Here are ten tips for motivating customer action through emotional connections:

• Limit Automating Customer Interactions 
•  Be An Inspiration 
•  Forge Emotional Connections With Testimonials 
•  Treat Social Media as a Two-way Communication Street 
•  Try Vlogging 
•  Show Genuine Interest in Your Customers 
•  Use Personalized Thank-You Notes 
•  Learn What Motivates Your Customers 
•  Build Trust  
•  Create a Community

Limit Automating Customer Interactions

Connection is only possible with people. You can't connect with a chatbot any more than you can with a voicemail. For businesses, the temptation to automate customer interactions is understandable but should be resisted at all costs. Instead, invest time in people and use technology to enhance your communication rather than replace it. Ensure your phone, live chat, email and any other channels include an option to speak to a real person. 

 Benjamin Graham, AnswerConnect

Be An Inspiration

Consumers often make purchasing decisions driven by feelings rather than logic, when people are inspired, they often think and act differently. A spokesperson or ambassador who embodies the brand makes the inspirational approach successful. Effectively associating your brand with a role model that people can believe in leads people to believe in your product or service too. 

 Amit Raj, The Links Guy

Forge Emotional Connections With Testimonials

Video marketing is the most efficient way to build an emotional connection with customers. A testimonial video illustrates how video marketing helps businesses create a quick emotional connection with their audience. Anyone can write a blurb commending their product, click a picture of a stranger, and stick them together. Video authorizes businesses to take word-of-mouth marketing to the highest level. Also, a video is difficult to fake as it showcases a real person wanting to associate their name and face with your brand. This is how trust creates, which helps forge an authentic connection between the person in the video, the audience, and the business. 

 Caroline Lee, CocoSign

Treat Social Media as a Two-way Communication Street

Social media has always been a great way to engage with customers, yet oftentimes, businesses see it as a one way street, so following your customers’ pages and groups is a great way to further connect with them on an emotional level. Over 80% of all customers have their own social media pages, and more than half of them access them on a daily basis. By following their pages, “liking” their posts, commenting on issues they follow, and acknowledging significant dates on their pages such as birthdays, you can stay at the forefront of their mind, and motivate further action to engage with you and your business. By treating social media as a two-way avenue of communication, rather than just performing active maintenance on your own, you can connect emotionally with your customers, and create more engagement. 

 Yuvi Alpert, Noémie

Try Vlogging

It’s been around but recently it’s really become a way to connect with people on a real and human basis, with no flaws taken out. These videos can be informational, published daily or weekly, and can help you grow your following substantially. It can be used in a number of ways; such as building your personal brand, establishing yourself as an authority in your industry, interacting with your customers, or offering valuable Q&As on popular topics that can help build a loyal following. 

 Daniel Kane, The Ridge Wallet

Show Genuine Interest in Your Customers

A strong and long-lasting emotional connection can only be established when a brand really takes a genuine interest in the lives of its customers to show them they care. Focus on personalizing the customer journey by asking open-ended questions, addressing their unique grievances, and coming up with innovative solutions in a timely fashion, so that your customers truly feel seen, heard, and appreciated. 

 Riley Beam, Douglas R. Beam, P.A.

Use Personalized Thank-You Notes

As done and dusted as it may sound, thank you notes and personalized messages go a long way in showing your appreciation. Your customers will not only remember these tokens of gratitude but also feel driven to support a business that takes the time to appreciate its customers. If you really want to step it up a notch it’s a great idea to include a discount for the next time they buy your product and service. 

 Demi Yilmaz, Colonist.io

Learn What Motivates Your Customers

By understanding what motivates customers at a deep, emotional level and aligning their business values with those motivations, businesses can create an emotional connection with customers. Some of the primary motivators that businesses can tap into include the desire for social approval, the need to feel safe and secure, and the urge to seek out new experiences. When businesses can understand what drives their customers' behavior and create an emotional connection with them based on those shared values, they can motivate action. 

 Claire Westbrook, LSAT Prep Hero

Build Trust

Surveys confirm that more and more consumers care about minimizing their impact on air, land, water, food, and the overall planet. Being transparent about your business’ sustainability goals, actions, and achievements on your website, social media, and other marketing materials can help develop TRUST between your business and the consumer. Connecting on an emotional level with the public will cause them to be more loyal to a company that supports social or environmental issues. 

 Hakeem Shittu, iPad Recycle

Create a Community

A community is a powerful tool for connecting with customers. Communities can be online or offline, but they all have one thing in common: they bring people together who share a common interest. When you create a community for your business, you’re giving customers a place to connect among themselves and with you. They can share their stories, ask for advice, and support each other. Communities are also great for building loyalty. When customers feel part of a community, they’re more likely to stick with you. They’ll also be more likely to recommend your business to their friends. 

 Peter Lucas, Relocate to Andorra 

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