“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”  – Leo Buscaglia

Over the past few years, the buzz about emotional quotient (EQ) has piqued our collective interest. Emotions can impact personal and professional relationships, on-the-job success, workplace dynamics, and marketing endeavors. That’s right. Even the world of marketing falls sway to EQ’s influence.

EQ is the ability to perceive and understand your emotions and those of people around you. If you think about it, it’s not a stretch to see the correlation between EQ and effective marketing. Let’s dive deep into why identifying and managing emotions in marketing matters and how to harness this crucial element in your favor.

The WHY

We get that EQ matters in relationships. That’s a no-brainer. But now we’re catching on to why it matters in the world of marketing, too. In a nutshell, people are more than numbers lined up in spreadsheet columns. People are individuals with names, feelings, needs, and challenges. And it’s these three-dimensional beings that marketers target with their numbers-driven campaigns. So, it makes sense that insights gleaned from all those spreadsheets should intermingle with a heavy dose of empathy.

After all, human beings are emotional creatures. Incorporating emotions into marketing—into the goals, strategies, timing, and predicted outcomes—should be a no-brainer, too, because marketing seeks a connection with the consumer. And those connections will not happen unless we pay attention to EQ.

EQ: 101

Let’s begin with the basics. First, we use data to break down the target audience. Then, we delve into that data to identify people’s needs, desires, and emotions. Slip a real-life person’s name and face into each identified category. For instance, Bob, the guy down the street, might be the perfect Category A stand-in. Aunt Mary fits Category B to a tee, and Cousin Bill checks most of the boxes for Category C.

From there, it’s easy to identify the needs, desires, and emotions we associate with Bob, Aunt Mary, and Cousin Bill. Then, it’s question time.

  • “What marketing message would Bob relate to?”
  • “What tactics would resonate with Aunt Mary?”
  • “What would make Bill feel like our brand cares about him and his needs?”

Essentially, what will persuade each person to approve your product or service?

The HOW

Using EQ to connect with your customers has a built-in perk: relationship building. Understanding your consumers’ feelings is foundational to authentic relationships. Time and time again, research has shown that people still crave deep connections in today’s fast-paced, impersonal world. Score one for EQ!

So, let’s dig in at the get-it-done level. Consumers are drawn to authentic, empathetic brands since these qualities create emotional connections. So, which core strategies demonstrate these traits?

  1. Active listening.

You may be thinking, yeah, sure. But once you truly understand the value of active listening—how it builds rapport and trust and unveils crucial information—you’ll admit a few things. For one, you’ll find active listening more complicated than it sounds; for another, you’ll find that your listening skills need a tune-up. Then, be willing to put in the work to improve.

Marketing that incorporates active listening creates avenues for collecting, evaluating, and incorporating crucial feedback.

  1. A commitment to transparency.

These days, folks want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. As a collective consumer, we’ve grown weary of false claims and hyped-up headlines. Understanding the consumer’s deep-felt need for truth and transparency is half the battle. Meeting that expectation will get you across the finish line.

So, don’t make any claims you can’t back up 100%. In word and deed, show folks that you respect them enough to tell the truth.

  1. Self-awareness.

The consumer’s emotions aren’t the only ones to understand and monitor. We all have sore spots that depress or inflame our emotions. That’s where self-awareness and trigger-managing strategies enter the picture.  Learning to manage our own emotions is elemental to emotional intelligence. By understanding your feelings, you can better manage them to promote customer interactions.

EQ matters. Those who invest themselves in understanding how emotions affect them, their families, friends, customers, and colleagues will reap personal and professional benefits. That’s something that ASJ Partners understands. Incorporating emotional intelligence into marketing strategies is a “best bet” for recruiting and staffing agencies. Give our team a ring to see how ASJ can be your agency’s partner in making your brand shine.