What compels your prospects to choose your products and services?

Increasing customer loyalty will reduce marketing costs and increase profits.

In this article, we explain how you can define your Emotional Selling Proposition (ESP).

1. What is an emotional selling proposition [ESP]
2. Emotional selling vs unique selling proposition
3. Keep it simple, stupid
4. Emotion and Brand Positioning

Getting to the heart of the matter is imperative when vying for the attention of your potential clients and customers. Understanding what makes them tick emotionally will help you to build a brand that directly connects with your audience and will ultimately encourage loyalty.

We are not saying that Unique selling propositions(USPs) are no longer fit for purpose or that you should simply discard them but it is worth re-framing how they inform your marketing and the role they play, especially when it comes to marketing your products and services online. But first of all, let's establish what we mean by emotional selling proposition [ESP]

What is an emotional selling proposition (ESP)

To start with, you need to understand the core reasons people buy from you and in order to do this you should research who your customers are. We have a separate article on creating customer personas, which will guide you through this process.

Once you have your research and you know who your customers really are, you need to define three things:

• Exactly what it is you sell,
• Who you are selling to,
• Off which emotional platform.

And it's this emotional platform that forms the backbone of ESPs.

Emotional selling vs unique selling proposition

Of course, as mentioned earlier, we cannot discount the USP completely from our marketing, so do they cancel each other out or do they work together.

To understand this better, let's take a closer look at USPs and ESPs. The following diagram is based on information from the best selling book "the Persuasion Code" which we have studied as part of our expanding marketing education.

So in the buying cycle our brain will often make an emotional decision (ESP) which has been backed up and processed with Logical information (USP).

You can see this principle at work in some of the most successful advertising campaigns.

Take L’Oreal for instance, who sell on the emotional platform “Because you are worth it.”

In a shop, faced with row upon row of hair products all competing for the customers attention, the consumer will be faced with a myriad of dilemmas. L’ Oreal’s product may well be more expensive than others in the race, however the customer will make an emotional decision based on the belief that they are truly worth it.

They will then justify the purchase by considering some of the technical USPs that the company claims in their marketing around the scientific benefits of their product.

Keep it simple, stupid

In order to define your ESP clearly you need to think in really simple terms. Emotions are driven by the old brain or reptilian brain, which in turn requires a lot of your energy to operate. Therefore, in order to wake this part of the brain up you need to provide a contrast in terms of your messaging and then punch straight in with an emotional left hook.

To quote albert Einstein

“If you can’t explain it with simplicity then you have not understood it!”

So you need to think in terms of owning a simple word or phrase that captures the emotion you wish to convey. For instance, Volvo always seeks to own the word “safety”, based on a marketing assumption that their vehicles are the safest on the road and therefore perfect for families. And to a large degree this works in the minds of consumers, especially when they are in the buying process.

Emotion and Brand Positioning

In developing an emotional connection with your audience, you are building the foundations of a successful brand. And understanding this element of your business is one step towards creating a brand position.

A clear brand positioning document will help to truly define your business and help you align your entire operation, from the way you innovate, operate and recruit, to the way you engage with your staff and your customers and importantly how you market and sell your products and services.

How can we help you solve this problem?

Creating and defining your brand position is step one of your marketing strategy. At RACER Marketing we have developed a full proof workshop that will guide you through all of these steps.