I have had a great day today, and I am now sitting doing something I love, writing. Do these two things affect how I construct this blog and the feeling you get from it? I think so. Emotion is a powerful influencer, especially when it comes to anything creative. Think of how you tailor your music choices to fit your mood, the colours you choose to design with if you are feeling excited or even the clothes you wear when you are feeling a little blue. Emotion can impact how we experience our day and in turn how the world experiences us.

And it works both ways, think of the things that can change you mood, perhaps your favourite song, a familiar smell, a beautiful picture or a great book. Our senses can invoke powerful emotions and the beauty of it (or perhaps the difficulty if you are in the creative industry) is that, that emotion being invoked could be different for each of us. When it comes to putting pen to paper, what is more important,  the emotional input or the desired emotional output?

Add to this the topic area being discussed and you enter a very complex arena. Of course, it is easier to write about a topic you are passionate about when you are feeling great, but does that mean it produces a better piece for someone to read. To what extent does that emotional connection follow through to the reader, or is the emotional response they give purely based on their own mental state and beliefs at that moment.

Take political subjects, for example, if I write something from my point of view that I think is positive and I am very passionate about, to what level can I influence the reader to feel the same. Obviously, not everyone is going to share my political views and therefore how will they react to my text, will they feel the positive emotions that I have put into the piece, but not agree, or will they have a negative reaction at a potentially very conflicting view. I am not going to change their mind politically, nor do I want to, but I would like the reader to understand my viewpoint and to sense how I feel about it.

Writing in the business world is a slightly different predicament, and when it comes to your brand the aim is to only invoke positive emotions. As a business owner I am sure you would always hope that anything you put in front of  your current and potential customers is engaging and invites them in. You are always going to be your brands biggest fan, and you need to make sure that anyone writing your content loves your brand as much as you.

Your brand should have a personality. Think of how you want your customers to feel, how you want people to relate to your brand. Make sure everyone facing customers whether in person or via your content is part of the bigger persona. Get them involved and passionate about your brand, get them feeling positive and producing a positive output. You cannot influence the way the reader feels at the time they engage with your brand but you can influence that what you put in front of them does everything it can to produce the desired emotional response.

Next time you look at your website, your brochures or your proposals think about what they are aiming to achieve and the emotion that you want people to feel from them. Your brand is a constantly evolving entity, make sure your content and client touch points  evolve with it. If you would like to discuss any element of your client facing content get in touch with us now and see how we can help.