A POV by Lisa Magerl and Sequence Consulting on the importance of emotion when engaging with customers. With over 16 years of experience, Lisa Magerl has created a strong reputation for developing and managing successful initiatives at large and mid-sized organizations. She excels in helping clients chart the organizational paths needed to enable marketing innovation. Her consistent ability to deliver positive results while setting a path for ongoing improvement has established her as a well-respected industry leader.

1. Engagement is Emotional
Grounded in deep science, marketers are beginning to act on evidence that up to 90%
of decision-making is emotional. However, most B2B and professional associations
continue marketing to titles or disciplines rather than the humans bearing those titles.
Examples of the ongoing focus on marketing to the rationale mind are all around us.
The mantra of “features tell, benefits sell” remains a fixture in many organizations. This
approach is even used by associations working to increase member retention through
the strategy of ongoing engagement.
Where’s the feeling?
In their Looking Forward 2014i white paper, Association Laboratory Inc. surveyed 195
association executives about members’ top concerns and strategies to address them.
While there is much value in the study, we were struck by two central aspects of the
work:
• Members were not part of the survey. All insights into members come from
association executives
• The core issues and responding strategies were exclusively functional
According to the study, the leading concern among members is information
management. The drivers of this issue include:
In response to perceived member issues, “five of the eight leading association concerns
pertain to information management.” The predicted impacts of this dynamic, in
conjunction with other dynamics such as economic conditions, on associations are:

2. We agree that thoughtful, substantive, multi-channel content strategies are critical to
the ongoing success and relevance of professional associations. But that alone is
insufficient to reinvigorate acquisition, engagement and, ultimately, retention. To knock
the ball out of the park, an infusion of emotion is critical.
Take a Page (or two) from B2C
According to Gallup research, “fully engaged customers deliver a 23% premium over
average customers in share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth.”ii
This type of engagement comes from being emotionally connected with a brand.
Based on Plutchik’s Emotion Wheel, the simple emotional formulas for acquisition and
loyalty are:
• Acquisition = interest/anticipation + acceptance/trust
• Loyalty = serenity/joy + acceptance/trust
Of course, there are many feelings and emotional nuances specific to different target
audiences. For example, as you unwind tonight, pay attention to the car commercials
you see online or on TV. You’ll quickly notice that many of them appeal to your heart
rather than your head. “Love is what makes a Subaru.” Cadillac – you deserve this
because you work hard. The rational, factual information is a secondary tag-on.
In their 2014 Consumer Engagement Index, Brand Keys ranked 555 brands based on the
emotional connects they forge with consumers. Apple, USAA, and JetBlue continue
leading their categories despite many reviews showing functional deficiencies in their
product versus competitors. This is because the emotional bond consumers feel toward
these brands allow them to rationalize away occasional bugs or service failures.

3. Some Movement in Associations
The ASAE started talking about the import of emotional connections between members
and associations in terms of engaging Millennialsiii. The observations made can be
successfully applied to all members:
• “Younger professional really crave relationships, to the point that if they don’t
have a relationship with a group, they disengage from it.”
• “Younger generations crave the idea of exclusivity and access.”
• “You need to have fun… you need to allow people to speak up.”
A great example of an association that understands the emotional drivers of their
members is The American Chemical Society. Their home page includes the chemical of
the week, which is presented as a riddle. That item is one of the most clicked parts of
the home page. Why? Because chemists are inherently curious and find pleasure in
solving puzzles. It’s fun. Once the riddle is solved, then members will check latest
research findings.
Now What?
As you consider the engagement strategy for your organization, spend some serious
time thinking about who your members are as people. Don’t guess. Perform the
research. Understand why they chose their profession, what their daily lives are like, and
what they hope to get from associating with their professional brethren.
Think about what you can give members beyond trustworthy information – are they
hungry for the prestige that comes from recognition? Do they want to engage with
people that actually understand what they do? Do they need a space to “let their hair
down” with colleagues? Do they want a platform where they can share points of view?
Addressing these emotional needs with the same vigor as you meet their informational
needs puts you on path of a meaningful engagement strategy that will pay dividends
in terms of renewal and revenue.
i Looking Forward 2014: An Environmental Scanning Whitepaper for the Association Industry, Association
Laboratory Inc., January 2014
ii Turning Emotion into Engagement: Utilizing the power of emotion to connect customers to your brand,
Circle Company Associations, Inc., 2010
iii How to Keep Young Professional Actively Engaged, Kim Fernandez, September 2009