What is Emotional Engagement Design? And how will it help your business?
EED is the intentional design of the underlying emotional experience within any product, event or communication. [It is the extra effort that takes what you do from good to great!]
Big question! What makes emotional engagement and experience SO important to the outcomes or returns in your business? Well the short answer is that all decisions are emotional. There is nothing in life that you choose based purely on fact. There is always a feeling involved. Of course, most decisions are supported by facts and perceived value, but when two things are equal in that regard, the final choice will be an emotional one.
Which one makes you feel good?
Which choice makes you happy?
Which one is easier? Or less stressful?
Even if we can’t explain why we have a feeling or what the feeling specifically is, it is still a vital force in our decision making process, which means it is also a huge factor in why a customer or client decides to choose YOU! Emotional Engagement Design is the process of HOW to get people to take action, engage with and trust you. I have developed this process so you can become the person who delivers happiness to others and success to yourself.
EED is not a one-size-fits-all solution and there’s no generic template for how it can be applied. It is a process that takes effort, empathy and elbow grease on your part. Applying Emotional Engagement Design allows you to increase the effectiveness of your efforts by creating an emotional space that guides your guests or clients directly to the desired impact or action. What if everyone who interacted with you did what you wanted them to do (make a purchase, donate money, engage with you)? Sounds pretty good right? Using EED, you can design an experience specifically tailored for the impact that you want to make.
As someone who provides a service, you will find exponentially greater success by taking your client/guest’s emotional journey into account. The payoff for your business of putting emotional experience the forefront are:
Increased impact
Fierce brand loyalty
Powerful sales strategies
Expanded return on investment
Perceptible increase in customer connection and engagement
Positive experiences that guest/users will remember and cherish
EED, and how it works, can also be described as a meta-level ideology. Specifically, one that combines the disciplines of: experience design, event production, graphic design, storytelling, customer experience, positive psychology, behavioral science, interior design, sales strategy. Even when you get all of these things “right”, if your clients are missing a clear emotional journey and clarity around your vision and goals, you are leaving at least 20% of your impact on the table.
As an ideology, it helps to focus your efforts into the realm of highest payoff. To achieve the larger goal of providing positive emotional experiences, while creating unbreakable loyalty and impact.
If you want to boost your brand loyalty, fundraising, conversion rates, sales numbers and/or customer engagement, using Emotional Engagement Design is an easy way to start.
One of the greatest advantages in using EED is that it will rarely cost you additional money! It will cost you time, effort and creativity, but not dollars. I have been able to execute the same level of impact with hundreds of non-profit dollars as with tens of thousands of corporate dollars. It’s not about the funding — it’s about how you use it!
