Persado was born from the idea that emotional language could be systematized for experimentation, quantification, and use in marketing. This was a new idea at the time (and is still quite new), so we needed to create a system that would suit our purpose. This is how the Wheel of Emotions was born.

After reading this comprehensive guide, you will understand:

The Wheel of Emotions is Persado's emotional ontology and classification of language. Rather than explaining human reactions in a general way, this classification is intended to categorize words and phrases with semantic differences into separate categories. We use the Wheel of Emotions to test which specific emotions resonate most with your audience and at what points in their journeys.

Ontology is a branch of philosophy that seeks to classify and explain entities - in our context at Persado, those entities are emotions. Ontology is concerned with the science of ‘what is’ and investigates the kinds and structures of objects and their relationships to one another.

The Wheel of Emotions consists of a total of 15 emotions separated into 5 categories: Pride, Trust, Joy, Anticipation, and Fear. This article defines each emotion and provides examples of how they may appear in the context of your marketing campaign.

Emotional language is the #1 driver of performance when it comes to most communications. To put it simply, people respond best to messaging that they can connect with. Persado’s AI is trained to constantly experiment with these 15 different emotions, score these emotions based on response data, and link those scores to contexts, communication, and audience types in order to continuously learn and improve performance based on the language that works.

In order to systematize the way emotional language is used, we first built a database of marketing lingo, common words and phrases, and syntactical and grammatical patterns. This grew into Persado’s proprietary knowledgebase of over one million emotionally tagged and scored words, phrases, and images, which we call Persado Genopedia.

Next, we created an ontology by which to classify emotional language in the context of marketing: the Wheel of Emotions. The Wheel of Emotions was created by adapting research in psychology and extensive data analysis to the specific behavioral context of marketing.

Today, Persado's Genopedia is the world's largest Marketing Database. Our Content and Innovation team is responsible for building out and managing our language classification process to make sure that new language is added and that old language is kept current. We analyze communication across the industry and add and adjust our vocabulary and emotions on an ongoing basis to drive mindful engagement.

During your campaigns, Persado deconstructs your message Variants into the following elements: Narrative, Emotional, Descriptive, CTA, Formatting, and Positioning. In the emotional category, we employ the detailed options that the Wheel of Emotions provides to test even seemingly similar sentiments and measure their effectiveness.

Emotion is one of the main triggers for driving engagement. Time and time again, when Persado runs Experiments, emotional language often is the largest contributor to response variance. In short, words matter most when it comes to emotion in a majority of channels and Experiments. And using our Wheel of Emotions is important for explaining why phrases with semantic similarities outperform others, even though they may seem conceptually similar - like, say, Excitement versus Fascination.

A leading bank sent Persado its highest performing creative copy for a campaign to increase balance transfers. The copy focused on urgency-related words with headlines such as ‘limited-time balance transfer offer.’

Creating a sense of urgency in headline copy is a common approach in financial services marketing. However, urgency-related words are actually some of the lowest performing across financial services campaigns. When Persado suggested the client use gratitude-related words such as ‘we appreciate your loyalty,’ the client saw a 133 percent lift in click rate for balance transfer offers simply by using the right emotion in the right place.

In the retail sector, positive emotions have the highest impact on customer engagement; however, it is important to select the right one. Not all positive emotions have equal results and some can even be counterproductive.

Gratitude is a top-performing emotion in fashion and apparel. Evoking this with a phrase such as ‘you deserve this deal’ can be powerful as it expresses knowledge, appreciation, and affection in a personal way. By contrast, a phrase like ‘don’t miss out on this deal’ can have a negative impact on engagement levels because it creates a sense of regret, which customers are becoming somewhat desensitized to. Even small alterations in the wording can trigger very different emotions in a customer.

Another emotion that is a favorite for retail customers is achievement. After all, who doesn’t like getting praise or reward for something, however small? One eCommerce brand saw an 18 percent uplift during Black Friday by using achievement-based phrases. A good example of this type of wording is ‘new offer, unlocked!’ which gives the customer a sense of accomplishment. By contrast, a phrase such as ‘treat yourself to this offer’ is not as impactful as it generates a feeling of encouragement. Although a positive emotion, encouragement does not move customers as powerfully as achievement does.

These fine details between positive emotions are exactly why Persado created The Wheel of Emotions: to allow us to distinguish between even similar sentiments with precision and test which emotions drive the most engagement from your customers.

Did you know you can toggle through our live Wheel of Emotions here? Keep reading for an overview of each emotion, or visit the linked page to do more exploring on your own.

There are three emotions in the “Pride” category on the Wheel of Emotions:

Definition: to praise or reward for an implied accomplishment.

Examples:

Definition: to imply or state one’s unique privilege in receiving the message.

Examples:

Definition: to point out good fortune in having the chance to enjoy something special.

Examples:

There are three emotions in the “Trust” category on the Wheel of Emotions:

Definition: to eliminate any worries or doubts; to make one feel secure.

Examples:

Definition: to express acknowledgement, appreciation, or affection in a personal way.

Examples:

Definition: to address or salute in a formal or informal way that implies some sort of relationship.

Examples:

There are three emotions in the “Joy” category on the Wheel of Emotions:

Definition: to deliver positive news or introduce something enthusiastic.

Examples:

Definition: to stimulate excitement/interest related specifically to a new experience or possession.

Examples:

Definition: to stimulate excitement/interest related specifically to value or a financial gain.

Examples:

There are three emotions in the “Anticipation” category on the Wheel of Emotions:

Definition: to motivate and/or inspire one to take an action by explicitly prompting them to do something.

Examples:

Definition: to nudge, intrigue, or tease; to stimulate interest by being vague.

Examples:

Definition: to provoke a decision or an action by either daring or asking a question.

Examples:

There are three emotions in the “Fear” category on the Wheel of Emotions:

Definition: to alert about the importance of a certain message and/or to provide information.

Examples:

Definition: to warn about explicit or implied time constraints and call to action.

Examples:

Definition: to encourage a certain action by stressing one’s potential fear of missing out.

Examples:

Emotional language is the #1 driver of performance when it comes to most communications. The Wheel of Emotions helps us categorize this unique type of language with precision so we can understand what resonates with your customers. Want to test out different emotions with your audience? Talk to your Persado representative to get their recommendations for your upcoming campaigns.