How to craft emotional messages to put into your content

From the Harvard Business Review:

If strong emotional activation is the key to viral success, how can brands best craft highly emotional messages with their content. 

First, think carefully about how your company, product or service is related to a topic or topics that taps into deep-seated human emotions within your target demographic. 

The goal is to find the link to an issue that plagues your consumers and relates directly or even tangentially to your brand or product. At the same time, you must make sure that the topic you choose also positively reflects the position of your brand. Using the example of the Dove Face Sketch campaign mentioned above, it is clear that its viral success was the result of its ability to tap into a deep emotional reaction to commonly felt feelings of inadequacy and low self esteem. Dove created a positive emotional reaction by creating solidarity through their campaign. Their content delivered the message “Many women don’t see themselves for how pretty they really are — let’s change that.” Dove’s content engaged strong emotions – even difficult emotions – but managed to win by presenting a more important overarching idea.