Mastering Sensory Marketing in an Online World 

You ever walk into a store and touch something, just to check it out? 

Fruits. Pillows. Gloves. 

You pick them up, touch them, maybe give them a little squeeze. It’s a way of testing them, yes, but it’s also a way of experiencing them, too. That touch can make all of the difference in the world. If something doesn’t feel right, then you’re unlikely to buy it. 

The same goes for your other senses, too. If something smells wrong, looks bad, has an awful sound, and so forth, odds are you won’t be purchasing that any time soon.

You can utilize this in sensory marketing. 

There are ways to do that even now. 

Sensory Marketing Explained 

If you’ve been reading these blogs for any length of time you might be thinking: “great, another form of marketing that I have to figure out.” 

That’s not exactly true. I’m just presenting different ideas and tactics that might work for your company. 

Some will work better than others for one organization or another. That’s how marketing works for every company. 

Sensory marketing is even more important than you might think. 

For example, the wonderfully named group “Mood Media” studied the effectiveness of sensory marketing for in-store purchases. They found that “shoppers purchased more items (an increase of four percent) and higher-priced items (an increase of six percent in value) when sensorial marketing elements were in place.” 

Additionally, they discovered that “the use of scent is even more impactful when being used to highlight a specific department or zone… From the installation of scent in the football area-to-date, (the store in question) has noticed a 26^ increase in sales in the category in the test store compared to the same category performance in all the other stores throughout the country.” 

Let’s unpack that a bit. 

The “scented football zone” doesn’t mean that it smelled like leather, nachos, and sweat, or something. The store in question is in Europe, so their “football” was actually “soccer.” What makes this increase even more amazing is that the “scented football zone” was actually just “the scent of fresh-cut grass.” 

They were able to increase sales simply by having the scent of freshly cut grass around. 

This leads to the big question, of course: “how could I possibly get my customers to buy something based on the scent when they do all of their purchasing online?” 

That’s a great question. 

One American company has an even better answer. 

How One Company Utilizes Sensory Marketing Online 

Obviously (and, in many ways, fortunately) there’s no way to smell something through your screen just yet. 

So, you might think that you’re precluded from utilizing scent sensory marketing for your business. 

However, there are ways around that. 

A great example of this is a company called “NEST.” 

They make great fragrances, that are used in candles, body lotions, diffusers, and more. 

Since the pandemic has made it much, much less likely that someone could walk into a physical store and smell these products, they had to find ways around that. 

So, they described them all that much more accurately on their site. For example, each fragrance is put with a “fragrance family,” “scent type,” and “mood.” 

This makes all the difference. 

You (like me) may not know off of the top of your head may not know what a “Bamboo Specialty” candle is going to smell like. I have a good education, yet I cannot even begin to place it. 

But, I scroll down on their page, and I see: “Fragrance Family: Floral,” “Scent Type: Dewy Floral,” and “Mood: Enchant.” 

After reading those words, I can practically smell them. 

That’s how powerful good sensory marketing is: you don’t even have to experience the sensation of it to want to buy something. 

Making it Work for Your Company 

I specifically chose sensory marketing through scent above to show a great “workaround.” 

The truth is that sensory marketing, of course, is just marketing that targets any of the senses. 

You already know that you need to have great visuals on your site, of your products, goods, and services. 

Sound, through music, and animation cues can help as well. 

Sensory marketing is one more tool in the box, one more method to help your business to stand out. We can help you to find everything that’s right for your company. To learn more, call us at (888) 477-9540.