I think a lot of us have suspected that email carries less emotional weight than messages delivered on paper.
The Neuromarketing reports on a study that shows this to be true: Paper Beats Digital For Emotion. Get the study itself here: Using Neuroscience to Understand the Role of Direct Mail (PDF).
Key findings:
- More processing is taking place in the right retrosplenial cortex when physical material is presented. This is involved in the processing of emotionally powerful stimuli and memory, which would suggest that the physical presentation may be generating more emotionally vivid memories.
- Physical activity generates increased activity in the cerebellum, which is associated with spatial and emotional processing (as well as motor activity) and is likely to be further evidence of enhanced emotional processing.
This may help explain why e-appeals get such lower response rates the direct mail appeals. (Along with the overwhelming presence of spam crowding us out of many mailboxes.)
But the fact that digital communication evokes less emotion shouldn't defeat you. The other side of the coin is that digital messaging can do a lot of things paper can't do. We can use those capabilities to at least partially make up for the emotion deficit. Things like:
- Timeliness. Online, you aren't stuck with the long production schedules and delivery times. You can get a message out in just a few hours. This is why most giving to last January's Haiti Quake happened online.
- Rich media. Video and audio can go a long way to overcome the emotion deficit. Even something as simple as an animated GIF image can add action that's just not possible on paper.
- Choice. With paper, you can't offer more than a small handful of choices before you have a cumbersome mess. Online, you can give donors an almost endless number of options, and it can stay uncomplicated.
- Social proof. On paper you can say "Other people are doing this too" -- which provides that important social proof that motivates so much giving. Online, you can show it.
