Mapping Emotion into Automotive Journeys

 By Sam Holmes, Head of Marketing at Force24

From Clicks to Connection

Automotive marketing has usually been more rational than emotional. We’re not just selling vehicles, we’re guiding people through decisions that often come with anticipation, excitement, hesitation, or even anxiety. Whether it’s buying a first car, upgrading to something safer for a growing family, or booking in a long-overdue service, emotion plays a role in every step. However, most marketing automation strategies still follow a logic-first model. They track actions, not intent. They react to clicks, not feelings. It’s efficient, but it’s not as effective as it could be. If we want to build more resonant, relevant, and reliable journeys, we need to start tuning in to the emotional cues behind customer behaviour. Automation isn’t just about doing more with less. It’s about doing things better, with smarter decisions and accuracy, whilst keeping the human touch. That starts by recognising the emotional undercurrent that shapes a customer’s journey.

Why Emotion Deserves a Place in Your Strategy

This isn’t about turning every campaign into a heartstring-tugging ad. It’s about acknowledging that even the most practical decisions have an emotional layer that develops trust or reassurance or instills impatience or curiosity. In the automotive world, these feelings aren’t side notes. They’re signals that I see marketing teams listening to, to fuel their messaging and communications. A potential buyer returning to your finance calculator three times in a week isn’t just a lead. They might be anxious about affordability. A customer browsing SUV pages after booking a service appointment might be quietly considering an upgrade. These are subtle cues, but they’re actionable if you build your journeys with emotion in mind.

Recognising Emotional Cues in Behaviour

You won’t find emotion listed as a field in your CRM. But it’s there, hidden in the patterns of how people behave. Repeated visits to the same page, lingering on key content, or dropping off just before completing a form all point to more than simple interest. They tell a story of what your audience might be feeling in that moment. Here’s where the automation comes in. When your journeys are designed to listen for these behaviours, you can act accordingly. Someone re-reading the handover process? Trigger a reassurance message. A lead returning to the finance section without converting? Send a helpful explainer, not a hard sell. The key is to build flexibility into your journeys. Not everything should be immediate or aggressive. Sometimes, the right move is to pause. Or to gently prompt. Or to simply reassure. This doesn’t mean guessing or relying on instinct alone. It’s about layering emotional intelligence over your existing behavioural data. Understanding that context shapes intent, and that people often need more than a nudge – they need to feel understood by your brand to build the level of trust we all have with our favourite brands, which keep us coming back for more.

Building Emotionally Aware Journeys

So, how could this look in practice?

Before a test drive, rather than sending a standard confirmation, consider a message that addresses the nerves many people feel before stepping into a new vehicle. A simple note on what to expect, who they’ll meet, and how long it’ll take can ease anxiety and improve attendance. Post-purchase, the silence can be flat. Buyers are often left wondering if they’ve made the right decision or suffer from buyer’s remorse. A short sequence of onboarding emails with useful tips, reminders, and a warm ‘thank you’ helps bridge that gap and builds long-term satisfaction. Even for those blissfully happy with their choice, this will set you off to a great start and show them quickly what life is like as one of your customers. Even service reminders can be shaped by emotion. Instead of “Your MOT is due,” what about “Let’s make sure everything runs smoothly this winter”? Same message but a different feeling. You could also consider messaging after a vehicle handover, for example. It’s a moment filled with pride (almost nothing beats that new car day), but also sometimes uncertainty. A friendly check-in a week later, with tips on using key features, can make the difference between a nervous owner and a confident advocate.

Making It Measurable

‘Emotionally aware’ marketing doesn’t mean abandoning data and making gut decisions. Quite the opposite, as when you take the time to design for emotion, you can test its impact. Start small. Take a single touchpoint and write two variations. One with your current approach, one designed with emotional awareness in mind. A softer tone and clearer explanation. A message that speaks to how someone feels, not just what they need to do. Track engagement, click-throughs, conversions, and even post-engagement surveys if you have them. Then you can learn, refine, and repeat deeper across more areas of your communications. Test emotional cues against different audience segments, different channels, and different campaign types. Over time, you’ll hopefully start to see patterns that will help shape even stronger strategies.

Where to Start

If this all sounds like a big lift, it doesn’t need to be. You’re not rebuilding every journey. You’re enhancing key moments. Start with a single flow, a common one; test drive confirmations, service bookings, post-purchase onboarding. Pick a journey you already have, and ask: ‘What might someone be feeling here?’ Then shape your message to meet that feeling. It’s also helpful to involve other teams in this process. Your showroom staff, customer service teams, and even finance colleagues all hear customer concerns that don’t always reach marketing. Their insight is invaluable when trying to understand the emotional backdrop to customer behaviour. Emotion-aware automation doesn’t mean overcomplicating your campaigns. It means thinking more carefully about timing, tone, and relevance. The aim isn’t always to do more, it’s to do it better with what we already have and strive for maximising opportunities and conversion rates, which all point to great efficiency. Because people remember how you made them feel far longer than they remember your subject line…