9 Emotional Motivators That Help You Build a Successful Practice
Understanding this will position your brand as the bridge between where your patients are today and where they want to go.
Sunday, March 1, 11:09 AM.
Over the last week I’ve been reading the book Marketing to Mindstates by Will Leach. (It’s becoming one of my favourite marketing books.)
So today I’m going to share what I learned about the 9 Emotional Motivators that will help you build a successful and respected practice in your city.
When you get this right, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your clinic will always be growing, even in down economies. Now and for years to come.
Most people fail because they speak to functional goals. Things that don’t trigger an emotional response in your patients.
How Do Your Patients Want to FEEL?
Understanding emotional motivators can position your brand as the bridge between where your patients are today and where they want to be tomorrow.
Today we’ll cover:
9 Emotional Motivators
The 3 That Matter to You
How I’m Using This To Grow a Med Spa
Let’s dive in.
9 Emotional Motivators:
These 9 motivators drive people psychologically and incentivize them to pursue their goals (and make buying decisions).
…And an entire book could be written for each of these 9 human motivators, below is just a brief, high-level definition of each one.
If you’d like to learn more about them, I’d highly recommend checking out Marketing to Mindstates.
1. Achievement:
Achievement is the feeling of being successful, victorious, and proud by overcoming obstacles. Nike is a brand that dominates in this space.
2. Autonomy:
Autonomy is the feeling of being unique and independent and having a feeling of self-determination in one’s actions.
3. Belonging:
Belonging is the feeling of being aligned, accepted, and connected with others. Think Harley-Davidson. They are great at evoking this tribe-like mentality. If you have a Harley, you belong.
4. Competence:
Competence is the feeling of being capable by being qualified, prepared, and skilled in an activity. Home Depot is competence brand. When consumers go into Home Depot, they’re trying to feel competence in a home improvement project.
5. Empowerment:
Empowerment is the feeling of being authorized and equipped to act on desired choices. Will Leach suggests Samsung is an example of an empowerment brand. By showing customers what they could accomplish with their technology—consumers feel in control and can manage their environment.
6. Engagement:
Engagement is the ongoing feeling of being captivated, excited, and interested in an activity. Think of Disney. Consumers buy to engage their senses. The engagement of nostalgia also plays in this space. People like the nostalgic memories more than the actual experience.
7. Esteem:
Esteem is the feeling of being approved, respected, and admired by others. An easy way to spot when someone is motivated by esteem is owning luxury brands like Lexus, BMW, and Rolex. They all channel this emotional motivator.
In addition to luxury brands, social media sites often appeal to people motivated by esteem. Esteem is often what drives people to post photos online and feel good when other users like it.
8. Nurturance:
Nurturance is the feeling of being appreciated, loved, and taken care of by others. It’s also the feeling of having the ability to take care of others. Gerber and Hallmark are great nurturance brands. Those brands build connections with consumers by helping them feel loved by others or nurturing to others.
9. Security:
Security is feeling safe and protected from threats. Home security brands like ADT and life insurance brands like New York Life are strong security brands. People driven by security seek to feel safe and are looking for protection from physical or emotional harm.
The 3 That Matter to You
Research shows that brands tend to be associated with ONE to THREE of these nine emotional motivators.
(Pro tip: If you try to speak to all nine and tap into the entire market, you end up not speaking to anybody. Your marketing won’t be focused enough.)
After doing some thinking about all my interactions with clinic owners, I’ve narrowed it down to the 3 emotional motivators that matter most to you.
But before I share that, I’m going to share THE GOAL I hear most often in conversations:
“Get more patients in the door.”
Specifically, they want high-value patients. Not just low-ticket, price shoppers.
But that’s still just a functional goal.
When I dig deeper, the higher level goal is always to:
“Get out from under the business.”
In other words, not having to worry about marketing and sales. Instead being able focus on what matters to you. Taking care of patients.
Here are the three emotional motivators I suspect are driving most clinic owners and operators:
Esteem
Security
Nurturance
Let me explain why I’ve chosen each of these.
1. Esteem:
Although it sounds superficial when you actually say it out loud—there’s no shame wanting in nice things and being respected.
I myself am motivated by esteem. (I like Rolex watches, flying business class when possible, and riding in luxury cars.)
And the signs that most of you like them too are everywhere…
For example, my dentist drives a Range Rover. (And I’m sure she’s not alone.)
When I first started researching the social media platforms my industry tends to prefer, it turns out it’s Instagram and Facebook. (Two of the most image focused platforms.)
On top of that, attaching the prefix “Doctor” in front of one’s name inherently earns respect and status.
2. Security:
This one was a little trickier to uncover, but when I thought about my past conversations with clinic owners, one of the recurring themes was this specific pain point:
Most of the time, the marketing responsibilities fall on the clinic owner (founder) OR the receptionist.
Both of which are are usually under qualified.
They’re often desperate to offload while at the same time, they want to feel safe that they are going to get a return on the marketing investments they make.
Often they just don’t know about enough about marketing and so they’re scared to waste time and money on things that don’t work.
And with good reason.
The overhead a clinic faces each month is immense.
From paying salaries to equipment expenses, practices need to make sure their schedules are fully booked.
3. Nurturance:
I’m not gonna lie to you.
I only realized this one while I was writing this newsletter.
I thought Achievement was a stronger motivator, until I physically typed out:
“Taking care of patients.”
I realized that nurturance (the feeling of having the ability to take care of others) is obviously a strong motivator for you.
(Duh!)
And right then and there I had a flashback…
To when I finished my Invisalign treatment with my dentist and oral hygienist.
We were standing outside the treatment room.
I had just finished a teeth whitening and this would be my final time coming into the clinic after a year and a half of bi-weekly sessions to change trays, run x-rays, and monitor my progress.
They both looked at me and I could feel a sense of pride in them.
They loved helping people have beautiful, functional teeth.
How I’m Using This To Grow a Med Spa
While learning about these motivators and how I can grow my own business. I’ve also been thinking about how I can use this to grow my clients business.
I’m currently setting up a Google Search ads campaign for a Med Spa based in Denver.
In my keyword research I found that when searchers type this into Google:
Hydrafacial Denver
Facial for pimples
Both trigger the Map pack and display local med spas.
Both search queries get around 400 monthly searches.
Initially, I was going to build one landing page for Hyrdrafacial denver, and target both keywords.
But now I see that that’s wrong.
While both searchers are looking to get a facial.
Their motivations are very different.
I suspect people who type in Facial for Pimples, are probably motivated by either a sense of belonging (to fit in) or by security (to protect against breakouts and the insecurity they can make you feel).
On the other hand, people who search Hydrafacial Denver are probably more esteem motivated.
Wanting to pamper themselves, and feel sexually attractive to others.
It could also be the security of preventing early signs of aging.
Same goal. Different emotional motivator. Different messaging.
The Bottom Line
I’m not going to pretend to be some expert on the matter. I’ve only just learned about these, but I can already see all the ways this will affects the way I market my business and my clients.
From the way I speak with clinic owners, to the messaging I use on my website, and the ads/landing pages I use in my clients Google ads.
I hope this was as insightful for you as it was for me.
Talk soon,
Nicholas
P.S. - Feeling unsure if you’re getting a return on your marketing?
Reply to this email with your website URL and I’ll give you a free marketing audit. I’ll send you one concrete action you can take this week to start attracting more local patients—no charge, no strings attached.