Does emotional marketing have a place in the serious business of medical diagnostic marketing? I would argue that with today’s edgy genomic product messages overwhelming our customers, all our marketing communication needs to connect emotionally with our customers now more than ever.

In a world of social media where our relationships with strangers feel real, emotional marketing takes this connection to another level by tapping into each of our personal passions, making the brand our friend.

In this article we have reached out to Glenn Sagon, a trusted partner of Market Ready Rx for more than ten years and an emotional marketing expert, to teach us how to be more human marketers in our world of “personalized” medicine.

Regardless of whether you market diagnostic clinical tests, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, or clinical service to clinicians studies have shown that understanding and utilizing emotional, behavioral and psychographic insights can positively influence the decision-making process. Tools such as emotional and sentiment analytics, influencer and persuasion marketing matter.

On a lifetime value basis, emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers."
Harvard Business review Alan Zorfas & Daniel Leemon

When you generate emotional brand experiences that engage, you successfully define who your brand is and why it matters. In marketing, relationships mean everything in when it comes to connecting to your customers.

Here are four key best practices that will more effectively connect your brand or organization to your customers.

1) Features and Benefits OUT. Emotional Pain Points IN
Marketers must go beyond the features and benefits narratives if they truly want to connect with customers and influence their purchase decision process.

Emotions are key to creating these connections. Dig deep to find the pain points for your customers. Will this test improve turnaround time of results creating less stress in having to answer to angry calls from a clinician. Does your product or service provide peace of mind or confidence in your customers daily work?
Without compelling, emotionally-driven marketing, customers may have heard about you, but may not find you. Building insightful conversations and communication, providing data-driven information and personalized digital experiences increase the odds of acquiring potential customers while raising awareness about your brand, product or service.

2) Data Driven Emotional marketing
The combination of psychology and data uncover true emotion and behavior. This is the key to creating emotionally intelligent strategies and ideas that engage and influence the purchase decision process and a powerful strategy for companies to fulfill a customers’ deep, often unconscious, desires and behavior. Emotional connections are proven to attract and trigger more profitable and loyal customers.

Conduct brand market surveys to develop data driven strategies and help you understand how your customers really feel about the product, the brand name and the messages you are communicating. Market Ready Rx can facilitate this.

3) It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it
Whether it’s a PD-L1 diagnostic test to guide immuno-oncology therapy, next generation sequencing, or gene therapy breakthroughs customers want to be talked to in a way that makes them feel valued, empowered and educated. This is not about how great your product may be. This about how to make someone feel.

• Listen carefully as customers talk about experiences, then create meaningful and relevant narratives and messaging to show how your product or company can hold their attention.
• Challenge customers to change their behavior by offering better reasoning or a different experience.
• Bring real relevance — not just rehashed focus group or social chatter — to brand stories.
• At every opportunity, position customers the way they want them to feel and be seen – as informed, intelligent, compassionate individuals. The resulting content you create has the power to deepen that sense of customer pride, which in turn can motivate response and strengthen brand loyalty.

By addressing feelings, emotions, reactions, apprehensions and providing a sense of hope you can manage and improve communication and understanding as it relates to purchase consideration behavior. This is the moment where emotion-driven marketing can build a unique, relevant and invaluable connection with customers.

Appeal to the heart first, then the head.
Share more than sell.
Humanize more than sensationalize.

Emotion is the path to success.

To learn more about how Market Ready Rx can support your work, visit Market Ready Rx.

GLENN SAGON
Founder/Chief Executive Officer
Sagon-Phior

About Glenn Sagon:
For nearly 30 years, Glenn has helped brands connect more effectively to their audiences. As a strategist, he has developed technologies and innovations that shine a spotlight on a clients’ ability to reach out and touch their customers through Emotional Marketing. As a marketer, he has created and shaped narratives and messaging that tap into the power of feelings, persuasion and influence. For brands like Microsoft, Cablevision, Sony and Honda, Pininfarina and GRAPHISOFT he has used Emotional Marketing as a centerpiece for creative strategy.

Glenn received his B.A. at California College of the Arts and co-founded Sagon-Phior with award winning creative director Rio Phior. Emotional Marketing and predictive analytics is a key persuasion strategy tool used for brands including Agilent - Pathology Solutions, Microsoft, UDR Real Estate, GRAPHISOFT, Rodney Strong Wine Estates, Irvine Company, Nuvision Federal Credit Union, City National Bank, Gelson's Supermarkets and Cynvenio LiquidBiopsy Technology.