Anger, fear, scarcity, FOMO, loss aversion, loneliness, shame and guilt.

Negative emotions like these can be powerful motivators in driving our customers to take the action we want them to take.

In fact, they’re some of the most common buttons marketers push in order to motivate buyers who are on the fence.

But they’re not the only motivators we have available to us.

Hope, desire, love, trust, affinity, joy, excitement, curiosity, pride, belonging, possibility.

These are powerful motivators as well.

Instead of aiming to show our customers how small and weak they are without us, these motivators call on them to step up, to reach for their potential, to be and become their best selves.

Rather than denigration, this type of marketing is about actualization.

And not just for our customers, but for us as well.

Whether or not we realize it, sooner or later we all end up eating our own dog food.

Marketing built on negative motivators influences our own work as well. Under its influence, we begin looking to cut corners, compromise on our integrity, and create work that lacks depth, meaning, and impact. As long as it sells, who cares?

Marketing built on positive motivators, on possibility and potential, however, does the opposite. It motivates us to be our best selves. To create our best work, to be generous and empathetic in our marketing, and to take a view that honours what’s best for our customers, communities and ourselves in the long run.

This type of marketing is generative. A call to adventure. An invitation to step into what could be.

We get to decide which type of motivation we use in our marketing.

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