Saturday, January 12, 2008

What You Seek is Seeking You: Authentic Marketing is Key

As an entrepreneur, how often have you found yourself thinking,
“I need more customers
…better customers
…richer customers
…friendlier customers!”

You are not alone. We’ve all been there. We’ve all taken a look at our bank balance and said, “Wow, I need more clients! How am I going to do that?”

Even those of us who have reached prosperity in our businesses have had experiences like sitting on the phone getting an earful from a persnickety customer for the umpteenth time while thinking, “Where are all the nice customers? Do I have to take this to make a living?”

It’s easy to feel discouraged when you feel that you have to compete for a limited pool of customers. Most of us believe that we must sacrifice doing what we love, offering instead a product or service because it is currently popular. Anyone who has started a business from scratch knows how it feels to work hard on self-promotion, not ever knowing if you’re doing what it takes to find enough of the right customers to stay afloat and eventually prosper.

Attraction Marketing

As a marketing consultant and designer, I have advised dozens of customers to begin to look at marketing with new eyes. I believe that the old competitive, hypey model of marketing is not only stressful and aggravating, it's often ineffective. And many business owners --- especially women entrepreneurs -- don’t like the idea of competition and selling.

I ask my customers, “Wouldn’t you rather attract customers than compete for them?” Of course the answer is yes. But how?

Authenticity is the Key

The Law of Attraction says, “What we seek is also seeking us.”
Therefore to attract our perfect customers, we must be aware of who we are on a deep level and be authentic in our marketing. After all, if what we seek is also seeking us, our perfect customers are looking for us right now. How will they recognize us when they find us? They will recognize us when we are authentic and come from the heart.

ATTRACTIVE ACTION: Ask yourself, “What makes me tick? What’s my life purpose? What am I here for? How does this relate to my products and services?” Write a paragraph or two relating your purpose and your offerings. This can be the beginning of a website welcome paragraph, a blog entry, or a direct mail piece. Whenever you are sharing your business, be sure to be authentic and share who you really are. This will not only set you apart from the crowd, it will be fun and fulfilling for you!

Law of Attraction Marketing is Fun and Magical!

Do you wish you could attract perfect customers while enjoying life? Do you think it’s possible to have fun while marketing? Most of us consider marketing to be an unfortunate necessity, something we don’t understand or don’t like to do. Some of this is because of the “Dog Eat Dog” model of advertising we were raised with.

A New Paradigm for Marketing

Most traditional marketing is about targeting an audience and inundating them with repeated messages until they succumb and buy something they don’t really want or need. Billions of advertising dollars are spent to lure people away from their own intuition. But there is a growing population of us who are becoming more sophisticated about our buying choices and the messages we support, and we want our own marketing to reflect this change.

Rather than retreat from marketing altogether, I believe we want to create a new paradigm for marketing that is authentic and fun, that forwards our mission and purpose with clarity, and that attracts our perfect customers to us. I call this new paradigm Magical MarketingTM

Who do You Want to Attract?

An important step in creating our Magical Marketing PlanTM is to clarify who our perfect customers are. Some of us haven’t considered that we can attract customers we like, people who inspire us while valuing our talents, brilliant conversationalists who provide money and additional resources to forward our missions. Sometimes we feel stuck in a rut of working with people we don’t like or who disappoint us. The Law of Attraction says what we focus on expands, and if we are focused on lack, we will attract more lack. To empower our ability to attract perfect customers, lets consciously use the Law of Attraction and focus on the kind of people we want to attract.

Attractive Action #1: write down the qualities you want in your perfect customers. Consider their personality traits, the resources they have, how they find you, what they want you to do, what they say to you, what they think about you. Keep going on this list until you cannot think of any more traits. If you encounter someone who disappoints you, stop to consider what traits you would prefer and write them down. Focus on what you want and watch it expand.

What Do You Love to Do?

The most successful entrepreneurs I know attract customers in magical ways while they’re busy having fun. They promote things that reflect their life purpose, and enjoy talking about what they do as a result. These people are irresistible to their perfect customers because they are authentic and passionate. When we share ourselves while doing what we love, we too become irresistible magnets to our perfect customers.

Attractive Action # 2: Write down everything you like to do, including what you like to offer in your business, the activities you like to do in your day, the things you like to do for fun. Also write down your dreams and aspirations, what you would like to be, do or have. Consider how these are related to your business. Is your business aligned with your dreams and your loves? How could you do what you love in a way that promotes your business? Be inventive and create new relationships between pleasure and marketing.

Bring it All Together

Now you have a list for what your perfect customers are like and what you love to do and your spirits are lifted a bit. You are on your way to attracting your perfect customers. Taking some of the actions you consider fun is a way to increase your chances of connecting with other like minded souls would want your special offering. Go forth, have fun, attract, and don’t forget to bring your business cards!