by Julia D. Stege, MFA
The Magical Marketer
Do you hate marketing? A lot of my customers tell me they hate marketing, and for good reason. My customers are thought leaders, healers, spiritual business owners, artists, and sensitive people who have a healthy distaste for anything competitive, hype-y or fake.
In this article I will debunk a few of the traditional marketing approaches my customers hate, and offer some alternatives to get you started.
Old Marketing Paradigm #1: You must put on a 'professional mask' in business and sqash your authentic self.
Business used to be boring. You had to dress in a suit and make polite talk, and most importantly, you had to hide who you really are in case people were turned off by your unique personality. Those using this approach have lost sight of what makes them most compelling in the world: their passion.
Positive Alternative: Recognize that you attract your perfect customers to you with your magnetic self.
The more authentic you are in your marketing, the more your perfect customers will recognize you in the market place. Express yourself and have some fun while you're at it. Your perfect customers will feel like they know, like and trust you and they will be drawn to you. Business relationships that begin with people sharing what's most important to them and are sprinkled with a bit of fun, will be more rewarding and last longer.
Old Marketing Paradigm #2: You must copy what others in your field are doing to compete for your share of customers.
In the old paradigm, business owners were instructed to study others in their field and copy their marketing techniques from a competitive standpoint. The idea is that there are a limited number of potential customers and you must steal your market share from your competitors. From the start this sets up an antagonistic attitude that runs counter to the offerings of Conscious Entrepreneurs whos aim is to uplift people. Also, using another's style or words will feel yucky and it will not distinguish you or compell others to work with you.
Positive Alternative: Share authentically from the heart.
You have a real passion for serving people and you really help them with their problems. Tap into why you love serving and how you serve others. Share about the results you have gotten for yourself and your peeps and share why that is important to you. Use your own Magical Keywords to allow your perfect peeps to recognize you. Show the real you and let your perfect customers choose you. Also, collaborate with others in your field or related fields. Open your heart to those who feel simpatico with you and see how you can serve people even more effectively as a team.
Old Marketing Paradigm #3: You must target a niche market and convince them to buy from you.
A lot of new marketers and old marketers alike will insist you need to select a target audience to market to. If you cannot choose a niche, you cannot even start marketing yourself. This causes many entrepreneurs to delay marketing at all, because they cannot decide upon a niche.
Postive Alternative: Determine the qualities of your perfect customers from experience and speak from the heart.
In the Attraction Plan, we are asked to Describe the qualities, characteristics and attributes of our perfect customers in detail to get a sense of who WE want to attract, who WE want to work with, who is a perfect match for us. Focusing on attracting from this standpoint does not require that you target an audience but rather magnetize those who are a perfect match for you.
So in a nutshell, here are the Authentic Marketing Essentials to remember:
- Share yourself authentically in your marketing.
- Toss away 'professional mask.'
- Use Magical Keywords that resonate with you and your perfect peeps.
- Attract perfect customers who are a perfect fit for you using Law of Attaction Principles.
- Collaborate with others in your field, or in complimentary fields for mutual benefit.
- Be yourself!
- Have fun!
Posts
You're 100% right about the Marketing myths. Worse, are the Advertising and Selling myths. Both based on making people buy something they don't really want. Advertising, Marketing and Selling only work if people trust the person doing it. I can't sell anything, but I can help a "new friend" to solve a need.
ReplyDeleteOver 32 years, I've lost 3 microbusinesses to medical problems. The last one, leaving me 80% paraplegic. I finally decided to put what I learned from them, into a book. I believe that if pay attention to my system, very close to yours, but based on "people buy from people." If you care about people, whether you're Advertising, Marketing or Selling, you will gain at least 50% in effectiveness.
People don't like to be sold to, but they don't mind discussing a sale with a friend.
the book isn't published yet, and the website isn't up yet. If anyone wants to know more, they can contact me at. fbngraph at earthlink dot net. It can help you explain the law of attraction effect to others.