Good marketing is not a getting activity. It’s a giving one.
To do marketing well, you must give first. And give often to new people.
And I don’t mean give your product – though that also may be useful on occasion– I mean give high quality communication via your marketing.
Then, if a suitable audience finds value in your offering they may buy that thing you make, participate in your event, or hire you for consults. That’s the monetary exchange – a culmination.
And good marketing is always a long-term operation. Manipulative “buy now” techniques and funnels among discerning audiences tend to land as more needy and put-offish than attractive, so use sparingly, and only when truly called for (like you are on the verge of selling out).
Authenticity matters
Since truly “Fair Markets” must be grounded in the innate balance of egalitarian principals, of which is no person or thing is more valuable or “entitled” than anyone else; it’s important to know your customer is a dignified being, and treat them as such. So if your goal is acquiring, getting, or grabbing valuable resources from others, or “playing” at commerce, your efforts will ultimately fail.
Think of marketplaces of old, vendors with baskets and tables of wares.
If someone didn’t want or need that odd pile of barley or snake oil, they didn’t buy it. The buyer walked into market KNOWING what they needed their job was to FIND it.
And the seller had to then carry unwanted stuffs until they find a mutually-desired exchange. The dance of exchange is what makes the market fun, no matter what folks tell you about whiz-bang re-marketing approaches on the web. Many of these approaches are tech-gilded bullshit pushing profits into the monolithic company’s pockets, not yours or your peoples’.
And in our souls we all know it, even if we occasionally succumb and click “buy now” for an unnecessary item. That’s the definition of a privileged lifestyle, searching and buying things you don’t really need.
The best exchanges are rooted in win, win, (Win) mindsets, not zero sum games which include a winner and loser. The third win is something worth exploring if you want to elevate your approach.
Audiences need to be mindfully grown, because audiences also die.
Genuine endorsements and honest and responsive brand voices will bring new people to where exchanges can happen. That’s the value of generosity marketing: it brings new people to you because generosity of spirit is more appealing than shrewdness. If nothing else, it brings them into conversation with you.
Expanding an audience is an ongoing process, especially if your business is growing by location, scope, or staffing, or your audience is older or changing.
Because of natural causes, every venture must mindfully expand their audience, continually. And this requires quality marketing messages and offerings to happen correctly and rolled out with institutional knowledge as well. If your company is always reaching out, by giving quality information, beautiful visuals and words in all spheres, including digital ones, you’ll do fine.
If, however you wish to lean on, or extract more out of the same group of people, you may find yourself with dwindling numbers in money, audience, and staff alike.
Lately there have been many hawking the way to do good marketing is to “build a million dollar community.” A community built this way is by definition an elitist one, not a humane or egalitarian one because it counts value within the community as money-wielding people. This approach can work for a while, but will ultimately peter out because the soul of that kind of community is to closely aligned with commerce. And commerce is effected by forces as large as nations, governments and global trade these days.
Discerning audiences can read what your approach is, and because of this, may not like overly “salesy” language or variable pricing.
What is the value of your offering? Stay with that. If it is priceless, then you have a fun problem to solve. How do you charge for that?
Who do you really want as your audience?
Your desired audience may be discerning, brilliant, egalitarian, aesthetically-attuned, loving, and altruistic. Perhaps you also would like skeptical, observant, value-driven people? Maybe you wish to work only with those who already have everything they need, so you feel no obligation to deliver, just relate? In this case, you need provide good marketing simply because you have more than enough to give.
A giving approach ultimately creates good exchanges. Sometimes you simply grow good will, which may later beget financial windfalls later. Marketing to folks who realize they need nothing, is an especially fun practice. Then you need a motivation WHY you do it: perhaps to support a staff? Help them have a lovely life?
When you give great marketing, your work generates great returns.
Tip: if your choreograph your marketing messages to reveal a story over time and attempt to evoke positive inner experiences, insights, mind-body presence, or positive energy in the viewer; even if they don’t buy, you are on track for growth.
Like writing a great book, or making a great movie: the work will hold up because it touches people’s hearts and souls and when really extraordinary, also relieves them of some problem.
What marketing is not
Marketing is never a shove, capturing “leads,” and forcing them down a tech-segmented funnel. This approach is insulting to everyone, and not a great way to treat people, even if it feels fun and lots of marketing pros are hawking it.
If digital segmenting and funneling is your primary approach, you’ll find a drop off of quality people.
Good marketing means the seller gives value in every single outward-facing communication whether there is a CTA or clear monetization attached to it or not.
This means every image, and each word, sentence rhythm, font choice, and layout juxtaposition should be made with the intentionality to give, share, and inform. Providing beauty and humor are some of the best ways to give value – they are intrinsically positive. In otherwords, the media is not apart from the message.
Giving is the antithesis of capturing, or even converting an audience.
Communicating with clarity, inclusion, and love, while presenting true and valuable information requires energy and mindfulness, and less and less complicated technology. Truth be known, some complicated funnel-style programs are more accurately “capturing and converting” the merchant, but not necessarily delivering the goods.
How to do good marketing
- Decide to do so. What do you want to give in your marketing besides a Call to Action (CTA)?
- Beautiful images and well-composed graphics (sophistication is NOT required) delight the eyes. They are gifts to the visually-oriented audiences.
- Copy writing with rhythm creates internal sound poetry. This too can be a delight an auditory-based reader.
- Journalistic and accurate representations of your offering from several perspectives not only grows your audience, but shows respect to a discerning audience.
- Enthusiasm, honestly portrayed can be felt by a kinesthetically-inclined audience, and so is a gift of feeling.
- Sharing how many different kinds of people relate to your offering (including your staff), is a way to grow and reflect your community. This is a direct contrast to pushing, capturing and funneling them.
- Showcasing and valuing your non-commerce related activities is paramount. This is the real stuff, the market exchange (with money) is the frosting on the cake.
If you’d like to explore how these approaches can work in your business, feel free to reach out for a consultation. If you’d like to simply utilize these concepts and enjoy the benefits of them (marketing integrity plus money), you may also do that. I’ll be here feeling good about having given the best of what I know away.
I also really love decaf mocha lattes and vacations with my family.
