The case for mindfulness in marketing (a sh*tty first draft)
Let me preface this. What you are about to read is what my clients and I call a Sh*tty First Draft, with hat tip to author Anne Lamott, who coined the term in her lovely, real book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.
In my how-to-write-marketing-that-doesn’t-suck classes for online business owners, we use the term to remind us all that you don’t need to be perfect on the first go. You just need to get your ideas out of your head and onto the page.
Please note: I am talking about writing marketing copy here.
And it also bears saying that I treat writing of marketing copy with a sacredness that is rather odd and unusual in my industry. As one of my students once wrote on my blog, “I’ve never heard a marketing person talk like this before.”
But this is how I look at it: I’m not JUST writing marketing. I am expressing myself. I am making my best, if imperfect, attempt to sing the song that only I can sing. (With hat tip to Maya Angelou, who has been known to have said: “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”)
And yes, I am promoting my business by quoting Anne Lamott and Maya Angelou. With apologies to both. Now, onto our tale…
The first reason I invite you to be more mindful in your marketing is that YOU have a song, too… a perspective that is unlike the other people in your industry.
When you put this in your marketing, it will genuinely touch, move or inspire other people.
Many business owners sell themselves short here. They think that, to successfully market their business, they must follow some fill-in-the-blank template or use the hype they see other people using.
But that isn’t true.
More sophisticated audiences don’t want hype, too-good-to-be-true promises, overused phrases… or the underlying anxiety this approach generates.
They want thoughtful experts who tell them the truth, treat them well, and can competently advise them on getting what they want.
You may be doing this with your clients right now, but you probably don’t know how to communicate on this level in your marketing. And I bet you 10 bucks it’s been bugging you, and holding you back in a big way.
The second reason I invite you to be more mindful in your marketing is that it slows you down.
Slowing down gives you time to dig into your imagination. To dig into who you are, as a service provider and a human being… what you stand for, and what you are fighting against.
Slowing down also gives you room to feel into what your audience of sophisticated clients wants — when they come across your marketing.
This is not something that can be taught. It is something you must discover.
But when you decided to do this, you will find gold. And then you will sprinkle that gold throughout your marketing. And it will resonate with really great clients, who have a higher standard for who gets their attention. Because you took the time.
The third reason I invite you to be more mindful in your marketing is that you will not look like everyone else online.
When you take the time to know how YOU say things, know what stories YOU tell, and understand what sets you apart in the marketplace, it becomes impossible to communicate in a generic way.
Your website will look different. Your emails will sound different. Your newsletters will feel different.
People who come across your marketing may not know why they opened your email (out of the dozens they got that day) or why they clicked on a link (something they rarely do)… but they will tell you, “I just had this feeling that you were the one I needed to work with. That you were the one who could help me.”
As a copywriter and writing teacher, I see too many websites, newsletters, videos and emails that look the same. They promise the same things. They use the same formulas. They express the same, canned emotions. And I think this is a damn shame – and a huge opportunity, for those of you who, like me, chafe at the clichés and corniness of that crap.
But seizing this opportunity is not fast, cheap, or easy. It requires digging. It requires experimentation. And it requires that you develop your own ear for what resonates, what feels good in your body to send out into the world… and what doesn’t.
You won’t always get it right, by the way. But if you’re in it for the long haul, it doesn’t matter. You already know that win or lose, all of it is helping you get where you want to go.
So if your destination is attracting high-end clients online, go ahead, start getting more mindful — and blaze your own trail – in your marketing. Your audience has been waiting for you to take the leap.
