6 Ways to Put People First in Your Marketing

A lot of marketing treats prospective clients like garbage.

From psychological techniques to fake authority before it actually accrues, to the widely-accepted advice to ‘touch their pain’ in order to connect, is it any wonder so many are left with a desire to hose themselves off?

Thankfully, there is another way.

It starts with rejecting the idea that we need to “suck it up” and treat prospective clients in a way we don’t like to grease the gears of a sale.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1)    Think about how it feels to be on the receiving end of a specific tactic. One of the members of our Write Club community recently reported the experience of interviewing a copywriter about the possibility of working together, only to be badgered by threatening follow up emails that used stock phrases like “you’re leaving money on the table” and artlessly trying to change a no into a yes on email. Not only is this desperate, it’s tacky.

PRO TIP: Before you reach out to anyone in your business – especially a prospective client! – ask yourself: is this what I would like to receive? Is it delightful? Am I contributing in a meaningful way?

2)    Don’t do anything the way most people do it. A colleague of mine recently texted me a simple question during regular business hours:

. It was simple, clear, and personal – and heaps better than the cut-and-paste generic emails I get from people I don’t know who confuse me with a woman who says yes to garbage.

3)    Spend time each week building relationships with colleagues. Set up 30-minute conversations to follow up with people you genuinely like and who have their act together. Ask what they are up to, how you can help them and then do it. Don’t be a lone wolf! It’s harder and less fun than having a crew of people who are cheering you on.

4)    Slow down. Our culture conditions us to move fast, but this actually disconnects us from other people (and our own wisdom). This disconnection leads to a feeling that we are separate from other people, which causes all sorts of problems – one of them being that our marketing is unoriginal and no one cares. Dare to reject the dominant paradigm and explore the bounty that can only find you if you shut up and get present.

5)    Get in conversation with your clients. Ask your clients (or if you’re new, the people you want to be your clients) for clues about why they hired you. You’ll probably need to sift through their answers for the gold you can use in your marketing. The trick is to listen for themes and phrases that keep coming up.

PRO TIP: Ask your favorite clients: What was your #1 challenge that led you to hire me? What had you tried before and did it work? What’s the biggest benefit you’ve gotten from our work together?

6)    Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want done to you.  One of my friends tells the story of being at a coaching event where she was followed into the bathroom by a salesperson who wanted to ‘coach’ her into buying a coaching program.  Man, was she pissed! (No pun intended.) While hilarious, it’s also tacky. If you don’t enjoy being on the receiving end of high-pressure sales tactics, don’t do them to other people. Remember: this is your business. You’re the boss. There is more than one way to market and sell your programs and services.

On our quest to increase our client list and revenue, let us remember that how we go about it matters. The way we conduct ourselves in business signals our values.

Do we fundamentally believe our prospective clients are so mixed up that only we know what’s best – and get to use high-pressure techniques “for their own good”?

Or are we truly on a mission to help everyone we meet to see themselves as the hero of their own story – and relinquish our right to exercise ‘power over’ other people because that’s not how we roll?

To be clear – there’s nothing wrong with making money. Far from it. But if you’re truly on a mission – as many of us are now — to help people become the proverbial captains of their own ship and cocreators of a culture that works for more people, make sure it starts with the marketing and sales techniques you use.

Stella Orange is a copywriter who helps people put their work into words. For eight years, she wrote email campaigns that resulted in more than a million dollars in sales for her clients. In that time, Stella also taught popular marketing writing workshops to business owners on both sides of the Atlantic -- and a few in Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, Stella cofounded a creative and consulting shop offering a complete and slightly unorthodox line of business advising and marketing services. She continues to write copy and advise clients on customer delight, how to resonate with more sophisticated, discerning clientele in your marketing, and just who, exactly, your ideal clients are. Stella is the founder of Show Up And Write, a weekly writing group and writes a letter every two weeks or so (here’s the sign-up). She lives with the Philosopher and their two kiddos in Buffalo, New York, a fifteen-minute bike ride to the Canadian border.

4 Comments


  1. Diane Kluft

    Stella, you’re a genius and I love you! Fab article. You continue to inspire me! Happy New Year!
    Love,
    Diane ?

  2. Lisa Dennys

    Stella, thanks for always cutting the crap, telling the truth, and embodying sincerity & humanity instead of being a sleazy marketing machine. The world needs you!

  3. Lisa

    Excellent article. Finally someone who thinks like I do.

    Thank you Stella!!

  4. Stella

    You bet, Lisa. Thanks for reading!

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