Kill Your Boogey Man Marketing Once And For All
Small business owners and marketing professionals are constantly told to find the pain points and offer solutions. Increasingly over the last several decades, finding pain points equates to exploiting pain and forcing consumers to feel reliant on products to have never-within-reach whole, healthy lives.
We're constantly building the Boogey Man and then offering the solution to defeat him.
Let's not.
Seriously, friends.
We have enough Boogey Peoples in our lives.
Do we need to create more?
Uhhhhh... no.
Using the fear factor in marketing may push some merchandise and create repeat buyers, but incorporating such tactics contributes to a larger problem. This approach creates a world where people are in a constant panicked, conditioned state.
Is that the kind of world you want to live in?
Small business owners have the power to shift the way business is done. You may not have all the dollars that corporate teams do, but you do have sheer numbers. If every small business owner started to ask the tough questions, marketing and the climate of our world could greatly shift.
Do you truly want to sell things to people because they're afraid to not fall behind or be less than?
Do you truly want to add more stress, panic and depression to people's lives?
Do you truly want to contribute to a mindset of scarcity and lack?
Though these things may help make some cash and put valuable products in people's hands, perpetuating a greater feeling of fear in the world is one of the absolute LAST things we need to march forward into a prosperous, sustainable future.
We're inundated with fear mongering. Even my favorite nonprofits do it.
The big question we need to ask ourselves is:
Are we sincerely more productive and positive when acting from a place of fear and pain or are we more productive and positive when we act from a place of empowerment and well-being?
Your small business marketing must start to reflect your answer to that question.
How do you get away from fear-based marketing tactics? Start incorporating empowered marketing approaches instead.
1. Do showcase the benefits of using your products.
2. Do paint pictures that show how the world is changed by making positive choices.
3. Do offer tips on how to improve the world as a whole.
4. Do show steps that lead to solutions.
5. Do provide dialogue that unifies and builds community.
6. Do offer perspective on how your product fits into a healthy lifestyle.
7. Do empower passionate, positive action for beneficial causes that have nothing to do with selling your product.
8. Do embrace and address objections with honesty, integrity, and transparency.
9. Do give back and support organizations that align with your mission.
10. Do take time to listen to your supporters and augment your message accordingly.
Doesn't inspiration feel so much better than insecurity? Lifting others up isn't merely about naively staring at the sunshiney side of things, it's about creating, supporting, and encouraging more of the things you want to see in the world.
That whole "be the change" thing? It's more than a quote. It's a lifestyle. You rock. Your small business can harness it's power to be a force for empowerment. The words you choose and the tone of your marketing message affects lives. Lives affect the entire world. Create awesome.
If you'd like to hop on the small business positive impact train, throw your email into the box over there in the right hand margin. Get tools to build awesome.
