The other day I was at work, waiting on these two sweet middle-aged ladies. One had a floppy hat on (yes!) and the other was wearing the loudest flower frock I’ve ever seen. We started chatting a bit and I told them I was a writer. Floppy Hat giggled with glee. She was a writer, too! And Loud Flower Frock told me she made jewelry.
When I came back from retrieving their turmeric almond milk lattes, I noticed that Loud Flower Frock was giving Floppy Hat entrepreneur advice.
Naturally, my ears perked up and like all good waiters, I eavesdropped the hell out of their conversation.
And wanted to bury my head in the spinach lemonade.
Loud Flower Frock had the best intentions for herself and her friend, but her outdated and macho businessman driven marketing advice made me cringe at this sad reality…
Creatives and marketing are like R2D2 and C3PO: Both annoy the heck out of each other, but at the end of the day love each other because they need the other.
So this article is dedicated to the Floppy Hats and Loud Flower Frocks of the world. When you’re a creative and need to market, here’s what NOT to do:
- Talk about how AH-mazing your product is. Listen, you know your product is great (even if the product itself is you). I know your product is great. But the people you want to sell it to? Don’t give a rat’s behind if you think your product is great. They want to know how your product will affect them. Or more accurately…how your product will make them feel. When you appeal to your target market’s feelings, you are going way beyond features and benefits of the thing. At the end of the day, here’s what you need to remember in this noisy digital world: no one has time to listen to how great you and yours are. So tell them how great they and theirs are.
- Just figure out your Target Market’s favorite color and run with it. Ugh, shoot me now. The majority of entrepreneur conferences, classes, webinars, and products spend a good amount of time talking about your target market right out the gate. And they’re not wrong. Until they have you fill out the avatar sheets that look frightening similar to character profiles for a story you’re writing. Figuring out their favorite color, where they live, when they graduated, and their pet’s name is just fine and dandy. But that’s just demographics. You—as the brilliant creative entrepreneur that you are—know that you have to go deeper than that surface stuff. You need to get to the heart of your customer or fan by asking these questions:
- What is their worldview?
- How would they feel about this product you are offering them?
- How could you reaffirm their identity with your product.
- Fake it till you make it. The idea of this is a great way to get the ball rolling, but you can’t let it become gospel. They want the real you. The human you. I go deeper on the topic here.
- Join every Social Media there is. Not only will you spread yourself thin, but you’ll be drunk and overwhelmed by the end of the week. Pick no more than three and hone your skills at those. And make sure you are having fun because otherwise you won’t do it.
- Constantly post on said Social Media. If you clog my feed I will pummel you with martini olives.
- And then make your life easier by automating every one of those posts so you never have to log on and you can spend all your time doing your creative thing. You know how you hate it when you come in contact with a business and it feels like all you do is talk to machines? Your Honor, I give you Exhibit A.
- And because you are a stud on these Social Media Channels now, you don’t need a website. No, no, no. With all the options out there for Social Media, I recognize that you can’t (and shouldn’t) do it all. But there is one thing you must—I repeat—must have. A home. And you do that by creating a website. Something that is yours. Something you can hang your hat on. Somewhere you can throw a great party.
- In order to be heard in this noisy world, shout. Shouting is obnoxious and only works if you are naked while doing it. If you find yourself shouting and people are still not getting it, it’s because your message (read: marketing) is wrong. Shouting also comes out as desperate. The only way to be heard is to know what the hell you are doing. That comes back to understanding you, your product, and most importantly…your target market. You have to know your peeps. You have to. I talk about this a lot in my branding series, Iceberg. If you don’t have peeps who will listen to your message and sprint—not saunter—to tell their friends about it…then my dear, you are nothing but a naked shouting monkey in the middle of a crowded room. And that gets awkward real fast.
- Don’t have a celebratory martini, keep a clear head. WTF?!
- Ask for favors all the time, and to perfect strangers. You need to sell yourself. There’s no question about that. You need to put yourself out there, talk about yourself and your product, and tell people how to get involved. But if you do it right as we are shaking hands for the first time? You’re being a jerk. Image being at your best friend’s Halloween party. She wants to introduce you to Steve, this really cool guy she works with. She thinks that you and Steve will really hit it off. So she takes you over, Steve’s eyes sparkle and he says something like, “Enchanted.” And then the next thing out of his mouth is this: “Can you do me a favor? Could you drive me home after this? I plan to get real wrecked.” I’d bet you’d like to tell Steve where to stuff his Halloween candy. Marketing is the same way. When you get someone remotely interested in you, the surefire way to shove them away is sell to them immediately.
One time I followed a fellow writer on Twitter who wrote this cool sounding thriller book. The next day, he wrote on my wall with a quote from his book and a link to his amazon page. I don’t know you yet sir. You can’t ask me to spend my time, money, and energy on you when I know nothing about you yet. This is where the good old 80/20 rule comes in. Spend 80% of your marketing focusing on the target market by engaging in conversation, asking questions, posting videos they may like, sharing articles they’d get a kick out of (woo them). Then spend the 20% (humbly) talking about yourself by selling yourself, telling them to like your Facebook Page, or asking for a review, or a share, or retweet, or their hard earned cash.
There is a lot of advice out there. Some good, some bad, some psychedelic. Your job is to weed through the nonsense and find what works for you. But for the love of Pete, don’t do these ten things.