Images like this tend to send a business owner into digital marketing overwhelm:
There is no need to stress! Markeding® is the answer!
All the digital marketing choices are great, but where the heck to start!? and when do I make time for it all!? are common concerns.
There are a plethora of web and social media marketing phrases thrown around by companies and professionals (and unfortunately too many un-professionals) trying to make a claim in the web world. All the digital marketing buzz is very exciting, but it can also be so darn overwhelming.
The good news is that digital marketing overwhelm is treatable – the prescription is simple:
Stop thinking Marketing and start thinking EDUCATION -markeding®.
markeding® is a mashup of the words marketing and education. In my decade plus helping clients and students in my university classes, I noticed a pattern:
- Fear and anxiety about marketing
- Negative feelings about marketing and marketers
- Lack of support about how to think about and approach marketing
Marketing breakthroughs can’t happen until there is a breakdown of beliefs and behaviors.
So in true geek-chic mode, I began to research the root cause of the fears, anxiety, negative feelings, lack of effort and found that:
- Fear and anxiety were connected to a near-sighted mindset that marketing was either too expensive, time consuming and/or difficult
- Negative sentiment was caused by a feeling that “marketing” meant promotion, which is viewed as self-serving and egotistical (think used car salesman or infomercial cheesy)
- Lack of guidance about how to think about and approach marketing was due to focusing on the tools (PR, websites, social media, advertising, etc.) not how and most importantly, WHY to engage in marketing
You must change your brain to rethink about and approach marketing so that you do it ethically and effectively.
Marketing with an Educational focus is the solution. Education is the core of effective and ethical marketing. When you approach digital marketing with this mindset, it takes the “ew, I don’t like marketing” and “I am not good at marketing” feelings out (who doesn’t want to help a target marketing understand something?) and helps alleviate the fears, anxiety and “how do I start?” barriers to get work going.
I am a markeding® evangelist. Approaching marketing in an ethical way with a pure, educational purpose builds credibility, is user-friendly, boosts visibility, sellability and is highly scalable.
Simple self-help exercise:
Ask yourself what you need to help your target customer understand…then apply to answer to your website copy, what you post on social media, blog about and more.
TEACH, don’t preach!