Do I Have to Use Hype in Marketing My Business?

Many of my clients say to me, marketing just feels so unnatural to me, so much like hype. Do I really have to do that to get people to learn about my products and services?

In the olden days, say a couple of decades ago, marketing was often about hype. It involved overstating your product's benefits, underplaying those of your competitors, and painting a dire picture if you didn't buy that brand of toothpaste.

Those days are gone.

With widespread use of the internet, the consumer has access to so much information, and has become knowledgeable about their options. It's not enough to paint a pretty picture, whether or not it's supported by facts.

You've got to back up your marketing with a solid foundation, or you quickly lose credibility in the eyes of your prospects.

When it comes to marketing hype, it isn't just about these practical considerations of what works and what doesn't work - that's not the whole story. Those practicalities are too limiting.

The bigger picture is how you feel about what you're telling your clients and prospective clients.

It's just as important, and perhaps more so, to consider your own integrity and the energy of what you are making available to others.

So when you're considering how to market your product or service, know that you get to be you.

Your authentic Self is the best place to come from in marketing what you offer. It's what sets you apart and makes you unique. It even eliminates competition, because only you are you. If you can allow yourself to be that, all of who you are, then you've truly distinguished yourself.

A successful business is not just about a unique product or service. Sure, a small percentage of businesses do offer something truly unique. More likely though, you are one of many who offer your product or service.

So what sets you apart? The HOW of your business. How you structure your offering, how you interact with customers and clients, how you present yourself. That's where the unique You comes in.

Identify what's unique about you, and emphasize it, amplify it. Repeat it in your marketing in various ways to make your distinctiveness clear.

Here's a quick exercise for you, to get you started on how you can do this in your own marketing:

1. The first action is a quiet one. Sit. Close your eyes. Think about what makes you and your business unique. What do you think those things are? What have others told you, clients, prospective clients, friends?

2. Write them down. Describe each one, and add examples, to flesh them out and bring them more to life. Add visuals if you have them. The more you can bring them to life in your descriptions, the easier it will be to make the transition to the next step.

3. How can you emphasize those aspects? What can you add to the marketing you are already doing? What can you do that is new to bring out your uniqueness? Be creative! Entertain even far-out ideas, even if only briefly, to stretch the limits of your current thinking and beliefs about what works.

You can even take this a little further.

4. Do a little research. See what others who offer the same product or service are doing. The purpose of this is not to compare, put yourself down, or one-up the 'competition'. Its sole purpose is to give you new ideas about how you can further emphasize your own unique qualities.

No matter what your business, you have an opportunity to be truly unique and distinctive. Do that by getting down to the true You, your authentic Self, and making that a dominant aspect of all your marketing.

There's nothing more powerful than authenticity in reaching out to your clients, customers, and prospects.