One of the most amazing books which can help is "Presence" by Patsy Rodenburg. Patsy is a voice coach for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her book is actually about personal voice tone, style and presentation presence. However, on reading "Presence", you will find a great deal there to apply to business and web marketing too.
When we start online marketing for the first time, new marketeers often struggle both their message and marketing tone of voice. How do we say what we want to say in the right way? The word "right" here to most new businesses really means "How do we sell our products/services to deliver the most profit?" Now sales are important to businesses, vital in fact, I don't deny that. But, equally as important, is our integrity and our authenticity, both fundamental parts of who we are as both an individual and as a business. Patsy's book "Presence", in essence, teaches people have to find their voice and presence by understanding her circles of energy. Her model is one that we can apply to our business and our web marketing voice too.
3 Circles Of Energy
There is much more to Patsy's book than I could hope to present in this article. However, one of the main things I came away with from the books was Patsy's idea that we live within 3 states of energy. These are:
1st circle: falls back into you, is to yourself and in the past
2nd circle: being present, focused on something, the circle of survival and intimacy
3rd circle: pushed out, often seen as aggressive, too loud, of the future
You can watch Patsy talking about the above 3 circles here Patsy Rodenburg on 2nd Circle Energy
The secret to "presence", as Patsy puts it, is to take oneself into 2nd circle when performing on stage. It is when we are in 2nd circle that we can truly engage and connect with our audience.
Applying 2nd Circle Energy To Web Marketing
I find this idea incredibly interesting to apply to web marketing too. In today's online world, where we are told "content is king" or "social media essential", we have the opportunity to "connect" with our target audience almost instantly and whenever we wish. Therefore, what has to be equally, if not more important, is the voice we use to speak through the many available web marketing channels. If we think of all our marketing as a "performance", then we want our marketing performance to be delivered with 2nd circle energy.
If we are finding it difficult to connect with our target market online, then we can ask ourselves the following:
Is our web marketing too quiet (1st Circle Energy)? Are we under selling our offer? Are we telling the world who we are and what we believe in? It's amazing how many clients I work with who have kept some of their greatest selling points hidden within their company and instead of using them as a focus for their internet marketing.
Is our web marketing too forceful (3rd Circle Energy)? Are we pushing our target market with too strong a message? Too many messages? A focus on the sale rather than the prospective customer? The best route to profit is to offer something great and deliver. For this reason, sales should never be the sole, primary focus of any business.
How do we give our online marketing "presence"?
Take away all of your own business pressures. Try not to create your marketing messages with thoughts of sales targets, internal costs and other business pressures in your mind. Focus on what you offer and what you believe make it, and your business, brand positive.
1. Focus on your perfect customer. Where are they? What are they thinking? What would you say to them if they were sat right beside you?
2. Speak with belief. When we create our marketing messages, we can be tempted to claim the same things as our competition without truly believing in what we are saying. Focus on what you know you can do for customers well and it will motivate both your customers and you.
3. Similar to the last point, we can often get caught up within industry language and fashions. Don't worry too much about "matching everyone else" or saying the "right things". Be brave, do things your own way and be genuine. You'll believe it more. So will your potential customers.
Finally, if this article has offered you something, read Patsy's book, it'll offer much more than I can here! I'm sure you'll find it changes how you and your business present themselves going forward.
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