The New Rules of Marketing Five Key Principles of Care, Credibility, Connection, Clarity and Calling - Kathy Caprino

The New Rules of Marketing â€" Five Key Principles of Care, Credibility, Connection, Clarity and Calling As many of my friends and community members know, Im a huge fan of Scott Stratten, President of Un-marketing (www.un-marketing.com). Almost every word this guy says and writes resonates 100% with me, and reflects my views and feelings about what it means to engage authentically, build relationships, and market yourself, your products and services, in the highest and best sense of the word.  You can read all about Scott on his site, his blog, and follow him on Twitter at @unmarketing (hes considered one of the top influencers on Twitter, with 60,000 folks following his tweets.) His new book Unmarketing: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging is a must-read for anyone doing marketing or in business, and if you want to see him in person (highly recommended), heres his 30-city book tour schedule. Dont miss him! Im going to Hartford, CT on October 5th to see him. If youre in Connecticut, hope to see you there!What Ive learned from Scott and other top marketing thinkers, and in the eight years of building my own business, community and platform, is that your marketing efforts will not be successful unless they come from a place of caring, credibility, connection, clarity, and calling. My personal take on 5 key ingredients to successful, prosperity-minded marketing: 1)  CARE: Youve got to truly care about the welfare of your clients/customers 2) CREDIBILITY: You must build trust and gain credibility with people before they care about what you do 3) CONNECTION: Create a true, mutual connection with others by giving of yourself and your work, and listening and learning from others, through different avenues that engage and enliven 4) CLARITY: Know who you are, stay true to that, and share a viewpoint that enlightens, entertains or educates in some essential way 5) CALLING: If youre not passionate about what youre doing, change directions  If youre wondering how these principles look and feel like in the practical world, below are some tactics that support these core principles:  1) Care About Your Customers, Clients, and Community  The world has changed. Everything you do today as an entrepreneur, marketer, writer, thinker, speaker, etc. is transparent, clear for all to see. Your motivations, your desired outcomes, your behaviors and thinking its all out there now. The truth is, if you dont really care about the welfare and success of your clients and customers, and if youre thinking only about is how you can succeed, you wont. To succeed and thrive, you must create a world of mutuality and reciprocity give and get, love and be loved, support and be supported. If you dont hold up your end, and if you dont start from a place of How can I best serve?, you just wont succeed in the big way you dream of. If deeply loving and caring about the people you serve is difficult or impossible for you, its a sign that you have to change what youre doing.  2) Credibility Build Trust and Respect  Thousands of entrepreneurs and marketers today dont understand one key marketing concept that people do business only with people they like, trust and know (thanks, Scott, for making that crystal clear). You must build a relationship with people first, before theyll engage in buying your services or supporting your work. And you have to demonstrate that youre a credible, reliable voice in your chosen area over time. I and many others mistakenly believed the build it and they will come myth that simply because Ive hung my shingle as a coach and consultant (and am a darn good one at that), that Ill have customers and clients aplenty and the flow will be constant. It aint so! You must create a way to a build relationships over time with people that serve them well, and then perhaps theyll buy or enlist in your services (and only when theyre ready and only if your services and prices and packages fit their needs, not yours). Develop engagement strategies (a newsletter, speaking, tweeting, free articles and information, blog, social media, free resources) that allow you to give of yourself and your expertise in ways that energize you, but also that build trust and credibility. 3) Connection Listen, Respond, and Serve Think about the great, fulfilling connections you have in your personal life theyre typically based on common interest, caring, curiosity, like-mindedness, love, mutuality, reciprocity, and authenticity. So it is in the business world as well. Connect with those you wish to serve in person, at events, in writing, in social media, through your blog or newsletter, etc.. Find ways that you enjoy to connect with your community, and listen to what theyre saying and caring about deeply. If youre sitting alone in your office day after day, disconnected and disengaged from others, youre marketing into a vacuum. Also a must truly listen to your community, and elicit their feedback, comments, and ideas, and integrate these ideas and comments respond!. In short, create a real connection and authentic conversation with those you wish to serve. 4) Clarity Know Who You Are and Share It One thing I love about following Scotts work is that he 1) knows exactly who he is (foibles and imperfections and all), and 2) unabashedly shares who he is with the world. Theres a neat list on his blog of 25 things you didnt know about me. It takes guts to publish a list like this. Do you have that kind of courage to share yourself openly and nakedly with your community? Whats your list of 25? Are you clear about who you are, uniquely? What makes you tick, what lights you up, what makes you so mad your head will explode? Know these things about yourself, and make use of them in all you do! Understand who you are and let that specialness shine out, in your writing, your services, your products, and your community. If you dont, youll never be able to be your true self in your work, or stand apart from the many thousands of others who are afraid to be who they really are, or share with honesty and courage what they stand for. 5) Calling- Passion is a Must-Have Theres a very large difference between a job and a calling. To be successful as an entrepreneur or marketer or service provider, you have to have passion for it a deep, abiding drive to make a difference and be of service. If you dont have it, marketing yourself and your products will be extremely challenging at best, a terrible failure at worst. So figure out what youre passionate about, and if its not your business or your practice or your creative endeavors, its time to make some significant changes. I was a corporate marketing director and VP for many years, and truthfully, I stopped liking it early on and was often bored silly by it, (the whole thing felt like theatre ya know?) because I was marketing products and services I simply didnt connect with or feel excited to support. Its a terrible feeling to dislike intensely what you do for a living, and feel absolutely no connection with it, right? Now, Im really jazzed about using my marketing skills to help others thrive in their careers and businesses, and to grow my own business. If youre proud and excited about what youre marketing or promoting, then put your whole self into it. If you have no connection to what youre marketing, you most likely wont have anywhere near the success or fulfillment you want. The bottom line The new marketing is thisconnecting and engaging authentically with others you love so as to be of the highest service possible, drawing on the many talents and skills you love to offer. The ultimate outcome of well-executed marketing is that you get to build a like-minded, interrelated (and fascinating) community that truly gets you, and receives deep benefit from learning with and from you. In the end, its about creating a global network of people you love (yes, LOVE!), and who find in your work something that helps them become more of who they truly want to be. And you get to become more of who you want to be by being of service in a way that draws on everything that makes you special. Now thats a lot more exciting than just marketing, yes? Please share your comments below about what marketing is and means for you.    Let’s do this together!