Spiritual Marketing
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Marketing involves anything and everything that makes someone want to do business with you. Marketing is about educating and helping people. It is about finding the people who are seeking the benefits that you offer and showing them how to use these benefits to make their lives happier and more fulfilling. Marketing encompasses all levels of customer service, from what you say to your customers and how you treat them to how they feel when they walk out the door.
Andrea Adler, in her article Spiritual Marketing, says, “Begin to focus on your needs and desires and then translate that direction into your business. Learn to incorporate spiritual laws into the practical laws as you get in touch with your soul’s calling. When you take this spiritual approach things begin to magnetize such as situations, people and opportunities Spiritual marketing is addressed with consciousness and integrity. It is nourishing and uplifting rather than depleting and degrading. When we hold this vision of the future, we begin to walk into it effortlessly and gracefully. When we understand that promoting and marketing is an art form, and that it’s the same creative energy we use when we paint a mural or compose a song or create a new software program, we overcome the disconnect. When we get in touch with what our soul is calling for us to do, it overrides the other two, and connects us energetically with where we want to be, how we want to be and how we want to feel as we move out there and create our outreach. Then we move into creating the strategy and the marketing materials that will draw our potential clients to us.”
Joe Vitale in Spiritual Marketing (2001) says if you are clear about your business you wouldn’t even need cards. Business would just come to you. Your inner spirit would do your marketing. When you reach a clear inner state of being about your service to the world, the world will come to you. The Angels will hand out your business cards on the inner planes. Your own compelling passion for your work is more beneficial than elaborate marketing efforts. Passion is the most essential ingredient in attracting business to you. Allow it to come through in all your spoken and written communication. Think of marketing as a way to share your enthusiasm for what you do.
In the book, Getting Business To Come To You (1998), authors Paul & Sarah Edwards and Laura Clampitt Douglas say, “Imagine that you have a wonderful secret. This secret will make all the difference in the world to those who know about it. And by telling others about this secret, you’ll get to do what you most want to do and earn a living from doing it. Wouldn’t you feel excited to share such a secret? Wouldn’t you want to find every way possible to let others know about it? Wouldn’t you want to use every spare moment you have to make sure people find out about it?”
If you’ve chosen the right niche, this is precisely what you have the opportunity to do. When you focus on your own needs, problems and concerns, it’s easy to become discouraged, frustrated, self-conscious, or even angry that things aren’t going better or faster. But, when you’re focused on what you can accomplish for others through your work and the positive difference you can make in their lives, you’ll start feeling motivated to reach out, to communicate and demonstrate to others in the most effective ways possible. If you can speak to people at the heart of where they live, you’ll get their attention, pique their interest, and spark their desire. Speak to their heart first, then to their head. “Shift your attention to the importance and value of your work rather than yourself. Marketing will have new meaning as you focus on what you accomplish through your work instead of worrying about money or being rejected.”
Change your thinking from a seller’s to a buyer’s perspective. Talk, advertise, and promote from this place which will motivate customers to buy from you. Keep in mind the basic question prospective clients have, “What’s in it for me?” They want to know what you will provide, how you will meet their needs, how it will benefit their lives and what they will get for their money.
Marketing activities should be about making contact with the people who need what you have to offer. Marketing comes down to doing four things you have done since kindergarten, walk, talk, show and tell. In the book Getting Business To Come To You (1998), the authors write, “Walk-activities you can do on foot. Talk-activities you do by talking to people in person or over the phone. Show-activities that let people see your work-Tell-activities provide people with materials that enable them to learn about what you do. Experimenting with each of these techniques will help you to find the marketing activities that allow you to be most fully yourself, what comes most natural for you, what you enjoy, and what fits into your budget.”
To address perceptions of customers and their specific situations you must realize their needs. Be specific about the benefits and give the facts to support your claims. The Edwards couple and Clampitt write about developing your ideal customer profile. “Describe your ideal client or customer in detail. Who are these individuals? What do they do? What is their life like? What are their goals? What’s most important to them? What are their most common problems? What bugs them the most? What do they complain about? What do they praise? What would they consider to be the ideal solutions to their problems? Use the same words to describe your customers that they use in talking about themselves, their goals, and their problems. Think about the words and phrases you hear them using as they talk about issues, and your product or services.”
Find a happy balance between addressing the heart of the matter and getting the most important facts of the matter. Addressing the heart of the matter lets the heart know you understand where it lives... If you speak only to the heart, the mind becomes suspicious. If you speak only to the mind, the heart will become indifferent.