Podcst 23: How to Make Marketing Fun for Your Holistic Business

content marketing ethical marketing marketing podcast Jul 23, 2020

We all love having fun! How we have fun is personal and something that’s fun for me could leave you running for the hills. Fun is also good for us – laughter is great medicine and a brilliant way to relieve stress. We all need more fun in our lives so how about we have more fun with our marketing too?

Sadly, when it comes to marketing, many practitioners don’t equate it with their idea of fun. If anything, it’s the total opposite. Marketing is more of a dark art than something to enjoy.

The more playful you can be with your marketing and the way you approach it, the better. You’re more likely to be consistent and show up in an authentic way because the marketing you do feels right.

When you enjoy creating the marketing you share, your clients will feel it. Marketing is all about building connection and relationships, so you want people to get to know you and your business.

One of my favourite pieces of fun marketing was created by a little family hardware store (Haford Hardware) in Wales. This family-run business created a brilliant video costing less than £100. It went viral with over 2.5 million views and got them featured on ITV News and in the press. They outshone the big brands for the best Christmas ad and importantly, it brought customers to their door – see it for yourself here.

What marketing do you love?

When you think of your favourite brands and people online, how do you love to consume their information? How do you feel when you interact with them? What keeps you engaged?

Do you love their artwork and the branding and messages they share?
Is there a daily email with a fun story to start your day?
Are you a fan of podcasts or videos and look forward to the next episode?

With the marketing you love, have you noticed it feels like you know them, even if you’ve never met them? You get a sense of who they are and what they stand for from the marketing they share. You know if they’re someone you trust and ultimately, whether they’re a good fit for you.

I love a podcast and listen to them when cleaning or on my long trips to and from London. It’s a great way of learning and finding people I want to connect with and potentially work with. I’ve joined memberships, attended conferences and employed my own coach from getting to know people through their podcasts.

What you enjoy consuming and how you build a connection with these people will give you clues for ways you can interact with your audience too.

What are your hobbies?

Consider what you do outside of your workday – what are the hobbies that bring you joy? Is there something you love doing that will translate into marketing?

A friend and colleague Claire (she was on episode 8 of the podcast) is an amazing therapist, she’s also a talented artist and poet. She shares pictures of her artwork and her poems as a way of connecting with her audience at a deeper level. It provides an insight into her world and allows people to get a sense of whether she is the right therapist for them.

Another practitioner friend loves walking and getting out into nature. She has found networking groups that are built around country walks. With this, she has been able to build her network with like-minded people whilst doing something she loves.

What are your communication strengths?

Working to your communication strengths will make marketing easier and help you to create it faster. By doing something you’re good at and enjoy, it will help you to be consistent which is the key to good marketing.

It also means not doing the things that you hate, or really struggle with. There’s no point forcing yourself to market yourself in this way as you won’t come across well. It will also take you three times as long to get anything done which will be torture in the process.

I really struggle with live video – it’s just not right for me. I’ve gotten over myself in terms of creating videos but live is a stretch too far. I like to be prepared and the thought of going live takes me so far out of my comfort zone that I totally procrastinate about it. This means I’m either not showing up, or when I do, I’m probably not showing up at my best.

Start experimenting

Look for the synergy between what you enjoy and marketing and start experimenting with what you can do. Fun shouldn’t be the opposite of marketing; it should be part of it.

How can you market yourself and have fun in the process?

How can you give your clients an insight into who you are and what you do in a fun way?

Make a commitment to yourself to do more fun marketing and book the time in your diary to make it happen. You’ll be amazed at how much fun you can have with marketing once you get going.

If you struggle to work out what marketing activities would be fun for you, book a free discovery call and find out how I can help you.