How Personal is TOO Personal for Marketing?
In today's episode of #AskAnnie, I'm talking about how personal is TOO personal for marketing.
This is Episode 9 of my Facebook Live series, #AskAnnie. You can watch the video episode below or read on for the transcript version. Like our Facebook page to catch these broadcasts live!
Hello, welcome welcome! Are you ever wondering about how to be personal in your marketing?
Maybe you want to share a little bit more about who you are, but you're afraid of what's too personal? What's appropriate to be sharing? If that's your question I'm going to answer it today on #AskAnnie.
#AskAnnie is a regular series I do to answer your common questions about branding a small business. My name is Annie Franceschi. I'm the brand creator behind Greatest Story Creative, a small business branding agency in Durham, North Carolina, where we help you show your value, tell your story, and grow your business through small business branding.
In today's episode, we're tackling a question that I get at least every two months.
How personal is too personal for my marketing?
How do I know how to be relatable, but still professional in what I'm sharing with people? I think this is a great common question because more and more people are starting to do what I would encourage them to do, which is to be more relatable in their marketing.
There are so many people who are overly professional to the point that they don't make connections with their ideal clients and customers. We want you to be able to be authentic and to share who you are, but of course, there's a limit.
We all know the term TMI (Too Much Information). So how do we right the ship and make sure that what we're sharing with people is still professional, but a little bit more relatable? How do we make those connections without overwhelming people?
In today's episode, I'm going to give you three quick ways to know if what you're sharing is personal enough or too personal. It's important to make the decision on a case by case basis. I wish I could say it's a unilateral thing, but everything is going to need to sort of have that gut check.
Like anything you're doing with your branding and your marketing, does it make sense for your business is always going to be the question. It's very valuable to do this, especially if you're in a more stuffy industry where people are known for being uptight and overly professional. It can be a huge opportunity to be a little bit more vulnerable and a little bit more relatable.
A lot of my clients are coaches and consultants and a lot of what they do is relatability and vulnerability. So their question is really at the heart of this, which is how personal is too personal?
Here are those three considerations you want to sort of keep in mind anytime you're sharing something. Maybe you're writing the about me page of your website or you're creating a brochure or even just going to talk to a new audience. What are those stories and things you can share? Here are three guidelines for that.
Does your marketing resonate with your ideal clients?
The first thing I want you to consider is, does it reach and resonate with your ideal clients? You hear me talk about ideal clients a lot and that's because we can't be everything to everyone. If we're trying to be everything to everyone, we end up nothing to nobody.
When we are trying to reach our ideal clients, they're a great litmus test for us. If it's at all possible for you to have an ongoing dialogue with your ideal clients, people you're currently serving or you have served in the past, ask them. They're going be a great resource in terms of what you're sharing, whatever story it is, or facet about you or your business. If it's appropriate, if it's personal enough, or too personal they're going to be able to tell you that. They can serve as a jury for you to make sure you're doing the right thing.
And if you don't have the opportunity to talk to them, keep them in mind in terms of what you're sharing. Is it going to resonate with them? Something that might be overly personal to someone you would never serve might be perfectly personal to your ideal client. So that's always going to be a consideration and something to keep in mind.
Are you okay with the content being out in public?
The second thing is, even though we're trying to reach our ideal clients, even though that's who we want to pull in, we want to be aware that anything we're sharing we need to be okay if it's public.
I, for example, have no idea who's going to watch this Facebook video. And this might not be for them, but I'm comfortable sharing the stories and what I'm talking about today with basically anybody because I'm putting it on Facebook.
If you're putting things on your website just know that you have to be comfortable with it being public because it's not only going to go to your ideal client. Keep that in mind and that will help you right the ship and go a little bit closer to the professional side of things.
Goal 4: Have Fun
What this meant to me in January: After such a busy year in 2018, I was worried about burning out and realizing that my work needed to stay fun in order for me to want to keep doing it. The only answer: have more fun.
A few key results:
I truly enjoyed my time away from the business - Because I've spent years creating a smooth client process and smart systems for my practice, I was able to fully disconnect and take a lot of intentional time off, especially with my husband who's been buried in school books this year.
After four years of infertility, we got pregnant! - I told myself "having a baby" couldn't be a goal for the year because after 4 years of infertility, I learned there was no making that goal happen on my own. We were incredibly blessed and lucky to become pregnant this spring, so I've gotten to spend most of 2019 just feeling grateful and having fun getting ready to become a parent!
I loved the clients I worked with for services, mentoring, and retainers - I absolutely loved who I worked with this year. It was a wonderful challenge to partner with so many clients to mentor them on both business and branding. I had so much fun taking local branding package clients out for end of project coffees and lunches. It was also a joy to reconnect with past Greatest Story clients by offering my new VIP, retainer-in-a-day "Magic Marketing Days".
I continue to love what I do because it's both passionate and profitable - Because I haven't lost sight of both ingredients of a successful business (passion and profit), I'm ending the year more energized than ever to do this work and continue to grow it - because ultimately - it's still fun and it's still rewarding work.
How I'm feeling about it now, at the end of the year: This goal was the perfect perspective reminder to keep me growing the business in a way so that I and clients have more fun. Business can feel so serious, gloomy, and HARD sometimes - remembering to have fun can be a profitable exercise, financially and emotionally.
Verdict: So much fun! Can't wait for more!
Show your clients where you've been, but establish that you are an expert.
Number three and this one is really really important, especially if you sort of get very entrenched with the idea of vulnerability, authenticity, saying you've been broken or that you've been a mess too, to your clients. You want to make sure that you do not cede your credibility and that you still are the expert.
It's really important to show that you have been where your clients have been before, but you want to show that you're a couple steps ahead too. You want to show that you have credibility, that you're trustworthy, that you have that know, like, and trust factor.
We don't want to give up our authority in what we're sharing with people because that's why they're investing with us. Our ideal clients are the heroes and we're there to guide them. What kind of guide would we be if we got really mushy about our experience? This has a lot to do with confidence and projecting your value, because you do have value and if you're not projecting that, if you're not showing up to own that value with confidence, then your ideal clients aren't going to want to invest with you, because you're not telling them much more than they already know.
The key here is making the connection to, I know where you've been, I've been there myself, and I'm here to help you get through it, here's how I can help figure it out. So that's takes time, it takes a lot of practice, but it's what we want to keep in mind.
In summary, we want to make sure that
Whatever we're sharing, that it is appropriate for our ideal clients. That they wouldn't feel like you're sharing too much.
Even though it's sharing a lot, maybe your ideal clients really like us to share a lot of detail, make sure what you are putting out there you wouldn't mind someone else seeing. This stuff is going to be public facing and not just for your ideal clients.
Don't cede your credibility. Balance things. Make sure you're not giving up too much of your authority, because that's part of what you're bringing the table and that's what makes this marketing and not just you sharing a personal story.
These three things will set you on the path to success anytime that you are thinking about, is this too personal? Go by this litmus test and you'll be in much better shape. z
Wishing you happy branding, happy marketing, and encouraging you to stay awesome! Have a great one and thanks for watching this episode of #AskAnnie.
