Why Marketing Is Awesome - And How To Do It With Purpose

You've already done so much to get where you are.  Learning, doing stupid group assignments, pouring through research and textbooks, overcoming doubts and the fear that you'll miss the reading when you take blood pressure.  You have expanded in so many ways, taking years of your life to study your craft, and committing yourself to years more in mastering it.  You practise the wisdom of the ancients, and watch worlds change as people become connected, a little deeper, to their true selves.  You watch bodies heal and you whisper to them how.  But, how many people out there that you can help have no idea who the hell you are and all this amazing stuff you do!?

Marketing is the microphone that allows us to communicate with the world; to say, hey, I’m over here and I can do this cool stuff!

Without advertising, we rely on word of mouth referrals (still the best kind!) but without a core base of 40+ clients, it can be slower to organically grow your business from word of mouth alone (plus, we all have to start somewhere).  Realising how important the role was that marketing played in me being able to go from being a part-time Naturopath to a full-time Naturopath, I naturally spent all hours of the night and day learning all that I could about advertising.  Surely it’s not that complicated, I remember thinking.  Turns out, it was way more complicated than I thought.

With no option but to get better at it in order to get some traction in my business, I learnt quite a bit… and also had my eyes opened to how little I really knew about something soooo important in the success of my business.  Still, I continued to learn as much as I could as quickly as I could because I had fallen in love with the purpose that marketing serves.  When done well, marketing can inspire movements.  It can change someone’s perception or make them feel heard and understood.  It gives people a way to identify their own values and desires through your brand and services, and expand their exploration of self.  It's super cool stuff!  Yet, there I was, for over a year in business, printing off discount vouchers thinking I was "marketing".

When I learnt more, I finally saw marketing as the voice, and my business as the platform, and my services and impact as the words.  I realised I couldn't remain blind to what I didn't know, and I couldn't continue thinking doing the same thing over and over would bring me different results.  It became and remains a passion of mine, because without it, you can be over here turning people into unicorns and no one is ever going to know about it.  

After all the seminars and trainings and research I've done on branding, marketing and writing copy... I still felt I was missing the mark with my marketing.  I couldn't keep things concise because I didn't really feel I had significant words to say... now that I had a microphone and all.  I hadn't done the deeper branding work (because I was yet to learn it!).

It was only recently that I came to the opinion of what I think is the most important aspect to not only the success of your business, but the success of your marketing; your purpose.  Without a purpose, you can’t build a good brand.  Without a purpose, you have no words to say when you are handed that microphone.  

Now, don't get me wrong, i'm not saying you are aimlessly wondering around without a purpose.  The mere fact you're reading this means you are probably so purpose driven that you might have forgotten to eat lunch!  All of us have a purpose, whether we are aware of it or not. 

Your purpose, in a general sense, is most probably quite similar to mine, and many other pracs in the natural health industry; to leave the world better than we found it, to help and care, to share the healing power of nature and our bodies.  But, what about the specifics of that purpose?  What exact impact do you want to make on the world around you, and how?  How many times have you focused on that purpose, so deeply, that you could summarise it in a few words and feel heart-connected goosebumps as you repeat them?  This is the essence of great marketing.  Imagine how your content, your slogans, your message would change if you brought every piece of marketing to life in honour of that purpose. 

This, in my opinion, is the foundation of a great brand - and a great brand is the foundation of great marketing!

Your purpose is what your ideal customers are going to identify with.  Your purpose is what causes an emotional response in the limbic system, which is then experienced as a "gut feeling" or goosebumps or a feeling you can't quite explain.  We are taught that with marketing, start where you are, and keep going!  Well, I challenge that notion by saying, start with your purpose.  Understand the values of your business, the vision you have and the way you want to achieve that.  Once you have these foundations down pat, all the other things like what blog to write or what inspirational quote to retweet becomes simple; because you are making decisions with purpose.

So, how did I find my purpose and deep dive on the branding work of my clinic?

I stewed on it.  I waited patiently and not so patiently.  I did a sh*t-tonne of inner work and personal development, not just on who I am and who I want to be, but what my business provides and what I want to build.  I meditated, I developed a connection with my Soul, I remembered the power I had over my reality and I kept doing the inner work to move through blocks and expand my understanding of Self.  Then, one day... it came to me.  My purpose, my brand, my endless list of skills and passions condensed into three sentences: Know yourself. Love yourself. Care for yourself.  This is now emblazoned on my homepage, in my clinic and all over my content.  It builds trust, rapport, and is the very basis of what we strive for at every step in the clinic... I have even designed a K-L-C handout where we measure how people's knowledge of self, love of self and care of self changes over time.  

Once you have the purpose, so much more will flow out of you... and it will all be in alignment with you, your beliefs, your service... and naturally, your ideal client.

It's not something you can force, and it's not something you can think yourself into knowing.  This has to come from that feeling space (aka the limbic system), not the place of words (aka the neorcortex).

So, ask yourself... what is my purpose?  And open yourself up to receive the answer.