I know you know this already - marketing is critical to growing your business. Showing up for your business and marketing is what lets potential clients know who you are and helps them decide if you're the right person to help solve their problem.

Yeah, you might be saying, but…

So many people I talk to get tripped up with their marketing because it just feels icky somehow. Some people see marketing as being pushy. Others find it confusing or overwhelming. Still other people think they have to focus on things like likes or engagement metrics as proof their marketing is working, and the whole thing feels shallow somehow or transactional. Some people believe deeply in their call to serve and bring their work to the world, yet they feel the act of making offers and sharing that work with the world cheapens it somehow.

I get it. I do.

Most approaches to marketing don't feel good because they aren't good. They're based on the assumption that you as the business owner need to employ certain tactics to "get" people to buy from you. In other words, they're manipulative. They also don't feel good because you sense energetically that underlying as pushiness of much of the marketing you receive.

But what if marketing didn't have to be manipulative? What if instead, like I believe, marketing is all about building connections - bridges between you and your work and those in the world who may need your help?

In building those bridges, the marketing, if done with integrity and authenticity (in alignment with you, the real you) becomes a beautiful gift, both to your potential clients and to yourself.

A Gift to Your Clients

The truth is as you build and grow your business, not everyone will be ready or even able to work with you. Some people might have too much shame or fear right now to step forward. Others might have real financial constraints that keep them from accessing your help. Others might need a bit more time to explore or research, others won't be ready to make the commitment real healing or transformation takes.

Each one of those is real and valid for so many people at any given point in time. Every person has their own soul journey.

Of course, the best way you can help them is when the engage you directly, maybe through one of your packages or buying one of your courses. For any one of the reasons I note above (and more) some individuals might simply not be able to right now.

And for those people, your marketing can become the healing they need.

It may be through your articles, and how you talk about the things they struggle with. Just reading your words and knowing that you see them is profoundly validating. Or it may be in the steps or the teachings you outline in a free talk that help move them forward. Or maybe they might find your words or images on Instagram an inspiration, one that lifts their hearts from a place of loneliness or frustration or despair. And takes them, even for a moment, into a different space.

Even your promotional emails, where you dig a little deeper into what they might be struggling with related to an offer you have, if crafted with empathy, Love and clarity offer the opportunity for them to connect. Connect with themselves, what they're struggling with and your own unique and deep wisdom.

There's at least one person reading your weekly email that needs to hear that message you sent. In that way, your content and marketing is a gift. Although you may never know exactly the ways in which you showing up this way will touch another person, the world needs so much goodness right now, I simply know it will.

A Gift to You Too

As you engage in marketing your business, first establishing your foundation and then moving on to creating compelling offers, website content that is effective, content that resonates, you learn first and foremost that much of marketing is about simply showing up. Showing up with love and consistency and intention to create the connections and bridges needed to help other people feel safe enough to draw nearer your work.

And that act of showing up, despite the discomfort, the not knowing or the uncertainty of outcome is, in itself, powerful. Small acts done with a great deal of Love and intention over and over again are the building blocks of authentic marketing

In doing so, you give yourself the chance to find your voice. Showing up week after week, writing your blog or outline for your next video gives you a chance to experiment, to find the topics that resonate with your clients but also those that make your own heart sing. In continually creating new content, you have a chance to hone your own singular voice, the one that comes from your soul self and your inner wisdom, wrapped in your own experiences, and delivered in a way that shows off your gifts and talents.

As your clarity about your clients and your own perspective grows, this will show up in the content you create. You'll find things you wrote a few years before no longer seem quite right, even though the teachings are valid, the concepts the same. Your voice will have grown and matured.

And if you shy away from marketing, stepping into the messy unknown of giving your content and your offers without really knowing how they'll be received you'll never get to experience this richness.

Marketing with empathy, resonance, service and in connection to Love is such a beautiful gift, for others and yourself. Please do everyone a favor, see your marketing as the gift that it is and let your beautiful self and business shine.

Photo by Visual Stories || Micheile on Unsplash