By Jayanta Paquette

Though we may have conscious and compassionate intentions at the heart of our businesses we often default to traditional competitive ME-marketing models. Conscious marketing requires that we take a heart-centered WE-marketing approach based on cooperation and empathy. When we apply manipulative head-centered marketing strategies to our life-affirming products and services we create dis-ease. Applying the principles of conscious marketing help to integrate our professional and spiritual lives and heal the gap between self-awareness and market success.

As we adopt spiritual practices and conscious living habits our intuition and subtle awareness is heightened. Conscious marketing systematically applies that refined instrument of awareness to the marketing of a product or service. When it comes to marketing, the most important quality to be cultivated and implicated is empathy. It just so happens that the more we expand spiritually and the more consciously we live the more empathetic we become. I once heard the process of conscious living described as “the longest 12 inches you will ever travel, from your head to your heart”. Though it is a challenge to face ourselves honestly it is the most rewarding thing in life. The more authentic we become the more conscious our market approach will be.

The dictionary defines empathy as, “the ability to identify with and understand another person’s feelings or difficulties.” When we are marketing a product or service it is very important to get out of our own way and empathize with the specific challenges of our target audience. Too often those in the holistic field find themselves compromising their ethics, consciously or unconsciously, by applying inauthentic strategies that seem to dilute the purity of their business intention.

To move into empathy with our target audience we first begin to identify the specific challenges our product or service is able to alleviate. This is where it is time to move out of our head and into our heart. There is no greater tool to facilitate this process than conscious breathing. Here is a small exercise: Take three deep breaths in and out the nose and let the mind become quiet, do not force the mind to be quiet but simply allow the mind to be and thoughts to come and go without indulging in them. Now, take three deep breaths with the intention of breathing into the heart and exhaling out the top of the head. You may even imagine you have a blow-hole like a dolphin or whale out the top of the head. You are moving from your own personal heart to what my Guru calls the heart-space above the head or Chidakash. This is a clear authentic space that transcends your personal pain and connects you with all living things.

From this neutral space consider your target audience either in the form of an individual person or the market segment in general, being specific is generally more effective. Set the intention that you want to identify with that individual in an authentic way. A massage therapist may close their eyes and see the stresses and strains the body undergoes in the normal course of living. Make a note of the specific challenges that come up, allow the mind to work but make room for intuitive thoughts that may not initially make sense.

By Stacy Karacostas

Do you remember writing your resume and cover letters?

Maybe you’ve had to do this recently. Hopefully, if you own your own business, it’s been awhile. Either way, there’s a terrific marketing lesson to be learned. Just take your mind back to your resume-writing days and answer the following question…

What is one of the most important rules of writing resumes and cover letters?

It’s not a design rule.

Or a rule about how you organize your content, though it does have to do with your content.

It’s that you should always do a little research on the prospective employer. Then tailor your resume and cover letter to that particular job and company.

And why should you do this? Because what they really want to know is what you can do for them.

After all, no two jobs are alike. And no two employers have exactly the same set of needs when it comes to hiring.

So you want to make sure your resume speaks to them in a way that shows you are the best candidate to fill their needs or solve their problems.

Seems logical enough, right?

Well, the same thing holds true when it comes to your marketing.

Whether you’re looking for a job or trying to find customers, you are engaging in a sales and marketing presentation. The only difference is, when you’re job hunting, the potential employer is the customer.

Yet even though we all know you have to tailor your resume to each position, most small business owners don’t even consider tweaking their marketing to suit different audiences.

Instead, they try to save money by creating one-size-fits-all marketing. But if you try to speak to everyone, your message is too generic so you end up connecting with no one, and wasting more money in the end.

This doesn’t mean you can’t sell to more than one target market. Or use many of the same basic messages. It just means that, like a resume, you need to tailor your marketing to each audience.

How do you do this? The same way you would if you were reworking your resume for a new job:

1) Create a framework. Get the basics of your products or services down on paper.

2) List all the benefits. Don’t just write down the features of what you’re offering (size, shape, color, time, price, amps, volts, extras, etc.). People need to know why they should want or need those features.

3) Do your research. You have to know the person you’re selling to, and their wants, needs or problems, if you’re going to convince them you have what they’re looking for.

4) Profile your markets. For each market you want to sell to, write out a detailed profile of who the ideal customer would be including age, sex, religion, job, salary, education, political leanings, family, shopping and reading preferences etc.

5) Make a list of what’s most important to them. This might be time with the family, keeping up with Joneses, making a lot of money, investing wisely, paying the bills, saving money, having fun, whatever. You have to know what they’re thinking if you want to connect and communicate with them effectively.

6) Understand what worries them most. Everyone has a different set of worries and concerns in life-and when making a purchase. Often the two are intertwined. By knowing what they’re most concerned about you can ease their fears.

7) Speak their language. We all like to feel like someone else gets us…And that’s especially true when it comes to buying products or services. Prospects want to sense that you understand what’s bugging them and know where they’re coming from.

So come across in print like a helpful friend offering them the best advice or solutions for their particular wants, needs or problems-not an impersonal business selling stuff.

Push the pain button. If you know who you’re selling to, you know the problem you can solve for them. So talk about that pain or problem, then position your products or services as the pain-relief.