While working on the special report for subscribers to my email newsletter, “Unenlightened Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them,” I came upon one of my favorite areas to rant about: the self-centeredness of most marketing communication.
Most companies are so focused on what they do, it’s hard to talk about it to someone else. They want to describe the activities their business engages in: selling, manufacturing, analyzing.
It should be easier to keep the listener’s interests in mind during face-to-face communication than when you’re writing a brochure, or a billboard or a web site. But you still hear people going on and on about themselves, especially when you ask them what they do. The thing is, in that moment, you’re not really being asked what you do, you’re being asked, "what could you do for me?"
That’s why I’m so happy to share examples of enlightened communication when I come upon it. These messages immediately engage the recipient with how he or she can benefit by whatever a company has to offer.
Yesterday, I was flipping through Eckhart Tolle’s new book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, when I noticed the “About Us” page at the back of the book. Here’s the publisher’s chance to talk about themselves. And yet, interestingly, the first thing they write is their Mission Statement:
“To make available publications that acknowledge, celebrate
and encourage others to express their true essence
and thereby come to remember
Who They Really Are.”
As someone in the very center of the target audience, I just melted when I read this. I believed their promise. I wanted to know more.
Of the 24 words here, four are about what they do: “to make available publications.” The rest are all about the gift they deliver to the world, to me, encouraging us to express and remember.
So, don’t say what you do, say what you can do for me. What is the ultimate gift you deliver? How will your customers’ lives be changed by their experience with you and your brands? If you think you just sell clothing, or do bookkeeping, or find people houses, or repair cars … you’re underestimating the difference you can make in someone’s life.
I mean, the people behind this mission statement just sell books. Right?
PS. There’s a lovely definition of Namaste on that page as well. Namaste!
