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It’s Not Marketing. It’s Teaching.
We’re in the final stages of putting together the Advanced Marketing Handbook (scheduled for release in early October) – and as I was reviewing parts of it this week, I had a thought to share with you that may make your marketing a bit easier to digest. Here’s what I know (based on the dozens, maybe hundreds of conversations I have had with advocates over the past few years)… Most of you appreciate marketing on about the same level as nails on the chalkboard. (Oh dear, I digress, but do they even put chalkboards in classrooms anymore? !!) Yes, I recognize that it’s not only NOT your favorite part of being in business, but that you regard it about one step below a necessary evil. If only you could be left to advocate for people all day long and never have to worry about marketing or business… OK. I get it – at least as someone who really just loves marketing can! I have to make a concerted effort to put myself into your shoes (as any good business woman who must understand her target audiences must) – and I realize that my love for the sport of marketing isn’t shared by most of my audience (you!) So I gave some heavy duty thought to how I could actually make it a bit more palatable to you. How can I help my marketing-averse advocates begin to see marketing as something that helps them help their clients (and therefore help those advocates dislike it less?) So here’s what I have come up with: Instead of looking at marketing as the necessary evil that will keep you in business, instead begin looking at it as something ALTRUISTIC that benefits your potential and current clients, in a handful of ways. Stop thinking of your marketing as a business exercise. Instead, think of it as a teaching tool. Marketing your services in educational ways can teach clients not just about patient advocacy, but can provide empowerment lessons, too. Here are some examples: Public speaking (which is marketing) provides many lessons to patients, and helps…
