I have a love/hate relationship with marketing. There are so many bad ways to do it, like, morally, ethically bad. But when it’s done well, it can be downright delightful or even utterly inspiring. And here’s the thing, until the digital age, how to do it “right” was a series of totally made up things. Someone would have an idea and try it and it would work, then everyone would do that for a while until the next interesting idea. That’s still mostly true today. Marketing’s hard to track. It’s that ambiguity, that possibility, that I really love.
Working inside of global corporations and national nonprofits, my mission was to take advantage of that ambiguity by intentionally choosing to be more human. Now, as a consultant and coach, I use social and emotional intelligence concepts to help mission-centered leaders bring their own humanity into their marketing strategy. It’s always fun to see the relief people feel when they’re given permission to hate being a creep.
As long as people are involved, I can make an argument about emotional intelligence as the foundation for anything, but here are several really timely reasons you should focus on it in your marketing strategy.
Marketing is a Relationship
Marketing is a relationship where one side is deeply invested in persuading the other to do something. Usually it involves money. And money makes people act weird. Growth goals turn humans into numbers, and we disconnect. Marketers, now more than ever before, are the closest to people on the other side of the screen, or package, or plan. If building, growing, and maintaining relationships and community isn’t part of your marketing strategy - even (possibly especially!) if you’re a team of one - you’re missing something pretty major in the way the world now interacts.
Marketing Starts Way Before Your First Ad
When your product or service comes with a true intent to help someone out, or make the world a little better, and it’s something you believe in and are proud of, and you truly take the time to understand and care about the people you’re serving, your marketing communications write themselves. Marketing isn’t what happens at the end, it’s the culmination of every choice you make for your business being broadcast to the world, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. That’s why your staff, partners, and peers are your most important audience always, they know what’s really up behind the scenes and have the power to totally invalidate any inauthentic claims.
Marketing Touches People’s Lives
Marketers choose occupations which, like it or not, bear social responsibility. From how we choose models for ads to the language we use to identify ourselves and others to the accessibility of our products and communications, there are so many opportunities for marketers - and businesses in general - to make progressive choices.
As marketing makes a hard swing into artificial intelligence it’s even more critical for us to center humanity, starting with making sure we understand the hidden biases in the automation on which we rely. I’m even willing to make the argument to slice off part of a marketing budget for internal DEI work if that’s what it takes to move the needle. While it may seem a little cynical, it’s becoming easier to make a business case for putting people first from a marketing perspective.
A Familiar Approach, But More Personal
Applying emotional intelligence to marketing isn’t new. The prevalence of consumer insight data and regular use of marketing personas as a best practice are all about the “other awareness” side of the social/emotional intelligence coin. But for marketing strategies to truly sing, self-awareness is where it’s at.
Whether your marketing hat is one of many or you have a team of skilled professionals, assessing the EQ behind your marketing efforts can help you to focus on tactics that resonate with both your audience and you. That’s where authentic marketing comes from. That lil sweet spot right there in the Venn diagram of feelings. Don’t be scared! You can still use tons of data to back up your efforts (and I strongly recommend it!), but marketers, it’s time to get emo.
The spillover bonus of having a marketing team skilled at social and emotional intelligence is that it also impacts your ability to bring the rest of the organization along with you. When you present concepts to peers and partners in an emotionally intelligent way, you have a positive impact on the group’s ability to collaborate. What feels good while it’s being put together resonates out in the world.
Understanding your Personal Marketing Style - and that of your whole team, if you have one - adds a critical missing piece to how you approach your marketing strategy. It’s the self-awareness that balances the other awareness and helps you zero in on just how to connect with the people that matter most to your business.