It’s all about me – ego driven marketing traps

Unfortunately, egos are common in professional services.  With a lifetime spent gaining qualifications and achieving your annual professional development points, combined with writing papers, publishing research and presenting at conferences, it’s no surprise.

But egos get in the way of effective marketing, effective relationships and effective business.

Let’s think about why

We’ll start with the definition of ego by the Cambridge Dictionary:

The idea or opinion that you have of yourself, especially the level of your ability and intelligence, and your importance as a person.

I work with lawyers, accountants, engineers, designers and doctors, who are all too keen to list off their range of services, their skills and qualifications.  When working together to write a blog, brochure, capability or proposal, they focus on themselves and what they can do.  It’s very unusual for them to set aside their list of accomplishments and seek to understand whom they are sharing this information with.

How often have you sought to find a relationship between your expertise and the needs of your audience? 

If your focus is on yourself, it’s no surprise that others would recognise this.  You don’t want to end up with a reputation as someone who is self-important, arrogant, vain or narcissistic.  In raising your profile through any marketing activity, your goal is to be thought of as capable and approachable; after all, marketing’s goal is to generate leads.

Ego driven marketing traps

Here’s the heads up on how to identify ego marketing.  Take the test:

  1. Me, myself and I

Do these words appear frequently in your communications?  If so, your emphasis is on yourself, not your audience.

  1. I am the best, forget about the rest

Is your approach innovative, leading, novel and unique? Are you award winning and pioneering?  Is your content all about your own
achievements, or does it focus on how your expertise can solve the problems of your readers?

  1. Are you boosting your own ego at the expense of your audience?

Use your qualifications, experience, research and achievements to build your credibility, not to belittle your audience.

If you use ego driven marketing to raise your profile, you won’t be victorious for long.  Your audience won’t like it.  They don’t care about you, they care about themselves, and they’ll go somewhere else to find someone who cares about them too.

What to do about it.

Taking the simplest approach to correcting this problem, think about this:

Where’s your next pay check coming from?  Your clients – your audience.

Be mindful of them in your communications.  Think carefully about who they are, what they may be seeking from you and how can you solve their problem.  Think about how to use your credentials to profile your expertise in a way that is relatable and valuable to them.

Don’t let your ego get in the way. Stop looking in the mirror and start looking deep into the psyche of your audience.

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