In the spiritual world, mindfulness is:
the ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us
The point of mindfulness is to free ourselves from the tyranny of our egotistic mind.
As marketers, we can learn plenty from mindfulness, and then apply it to why and how we market products, services and brands to our target customers, in order to achieve desired results.
Being ‘fully present’
To be fully present is to precisely understand the strategies, techniques, tools and channels that are most effective and cost-efficient today, rather than those that may have been the most effective and cost-efficient one, five, 10, 20 years ago.
Virtually all marketing mavens would agree that social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and influencer marketing are among the most effective and cost-efficient forms of marketing today.
Therefore, investing money in other forms of marketing (i.e. non-digital marketing like TV, radio and print), while they may still be effective, is not as effective as the digital marketing formats above, and therefore should be replaced with the former.
Being ‘aware of where we are and what we’re doing’
In marketing, awareness is an ambiguous term for strategy. To be aware is to know exactly why you’re enacting certain marketing efforts, where (the platforms and channels) you’re enacting them, and what the results will be if they’re enacted with consistency and sustenance.
Do you have a guiding strategy, rooted in specific, unequivocally aligned goals and objectives, that allows you to measure the success of your marketing efforts? And, is this strategy “fully present” — that is, is it in line with the most effective and cost-efficient forms of marketing today?
Not being ‘overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us’
Especially in the digital world, there seems to be a continuous onslaught of new platforms, features and trends that many marketers blindly implement in knee-jerk fashion. In addition, we see our competitors doing something different than us, so we aim to mimic them because whatever they’re doing appears to be working.
While it’s important to be in-the-know about these new sexy, shiny objects, and to be aware of our competitors’ actions, it’s even more important to analyze each one in and of itself, in order to truly assess why and how it may (or may not) seamlessly fit into your strategy, so as to assist in enhancing and/or expediting the goals and objectives of the strategy.
Often times, we implement and then we analyze, but Mindful Marketing prompts is to do the opposite — analyze, and then implement only if your analysis clearly suggests implementation will enhance and/or expedite the goals and objectives of your strategy.
Freeing ourselves from ‘the tyranny of our egotistic mind’
In marketing, the ‘egotistic mind’ causes us to perceive our products, services and/or brand as the end-all-be-all, the perfect solution to our customers’ dire problems, the special something that will fill their gaping void.
Of course, I’m being hyperbolic, but the point is: For nine businesses out of 10 — including yours and mine — our products and services are a means to the customers’ end. This doesn’t mean our products and services aren’t worthy of people’s time, money and commitment. It simply means that the way we position — the way we market — our products, and services and brand must consistently and continuously correspond to the frank truth that they are a means to someone’s end.
With this in mind, marketers who aspire to practice Mindful Marketing must “sell” the end of the means — what the product, service or brand represents. By “sell,” I mean create and distribute original content that serves this representation again and again, all the time, via your website, social media, email marketing and influencers.
Make your content about the identity-based interests, passions and desires of your target customers, as they relate to your products, services or brand. Unless you’re Apple or Starbucks, very few products, services and brands are identity-based, which means they don’t relate to the core identity of your customers, and that’s okay.
The key, then, is to subliminally put your products, services or brand in the background of of your content, with the identity-based interests, passions and desires of your target customers — again, as they relate to your products, services or brand — at the forefront.
Based in Tel Aviv, Josh is the Head of Marketing & Operations for BlockGroup.
