MARKETING WHEN YOU’RE AN INTROVERT
I’m an introvert. And I work in marketing.
I don’t know about you but for the longest time growing up I thought there was something hella wrong with me because while I could be incredibly social with the right people, I craved intense solitude and had this wild inner world that I could live in for days, weeks, months without needing much social interaction.
Can you relate?
One of the critical things to realise if you find yourself marketing as an introvert is that – introversion is more about energy management and less about being shy.
The work of Susan Cain demonstrates that we live in a world that rewards extroversion and so a lot of the way we do things is built out of what works for extroverts. In contrast, introverts have typically been labelled “shy” and sometimes we adopt this label ourselves. While introverts can be shy, just like extroverts can be shy, it doesn’t mean being an introvert and being shy are mutually exclusive.
What the heck does any of this have to do with marketing?
Yeah – great question.
While I don’t use these personality frameworks as gospel, I do find them highly useful for understanding aspects of myself when it comes to marketing myself.
Marketing has a reputation of being a sales-driven vehicle – don’t get me wrong, that’s ultimately the end goal of marketing: to get other people to buy or invest in what you’re offering – but the way it’s been sold to us is as this aggressive, outgoing, gregarious and loud style of communicating.
Frankly, this approach gets my introverted heckles up.
A lot of this standard approach to marketing grates on not just my values, but who I am as a person.
I don’t like loud spaces, I don’t like bright lights, I struggle with inauthentic messaging and often intuit when what someone’s selling me doesn’t quite stack up.
Traditional marketing is not an experience I enjoy as an introvert and someone who doesn’t want to be manipulated.
How could I help people in a way that didn’t leave me feeling drained, conflicted in my values and like I need 100 years of solitude to recover from each experience? There’s no single answer for me but it became clear that my adeptness with words was high up on the skill set of things I could offer. Marketing and communications were the opportunities that opened up for me when I put the intention out there and so here we are.
Herein, though, lies a conundrum. How can I help people navigate marketing in a way that doesn’t compromise their values? Or make them feel like they’re doing something that is inauthentic to who they are and how they wish to be in the world?
Well – that’s exactly what I’m here working out. For myself as much as my clients. And I’m not the only one. There are many empaths, highly sensitive people and introverts as well as intuitive business owners who are navigating this space and I’m learning from them as I craft my own way.
I was never going to encapsulate everything about this topic in a single post, so here are some key takeaways for anyone else treading in these realms.
If you’re an introvert for an aligned way of marketing your business:
Be you in everything you do – especially your marketing.
Remember that marketing = communication: you’re just letting people know who you are and what you do that might help them. That’s pretty much it. Everything else is tuning your message to the right frequency for different mediums.
Listen to your gut – even if you guys are on the outs. Learn to recognise when things feel good and right for you. This will help you intuit your marketing strategy quicker and clearer each time you do it.
Don’t feel pressured to do everything. You can’t, especially if you’re someone who has a high exchange of energy and attention for focus. Pick one thing and start there.
Ask for help. There’s an expectation these days that creative and intuitive people will wear every hat they need to, to make their business a success. Sometimes this is impossible. There’s a reason why we all have a variety of different skills and gifts. Don’t be afraid to find people who offer their own services that could help you. Every time you connect with someone, you learn more about yourself and your business. It’s always an investment.
Have fun. If you’re having fun crafting your content and strategising your marketing, you’re more likely to succeed with it. Find your own ways of enjoying the experience.
