How to Improve Your Mindset in Marketing

December 8, 2023

Mindset and Marketing: A Powerful Duo

Navigating the world of mindset and marketing can be a tricky feat. 

Why? Because your mindset seeps into everything you do, especially in the realm of marketing. If a designer doesn’t believe in the business they’re designing for or they’re not excited about it, I can see it right away in their design. See, your mindset can influence the outcome. If you’re not excited about your work, it reflects in your designs and messages.

You may not have any formal training in marketing. In school I learned how to write thesis papers, not social posts. 

Heck, maybe you don’t even like social media! So when it comes to actually creating the messaging, it really bogs you down.

That’s where it gets tricky. 

If you feel like you’re not good at a task, don’t believe in your strategy or the cause you promote, it tints the way you perceive your audience interpreting your messaging. It can make you feel like they don’t want to hear it, they’re not interested or you’re just bothering them. 

To be successful in marketing understanding and shaping our mindset is crucial.

The Power of Mindset

The essence of mindset isn’t a gauge of your abilities. It’s not just about the learning curve; it’s deeply rooted in how we perceive the world. 

Are you a glass-half-full person, embracing challenges and believing in your ability to improve? 

Or do you tend towards a glass-half-empty perspective, avoiding challenges due to a fixed belief in unchangeable abilities?

In my house, we’re half and half.

Growth Mindset

I bet you can guess which camp I’m in – my nine year old and I are glass half full girls. We naturally project what you would call a growth mindset. Embracing challenges. Believing our effort is the path to me developing our abilities, and it dictates our success. We can always learn new things, so we believe we can always get better if we try hard. 

Fixed Mindset

My husband and 12 year old have more of a fixed mindset. Tending to avoid challenges because they believe that their abilities are unchangeable. It leads to a fear of failure. 

But a fixed mindset doesn’t have to stay fixed. Even if you’re naturally inclined to say, “but the problem is” you can still adjust your perspective. 

Because friend, if adopting a growth mindset can work for a 12 year old girl who wants to run faster, just imagine what it can do for your marketing!

Applying Mindset to Marketing

Not sure if you have a fixed marketing mindset?

If you say or think:

• I just don’t want to bother them, or bother them. 
• If I contact people too much, they’re just going to unsubscribe, because I’m just cluttering their inbox. 
• They probably don’t want to hear from me anyway, they have better things to do. 

You’re trending towards fixed.

If you approach marketing with a fixed or glass-half-full mindset, thinking every downhill has an uphill after it, you hesitate to take action, sometimes you don’t take action at all, and feel guilty about sharing your message. 

Straight up, that just won’t work, friend. 

To be great at marketing you have to get better at communicating. And you can’t do that if you stop yourself before you start, okay.

Think back to Ellis. The more she runs the better she becomes. It’s the same with marketing. The more emails and social posts you write, the better they’ll be. You’re not automatically going to be good at it. It takes effort. 

When you put in the work and then review how your marketing performs and adjust to make it better, you’re learning. 

Learning about your audience, what they want and how you can better serve them. 

But let’s be real…everyone can feel a little glass-half-empty from time to time.

How to improve your mindset.

I know I do! So, how do I keep my spirits up and my glass full so I can sound jazzed ready to conquer the world?  Not running around excessively apologizing to people about bothering them?

You start at the beginning:

1.Love Your Purpose 

If you can’t genuinely love what you do, your marketing efforts will fall flat. When you try to fake it, you just sound salesy. And nobody likes salesy content, we just ignore it, right? It’s gross.

As a marketer, I’ve learned that if I can’t genuinely love and get excited about a company, I don’t want to do marketing for them. I want to get behind the companies I work with and be their biggest cheerleader. There have been instances where we’ve chosen not to take on clients because we couldn’t align with their core values. It’s not just about promoting a product or service; it’s about being a champion for what your company represents.

So, the foundational step of how to improve your mindset is crystal clear: Love what you do, be passionate about your business, and let that love propel you through your marketing journey.

When you authentically love your purpose, that passion seeps into your marketing efforts.

 Your enthusiasm becomes contagious, and your audience can feel it. It’s not just about selling; it’s about sharing your love and belief in what you do. 

When you’re genuinely excited, your marketing messages become powerful stories that resonate with your audience. You become more than a marketer; you become a storyteller, weaving narratives that captivate and inspire.

When I’m feeling stuck I take a moment to reconnect with why I love my business. 

You can do the same:

• What makes it unique? 
• What problems does it solve? 
• How does it make a positive impact? 

Be your own biggest cheerleader, and let that love shine through every piece of content you create. 

2. Do Your Homework – Know Your Audience

How to improve your mindset step #2: stop trying to talk to everyone at once. Instead, focus on talking to the people you can most effectively help.

You can love what you do and get behind it BUT, really you’re trying to convey that love to someone else, in a way they can relate to it. And it’s tricky because when you’re marketing you’re trying to have a conversation with the masses.

When I get stuck I wish I could just sit down with people and talk to them. Ask questions. Get answers…wouldn’t that be great? It would be so much easier than all this mass communication, right? Well…the next best thing to having a conversation is creating buyer personas.

Let me introduce you to the magic of buyer personas. 

Buyer personas, a.k.a. ideal customer avatars, are detailed and semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer based on market research and real data, providing insights into their demographics, behaviors, preferences, and motivations.

They are also your marketing best friends. I even named my most common buyer persona – meet Katie, the marketer who might work for a nonprofit or a construction company. Katie is smart, motivated, and my go-to persona when I write. 

Now, why is this important? 

Because, my friends, marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all game. While you are speaking to a crowd; you’re engaging with individuals, each with their unique needs and preferences. 

When I get stuck or start feeling like a faker I just write to my girl Katie. I know her. So I don’t feel bad about writing to Katie, she’s a friend, and friends like to hear from each other!

3. Embrace Your Audience as Friends

Your audience isn’t filled with faceless strangers who joined your list or followed you on social media under pressure. They CHOSE to connect with you.

You’re talking to them, actual people, they’re your friends, and they need you. They need you to keep them updated. They need you to help them solve their problems, So whenever you’re thinking, “I don’t want to write this!” Remember, they need you or they wouldn’t be on your list. 

I ask myself, “If I don’t tell them, how will they know?”

How will they know that we’re doing a workshop that can potentially solve their problem? It would be a disservice NOT to tell them. I’m here to help my audience solve the challenges they’re facing. And they can solve it faster with my help.

Here’s the deal. You’re doing the same thing.

You are helping people solve their challenges faster by communicating with them.

And that’s powerful. You are doing an important job, friend. Don’t let, “I don’t want to bother them,” stop you from giving them what they need to solve their problems.

If that doesn’t improve your mindset I don’t know what will!

4. Be a Problem Solver, Not a Salesperson – Offer Value

Doing sales can make a sister feel yucky. The fastest way I know how to change that yuck mindset is to shift from salesperson, to problem solver. That’s what people want. Why the heck do my kids binge watch product reviews on YouTube? They want help solving their problems.

Provide value in the way you do it best. 

It could just be something to smile at or laugh at or a blog post to help people get their head on straight so they feel more comfortable writing marketing content 😘.

When you offer value and be a problem solver your marketing isn’t an intrusion; it’s a service. It’s a friend reaching out to another friend who is facing a problem. You wouldn’t hesitate to offer a solution or share something uplifting to a friend. 

Your marketing is an opportunity to contribute something valuable to other people’s lives.

5. Trash Those Negative Tapes

Alright, my fabulous friend, let’s tackle a topic that can make even the most seasoned marketers squirm – the unsubscribe dilemma. It’s natural to feel a pang when someone leaves your email list, but here’s the deal – you’re not the right thing for everyone, and that’s perfectly okay. In fact, it’s more than okay; it’s a sign you’re doing your job.

What I say in my head when people unsubscribe is, “if they don’t like what I have to say, then I don’t want to bother them.”

Don’t let a possible unsubscribe or negative comment stop you from connecting with everyone else who needs to hear from you:

• Do you offer value consistently?
• Do you contact people consistently (not just when you want money from them)?
• Are you writing from a place of problem solving and love?

Then you’re killin it. Let those tolls go.

If people don’t like to open emails and find solutions from a person who genuinely cares about helping them then you don’t want them on your list anyway. You just need the people who want to be with you, who need your solutions, and that’s not everyone.

6. Communication is the Expectation

People follow you because they EXPECT to hear from you.

Don’t let them down. You’re not intruding by sharing your messaging, you’re meeting their expectations. There is no shame in selling someone something they need or helping people solve their problems.

In the world of marketing, your mindset is a powerful tool.

By embracing a growth mindset, loving your purpose, understanding your audience, and offering genuine value, you can transform your marketing approach. Remember, your audience is not just a faceless mass; they’re your friends who need your expertise and solutions.

So, the next time you sit down to create that social post or write that email, channel a glass-half-full mindset. Be the bright light in someone’s day, and share your awesome message with the world. 

If you don’t do it, who will? Not sharing your value would be a disservice to yourself AND everyone else.

And, if you’re looking for practical insights on marketing without breaking the bank, check out our free mini course, Marketing on a Shoestring.