Your emotional intelligence strengths are the key to a sustainable marketing strategy.
A brand is more than just a cool logo and a catchy slogan. It’s an experience that ranges from how easy you are to find to how well you recover from mistakes. It’s also more than what you say in your marketing, it’s what kind of marketing you do.
Even when you’re at a company with a multi-million dollar budget, doing it all doesn’t make sense. Marketing is a vast world filled with possibilities, and not every choice is right for your brand, or your team. When you’re an entrepreneur or running a nonprofit with no marketing team at all, you really have to pare things down. And when marketing isn’t your primary occupation, those choices are often made in the dark.
These are the moments when you turn desperately to Google, or download yet another freebie from that Instagram ad you keep seeing, hoping to find an external solution. And you might get lucky! But the truth is, if you’re struggling with where to focus your marketing efforts, the solution is to look within.
Marketing is a Relationship
Whether you’re selling to millions of people or tens, whether it’s a team of one hundred experts or just you, there is absolutely no avoiding the fact that there are humans involved. There’s your audience, with their needs and desires and preferences, and there’s you with a solution for them. Your job is to be an expert in your solution AND their problem in such a way that they choose you to meet their needs. Your audience wants to trust and rely on you, and if you don’t deliver, they will take it personally.
This is what makes creating an audience persona, and really leaning into it, so powerful. It’s a reminder (albeit in fictional form) of the humans on the other side of your business. According to the Institute for Social and Emotional Intelligence “other awareness”, the external reflection of self-awareness, is one of the four primary aspects of Social and Emotional Intelligence. Personas - a detailed description of a single person including demographic and behavioral data - are other awareness taken to an intimately detailed level.
Self-awareness - knowing your reasons for being, resources, triggers and motivations - is as critical as understanding your audience. But the real secret to using emotional intelligence as a boost to marketing strategy comes in the other two areas of the EQ quadrant - self-management and relationship management. Self-management is how you use your resources, relationship management is how well you induce a desirable response in others. The competencies associated with each of those areas can correspond directly to the style of marketing that’s right for you.
The 4 Marketing Styles
One of my favorite things about being an emotional intelligence coach is the gorgeous flexibility of it all. Humans are complicated! And our EQ strengths aren’t just growable, they can also vary based on the situation we’re in. More than that, we get to choose what we want to focus on. Which is all to say, any kind of EQ-based categorization is a guide for those choices, not a diagnosis set in stone. There are, however, some themes that emerge from a Social and Emotional Intelligence Profile (the self-assessment tool I use) which fit perfectly into 4 primary personal marketing styles: Sustainers, Creatives, Connectors, and Influencers. Let’s explore!
Sustainers
Sustainers have my heart. While sometimes perceived as a less sexy marketing discipline, sustainers are the folks who know that regular, consistent tried and true tactics over time yield results. They tend to identify as having strong behavioral self-control, intentionality, and a clear grasp of realistic optimism. These folks live for a solid marketing funnel. They get AI. They are the keepers of the calendars, and sometimes show up as the brand police, rejecting your creative take on the logo for that ad, thankyouverymuch.
If you’re a Sustainer and have yet to embrace email workflows, get on it. That one skill will satisfy your need for consistency, measurable results, and manageable progress.
Creatives
My people! Creatives are often wildly productive, which is great as long as their creativity has a purpose. Innovative, with a strong bias for action, Creatives tend to be intuitive boundary pushers who don’t just want to make things look and sound great, they may also tend toward new media and technologies to get it done.
If you identify as a Creative, getting into the mind of your ideal customer is even more critical. What can you create that will delight them? From photography in your ads to the way you structure a deal, channel your creative energy into a connection with your audience.
Connectors
The funny thing about connectors is that they tend not to realize how powerful their skills truly are. It’s as true for their personal lives and leadership as it is for marketing. But when it comes to the world of relationships - being a connector is gold. Excellent at building bonds and trust, and natural team players, Connectors are the partnership people. This can sometimes mean taking a back seat to let others shine, and that’s okay! When you’re sincerely connecting, you shine, too.
Who do you want to work with? What brand or business person or product do you admire that would enhance the lives of your target audience? Reach out and connect. Whether or not you end up in a formal collaboration (which should absolutely be an aim), simply following your natural drive to build relationships will move your business forward.
Influencers
If you understand what motivates others, consistently seek out better ways to do things, and are able to articulate your vision in a way that inspires, you, friend, are an Influencer. Try to pretend you never heard that term in its kind of creepy social media guru context. There is absolutely no need for you to bear your soul and the rest of your life to the world in order to lean into these strengths. As an influencer, it’s likely your product or service is already an expression of your passion for progress. Your powerful leadership skills might be all it takes to get a team together to represent your brand on your behalf.
But, if inspiring and catalyzing change is what’s driving you, and you’ve got something to say, stepping into your role as an Influencer, saying what’s on your mind, sharing your ideas and the reasons behind them, might be the one major marketing strategy you require.
Finding the Balance
If marketing isn’t what you love the most, you’re likely hoping to scale enough to outsource it ASAP. I love that goal for you. Knowing your strengths can help you with that, too. The most successful Creatives have strong Sustainer support. Influencers thrive with Connectors in the mix. As a complex human, you likely bridge more than one marketing style, but knowing where you should focus your energy helps in determining what someone else needs to do, and what doesn't need to be done at all.
Curious about your Personal Marketing Style? Schedule a free consultation with me to see if Aligned Marketing coaching is right for you or your team.