3 Core Principles of Responsible Mindful Marketing

By Tyler McCune, guest contributor

Life is complex, communication is too

For most of human history, communication has been between small groups that share similar cultural ideals. 

Yes, there were scrolls of papyrus, chiseled steles, and hieroglyphs adorning blocks of stone. But until the advent and subsequent takeover of the printing press, the vast majority of people couldn’t read, which meant that one-to-one or one-to-a-few communication was the norm. 

Now we’ve created vast webs of intercommunication complete with targeted ads, AI-driven messenger bots, and memes that evolve in cyberspace. 

And the strangest part is that nearly everyone — from the President of the US Tweeting at 2 am to 14-year olds going viral on TikTok and YouTube — has access to this web of communication. 

The savviest will understand that to really impact their community, it’s not enough to have quality products and services. They have to keep in frequent contact with their community and keep them engaged. Which means utilizing marketing responsibly.  

Because when the ability to communicate is greater, the ability to do harm is greater too. 

We know that communication platforms like social media cause anxiety and low-self esteem in teens, can become addictive, and are a “significant contributor” of stress. 

It’s up to you to use these platforms in positive and community-building ways. 

Of course, it’s not just social media you have to think of. Any time an individual is granted the power of attention (in this age amplified to an unprecedented extent), they achieve a potent ability to influence their followers. But this isn’t all bad. 

Because the ability to do good is greater too. 

So what should you do?

Eschew all marketing and communication? Stick to serving a smaller community? 

Methinks nay. 

The truth is that we need to harness this power of attention and divert it to positive ends and we can do this with three important core Responsible Marketing principles.  

The three core principles of Responsible Marketing. 

These three principles are crucial to marketing. They’re all proven marketing principles that can greatly increase your reach and impact. 

They aren’t ‘tricks’, or ‘hacks’, or ‘make-money-quick schemes’. 

They all take time, effort, and a thoughtful approach. They take the courage to experiment. Most of all, they take a willingness to be unique and put yourself out there. 

These principles are so important that you may consider writing them on a notecard and taping them to your computer or pinning them to a corkboard so you can look at them every time you sit down to market your business. 

Here they are:

1) Focus on relationships, not visibility: Visibility is great and crucial when you start to scale. But visibility is easy. It’s not hard to get a social media following, or write a guest post, or get on podcasts. 

What is hard — and much rarer — is taking the time to build 1:1 relationships. But when you do — and when you practice a little patience — you won’t just have a ‘following’. You’ll have a community. One that continues to support you as you grow. 

2) Be genuine: ‘Authenticity’ is a big buzzword today (to the point it’s begun to lose its zing). Curiously, many who tell you to ‘just be authentic’ are plastic themselves. 

Truly being genuine means letting your personality shine through in everything you do. It means talking about your good days and sharing the bad. Being fully human is much more attractive than being perfect. 

I had a client who told me she censored herself because she was afraid of being controversial.  Do you do the same? If so, speak up. I don’t mean to be a jerk or hurt people’s feelings on purpose. But let us hear your voice. Give us your gift fully. Even if that means being a little raw. 

3) Love your market: This isn’t sappy. This isn’t ‘woo’. This is about treating your market (clients, customers, prospects, partners…) like family.  Loving your market and making genuine attempts to solve their problems is a whole lot different than selling a product or service. You’ll feel the difference. And so will they. 

But loving your market is about a whole lot more than just caring. You have to truly understand their needs, their desires, their frustrations, and their dreams. 

And you don’t know what your market desires at the deepest level — start with listening.   When you truly listen, you’ll never go wrong. 

Tyler McCune of Copy by McCune is a copywriter and marketing consultant that helps meditation teachers market themselves responsibly. He writes daily responsible marketing tips to his email-based community.