Can You Only Market to People Like Yourself?

As internet marketers, we draw people to our offerings by shining a spotlight on ourselves, our personality and our unique gifts and talents. The way we do this is by utilizing our “Spotlight Style.”

Much of what we sell is information – products and services based on what we know, and that we think will be of value to others. Our products and services carry a heavy stamp of our own distinctive personality and they ‘Spotlight’ who we are.

Each person’s Spotlight Style is unique to his skills, talents and life experience, but there are high level communalities that can be grouped together. The three Spotlight Styles we have researched are Brand Evangelist, Practical Engineer, and Trusted Advisor. These titles are a shorthand way to understanding the way that people of each style approach marketing and promoting themselves, the types of marketing tools they are comfortable using, and the manner in which they interact with both prospects and clients.

Recently a business owner with whom I was working expressed how excited she was to discover that her natural Spotlight Style supported a whole different approach to marketing than she had been pursuing. She was excited because she wasn’t really comfortable with the tools she was using, but had chosen them because that was what everyone else was using. She saw immediately that the tools highlighted for her style fit her to a tee! She did have one big concern. She was afraid that as she approached marketing in a new and different style, she would lose some of her current clients because they had bought the ‘old’ her. Her concern was based on the belief that she could only attract people who shared her Spotlight Style. She worried that many of her current clients would leave because their style would no longer match her own.

I have run into this concern before- that you can only attract and market to people like yourself. Most often, people initially confuse style with content. In the case of our program participant, she thought that as she chose marketing methods that more accurately reflected her Spotlight Style, what she was marketing would also have to shift and that this shift would cause her to lose clients who liked the ‘old’ products and services. Here’s the great news: content will have a tendency to reflect your style, but awareness of each of the styles will allow you to create copy, products, and services designed to appeal to people with any of the three styles.

Discovering and claiming your Spotlight Style will not limit your appeal to your current or prospective clients. Quite the opposite; as you become more and more comfortable with the natural marketing tools associated with your style, both current and prospective clients will experience and respond to the inner confidence your offerings and your marketing efforts reflect. Additionally, your comfort with yourself and your own talents will lead to a level of solid integrity that will appeal to those who can benefit from what you have to offer independent of your or their style.

So, don’t let anyone tell you that you can only market to people like yourself. Discover your own Spotlight Style and let its brilliance attract all who can benefit from what you have to offer!